Stretch your travel dollars with these on-trend locations
Stage : In summer 2024, two in three boomers intended to travel, the most of any generation surveyed by the consulting group Deloitte. They voice a clear preference for learning about history and culture and stretching their dollar.
While travel shows no signs of slowing, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a thrifty mindset means more trips. The following are eight on-trend destinations for affordable vacations in 2025, most with lodging options under $200. Because rates fluctuate, Expedia says August is the cheapest month to travel, and the best budget strategy is to book early.
Bandera, Texas
The travel booking website Skyscanner cited “cowboy core” as 2025 inspiration, saluting the renewed popularity of cowboys on television and in music. Travelers can immerse in the lore and pageantry of the old West in Bandera, the self-proclaimed “Cowboy Capital of the World,” as the staging area for 19th-century cattle drives. Located an hour’s drive northwest of San Antonio in Texas Hill Country, Bandera offers simulated gunfights weekly (free). Local honky-tonks like the 11th Street Cowboy Bar host live music (admission varies), drawing dancers to the floor for the Texas Two-Step. Time your visit to catch skilled wranglers saddle up in professional rodeos over Memorial and Labor Day weekends (tickets from $12). Check into a one-room cedar cabin at the Flying L Ranch Resort & Golf Course to play pickleball, hurl horseshoes, and mingle with a resident singing cowboy.
Denver
In a 2024 survey of 31,000 global travelers by Booking.com, three-quarters of respondents said they wanted to travel more sustainably in the next year. Denver makes that goal easier to reach with a mix of urban renovations. On touchdown at the airport, the light-rail A Line train ($10) makes a 37-minute ride to Denver Union Station. Newly renovated, the 1881 landmark serves as a community hub with bus and train departures as well as many restaurants, including the new Press, serving tortas and tacos ($8-$13). A few blocks away, ogle the new nature-centric Populus Hotel, which aims to be carbon-positive, and new art installations on the mile-long 16th Street Mall. Free shuttles along the mall link to cultural highlights, including the theater district and the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Explore on foot from the Curtis Hotel with pop-culture-themed rooms based on knock-knock jokes and I Love Lucy.
Erie Canal, New York
In 2025, the Erie Canal will celebrate its 200th anniversary with boat parades, festivals and other special events. Completed in 1825, the landmark 363-mile canal in upstate New York connected the Hudson River in the east with Lake Erie in the west and served as a highway for western expansion before the age of automobiles. Once plied by freight-loaded packet boats, the waterway today is popular with recreational boaters, while the towpath alongside draws walkers and cyclists. Anniversary events kick off in Waterford, where the canal meets the Hudson River with a boat parade, and continue to Fairport, just outside of Rochester, where Canal Days (June 6-8 ) features a juried art fair. On Sept. 24, a replica of the original canal boat Seneca Chief used by Gov. DeWitt Clinton in 1825 will chart a course to New York Harbor with stops along the way over the next month.
Fairbanks, Alaska
From the northern lights to bioluminescent shores, natural phenomena are driving the wish lists of travelers, according to Expedia. While chasing the aurora borealis is associated with expensive trips to northern Norway or isolated Iceland, Fairbanks, Alaska, has emerged as a northern lights hotspot with long winter nights for optimal viewing. It’s located within the aurora oval – the belt that rings the magnetic north within which the lights are brightest. Over the next year, as solar activity reaches the peak of its 11-year cycle, it is a good time to look, according to NASA. By day in Fairbanks, visit Pioneer Park, a 44-acre park where historic buildings now housing museums and shops have been relocated (free) or take a tour of downtown on a kicksled – like a scooter on a pair of skis – with Borealis Sparks & Kicksleds ($50). Put in a wake-up call with the front desk of Pikes Waterfront Lodge to rouse you should the lights flare overnight.
Las Vegas
According to Hilton, nostalgia will drive tourism in 2025 as vacationers seek old-school destinations and attractions epitomized by Las Vegas, the one-of-a-kind desert playground. Fans of the original neon-lit resorts flock to downtown where the 1941-vintage El Cortez Hotel & Casino will unveil a larger casino, new bars and a restaurant just a few years after redoing its original 47 rooms. Take the double-decker Deuce on the Strip bus between downtown and the Strip ($8 for a day pass; $4 for riders 60 and older) for bargain sightseeing with a stop at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. The Sphere, an orb-shaped concert venue on the Strip, has quickly become famous for its retro acts, including Dead & Company, and its cutting-edge technology, including screenings of the sci-fi film Postcard from Earth by director Darren Aronofsky with seats that move with the action (tickets from $94).
Madison, Wisconsin
The state capital and a lively college town, Madison recently earned national attention as the setting for season 21 of TV’s Top Chef, which highlighted the Dane County Farmers’ Market, the largest producers-only market in the country. Its culinary appeal is set to expand with the 2025 debut of the Madison Public Market, which aims to incubate small businesses in food and gifts. However, like a University of Wisconsin liberal arts major, Madison is multifaceted with more than 200 miles of biking and hiking trails. For fans of women’s sports – a growing number as indicated by record viewership of the NCAA Women’s basketball final in 2024 – Madison hosts two new professional women’s teams: the Madison Night Mares softball team and LOVB Madison in the inaugural League One Volleyball league. Recharge at the Hilton Madison Monona Terrace overlooking Lake Monona.
Red Lodge, Montana
The TV series Yellowstone meets the “set-jetting” trend of visiting the locales of popular shows in rural Montana. Towns like Bozeman have boomed in recent years, though Big Sky Country remains unpressured in lesser-traveled corners. In south-central Montana, Red Lodge is an unsung gateway to Yellowstone National Park (admission $35 per vehicle) via the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. The wilderness is a nearly million-acre forest where the Beartooth meets the Absaroka mountain ranges and is one of the quietest places in the country, according to the nonprofit Noise Pollution Clearinghouse. Go birding and hiking in pine forests along the Lost Lake Trail. Double back to Red Lodge for a Montana-raised Wagyu beef and bison burger ($18) at the 1893-vintage Pollard Hotel with historic guest rooms in the town’s first brick building.
Sarasota, Florida
Nature’s beauty feeds what Skyscanner calls “horti-culture” or botanical tourism. Green things meet eco practices in Sarasota at the newly expanded Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Last year, its downtown waterfront campus, home to the world’s most diverse collection of orchids and other epiphytes, completed its phase one expansion. The expansion includes a plant-filled welcome pavilion, a restaurant supplied by a rooftop garden tended by military veterans and a vast solar array that makes it the first net-positive energy botanical garden. From Feb. 9 through June 29, the Selby will stage an exhibit devoted to George Harrison, the Beatles guitarist who developed a passion for gardening at his 32-acre English estate. From the Spark by Hilton Sarasota Siesta Key Gateway, guests are only a quick ride in a free shuttle from the white sand beaches of Siesta Key.
