Top 10 trending destinations for U.S. travelers in 2026: 'Americans are discovering their own backyard,' expert says

Last month, Skyscanner published its yearly study of destinations astir the satellite that are trending for 2026.

To find the ranking, Skyscanner looked astatine destinations with the biggest year-over-year increases successful searches to which shows wherever precisely travelers are astir funny successful heading to successful the upcoming year.

Skyscanner, successful concern with OnePoll, an planetary marketplace probe company, surveyed 22,000 travelers from June to July 2025.

Skyscanner's study recovered that U.S. travelers are looking to sojourn under-the-radar destinations.

"2025 was astir corporate acquisition and 2026 is little astir the flight and much astir self-expression," Loudres Losada, Director of Americas, Skyscanner, tells CNBC Make It.

"Travelers are searching for a spot that matters and getting distant from the hype and going to lesser-known places that inactive person a batch of value. It's astir choosing the experiences much than conscionable the destination."

Two U.S. destinations were ranked successful the apical 10: Vail, Colorado, and New Haven, Connecticut. Vail saw a 78% increase, portion New Haven saw a 39% increase.

"Americans are discovering their ain backyard. We spot these not lone arsenic wintertime destinations but besides arsenic summertime and autumn ones too," Losada adds.

Limón, Costa Rica, is ranked arsenic the top-trending for U.S. travelers successful 2026 It saw a 286% summation year-over-year.

According to the report, Limón is an emerging ecotourism destination that is renowned for its nationalist parks, volcanic landscapes, and lush rainforest.

"Limón is the Costa Rica for the travelers who person already done Costa Rica. Americans person been going to Costa Rica for decades now, but it's been much astir the Pacific coast," Losada says. "This clip we're talking astir the Caribbean Coast. Limón is simply a larboard metropolis truthful it's precise good connected, but it's besides not successful your traveler's guide."

Limón, besides known arsenic Puerto Limón, is 1 of Costa Rica's 7 "middle cities," which are large cities extracurricular of San Jose's metropolitan area. Limón is known arsenic 1 of Costa Rica's astir culturally and racially divers cities.

Limón is location to the Tortuguero National Park, a immense protected country successful Costa Rica and a well-known spot to spot oversea turtles. Close by is the Cahuita National Park, a cardinal attraction wherever visitors tin research pristine beaches and coral reefs. The parkland is besides location to a assortment of wildlife, including sloths, birds, and monkeys.

1. Limón, Costa Rica
2. Jaipur, India
3. Bodrum, Turkey
4. Madeira, Portugal
5. Vail, Colo., U.S.
6. Zadar, Croatia
7. Olbia, Italy
8. New Haven, Conn., U.S.
9. Bilbao, Spain
10. Mykonos, Greece

Jaipur, India, ranked 2nd among the apical trending destinations, according to Skyscanner. It saw a 107% summation successful search.

Known arsenic "The Pink City" for its terra-cotta architecture, Jaipur is location to historical landmarks similar Amber Fort and modern spots similar World Trade Park.

"Jaipur is capturing the attraction of travelers looking for that premix of royal heritage, culture, and colorful streets that are benignant of consecutive from a storybook," Losada says. "It has a picture-perfect accidental successful each azygous corner."

Jaipur is simply a fashionable tourer destination successful India and the superior of Rajasthan authorities successful northwestern India. It's implicit 100 miles from the superior of New Delhi and a engaged metropolis with a colonisation of implicit 3 cardinal people. It is simply a UNESCO World Heritage tract and includes respective cardinal sites, specified arsenic Jantar Mantar, an astronomical observatory built successful the aboriginal 18th century.

According to Google Arts & Culture, the city's system is based connected tourism, gemstone cutting, jewelry manufacturing, and accusation technology.

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