Where UK travellers actually went on holiday in summer 2026

Forget the obvious hotspots. This summer's biggest risers were second cities, quieter islands and a couple of long-haul curveballs, and the pattern behind them tells its own story.

Short on time? Let us summarise this guide for you.

Grenoble led this summer's risers, up 200% on last year, with Chambery and Montpellier showing France's second cities are having a moment. Chisinau in Moldova posted the single biggest jump from a low base, while Jerez, Almeria and Santa Cruz De La Palma showed Spain's growth is moving beyond the costas. Poland and Sri Lanka's rises echo their climbs in our five year Good Trips Index, and Seattle's popularity looks tied to World Cup fixtures, plus a dose of relief among UK travellers at visiting a city so at odds with its own federal government. One entrant, Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki, is not a destination at all, just the Ryanair codeword for cheap flights to Warsaw.

Every summer throws up a few destinations nobody saw coming. This year's list is less about single breakout stars and more about patterns: whole clusters of places moving together, for reasons that say as much about where UK travellers won't go as where they will.

Second cities take over

France supplied three of this year's twenty biggest risers, and none of them was Paris. Grenoble topped the whole list, up 200% year on year, with Montpellier and Chambery both climbing too, the latter for the second year running after also featuring among last year's risers. Italy told a similar story, with Palermo, Bari and Verona all up by a third or more. In both countries, these look less like isolated one-offs and more like a genuine shift towards regional cities. Cheaper than the capitals, easier to reach on a budget route, and increasingly the beneficiaries of travellers actively avoiding the more crowded, more expensive first-tier cities where both local protests and public policy increasingly deter visitors.

Spain looks beyond the costas

Spain remains the UK's default holiday country, but the growth this summer wasn't in the usual places. Jerez, Almeria and Santa Cruz De La Palma all posted strong rises, sharing Spain's Good Trips Index position but pulling visitors towards Andalucia's interior and the quieter Canary Islands rather than the Balearics or the Costa del Sol. La Palma in particular has spent recent years being talked about as the calmer alternative to Tenerife and Gran Canaria, and this summer that talk turned into bookings.

The real-time destination leaderboard

Every week we update the rising and falling destinations for UK holidaymakers

In Tips & Advice August 2026

Loose calendar pages blowing across a sunny beach with soft sand, clear blue sky, and ocean waves – passing time and summer holiday vibe.

Eastern Europe's slow burn

Chisinau in Moldova produced the most dramatic single number on the whole list, up 189%, albeit from a small starting base. Ljubljana in Slovenia had a steadier but still substantial rise. Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki appears on this list purely because it's the location of Warsaw Modlin, the budget airport Ryanair flies into - more an economic substitution of cheaper flights to Warsaw than genuine growth in the city's popularity, but that said the availability of ultra-budget fares means the city is seeing more traffic. Together they point to UK travellers continuing to push further east in search of cities that still feel undiscovered, in the way Prague and Krakow did a generation ago.

The Good Trips effect

Two of this summer's risers are also risers in our five year Good Trips Index: Poland and Sri Lanka. That's a useful reminder that not every rise is a weather story or a currency story. Some destinations are climbing because they are genuinely becoming more attractive places to visit on ethical and wellbeing measures. Colombo's appearance here looks like part of that longer, slower trend rather than a one-summer blip - after a period of political upheaval in 2022 the country is once again a peaceful place to kick back and enjoy a genuinely warm welcome.

Asia keeps climbing

Shanghai and Beijing rose together this summer, both up by roughly a third, as China continues to open up to leisure travellers after years of being a business and long-haul niche only. Phuket kept climbing too, a year on from Thailand's marriage equality law giving it a boost, suggesting that rise wasn't a one-off spike but the start of a sustained trend. TUI already offers direct seasonal flights to Phuket, and other airlines are following suit later in the year so the island's popularity is likely to grow again next year.

World Cup 2026, and the blue city bonus

Seattle and Nashville both feature among this summer's risers, and both are World Cup 2026 host cities, so a chunk of that growth is simply football fans following the tournament. But Seattle's rise looks like more than that. It's a reliably Blue city in a country whose current administration has been a significant deterrent for UK travellers over the past year, and for holidaymakers wary of the politics but not put off America altogether, a host city that feels furthest from Washington, in every sense, is an easy way to square that circle.

What's next for holidays?

If this summer is any guide, the next year of UK travel will keep tilting towards second cities rather than overcrowded capitals, quieter islands and destinations that score well on our Good Trips Index, and a scattering of exotic long haul, with the US remaining a mixed picture - strong where politics and geography line up, softer elsewhere.