On vacation or om vacation? For some people, travel isn’t about hiking, birding or extreme sports; it’s more about resting the mind. Many might define relaxation as lying mindlessly on a beach, while others prefer to put forth more money and effort with spas and yoga retreats. And these days, even wellness is getting more extreme: It is now possible to pay money to spend your vacation sleeping somewhere that is not your home and not just at night — an entire snoozy haven loaded with sleep hygiene techniques. It’s time to wake up to sleep tourism.

Sometimes there’s nothing like a towering mountain or gaping canyon to make you contemplate your place in this world. It’s also hard to take a bad picture when you’re standing in front of one of the great natural wonders. 

Another draw: National parks are relatively affordable travel destinations, and they are everywhere. More specifically, travelers have been increasingly drawn to hiking and adventure sports in latitudinal extremes such as Scandinavia, Namibia/South Africa, Canada and Argentina. New Zealand’s otherworldly landscapes remain popular for would-be hobbits.

Is there anything that gives a fan bigger bragging rights than traveling long distances to watch their favorite team in a “Very Important Game” in person? In 2024, visitors flocked to London for the Champions League finals, Buenos Aires for the Copa Libertadores finals and New York and Los Angeles for the World Series (and Shohei Ohtani — one Japanese travel agency told CNN last year that it was booking up to 200 clients from Japan at every Dodgers home game).

Sadly, Olympics or World Cup tourists will have to wait until 2026, but there are plenty of annual games, tournaments and test matches in every corner of the globe.

If you traveled far from home but your culinary adventures ended at the hotel restaurant, can you really say you’ve been abroad? Analyzing the number of countries that diners hailed from at local restaurants, the Mastercard Economics Institute determined the top foodie city in every country. At the top of the list is Istanbul which appropriately enough straddles two continents and in 2024 hosted visitors from 64 different countries. 

But travelers also love to eat their way around the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, notably Colombia’s Cartagena, and across the Pacific, from Queenstown, New Zealand, to Quepos, Costa Rica. And some surprising destinations have emerged. Did you know, for instance, that Canada’s Niagara Peninsula is full of vineyards? Niagara Falls: It’s not just for honeymooners anymore.