In Sri Lanka we had wildlife, culture and history: leopards in Yala, ancient temples and a guide who showed us the country. Then, on the way home, we stopped at a resort in the Maldives for five days and did very little at all. Same trip, two completely different kinds of place.
Where you go shapes your days more than anything else. A beach resort, a big city, a place steeped in culture and a wild landscape built for adventure all ask different things of you, and give you different things back. Below we look at what each of these types of trips is really like, who it tends to suit, what’s easier and harder on a first trip overseas, and why we so often end up mixing two or three.
How you travel (your pace, how much support you want, how comfortable you like to be) is a separate question, and we cover it in What Kind of Traveller Are You? This one is about the kind of place.
In this guide
The four types of trips at a glance
There are plenty of ways to slice up the different types of trips, but most first overseas trips start with one of these four, or a mix of them.
| Beach and resort | City | Culture | Adventure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What your days look like | Pool, beach, books and the odd day trip | Walking, public transport, food, museums and neighbourhoods | Temples, markets, traditions and local life | Hiking, snorkelling, boats, ice or snow |
| It suits you if | You want to rest and recharge | You love energy and having lots on your doorstep | You’re curious about how other people live | You want the place itself to be the experience |
| Easier first time | Simple to book; everything’s on site | Plenty to do, and transport usually runs often | You can start with the big sights and go further as you get comfortable | Joining a guided trip or tour takes care of the logistics |
| What to watch for | It can feel the same every day if you like to be busy | Crowds, getting around and finding your bearings | Local customs, dress codes and language | Weather, fitness and gear |
Beach and resort trips
A beach or resort trip is the one most people picture first, and for good reason. It’s usually the easiest type of trip to book: one place to stay, everything on site, and day trips you can organise through the resort once you’re there.
Our first holiday in Fiji started on the Coral Coast, which is where you’ll find the big resorts. It’s lovely relaxing time. But we also wanted to see more than the resort, so we went into Suva, and then we went out to Malolo Island. A lot of the staff at the resort lived in a village there, and the resort organised for us to visit. We talked with the village elders and saw the kids playing, which was lovely.
Our second holiday in Fiji was pure relaxation, although we still got out and explored around the island. That’s the thing about a beach trip: it can be as still or as busy as you want it to be.
And “relaxing” means different things to different people. When I was a little kid, my dad used to say I had ants in my pants, because I couldn’t sit still. Darren can sit on the deck of a floating bungalow and read a book or listen to a podcast. I can do that for about 30 minutes, and then the next thing he sees is me paddling past on a stand-up paddleboard. For me, a swim in the pool, a snorkel or a cocktail at happy hour is relaxing. Darren, who’s still working, sometimes needs serious downtime, and a beach trip is how he gets it. (We’ve written more about travelling with someone who wants something different from a trip in What Kind of Traveller Are You?)
In Thailand we stayed at Keemala, a resort outside Phuket. We did a day trip out to the islands and visited Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, where you watch the elephants rather than ride or bathe them. But we also had days where we just stayed around the resort. It’s quite big, so we’d go for walks around the grounds, spend time by the pool, and I’d have a spa treatment.
Who it suits: anyone who needs rest, families, couples, and anyone who’d like a gentle first trip overseas with very little to organise.
First time? Ask yourself whether sitting at a resort is really what you want, or whether you’d like to see more of the country too. You can have both: a resort is a very easy base for day trips. If you’re thinking about Fiji, our 19 things to know before visiting Fiji is a good place to start, and if the Maldives is on your list, see how to choose a Maldives resort.
City trips
A city trip, or city break, is a stay based in one city, exploring it on foot and by public transport: the famous sights, the museums, the food, the neighbourhoods and the energy of the place. It’s a great type of trip if you like having a lot on your doorstep and never quite knowing what’s around the next corner.
Big cities make exciting first trips. Seeing New York, San Francisco, Seoul, London or Paris is really exciting. In Thailand we started in Bangkok, before Phuket, to get that vibrant city experience first.
Cities can be easier for a first-timer than you might think. There’s always something to do, and public transport usually runs often. What takes practice is the crowds, the noise and working out where you are. Darren knows his way around a new city within about an hour. I was still getting lost after ten days in Seoul. Our guides to finding your bearings in a new city and using public transport overseas cover how we both manage it.
It’s also worth thinking about language. In some cities you’ll find signs and menus in English everywhere; in others you’ll need a translation app and a bit of patience. Neither is a reason not to go, but it’s good to know which you’re heading into.
Who it suits: people who love to walk, eat, explore and be busy, and anyone who’d rather choose from a hundred things to do than have to go looking for one. If Bangkok appeals, here are our favourite places in Bangkok.
