Travel metasearch platform Kayak has revealed the top trending and best value destinations for Christmas 2025 getaways, just ahead of late November, which it says is the best value time to book a seasonal trip. For UK travellers, long-haul escapes are proving more popular than short-haul breaks, and Africa is 24% more popular than last year.
Trending destinations
Seven of the top 10 destinations with the biggest increases in searches for Christmas and New Year travel 2025 vs 2024 are outside Europe. Granadilla, on Spain’s Tenerife, Geneva, Switzerland, and Krakow, Poland, are outliers. Manila in the Philippines has seen the largest jump in popularity, with searches up 42%, twice as big an increase as anywhere else in the top 10.
Top 10 flight searches
When it comes to flight searches, Dubai takes the number one slot, followed by Bangkok and New York in second and third, respectively. Eight of the ten most-searched Christmas destinations are outside Europe. Tenerife, in sixth place and Geneva, in 10th, are the only European representatives. But when it comes to value, Tenerife is arguably better than the rest, with flights at 17% cheaper on average than this time a year ago.
Price drops
Reflecting the drop in demand for European destinations (and concerns about overtourism, perhaps), six out of the top 10 destinations with the biggest price drops year-on-year are in Spain. The Canary Islands’ capital of Fuerteventura, Puerto del Rosario, tops that ranking with flights 24% cheaper than winter 2024.
Beyond the festivities and beyond Kayak
Meanwhile, another big travel search aggregator, Expedia, recently revealed its own ranking of trending travel destinations for bookings into 2026. In good news for the beleaguered travel sector in the US, North America did well, placing four destinations in the top 10. Heading up the list was Montana’s Big Sky, in the Rocky Mountains, followed by Okinawa, Japan, in second place, and Sardinia, Italy, at number three.
