From forest yelling to envy-inducing uniforms, these are trends redefining travel right now

Next for: Sustainability

Barbrah Naserian Kimongo’o, Emboo

Aged just 23, Barbrah Naserian Kimongo’o has spent four years as a safari guide at Emboo, the mould-breaking Kenyan Maasai Mara camp. Founded by Belgian couple Valery Super and Loic Amado, the camp is known for its pioneering focus on sustainability, such as having East Africa’s first full fleet of solar-powered electric safari vehicles.

“Being a guide isn’t traditionally a woman’s job in Maasai culture. A lot of people are surprised to see me behind the wheel on game drives. But I want to show that we have the same passion and strength as men. And I hope that more safari companies will be like Emboo, where everything is geared towards the environment: solar power, recycled rainwater, the chlorine-free pool, the biogas used for cooking, all of it. And obviously the cars, which have no carbon emissions but also almost no sound. We had a blind guest, and witnessing him connect to the animals through sound was so inspiring.” emboo.camp

Well-directed stays

Film directors shifting into hospitality isn’t new; for example, Francis Ford Coppola’s mini-empire, from Belize’s Turtle Inn and Coral Caye to Palazzo Margherita in Italy’s Matera, or Château Margüi in Provence, part of George Lucas’s Skywalker Retreats. Ridley Scott is the latest to join this A list, opening three smartly updated guest villas at Mas des Infermières, the vineyard in Luberon, France, owned by his family since 1992, where he’s been figuring out how to make award-winning wines (the biodiverse estate has also been commended for its friendliness towards bees). The pick of the stays is Les Chênes Verts, a light-flooded five-bedroom farmhouse filled with collectable mid-century furniture and bright art, with a private pool and bucolic garden. masdesinfermieres.com

Poachers turned gamekeepers

At Ecuador’s Mashpi Lodge, the Forest Guardians programme has former illegal loggers and hunters using AI software to audibly detect threats to the rainforest – a virtuous switcheroo familiar in South Africa, where the Londolozi game reserve’s Rhino Guardians scheme is partly led by former poachers. Likewise, on Rascal Voyages’ upcoming conservation trips to Indonesia’s Raja Ampat, the restorative coral gardening with NGO The Sea People is led by a team including former illegal fishermen. mashpilodge.com; londolozi.com; rascalvoyages.com

Uniform envy

When did we start envying the wardrobes of the hotel staff? The cable-knit polo necks of the doormen at The Bloomsbury, say, or the ruched peacock-blue dresses of the staff at Edinburgh’s 100 Princes Street? Both are the creations of Nicholas Oakwell, the couture designer whose No Uniform brand is redefining the hotel staff dress code, creating capsule collections for the likes of Raffles Doha and the new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. He’s not the only in-demand designer turning their attention to hospitality either, from menswear wunderkind Charlie Casely-Hayford, with his sharp suits for The Twenty Two, to Princess of Wales favourite Jenny Packham, who created mix-and-match staff wardrobes at The Peninsula London. nouniform.com

Bio-brutalism

The reappraisal of brutalism is hardly new, but the current trend is for places where concrete meets lush greenery, as celebrated in new books such as The House of Green (Gestalten) and Brutalist Plants (Hoxton Mini Press), the latter by Olivia Broome, creator of an Instagram handle with the same name. Travellers are increasingly spoilt for biophilic and tropical brutalism, especially in concrete hotspots such as Oaxaca’s Puerto Escondido. The town is home to tropical-brutalist masterpieces, including Casa To and Hotel Terrestre, by the Mexico-based architects Ludwig Godefroy and Alberto Kalach, respectively, and is where the cool Casa Yuma resort opened earlier this year, all white concrete, palm trees and crisp-edged surf vibes. @brutalistplants; casayuma.net

Next for: Hotel design

Dax and Joyce Roll, Nicemakers

After bonding over a shared love of vintage finds, Amsterdam-based design duo Dax and Joyce Roll formed the Nicemakers studio in 2011. Since then, they’ve worked on hotels, restaurants and private homes worldwide, including two Hoxton hotels in their home city, where they amplified the buildings’ sense of place, adding bold prints, natural materials and collector’s pieces. Their most recent hotel, The Brecon in Switzerland, opened in July.

