The hottest travel souvenir is learning a new skill

Rebecca Rostkowski’s recent Colorado vacation did not really kick into gear until she donned a protective suit and spent four days surrounded by bees. It forced her to slow down in a way that lounging by a pool never has.

“You have to be really calm and measured,” says Rostkowski, a 37-year-old flight attendant at Delta Air Lines. During her trip, she learnt about the practical aspects of beekeeping and how to harvest beeswax. She also gained insight into the investment it would take to become a beekeeper at her home outside Chicago. Rostkowski spent about US$600 (S$760) for the experience and accommodation.

She is part of a growing cohort of travellers who want to come home with more than Instagram shots as souvenirs. With airfares and hotel rates touching record highs in the US and Europe, and vacation days stubbornly finite, some are treating their time off like an investment. If they are taking only one or two big trips a year, they want to return having learnt something. 

Mastercard research released in July found that 48 per cent of people surveyed are planning a trip in 2026 specifically to develop a skill, whether it is surfing, making ceramics or harvesting beeswax. The travel industry, never one to leave a trend unnamed, has dubbed this the “skillcation”. In its 2026 trends report, Hilton Worldwide Holdings showed that 72 per cent of guests wanted time off to work on their personal passions or hobbies. 

More purposeful travel

This shift towards more purposeful travel has been evolving for some time.

In the early 2000s, “voluntourism” was in vogue. Travellers sought to give back through conservation or community-led projects (think teaching language skills abroad). By 2018, that had shifted to what travel industry news site Skift called “transformative travel”, meaning experiences meant to foster personal growth instead of just ticking off destinations.

The skillcation builds on this with the emphasis on learning something tangible. These trips can cost more than a normal vacation, depending on the destination and type of activity involved.

“Our customers aren’t taking six weeks off a year,” says Sam Bruce, co-founder of travel company Much Better Adventures, which organises active small-group trips. “They’re busy people who want one or two really good weeks with something they can actually hold on to afterwards. That’s what a skillcation gives you.”

Bookings for trips that include learning a skill like rock climbing or surfing through Much Better Adventures have risen 68 per cent over the past three years, according to company data. The vast majority, 87 per cent, are solo travellers, some drawn as much by the people they will meet as by the activity itself, the company says.

The combination of challenge and camaraderie is becoming a major draw for travellers, especially those like Rostkowski who say they have outgrown backpacker hostels but still crave group activities and connections. 

Matthias Ohresser, a 36-year-old sales executive in Paris, travels frequently for work. He started to feel that his trips were becoming repetitive and vacation time was passing by too quickly. To change things up, he headed to an intensive week-long kitesurfing camp in Dakhla, in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. The learning curve proved tough.

“You end up swallowing a surprising amount of seawater before you ever stand up on the board,” Ohresser says. “But the sense of accomplishment when it finally happens, combined with the cheers from the other students around you, creates a feeling you never forget.” 

The payoff, along with mastering a new sport, was finding connections with other active, like-minded 30-somethings, he says. “What I loved most was that my mind had no choice but to focus entirely on the kite, the wind and the water for five hours a day. Work, e-mails and everyday stress simply disappeared.” 

The best tagine he had ever eaten awaiting him onshore was just the icing on the cake. Ohresser spent about €3,000 (S$4,400) on the trip, including hotel costs, kite instruction and a flight from Paris.

Psychological well-being

Research shows that retreat-type travel often has longer-lasting positive effects on psychological well-being than vacations based on sun, sea and partying, known as “fly and flop” holidays in the UK, says Andrew Stevenson, a psychology professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. Learning something difficult offers a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. 

“Not to be overly preachy, but you can combine self-improvement travel with hedonism,” says Stevenson, the author of The Psychology of Travel.

Former public relations executive Ophelia Tayler, 28, who lives in London, had a similar revelation after quitting her job in 2025 and booking a week-long surf camp in Indonesia. She says she wanted to commit to learning properly instead of doing a few morning classes, failing and deciding she hated it. 

“You have to step out of your comfort zone, which is a big part of what drew me in the first place,” says Tayler. 

Living on-site transformed the experience from a vacation into something closer to an adult summer camp, she says, with a real sense of camaraderie at the end of the day. 

“I loved it so much that I stayed on after the week finished,” Tayler says. She later tracked down more surf breaks across Malaysia before going on to complete 200 hours of yoga-teacher training. (She says she is still a beginner yogi.) The surf holiday package in Indonesia costs around US$800.

Deeper engagement

Travel companies are responding to the appetite for deeper engagement. Luxury itineraries that once revolved around sightseeing and spa treatments now place workshops, mentorship and local expertise at their heart. That could mean photographing wildlife with professionals on safari, spending time with gauchos on Argentine ranches or mastering regional cuisines alongside local chefs, according to agents at high-end travel outlet Abercrombie & Kent.

Luxury hotels have historically sold travellers on what they would not have to do, like cook, clean, think or even leave the sun lounger. Now, guests are asking to roll up their sleeves and learn something.

At Switzerland’s Alpina Gstaad – where rooms cost as much as US$2,000 a night – guests can learn from the property’s resident beekeeper while tending the hotel’s own hive. Gundari, a five-star resort on the Greek island of Folegandros with rooms starting at US$470, allows guests to get a taste of farm life and learn how traditional cheeses are made, in a new offering this season.

And at Vocabolo Moscatelli, a 12th-century former monastery in Umbria, in the Italian countryside, guests like Juul van Schijndel, 55, can learn the craft of shaping clay to make ceramics.

“I find it quite difficult to come to a standstill after a busy life,” the Dutch housing worker says. “It’s nice to create something with your hands and use your brain in a different way.” Van Schijndel has already booked another ceramics class, in October. The hotel’s room rates start at €600, and the class is an additional €220.

For Rostkowski, the skills she learnt survived the trip. She now keeps a beehive at home and plans to spend an upcoming three-day break at a beekeeping conference in Virginia, where she will catch up with some of her new friends.

“With my lifestyle and travel, bees are actually pretty low-maintenance. I check on them every three weeks or so,” she says. “They’re actually great pets for a flight attendant to have.” BLOOMBERG