Put Vietnam on your F**k-It List in 2025
Put Vietnam on your F**k-It List in 2025
Get ready to max-out on these Vietnam Travel Trends next year
According to travel experts, travellers not only have a lot to look forward to next year but they’re going to expect a lot more, too.
2025 has been touted as “The Year of the Travel Maximiser” by Hilton, the hospitality company whose portfolio includes over 7,500 properties with well over a million rooms across 118 countries and territories.
No, this isn’t a sponsored post, nor is it something I’ve slapped together for them hoping for some hollow praise and 10% off my next bill in return.
Although, just quietly, if someone at Hilton recognises me next time I'm at their new property overlooking the Saigon River, please know that my preferred drink is a G&T.
At any rate, think of this as more of a reaction to Hilton's annual trends report released in October that surveyed 13 thousand travellers across 13 countries, with input from over 4,100 Hilton employees.
Okay, but it's Hilton I hear you say, and I understand your scepticism, but there are some pertinent things in the report that I think are worth considering, especially as to how they relate to Vietnam. After all, they've collected results from a very decent sample size and on the surface, it seems pretty legit.
Having said that, I have no idea how robust their methodology was and whether it would stand up to rigorous peer review, but it at least offers up a list of expectations travellers might be lugging along with them in their travel bags when they drop anchor on our lovely shores next year.
The overall gist of the report is that the 2025 traveller will be looking to make the most of their time and money on vacation as much as – perhaps even more than – ever before, at least since the pandemic, anyway.
But what does that mean?
Well, the respondents indicated they’ll be seeking a variety of experiences and striving to find balance in order to make every moment meaningful during their trips – hence Hilton’s slogan “The Year of the Travel Maximiser”.
Therefore, expect to encounter travellers next year who have come to Vietnam for Adventure and Sports Travel, let’s say for caving in Phong Nha or triathlons in Da Nang, who will also want to devote as much time in their rooms to ‘hurkle-durkle’ – that’s “vegging out” for us oldies.
Come on, get up with it, people!
Paul Massad who founded Push Climbing in Ho Chi Minh City in the early 2010s says that while rock climbing emerged in Vietnam in the 1990s on Cat Ba Island on the limestone cliffs of Ha Long Bay, it’s climbing facilities like his that have played a key role in the 2020s in building a community around climbing among beginners through to elite athletes.
“The Government’s support of outdoor adventure sports, along with the growing visibility of climbing through social and local events, continues to boost the sport’s popularity and ensures the trend will continue to rise,” he says.
Further, the experts say we should expect those partial to a mix of adventure and “hurkle-durkling” to document their activities less on social media as Instagram and travel to so-called Insta-worthy locations continues to fall out of favour and is gradually being replaced by the actual embracing of experiences and making the most out of what a local culture has to offer in less-crowded and lesser-known destinations.
Are we finally coming to our senses?
Some other travel trends to expect in 2025 are things like Slow Travel in which travellers will opt to take their time and anchor themselves longer in destinations, allowing for more opportunity to explore and to immerse in local cultures and contribute to their economies.
I'm not sure how this ties into Sustainable Travel (whatever the definition is) – another 2025 trend – in a country that gets whacked in the media for its treatment of the environment, but I'm hoping it will at least mean fewer coach-loads of zombified nomads on package tours ticking off bucket list items on whistle-stop ‘cattle musters’ that leave a trail of wet wipe wrappers in their wake, as what commonly happens throughout Southeast Asia.
The Mekong Delta, or Miền Tây as it’s referred to here, is perfectly positioned for slow travel with its meandering waterways and rural way of life where things already move slowly. But as they say, it's not necessarily about where you're going, but rather how you arrive that counts. Arriving at your destination in one piece remains a challenge in this part of the world as the modes of transport available tend to foil any of the positive benefits slow travel can bring.
However, an alternative might be to stay closer to Saigon for a taste of the Mekong without having to spend a terrifying day in a van or sleeper bus driven by one of Toecutter's gang hellbent on winning some kind of non-existent race.
Nearby retreats located on small tributaries of rivers somewhere outside the city limits are where – on weekdays at least – the intermittent chug of small boats driven by local farmers punctuate the sound of ducks squabbling over food in the distance – it’s about as loud as anything gets.
Or if it’s the coast you’re after and some beach time or “Vitamin Sea” as the kids often call it here, then there are lesser-known farmstays not that far from town, too.
Another trend for 2025 is Sleep Tourism – which is a thing believe it or not – where the modus operandi for a trip away is to be awoken only by your internal clock and nothing else. Good luck with that in a developing country like Vietnam, but it is doable in places like the ones mentioned above. Let me know how you go with your slumber.
But if the prospect of developing bed sores isn't for you, then perhaps the idea of travelling solo is more to your liking. Solo Travel is another trend for 2025 and has been gaining momentum over recent years, especially among women visiting Vietnam.
Take Kerry Newsome, for example, who’s been travelling to Vietnam for at least two decades mostly as a solo traveller. She says Vietnam has become a favourite among solo female travellers quite simply because no one seems to care that you’re a woman and you’re travelling alone.
“It’s a country too engaged in its daily hustle to stop and question why a woman might be exploring on her own,” she says. “In Vietnam, women play a pivotal role in business and community life and are often seen as the backbone of local enterprises which creates an environment where a woman travelling solo feels less out of place.”
Nostalgia Travel is expected to trend in 2025 in which travellers will increasingly return to places from their childhood. This isn’t necessarily a new thing for Vietnam given the Vietnamese diaspora across the world who frequently return to reconnect with the country, however, experiences that are “retro” or nostalgic for domestic travellers in Vietnam are noticeably increasing in popularity.
Nam Quan, who built a large following in the 2010s with his RetroKid brand and who is now the founder and editor of emerging lifestyle magazine and menswear brand The Highball which spotlights classic clothing and lifestyle trends, says there’s a trend now in which younger Vietnamese generations like Gen Z want to take a look back at old values and how things used to work before they were born.
“Things like sustainable fashion, vintage design and analogue technology make them curious and at the same time bring back the idea that ‘good things take time’ and ‘quality over speed’” he says.
Because vintage fashion in Vietnam is “a thing now” according to Nam, he suggests visiting stores like denimister, Thông Thrift and Dr. Retro Saigon for unique pieces with a story to tell.
And if you’re into music, he says cafes like Hai Cái Tẩy and Bluish will provide you with your vinyl record fix in Ho Chi Minh City.
For more travel trends in 2025, be sure to check out this article by Forbes about Hilton’s 2025 Trends Report.
In the meantime, if you’re in two minds about travelling to Vietnam in 2025, you might want to consider that Pear Anderson has reported that international arrivals to Vietnam has recovered to 95% of 2019 levels before the pandemic, while another source has reported that the number of domestic trips taken in Vietnam this year is currently just shy of those taken in 2019 at over 35 million trips and will likely eclipse that number comfortably by the end of this year.
All up, almost 55 million people have passed through Vietnam’s airports to date, underscoring just how much the Vietnamese have embraced air travel and race to get on a plane whenever they can.
Despite the pointed commentary surrounding Vietnam’s tourist visa policy, it appears that its popularity as a travel destination is only going to grow in the coming years, so to borrow a cheeky phrase from one of 2025’s global travel trends, it might be worth adding Vietnam to your F**k-It List and just come before everyone else does.