Travel season officially kicks off this weekend and Airbnb just announced the top travel trends for the summer. Unsurprisingly, the outdoors are big and family travel is up, but cities are also starting to make moves again.

So where exactly are families flocking to this summer? Keep reading to find out!

The data showed a huge increase in rural travel, up from less than 10% in 2015 to 28% in the U.S. in 2021 (even higher in Canada at 43%). Bookings in the U.S. favor spots near national parks, state parks and sandy beaches. The top destinations for summer 2021:

• Whitefish Mountain, MT (near Glacier National Park)
• South County, RI
• Bancroft-Madawaska, Canada (near Algonquin Provincial Park)
• Panama City Beach, FL
• West Yellowstone, MT (near Yellowstone)
• Florida Panhandle
• Northern Wisconsin (near Lake Superior and Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest)
• Hilton Head Island, SC
• Black Hills, SD (near Black Hills National Forest and Mount Rushmore)
• Miramar Beach, FL
• Park County, MT
• Michigan Upper Peninsula (Great Lakes, Hiawatha National Forest)
• Acadia National Park

After a year of isolation, families are traveling together again. Airbnb found that family travel is up from 27% of nights booked in summer 2019 to 31% in 2021. Again, rural destinations are big this year with families, making up 42% of the nights booked. And about 95% of bookings are entire homes, compared to 80% in summer 2019. The company defines family travel as any reservation that includes an infant or a child, so the numbers could be even higher than that.

Long-term stays are popular in cities this summer and the top three Airbnb long-term stay destinations in the U.S. are all cities: New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. The company is working to make travel easier than ever, with flexible destinations, matching and dates all new to the platform, as well as a slew of other upgrades.

Wherever you’re traveling this summer, it’s a safe bet that you’ll have to work a little harder to beat the crowds. But the payoff is worth it with beautiful destinations anywhere you could imagine!

—Sarah Shebek

All images courtesy of Airbnb

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