New Years bring a clamoring for new everything, from blank notebooks to fresh outlooks on life, work and wellness.
So how about some new travel words? Let’s get our year started with a bang with some new travel slang. Some are goofy, some are useful and some, well … hey, I didn’t make any of these up myself, so don’t hate the player. Memorize these and you’ll have conversation starters all year.
Dry-tripping: This one was a real head-scratcher when senior reporter Dana Miller first brought it to the Hotel News Now newsroom as part of her coverage of Expedia’s Unpack ’24 survey, which polled consumers on travel trends for the year. It means building your trip around accessible-yet-exciting, alcohol-free experiences.
Think of it as a detox trip, or the opposite of a bachelor party in Cabo — that’s a “mancation” for anyone keeping track. According to Expedia, more than 40% of travelers said they would book a detox trip this year. I thought for sure it meant getting high in some way in a desert, but that’s another kind of “trip,” I suppose.
Amp it up: Sure, you’ve been camping. Maybe you’ve even been glamping, if the current wave of “outdoor travel lifestyle” brands have gotten their hooks into you. But have you been gramping or ghamping yet?
Gramping encompasses any kind of trip between just the grandparents and grandkids, at least according to Samantha Brown. You may have seen the current wave of TikToks and Reels that show adult grandkids showing up to surprise their grandparents with a sleepover? That’s the trend to riff on: Build some promotions that cater to this type of skip-generation travel, with fun for younger kids, maybe some bonding activities for older kids and the grandparents, plus plenty of R&R.
Ghamping, on the other hand, is less warm and fuzzy. This one came to me from Haley Luther, part of STR’s marketing and communications team. It means camping with ghosts. Yep, that’s right. And yes, you do it at the house that inspired The Conjuring in Rhode Island. Owners have built eight tent sites on the grounds where you stay overnight and … conjure stuff. Of course dark tourism is nothing new, and people have been requesting room 217 at the Stanley Hotel for years. But now we’ve got a name: ghamping. Wonder when the Conjuring folks will open a second location at Crystal Lake?
Buddymoon: Why take a post-wedding trip with just your honey when you can take the whole gang? “Buddymoon” came to me from my London-based CoStar News colleague Julia Lee, who read about it in the Guardian. Instead of opting for just the intimate trip (hey, you have the rest of your lives for that), couples are bringing friends and family along for a group vacation following the wedding, often when it’s held at a destination requiring travel.
“We now have amazing memories of a whole holiday with our best friends, not just one hectic wedding day,” one bride told the Guardian.
Whether you’re planning buddymoons or Taycations — thank HNN's Taylor Swift beat reporter Trevor Simpson for that one — they all roll up under the broader trend of experience travel, which is exploding right now. Accessible leisure travel roared back mid-pandemic. Then people planned and took their bucket-list trips last year. The next evolution is the trip plus the bucket-list experience: You’re not just going to Italy; you’re going to Monza for Grand Prix weekend. You’re not just going to Las Vegas; you’re seeing U2 at the Sphere before hitting the casino floor. These trips come in endless combinations, so get on board.
Have a fun travel word to send me? You would think I learned my lesson a few years ago when I brought “mullet travel” to the masses, but my inbox is always open. Email me, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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