Culture trips
A culture trip is one where the main reason for going is the people, history, traditions, food and way of life of a place. It might be a country famous for its temples or ancient cities, or simply somewhere very different from home.
To us, culture is embedding yourself in some of the everyday experiences: embracing local customs, and finding a cafe or restaurant where there are obviously no other tourists, and going in to eat.
We did that on our first day in Seoul. We walked into a Korean barbecue restaurant and we were obviously the only people there who weren’t from South Korea. Everyone else was speaking Korean. A lovely elderly lady was serving us, and I’m assuming she thought we didn’t know how to cook Korean BBQ, because she stood at our table, cooked it for us, served it to us and showed us how to eat it properly. We couldn’t speak Korean and she couldn’t speak English, but we were able to work our way through it, and she could see the joy on our faces and the fun we were having with it.
Spending time with the monks at Koyasan in Japan was the same kind of experience for us, and so was the village visit on Malolo Island in Fiji. Neither of those trips was a “culture trip” on paper, which is the point: culture is something you can add to almost any trip.
Who it suits: curious travellers who want to understand a place, not just see it.
First time? Start with the big sights if that’s what feels comfortable, and go further as your confidence grows. Read up on local customs before you go, especially dress codes at temples and other religious sites; our guide to travel etiquette for religious sites covers the basics. And don’t let not speaking the language put you off: our Seoul barbecue happened without a shared word between us. If you’re drawn to history and ancient places, Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle and Kyoto’s temples are two places we’ve written about.
Adventure trips
So what is an adventure holiday? For us, it’s a trip where the place itself is the experience, and you go to be out in it: on the water, on the ice, in the snow or on a trail. An adventure trip is built around the activity or the wild place. That’s different from an adventure day inside another kind of trip, like a day kayaking from a beach resort or a hike on a city break.
Our liveaboard in Komodo National Park was definitely an adventure. So was Iceland, where we hired a car and drove ourselves around, and did things like a guided glacier hike with ice axes at Skaftafell. So was hiking the Inca Trail in Peru. Parts of our winter trip to Norway and Sweden were too: a King Crab Safari by snowmobile in Kirkenes, and riding an open chairlift at -35°C up to the observatory at Abisko to look for the northern lights.
Adventure doesn’t have to mean extreme. It just means the trip asks a little more of you, and gives you something back that a resort or a city can’t. How active you want to be is one of the travel style dials in What Kind of Traveller Are You?, so we won’t repeat it here.
Who it suits: people who’d rather spend the day outside than in a museum, and who don’t mind early starts, changeable weather or a bit of effort.
First time? Start by working out what you actually want to do. Some people want to go somewhere just to relax and get away, while others want to explore, and an adventure trip is very much the exploring kind. If that’s you, choose the experience first, then the place. We go through how to work out what you want from a trip in How to Choose Your First Overseas Destination. If you’d like to see more, have a look at our Adventure guides, Iceland travel tips for first-time visitors and where to see Komodo dragons.
Why we often mix types of trips
You don’t have to choose just one. Some of our favourite trips have combined two or three types, and a city break followed by a few days at the beach is a simple combination to plan.
- Sri Lanka, then the Maldives: wildlife, culture and history in Sri Lanka, then five days at a resort in the Maldives on the way home.
- Bangkok, then Phuket: the vibrant city first, then the resort, the islands and the downtime.
- Iceland, then Helsinki: a self-drive around Iceland, then a city break in Helsinki on the way home.
- Vietnam, then Hong Kong: we backpacked through Vietnam and finished with five days in a 5-star hotel in Hong Kong (we’ve told that story here).
Lisa’s Tip
When you mix types of trips, put the relaxing part at the end, so you’re nice and relaxed when you get home, especially if the first part of the trip was an adventure.
Which type of trip suits you?
There’s no right answer, and the type of trip that suits you this time may not be the one that suits you next time. What matters is what you want to experience. A few questions can help:
- When you picture the trip, are you lying by a pool, walking through a busy street, sitting down to a meal with locals or standing somewhere wild?
- Do you need to come home rested, or would you rather come home full of stories, even if you’re a little tired?
- How much of the unfamiliar do you want? A resort keeps it gentle; a culture or adventure trip asks more of you.
- Who are you travelling with, and what do they want from it?
If two answers pull in different directions, that’s a good sign you might enjoy mixing types.
Once you know the kind of place, the next questions are where to go and how you like to travel. How to Choose Your First Overseas Destination helps you narrow down where, and What Kind of Traveller Are You? helps you work out the way you like to travel. When you’re ready to start planning, the First Journey Plan stage takes it from there.
Until next time… keep wandering.
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