We explore the new travel trend for 2025
Simplicity, spontaneity and simple pleasures – soft travel is about ensuring your break really does feel like a break.
In 2024, slow travel was at the forefront of travel trends – a desire for off the beaten-track experiences and immersion in a different culture. This year, the soft travel trend moves towards an inward-looking focus where mental health benefits are at the forefront of holiday decision making.
Soft travel is about disconnecting from the pressures of daily life, reconnecting with nature and simply slowing down. We break down five ways you can adopt the soft travel trend when planning your holiday in 2025.
Pick a destination that provides rest bite
Soft travel moves away from stressful planning, complicated journeys and relentless itineraries.
When choosing your holiday destination, look for somewhere that allows you to escape the pressures of daily life.
For city dwellers this could be the countryside, or for inland inhabiters, this could be the coast. Perhaps it is somewhere far away from the temptations of the office or maybe you would like to relive fond memories at a favourite childhood destination.
Keep travel simple
Go with journeys that encourage ease. Avoid flight delays, onerous queuing, limited baggage allowance and the worry of extreme weather events.
A staycation can take away a large layer of stress and feeds into the soft travel themes of sustainability and responsible travel. Hop in the car with the kids, the dog and the surfboards and head to Cornwall at your own pace.
By choosing a property within walking distance to your chosen amenity such as a beach, you can reduce, if not completely eliminate, the need to pick up the car keys during your holiday. Staying in one place for longer, enables you more time to slip into holiday mode and relax.
Go with the flow
Reduce pre-holiday admin and perhaps just focus on booking that one special meal during your holiday. You don’t need back-to-back ‘organised’ fun to get the most out of your holiday. Exploring new places at your own pace is central to soft travel.
Don’t feel like you have to rush around all the tourist spots and get the photo for social media. They say the best things in life are free and this applies to many of the most loved activities on a Cornish holiday – walking, swimming, reading and spending quality time with loved ones.
Keeping unscheduled time can allow for spontaneity, fitting around the ever-changeable Cornish weather and tide. Going with impulse can result in the best holiday moments. Maybe walking that extra mile of the coast path means you stumble across a pod of dolphins, or a hidden cove reveals the best wild swimming spot.
Maximise time outdoors
Focus on simple pleasures that are good for the mind, body and spirit. This is easy when staying beside the sea. Breathing the sea-salted air, the feeling of bare feet on sand and tingling skin after a sea dip are all simple pleasures with huge mental health benefits.
Mindfulness on holiday is made easier away from the noise of urban life and how easy it can be to get time alone to think. Quality ‘me time’ can be easily found. From a dawn beach walk, a hearty home cooked brunch after an exhilarating sea dip or a hike to the highest point to take in the view.
For some, distraction from the everyday is more easily found by partaking in an activity which encourages the mind to live in the moment. Paddling for green waves, balancing on a paddleboard or scaling the dizzying heights of the South West Coast Path – the possibilities here in Cornwall are endless.
Prioritise wellness
By listening to your body and your mind, you can rest where needed. Make a conscious effort to slow down and relax. This could be enhanced by picking a property with a wellness facility that suits your needs such as a swimming pool, large balcony for yoga or a hot tub or sauna.
Soft travel is also linked to a mindful approach to food and drink. A ‘sober’ holiday could give your body a detox and allow for those clear-headed dawn adventures. The plethora of alcohol alternatives (such as the Cornish ‘Pentire’) and trendy mocktails on offer makes this easy.
Enjoy hearty, healthy meals filled with local, organic fruit and vegetables and fresh seafood. Whether you want to cook at your self-catering retreat or head out to sample the local restaurants, healthy field to plate options are easy to come by in Cornwall. Supporting the local community by shopping locally in farm shops and delis is all part of soft travel.Â
Choose your soft travel retreat
If Cornwall is your soft travel destination of choice, we have made it easy by narrowing down your soft travel retreat to properties located within easy walking distance to the beach.
Perhaps it will be a vibrant retreat just for two or a surf pad beside the waves. If all the family are invited choose from our stylish mid-size stays or properties for large groups. For something truly special with a dash of luxury, browse our iconic homestays.
Now it’s just down to you to embrace spontaneity and choose your Cornish coastal retreat. Which one will take your fancy?
