In 2026, Australians won’t just be ‘going away’. We’ll be going toward something: quieter mornings, real conversations, landscapes that reset the nervous system and stories we can step inside.
After a few years of travel roaring back to life, the mood is shifting from frantic to intentional. The bookings are there, the leave requests are in, but the way we move is softening at the edges into something slower, warmer, more considered.
Slow is the new status symbol
The great Aussie flex in 2026 won’t be the number of countries stamped into a passport. It’ll be time. Time to stay put, to learn the rhythm of a place, to stop performing travel and start living it.
Think week-long stays in one village instead of three cities in five days; rail journeys chosen over red-eye hops; coastal towns, hinterlands and ‘second- or third-stop’ regions where you can still hear yourself think. We’re craving holidays that don’t feel like a second job. We want mornings that unfold, not alarms that yank us into motion. Slow travel isn’t laziness - it’s luxury and it’s becoming the point.
Small-town glow-ups and regional love affairs
At home, Aussies will keep falling hard for places that feel human-sized. There’s a particular kind of happiness that lives in regional towns: the easy parking, the surprise galleries, the river walks that make you feel like someone turned the volume down on life.
In 2026, local travel will lean into that uncurated, found-it-by-accident feeling. We’ll chase food trails through wine country, open-air markets, seaside stays where the biggest decision is whether to swim before breakfast or after.
Regional festivals, farm gates, indigenous-led experiences and heritage hotels with creaky stairs and great stories will keep rising in appeal. The trip becomes less about ticking icons and more about falling into the texture of a place.
Purposeful splurges, smart value
Cost-of-living pressure hasn’t killed travel appetite - it’s made it sharper. In 2026, Australians will spend on what feels worthwhile and trim what doesn’t. We’ll skip the generic hotel if it means staying one night less to afford the boutique place that makes us feel something.
We’ll save for the anchor experience: the dream hike, the long-table dinner, the reef day with a guide who knows the water like a language. Value won’t mean ‘cheap’. Value will mean ‘this changed my week, this gave me a story’, ‘this stopped time for a minute’. We’ll be more discerning, but not less adventurous.
Tech as a quiet co-pilot
AI won’t replace the holiday; it’ll smooth the chaos around it. By 2026, planning with an assistant will feel like asking a switched-on mate for a draft itinerary, then making it your own. Less tab-juggling, fewer decision spirals, more confidence in the ‘why not?’ booking.
It means more tailored routes - a road trip that knows you hate early starts, a city break built around tiny bookstores and late lunches. Tech will clear the clutter so spontaneity can breathe again once we arrive.
Niche passions become whole trips
In 2026, we’ll build holidays around the things we love at home - then go chase them elsewhere. Bookshop-and-café ‘readaways’. Food pilgrimages through mountain villages. Trail walks linked to history, art, fitness, or faith. Sporting detours for events that sound delightfully random until you’re there cheering with strangers who feel like friends.
This isn’t trend-chasing; it’s identity travel, shaped by who we are and what we care about. The destination becomes a backdrop to the passion.
By the time 2026 rolls on, the Aussie traveller looks a little different: less hurried, more curious and quietly brave about choosing depth over display. We’ll still chase sun and novelty, sure, but we’ll chase rest too.
We’ll chase stories and the feeling of being changed by a place rather than merely having seen it. When we come home, it won’t be with a checklist completed. It’ll be with a slower heartbeat - and a new way of looking at our own backyard.
