London, December 22, 2025 – The 2026 traveler is redefining what purposeful luxury looks like: trading digital overload for restorative immersion, choosing fewer destinations with greater resonance, and elevating family travel through positive impact. Demand is rising for elevated overland expeditions, lifetime journey planning to counter decision fatigue, and privileged access to ancient cultures—all signaling a decisive shift toward more thoughtful, connected, and deeply personal exploration.

The Rise of Luxury Overlanding

The emergence of luxury overlanding proves that the journey itself is the new destination. Jacada is seeing clients reject the "more-is-more" mentality, where travelers rush between flights to maximise the ground covered while on vacation, in favor of a slower, richer, and more immersive experience. 

This movement provides unparalleled access to places off the typical tourist trail, as well as remote landscapes often missed by traditional tours. Jacada is seeing this trend realised in South America, with clients choosing extended, slow-travel overland expeditions that connect luxury properties across Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. This type of itinerary provides unparalleled access to remote canyons and salt flats while eliminating the stress of repeated flights and airport transfers. 

The Luxury of a Lifelong Journey Planner

For high-net-worth clients, often burdened by constant, high-level decisions, travel planning is a prime source of decision fatigue. They are actively seeking dedicated partners who truly understand their tastes and lifestyle, enabling them to sequence a series of trips over many years without ever having to start planning from scratch. For clients facing life's biggest transitions, such as retirement, Jacada offers lifetime journey planning: not just one vacation, but often the next decade of travel. For example, a client may have retired and want to plan a family safari, a once-in-a-lifetime expedition, and an extended journey through Europe. Dedicated travel planners advise on the best destinations for multi-generational safaris and the ideal ages for children to join. The Jacada team can recommend the best routes to avoid overtourism in Europe as travel designers strategically map clients' upcoming adventures. 

In Pursuit of Profound Disconnection The convergence of solitude and purpose is now the primary driver for luxury travel. Silence is fast becoming the new luxury, reflected in a surge in searches for "quiet places" and "calm places" (up 50% and 42% on Pinterest, respectively). Clients are increasingly unwilling to compromise their time by battling crowds or feeling rushed. This profound disconnection can be found in places like Swedish Sápmi, where the landscapes are so vast they envelop you, leaving only the steady, grounding presence of nature. 

This trend is manifesting in Namibia, a destination that has grown by 45% year-on-year among Jacada clients. Here, the search for space drives interest in areas defined by vast, open landscapes and low-volume tourism. As one of the least densely populated nations on Earth, Namibia offers a wild openness unlike anything else, with limitless horizons and ancient culture perfect for that deep mental reset.

Ancient History with Insider Access

Trips to Egypt for Jacada clients are up 45% year over year, underscoring a substantial increase in popularity. This surge is echoed in the results of Jacada's 2025 client survey, which found that history and culture are among the most highly valued elements of a trip. Luxury travelers are looking beyond basic sightseeing toward insider access in destinations steeped in ancient history. 

At Jacada, travel designers leverage their connections to offer clients incredible moments that are typically out of reach for many. Travel designers have secured exclusive access to the Pyramids and the Sphinx, a privilege very few experience. A client was able to climb inside Khufu's Pyramid, accompanied only by a guide. Another client attended a private dig at the Saqqara Pyramids after sharing that they were inspired by the Netflix documentary Unknown: The Lost Pyramid, which led them to surface-clean a piece of 5,000-year-old Pharaonic pottery.

Slow Safaris are Redefining Travel in Africa 

Africa remains among Jacada's most popular destinations, with trip numbers to the continent up 23% since this time last year. The most compelling trend redefining the luxury safari experience is the embrace of slow safaris, driven by the insight that less is genuinely more in Africa. 

Travelers are consciously moving away from rushed, multi-stop itineraries – which diminish the magic of the journey – in favor of prolonged stays in a few select locations. This approach maximizes both the traveler's well-being and the quality of their experience: they gain valuable time to fully unwind at luxurious lodges, make full use of excellent facilities, and increase the likelihood of witnessing authentic animal behavior and rare sightings. This slower pace unlocks the world of after-dark adventures, including night game drives and sleep-outs beneath the stars, ensuring the safari experience is not limited by daylight. By slowing down, travelers build a deeper, more intimate connection with the rhythm of the wild and local communities, resulting in a truly transformative experience.

Turning on AI in Favor of the Human Touch

The initial excitement surrounding AI-generated travel is beginning to give way to reality, reinforcing the genuine value of the human touch in luxury travel. As stories surface about the pitfalls of trusting AI itineraries, from being routed to non-existent sights to receiving incorrect information on pre-travel documents, clients quickly realize that planning a complex journey requires a depth of personal knowledge that an LLM cannot replicate.

Jacada's travel designers leverage their years of on-the-ground expertise and lived experience to provide the unexpected. For instance, one designer wove a detour into a client's Iceland itinerary, securing access to a highly unusual location for a sea glass search – an arrangement that could only have been orchestrated through personal connections. Luxury clients seek bespoke itineraries that are exclusively theirs and cannot be replicated. Jacada's focus ensures its luxury trips are designed not for isolation but for deep connection between clients and the places and people they visit, offering a more authentic experience.

The Youngest Travelers Are Shaping Family Travel Choices

Clients are also prioritizing purpose over traditional opulence, seeking to invest in journeys that offer a rich cultural return. This is realized through unique local encounters, such as dining with locals in Chile or participating in ancestral pottery workshops in the Atacama, where the true luxury is the uninterrupted experience, considered the ultimate measure of value.

The dynamic of luxury family travel is also shifting, with multiple generations becoming active participants in the planning process. Today, Gen Z and Generation Alpha are now fundamentally shaping the itinerary with their social awareness. We are seeing a fascinating convergence: younger travelers are asking grandparents, "What is the impact of this trip?" or "What is the hotel doing for the environment?" This powerful dynamic ensures that multi-generational trips are now vetted for both luxury and verifiable positive impact, blending the ethical priorities of the younger generation with the purchasing power of the older one.

For much more from Jacada Travel, please call 1-646-895-8368; email press@jacadatravel.com, or visit jacadatravel.com.

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About Jacada Travel

Jacada Travel is a leader in positive impact luxury travel. Offering bespoke, one-of-a-kind journeys in more than seventy countries across six continents, Jacada sets the benchmark for travelers who appreciate luxury in all its forms. Every trip with Jacada is completely personalised, crafted around guests' personal interests, and driven by the team's honest advice and first-hand knowledge. Jacada's destination experts have been named among the world's top specialists. Three travel designers feature on Travel + Leisure's A-List, while six are listed among Condé Nast Traveler's Top Travel Specialists. Alex Malcolm, who founded Jacada in 2008, continues to lead the brand. His philosophy is shaped by a vision where travel can be a force for positive change. Underscoring this commitment, the Jacada Positive Impact Collection was launched in 2024. It now brings together more than one hundred remarkable properties and experiences, each carefully evaluated through the lens of the United Nations' SDGs. Discover more at jacadatravel.com.