2025’s Top Trends For Sustainable Travel, Per These Flight-Free Experts

2024 was the year in which more frequent fliers than ever got hooked on overland travel, driven by a desire to rekindle the feeling of the journey and an increasing awareness of the carbon impact of flying.

“We waved a collective goodbye to the ‘fly and flop’ holiday, in favour of adventure, multi-stop trips and richer experiences,” says flight-free vacation company Byway.

The travel experts have compiled their predictions for sustainable travel in Europe in 2025 but instead of a hotlist of trending destinations—which they call a “breeding ground for driving overtourism”—they want to encourage tourists to rethink how they travel.

“Next year marks the 200th anniversary of the modern railway, so it’s the perfect time to rekindle a love for rail and shake off the hold the airline industry has on travel,” the company says.

They predict that travelers will be booking earlier, becoming undertourists, stopping in ultra-sustainable accommodation, chaining trips, enjoying the luxury of time, traveling the seasons and living life in the quiet carriage.

Travelers Will Be Trip Chaining

Experts at Byway say they’re seeing the trend of ‘trip chaining’, meaning combining multiple stop-offs for errands on a daily commuter route, breaking into leisure travel.

“More travellers are dipping their toes into multi-stop travel, saving time and money and opening up more possibilities for travel that combine multiple ‘holidays’ in a single adventure,” they say.

2024 saw Byway travelers incorporate an average of 4.5 destinations into a single trip and the company anticipates this will continue to grow in 2025. These kinds of trips allow travellers to get more out of their holidays, combining Italian cities with Swiss mountains, European capitals with Norwegian fishing towns and Medieval old towns with Galician countryside.

Vacations Will Focus On The Luxury Of Time

Forget yachts and private jets; a truly luxurious holiday doesn’t have to be about splashing the cash. One of the biggest things that can feel like a real treat is actually time – time to relax and be present.

“It’s encouraging to see that sabbaticals are on the rise, with 12 per cent of companies in the UK offering paid career breaks, while 53 per cent offer unpaid leave to give their employees a proper break,” according to Byway.

In 2024, their concierge team saw their average length of trip booked go from nine days in 2022 to 14 days in 2024, and they expect this to continue in 2025. They also saw an increase in demand for bespoke trips over a month long, including a 51-day trip to Portugal and a 58-day trip to Germany.

Travelers Will Swap Overtourism For Undertourism

Amidst anti-tourism protests in Barcelona and measures elsewhere to monitor the influx of short-term rentals, avoiding overtouristed hotspots is high on this year’s agenda.

In the Netherlands, Byway expects to see more people swapping the jam-packed capital for quintessentially Dutch towns like Breda, and in Spain, people swapping Catalonia for the Green Coast, with more attention on up-and-coming cities like Bilbao.

In the UK, there will be a new interest in beautiful areas away from busy summer spots like Cornwall which will see more travellers uncover the East of England (including Norfolk) and towns like Ballater in Scotland.

Travelers Will Follow The Seasons

Jetting off to catch some winter sun is far from sustainable, so 2025 is the time for a mindful travel era: holidays that embrace the season you’re in rather than run away from it.

Think springtime bird watching in the Norfolk Broads, or summers cooling off in La Rochelle; autumnal trips tucked away in the Scottish east coast or leaf peeping in The Moselle Valley; winters spent weaving through snow-topped Alpine rail routes or warming up in Roman baths.

As the slow food movement is punctuated by cooking with seasonal produce, so traveling in tune with the seasons reminds us to reconnect to and care for the planet.

Quietcations Will Be On The Rise

2024 saw the rise of ‘sleep tourism’, with travelers prioritising restful holidays over packed itineraries. Byway also saw an increase in trips away from touristy hotspots. The company says 2025 will be for time off that actually helps you slow down, reset and recharge from the busyness of life.

Instead of the chaos of airports, Byway recommends taking the quiet carriage somewhere away from the crowds. Going by train means more legroom and fewer luggage restrictions so you can quiet your mind with a book to lose yourself in, or a journal to scrawl your thoughts into.

And the destination? Quiet spots where you can lose the earplugs and get lost in the sounds of nature instead, like stargazing in a Dark Sky Reserve in Snowdonia, wild swimming in Scottish Highland waters or forest bathing in the UK’s ancient woodland.