“The trend is for hotels to look as little like a hotel as possible. To feel more residential and warm but not ‘home away from home’. We’re increasingly stripping away minibars and kettles and adding in unique items, so no room feels the same. Wardrobes are shrinking or disappearing – short-stay guests don’t tend to unpack. And lighting is getting more decorative, used purely for the atmosphere. Public spaces are becoming more fluid: the reception desk pushed to one side; lobbies morphing into co-working areas or places to eat, with communal tables and games areas.” nicemakers.com

Accessible style

Forget ugly steel rails – UK-based adaptive design specialist Motionspot is making the accessible rooms the smartest in the hotel, from the 18 cool metro-tiled bathrooms at The Londoner to Manchester’s NYC-inspired Hotel Brooklyn, with its subtle brass emergency call buttons and ceiling track hoists hidden in light fixtures. Safaris are also joining in, led by Ximuwu Lodge in South Africa’s Greater Kruger, with pool lifts and accessible photo hides just part of what makes it the first fully wheelchair-friendly safari in the country. motionspot.co.uk; ximuwu.com

Aye to rewilding

Scotland as a global capital of rewilding? That’s the plan being pushed by the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, which has Leonardo DiCaprio hustling the government to commit 30 per cent of the nation’s land to nature recovery. It’s not uncomplicated (should reserves reintroduce predators such as wolves, for example?), but a travel-friendly start is underway. At rewilding retreats in Alladale Wilderness Reserve, featuring wild swimming and forest bathing, guests learn about owner Paul Lister’s efforts on the 23,000-acre property, from planting a million trees to reintroducing red squirrels. In the Cairngorms, the Scandinavian-influenced Killiehuntly Farmhouse and Cottages is part of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen’s vast Wildland project, which has planted five million trees in the region. rewild.scot; alladale.com; wildland.scot

Crafty solutions

Crafts are playing a bigger part in how travellers connect to local cultures. During hands-on trips by Thread Caravan, founded by Oaxaca-based Caitlin Garcia-Ahern, guests might work with Quechuan textile artists in Peru or create natural dyes in Iceland. London’s Ishkar – set up by Edmund Le Brun and Flore de Taisne after a four-year stint living in Afghanistan – uses crafts as a starting point for travel and change. Online and on East London’s Columbia Road, it sells jewellery, kilims, clothing and homeware, funding everything from Afghan hospitals to artisan training and tailoring expeditions to spots such as the Yemeni island of Socotra or Pakistan’s Hunza Valley. threadcaravan.com; ishkar.com

Indo surf solitude

While Bali and the Nusa Tenggara islands to the east draw more and more coverage, in-the-know surfers are keeping schtum about Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, west of Sumatra, with their pristine beaches and Indigenous tribes of tattooed hunter-gatherers. Stays tend towards thatch-roofed, barefoot simplicity – including the Aloita resort, which has 10 bungalows and villas right on a private white-sand beach with an over-water yoga shala. The eco-focused Hollow Tree’s Resort is a longtime surfers’ favourite that overlooks the legendary “HT’s” wave, and each of the cute blue-and-white villas has a private plunge pool. aloitaresort.com; htsresort.com

Next for: Travel specialists

Liliana Palma Santos, Zapotec Travel

Born in Santa Monica, California, in an Oaxacan Zapotec family, Liliana Palma Santos moved back to her hometown of Tlacolula de Matamoros in 2013 and launched Zapotec Travel in 2021. With a small B&B and homely restaurant and tours focused around local artisans and mezcal producers, her mission is to showcase the singular culture of modern Zapotecs (colloquially known as the Cloud People) and counterbalance outdated perceptions and tourism models.

“Indigenous groups such as ours will have more of a voice and not be seen as simply an ancient culture. And there will be more of a focus on supporting small businesses. On our trips we ask guests to bring part of the balance in cash so that we pay fees to local businesses and communities, rather than relying on visitors making purchases. We’re honest too. On our mezcal tours, we visit the producers rather than the big brands and go out on pick-up trucks to harvest agave. There’s fun, and cocktails in the producers’ homes, but we also have real conversations. We want to be a bridge between cultures.” zapotectravel.com

Lend-a-hand gap years

Never mind aimless Southeast Asian jaunts; the gap year is getting a tool-up. Options from Natucate, a specialist in nature-based voluntourism, include a professional field guide course in Botswana, teaching everything from tracking to wilderness survival and medical care. US-based scholarship programme Baret Scholars is launching a Global Gap Year: a contemporary Grand Tour that offers volunteering, learning and researching with local experts across the world, from Istanbul to São Paulo, Paris, Nairobi, Delhi, Beijing and Hokkaido. natucate.com; baretscholars.org

Forest screaming

Better known for reverential silence, the forest is also becoming a place to scream. Mia Banducci, aka Mia Magik, has become known for her forest rage rituals – involving therapeutic howling and wild stick-swinging – on retreats in the Scottish Highlands or the Loire Valley, part of a forest yelling trend sweeping TikTok. British treehouse brand TreeDwellers is bringing the noise the other way, with its wooden megaphone in the forest at Cornbury in the Cotswolds designed to amplify sounds from the woods. miamagik.com; treedwellers.com

