Airbnb's 2026 Travel Trend Predicts 1 Common Theme Among Where Travelers Want To Stay
With 2025 nearly over, Airbnb has published its travel predictions for the year ahead. Unsurprisingly, the most frequently searched travel dates and destinations are tied to major events like the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the FIFA World Cup 2026, the latter of which will be hosted in sixteen cities across North America, including major U.S. metropolises like Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, and Philadelphia. But other key takeaways from the report are more intriguing, like the trend of Gen Z travelers booking short escapes to international locales and the fact that there's an uptick in searches for stays in or near national parks throughout the world.
More people than usual, it seems, want to get away from it all and explore the great outdoors. Across the board, nature-related and outdoor experiences are the most frequently booked experience category on Airbnb. (Other experience categories include art, cultural tours, dining, shopping & fashion, wellness, and more.) But according to the travel company, one search term — for stays "near a national park" in 2026 — is up 35%, with America's most visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, spanning the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, about to have more visitors than ever. It's one of the top trending global destinations for 2026, per Airbnb, and is a particularly popular search term among solo travelers.
The great escape to Airbnbs near national parks
It's clear from the data that national parks are having a moment, but apart from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which specific destinations are seeing the most interest on Airbnb? Internationally, trending locations include Crete, Greece's largest island and home to Samaria Gorge National Park; Jakarta, Indonesia, offering easy access to the rainforest-rich Ujung Kulon National Park; and Sardinia, Italy, the island where visitors can discover the rugged mountains and idyllic beaches of Gennargentu National Park.
In the U.S., Yosemite National Park is trending for 2026, as are Maine's pristine Acadia National Park and Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, an underrated destination for stargazing. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the gateway to Grand Teton National Park, is another highly searched-for spot, and if you're traveling there by air, you'll fly into the only national park in America with an airport inside of it.
An Airbnb is a solid choice for accommodations if you're planning to visit Grand Canyon National Park in 2026 since all of the National Park Service-operated hotels on the South Rim remain closed indefinitely while an upgraded water delivery system is installed. And that's in addition to the fact that, sadly, the historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim burned down due to wildfires in July 2025.