2026: The Year of Overlanding

So, how about those numbers, and trends for 2026? And how do they tie in to the appeal of overlanding? Well, this podcast idea started as a blurb I saw on my Facebook feed, and I thought it was interesting, so I did a Google search for a few articles, and this is the authoritative and highly scientific results I came up with.  Let’s dive in:

One of the first trends for the upcoming year; you may have noticed that the price of everything seems to be a bit higher, of late. Yeah, according to mylighthouse.com, these financial pressures are already impacting travel demand, and shaping traveler behavior. They go on to point out that consumers remain highly motivated to travel but they are becoming more cautious. Affordability concerns and over-tourism pressures are pushing them to search for value across a wider mix of destinations and alternative travel windows.

They go on to point out that politics are also going to impact travelers’ budgets more in 2026, with rising tourist taxes, particularly in the more popular destinations. On top of that, the article points out a decline in vacation rental listings, or at least a decline in growth of them is putting upward pressure on the cost of rentals. Of course, overlanding comes with its own laundry list of costs, and many of the gear costs have seen price tag hikes, since tariffs went into place, but you don’t worry about the cost of lodging & rentals when you travel with your bed, kitchen, and all your necessities onboard the vehicle.

The BBC has an article published that says, “One trend is set to dominate next year: ‘quietcations’. Also called ‘Hushpitality’, this movement centers on comfort, silence and finding a way to escape the compounding stresses of modern life. With our always-on digital culture colliding with an endless roll call of global events reaching us in real time, it’s no surprise that many of us are looking to disconnect. The article goes on to point out that travelers are turning away from overcrowded, over-hyped ‘Instagram Destinations’ that rarely live up to the hype. They point out that off-grid destinations are on the rise. CNBC reports that two-thirds of U.S. travelers are under the age of 35, and say that they prefer active trips that involve hiking, rafting & cycling. Much of what us overlanders already do matches the description of the kind of trips that travelers are going to be looking to take, this year. If all of these travelers aren’t planning on overlanding, per se, it looks like they’re going to be flocking to the kinds of places we also like to visit.

And they’re going to be increasingly choosing to get there by car, it appears. Hilton, of the Hotel chain fame, announced in their 2026 Trends Report that growing numbers of travelers are choosing ground travel as their mode of transportation, favoring journeys that keep them connected to the landscape - and for many, an appreciation of nature is key. Hilton notes that the hashtag #RoadTrip has racked up more than 5.9 million tags globally as travellers rediscover the appeal of the open road. Among the statistics that they cite: 71% of Americans plan to drive on their next vacation. 76% of global car travelers say they favor road trips over flying because it allows for more spontaneity, helping give people the power to go where they want, when they want. Milena Nikolova, Chief Behavior Officer at BehaviorSMART, which specializes in understanding how and why we travel, sees this road trip boom as having a distinctly U.S. flavor.

So, we have a growing desire to unplug on vacation, and a renaissance of the great American Road Trip. The BBC points out a backlash against One-Size-Fits-All travel & tour bookings. They point out that the travel industry is moving towards hyper-individuality on a grand scale. A trends report from the travel PR firm Lemongrass notes that curated escapes reflect a rising decision fatigue and cognitive overload of making constant micro-decisions, do we go see the Louvre, or the Eiffel Tower? Scuba diving or horseback riding? both at home and abroad. They’re also prioritizing personal experiences. 72% of respondents to a MyLighthouse poll report that they want to go on a vacation to explore a personal passion, skill or hobby. They go on to conclude that travelers are seeking a sweet spot, destinations that offer adventure and cultural depth, but remain affordable and free of the overcrowding associated with traditional favorites.

My fellow overlanding friends, does any of this sound familiar?

Okay, so I’m done spitting facts & figures at you. I don’t claim to be some travel trend expert, and I can’t say that these trends directly lead to an upswing in interest in overlanding. There is just as much reason for the RV industry to read these reports with hope. But these all come from trend reports that are used by the travel, tourism & hospitality industry to plan their yearly strategies. And all of these trends point to there being a traveling public with interests that align more closely than ever with what we all know and think of as overlanding. The kind of travel, and the kind of trips we take are the kind of experiences people are looking for as well.

So anyway, count me in the camp who thinks that overlanding still has room to run, in 2026. Heck, even if it weren’t for all of these trend reports, the year-over-year growth I see in attendance at overlanding events around the country have me convinced that 2026 could indeed be the year of overlanding.