Human resources

AI is coming for travel. Gemini, Google’s rival to ChatGPT, is just one of the platforms to launch trip-planning capabilities, with full itineraries created in seconds. It follows bespoke travel apps such as iPlan.ai and Roam Around. But boutique specialists, including The Slow Cyclist, are focusing on on-the-ground expertise. Its rides in the nature-rich Danube Delta are led by Mişu David, who has tracked the wildlife since his childhood holidays in the region, and classicist Joshua Barley leads Patrick Leigh Fermor-themed jaunts along the Mani Peninsula, drawing on the sort of esoteric knowledge computers will surely take a while to come by. theslowcyclist.com

Leading ladies

For travel specialists, traditional gender norms are going the way of the dinosaurs. Mongolia specialist Eternal Landscapes has an all-female team of guides, some from traditional nomadic communities. On signature tours that involve horseback riding with eagle-assisted hunters, guests might meet other mould-breaking women like Aisholpan Nurgaiv, who starred in the 2016 documentary The Eagle Huntress. US-based Wild Terrains is run by women for women, with trips to Iceland, New Orleans, Argentina and elsewhere built around local luminaries such as Mexico City art historian and Frida Kahlo expert Natalia Zerbato. eternal-landscapes.co.uk; wildterrains.com

The Wong Kar-wai aesthetic

Accidentally Wes Anderson has gone global, and entirely intentional, with a new book, Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures, charting trips to the post office in Tierra del Fuego at South America’s southern tip and Felicity, California, which claims to be the official centre of the world (population: two). But there’s a fresh rival in the Wong Kar-wai Aesthetic, all neon, humid alleyways, cigarette smoke, qipaos, and nostalgic songs, as trending on TikTok. The vibe of films such as In the Mood for Love – “like two people dancing slowly”, according to the director – is obviously best channelled in Wong’s native Hong Kong. If the Graham Street wet market or immigrant-run stalls and backpackers of the vast and infamous Chungking Mansions (both notable locations in Chungking Express) get too much, the queer-friendly Eaton HK hotel and workspace is a gentler take on the director’s vision, with its neon-lit escalator and old postcards on pinboards in cosy-retro rooms. eatonworkshop.com

Next for: Fashion brands

Léa Daaboul, Léa the Label

Lebanese designer Léa Daaboul runs her eponymous sustainable swimwear brand in Dubai, with makers in Bali using recycled Econyl fabric for its elegant pieces. A partnership with global plastic waste NGO CleanHub means that every product sold results in one pound of plastic – the equivalent of 50 bottles – being recycled. “Fashion consumers are more aware and demanding than ever and want both transparency and a strong story. For us, sustainability was central from the start, and so was taking our time: we don’t do seasonal collections, and we want to be an antidote to the speed of social media and the greenwashing of some big fashion brands. It’s also important to me that the people who make our products in Bali are paid fairly and get health insurance. Another goal was to show that sustainable brands don’t have to feel ‘earthy’. We want to be contemporary, elegant and sexy but still made the right way.” leathelabel.com

Flight-free holidays

With sleeper trains all the rage, new operators are responding with full flight-free packages. UK-based Byway can do bespoke or off-the-shelf trips and hotel stays, including a coast-hugging rail journey to Sicily and a jaunt around the former Yugoslavia on little historical trains between beauty spots such as Mostar and Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor. byway.travel

Making a splash

Synchronised swimming is having a glam moment, with a new breed of retro-stylish troupes turning heads in hotels across the world. Stateside, the most prominent among them are the Aqualillies, who have had residences at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel and performed at openings such as New York’s TWA Hotel, as well as holding classes at Santa Monica’s chic Annenberg Community Beach House. On this side of the pond, Aquabatix was cofounded by Commonwealth Games medallist Adele Carlsen and has put on highly technical shows including at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Waterworld and the recent summer party at the rooftop pool of The Berkeley, overlooking Hyde Park. aqualillies.com; aquabatix.com

Living forever

Who wants to live forever? Start with the guests and members at London’s new generation of fabulously expensive hotels, which are increasingly doubling as future-facing wellness spaces. The Surrenne spa at The Emory in Knightsbridge has a Longevity Suite headed by Dr Mark Mikhail from 3 Peaks Health, who bases personalised programmes on blood work diagnostics, VO2 max testing, microbiome mapping and epigenetic testing. At Bodyspace in the new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, treatments and regimes might include longevity-focused nutrition consultations or the Normatec compression therapy sessions used by Olympic athletes. surrenne.com; body-space.co.uk

Mindful safaris

As travel turns to mindfulness, so do safaris. Silent walks are on the up, such as at Chem Chem Lodge in Tanzania, where Maasai guides eventually break the quiet over baobab tea, while the flower safaris at South Africa’s Grootbos have a micro-focus on the Western Cape’s fynbos and forests. Holistic wellness is playing a bigger role too. On Natural Selection’s six-day retreats between Botswana’s Tuludi and North Island Okavango camps, soul-integration specialist Robyn Sheldon leads healing sessions designed to deepen guests’ connection to nature and the self. chemchemsafari.com; grootbos.com; naturalselection.travel