Reimagine Your 2025 Getaway: 4 Smart Travel Styles to Change Your Life
The best journeys aren’t about ticking boxes. They’re about slowing down, spending smart, and living the story. Discover four travel styles that will redefine how (and why) you explore the world this year.
Remember when travel was all about a checklist of destinations? Sprinting through capitals, ticking the boxes for all the tourist sites, going way over budget, and coming home more tired than when you left. You needed a holiday to recover from your holiday!
It doesn’t have to be that way. The next era of travel is about being present, spending smart, and creating experiences that last long after the tan fades.
Here are four inspired ways to travel. Each is richer, more intentional, and perfectly suited for memories – not mayhem.
1. Set-jetting, not jet-setting
Forget knocking off a list of destinations. “Set-jetting”, or visiting destinations made famous by films or TV shows, is evolving into something deeper: slow immersion.
This involves fully experiencing what you saw on screen and truly absorbing every little bit of magic. Picture Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia, where The English Patient was filmed. You’re not racing from Florence to Rome; you’re sipping espresso at the same local café each morning, helping a farmer with the olive harvest, and hearing how the mist settles differently every season.
Or head to Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway, the cinematic backdrop to Game of Thrones. Instead of a whirlwind stop for photos, stay a few days in a seaside cottage, watch the Atlantic light shift across the basalt columns, and chat with locals over a pint about legends of giants and warriors.
Set-jetting slow travel transforms a place from a backdrop to a full-on immersive experience. You live inside the story rather than watching it unfold. It’s all about letting the landscape and people rewrite your pace. Go with the flow.
2. Master the timing
The secret to the perfect holiday isn’t the destination — it’s the timing. How many times have you shown up at a dream location only to find it swamped with tourists?
Do a bit of research on your chosen destination and spot the “shoulder season”. These are the golden weeks between high and low season when the crowds thin, the weather is still good, and flights and accommodation are much more affordable. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
The shoulder season rewards the traveller who values atmosphere over Instagram posts. Someone who wants to feel a place, not just photograph it. Without the hordes of tourists, the locals will have more time to spend with you, and you’ll have a unique insight into a whole other world.
3. Take the reverse itinerary
Most of us follow the same script: land in the capital, head south or north, and tick off the big sights. But what if you flipped the sequence?
Start your Korean adventure not in Seoul, but in the port city of Busan, where waves crash against the coast and food markets spill into the streets. Explore Portugal from Porto downwards instead of beginning in Lisbon. By reversing your route, you experience the rhythm of local life before hitting the headline attractions. You’ll dodge the tourist bubble, ease into the culture, and gain context that makes the capital feel fresh again.
4. Skills and thrills: the new souvenir
The most meaningful keepsakes don’t fit in your luggage. They live in your muscle memory, your mindset, your confidence.
Travellers are swapping sightseeing for skill-seeking. Imagine learning to surf in Lombok, taking a master cooking class in Chiang Mai, getting your diving licence in Cebu, or spending a week with a master artisan in Kyoto.
These are trips with transformation built in. You return not just rested but rewired. The friendships formed in these settings can outlast any souvenir. It’s proof that personal growth makes the best travel companion.
Whichever style calls to you, one truth remains: smart travel thrives on financial flexibility. When you’re hopping between currencies, the last thing you want is to lose time or money to exchange fees.
That’s where the RHB Multi Currency Visa Debit Card/-i* shines. It lets you spend in 34 currencies with zero conversion fees on foreign currencies, directly from one card. No hidden mark-ups, no fumbling with cash in front of onlookers. It links easily to Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, GrabPay and other mobile wallets, so you can go completely cardless if you prefer. That’s more time to live in the moment and less to worry about the maths.
The best holidays are the ones that feel light and effortless, where you let the flow open your eyes to life-changing experiences that shape your perspective and inspire ideas. Don’t just go somewhere. Grow somewhere. We’ll be right there alongside you, as your travel partner of choice.
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