Leave It Better Than You Found It

Sweep Up the Southeast Volunteer Event

One of the biggest threats to our continued access to public lands is ourselves. All too often, we pull up to a beautiful campsite, only to find that it has been left full of refuse by a previous visitor. In our own travels, we practice Leave No Trace principles, and clean up the trails & campsites we visit, and ensure that we leave them clean for the next person to enjoy. But oftentimes, particularly in popular locations, more needs to be done in order to remediate the damage done by those who do not.

This coming weekend, Dirt Road Tourist will be joining the Venture Unknown Foundation to help out with their bi-annual trail cleanup, Sweep Up The Southeast. Venture Unknown Foundation has dedicated itself not only to cleaning up off-road trails, but were on the ground in Western North Carolina in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, helping to get needed supplies out to people who couldn’t be reached by anybody else. In over 4000 volunteer hours, they have removed over 190,000 Lbs of trash from our natural spaces. This weekend, 13 teams working in 9 states are going to do our best to push that number past the 200,000 Lb. mark.

Matter of fact, if you’re not doing anything on December 13, there is still time to sign up. Head over to the Venture Unknown Foundation website and see if there’s a team that will be working in your neck of the woods. If you’re on Facebook, they have a great group; I’ve been a member for over three years.

For me, this is a chance to give back to a pastime that gives so much to me. Helping out efforts like this one is also critical to keeping our wilderness areas open for recreational use. I’m looking forward to it. Join me on my next episode where I’ll tell you all about it.

My Why For Overlanding

America is a place that buries its history. There are thousands of places around this country that remind us where we come from: Mom-n-Pop cafes where they still do things the way their grandparents did, before the age of a global supply chain. They couldn’t get mangoes flown in from Indonesia, or bland tomatoes in February. Their food is a product of the place they occupy.

There are country stores with hitching posts out front, because they predate motorized travel. For the communities they serve, they used to be the Post Office, the Doctor’s Office, the pharmacy and where locals could pick up ten penny nails & a bag of flour in one visit. These places were once a lifeline for the communities in which they operated. They are a window into a way of life that made this country what it is today.

And they’re disappearing.

My mother was born and raised in southern Germany; I have a lot of family still over there, and spent a number of summers there during my childhood. Even back then, I was struck by how one couldn’t get away from the history of Europe. You’re surrounded by it at every turn. There are cathedrals where Charlemagne stood, every hilltop seems to bear the ruins of a castle. The local brewery was older than our nation.

Their history, where they come from is self-evident everywhere. America, on the other hand, bulldozes ours to make way for a Taco Bell franchise. That we tend to re-invent our nation roughly every generation is part of our strength, but I also believe we lose a lot in that bargain.

Ask ten overlanders what it means to them, and nine of them will tell you it’s all about off-roading. That is the demographic in which the pastime took root here in the States. They’ll say you need a lifted 4-wheel-drive on 37s, armored, with a winch, or they’ll sniff that you’re a ‘mall crawler’. I think that overlanding suffers from an ‘all-apples-are-fruit-therefore-all-fruit-must-be-apples’ fallacy. If you want to travel the Rubicon then, yes, you’d better have a vehicle that can conquer that terrain.

I don’t wheel much, though. If I’m taking to an actual trail, it’s going to be because I’m trying to get to a specific site. I know my vehicle’s capabilities, and I know its limitations. Often, discretion is the better part of valor. My objective is to find those places in our country where our history still lives, the cafes, the country stores, the historic sites. I like to travel in order to stand in these places and hear the echoes of a way of life that we will surely erase all too soon.

I overland to be a tourist, a traveler to those out-of-the-way corners that the modern world is busy trying to forget.

A dirt road tourist.

My Trip Planning Spreadsheet

This is the spreadsheet I’ve created to plan our Michigan trip later this summer.

I talked about it on my podcast episode, and here it is, as promised. Feel free to download it, alter it, make it your own. While I can - and do - waypoint our destinations and points of interest on Gaia, I wanted to have something that Susan, my co-pilot, can have open on her iPad in the passenger seat, with all of the reservation numbers, phone numbers, and so forth, ready-at-hand. I also wanted to have a way to track our expenditures on a trip, and there’s a tab just for that. There’s also a tab for putting together a packing list, so you don’t head out the door without a hat…or a phone charger cable.

You can either log everything on the spreadsheet as you go, or save your receipts and log them after you get home. I am kicking around the idea of adding a miscellaneous section, for recording gifts like t-shirts, & snacks; if I update the sheet, it will be reflected in the link above, so be sure to check back to this blog post from time to time. Hope this helps you organize your trips too!