The New Luxury Vacation Has Two Speeds

Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.HomePMN BusinessThe New Luxury Vacation Has Two SpeedsTravelers are opting for high-end trips that allow for action in a fast-paced city, plus quiet time far from everything.Author of the article: You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.(Bloomberg) — Anastasia McLetchie Pastan has become an expert at planning two vacations for each trip she takes.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountWhen the Washington, DC-based lawyer traveled to Italy in 2024, she paired a visit to Florence with time to unwind at Monteverdi, a Tuscan resort. Last year, she started with the rush of Mexico City before a resort in Cancún for mellow sea and sun. She loves the “great mix of all the bustle and excitement of art and history, plus the rest and relaxation of being cared for in a nice place — and just turning off the noise.”More luxury travelers are designing vacations in precisely this way: pairing high-energy destinations with quieter second acts that offer restoration, privacy and a deliberate vibe shift, travel advisers say.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againThe idea behind these multidestination journeys, or split trips, extends beyond seeing several places. Travelers are structuring vacations around emotional contrast: basically taking a vacation from their vacation while on the road.Expedia Group’s Unpack 2025 travel outlook, which surveyed 25,000 people, found that 63% of them said they were likely to include a “detour destination” before returning home, reflecting travelers’ growing appetite for multistop itineraries that offer contrasting experiences.That appetite for contrast doesn’t mean vacations are getting longer across the board. Americans are still taking more short breaks, but some are also treating one larger trip as the year’s main event and building more into it. Deloitte found that much of the growth in travel came from getaways of three nights or fewer, even as the share of travelers planning a vacation of at least a week also rose.Remote work can help stretch those longer journeys, making it easier for some travelers to add a second stop without burning through significantly more vacation days. Still, the most elaborate version of the split trip — like Singapore with the rainforests of Borneo — remains largely a luxury proposition, designed for travelers with the money and flexibility to turn one vacation into two distinct experiences.“Many clients view a split trip as the best of both worlds,” says travel adviser Andrea Duvall of Andrea Duvall Travel Designs. Her advisory has seen a 15% increase in split trips from the previous year.Multistop travel is hardly new. Europeans have long linked cities by rail, and ambitious travelers have squeezed several countries into a single vacation. Long-haul flights invite travelers to maximize distance and value. If someone’s already crossed an ocean, adding a second destination can feel economically rational. But luxury advisers say something deeper is increasingly shaping these decisions.“Clients do not want to feel like they missed something,” says Cynika Drake, founder of Lavish Lifestyles Concierge, which designs bespoke luxury itineraries around the world. “They want to feel that the trip was worth the time and the investment.”This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.For many travelers, the second stop serves a distinct purpose: recovery. Drake increasingly designs itineraries with what amounts to a deliberate shift from stimulation to restoration. In East Africa, that might mean safari, followed by a deep chill on the turquoise beaches of Zanzibar. In Morocco, travelers trade Marrakesh’s intensity for Essaouira’s beaches or the quiet of the Agafay Desert before returning home.Travel planning has become simultaneously easier and more mentally demanding. The same digital ecosystem that simplifies booking also creates near-endless decisions: where to stay, which restaurant is worth it, what activity deserves scarce vacation time.Psychologists describe this as cognitive load or decision fatigue — the mental depletion that can emerge after sustained decision-making. Modern travel can become cognitively dense long before we pack our bags. Vacations increasingly require recovery from their own complexity.Eric Goldreyer, founder and chief executive officer of Savvy, a direct-booking vacation rental marketplace serving travelers across a range of price points, says he’s seen this uptick in split-trip decision-making, where travelers are increasingly pairing destinations that create clear emotional contrast.“City-to-beach is the most common pattern,” Goldreyer says. Nashville to Orange Beach, Alabama, is Savvy’s top pairing. Austin to South Padre Island in Texas ranks second.The 30-year travel-industry veteran says the most common pattern he sees now is trips with seven nights in the first spot and another seven in the second. Rather than compressing two destinations into the same vacation window, travelers appear to be expanding trips to accommodate distinct experiences.Massachusetts-based writer Hannah Selinger is a proponent of split trips. “It feels more like vacation,” she says. This year, she took her family to Venice, followed by a week in Calabria.“I really wanted to see the city — but it was summer, and hot, and my ultimate goal was a European beach trip.”Some hotels are now positioning themselves less as standalone destinations and more as restorative counterpoints within larger journeys.Salamander Collection’s Capital & Country pairing links the newly renovated Salamander Washington DC with Salamander Middleburg, its Virginia countryside resort roughly an hour away. The itinerary intentionally contrasts museum-lined urban energy with equestrian experiences and spa time.Sofitel offers a similarly dramatic change of pace in Colombia. Travelers can begin at Sofitel Legend Santa Clara Cartagena, a 17th century monastery-turned-luxury hotel in the heart of the old city, then take a roughly 40-minute boat ride to Sofitel Barú, where still pools, shaded loungers, private beaches and frosty limonada de coco replace Cartagena’s kinetic energy. The two properties turn a single trip into two distinct experiences: cultural immersion followed by an almost immediate exhale, even occasionally in a single offering from the hotel chain.Jen Honovic Herczeg, a Philadelphia-based marketer, also subscribes to the split-trip approach, but sometimes she flips the order: “We start with super relaxation and then go to a city at the end once we’ve rejuvenated and truly relaxed a bit.” For travelers who want both immersion and restoration, ambition and stillness, the split trip offers something unusually modern: permission to experience a new place deeply without remaining perpetually switched on. That feels like real luxury now.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.