On building a trip around the thing you love to do.
Hobbies are having a moment. Film camera sales have grown for six consecutive years. Independent bookstores are opening faster than they’re closing. Birdwatching clubs have doubled their membership rolls. Cooking classes have waitlists. Mahjong, darkroom photography, hand-lettering, botanical illustration: hobbies that require patience, practice, and physical presence are all growing.
Travel is a natural companion to all of this. The destination becomes a backdrop for an experience that is active and absorbing. Below are five trips we love that are leaning into travel for hobbies:
1 – For the cook who wants to go deeper
There is a version of cooking you do at home on a Tuesday, and there is the kind that happens in a farmhouse kitchen in Umbria, with a local chef, ingredients from the morning market, and nowhere else to be. The International Kitchen has been building that second version of cooking travel for decades, with programs across Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Thailand, and beyond. The options run from single-day classes to week-long immersions, from small-group tours to private villa programs. If you have a particular destination or style of cooking in mind, the catalog is extensive and it’s worth a browse.
2 – For the photographer who means it
Japan Photography Journey with Jim Selkin
Our friends at Trails of Indochina have built a tour designed around the act of seeing. Jim Selkin is a working photographer, not a host with a camera hobby. The itinerary moves from Tokyo through Central Japan to Osaka, threading together the iconic and the local, paced the way good photography requires: slowly, with room to wait for the right light.
Oct 14–24, 2026. Small group. USD $8,050 per person, double occupancy. Reach out below for details.
3 – For the reader who wants an excuse
Someday I will design a reading retreat. In the meantime, see what Cunard has pulled together:
Cunard Literature Festival at Sea
Seven nights on the Queen Mary 2, sailing from New York to Southampton. Every day is a sea day. It’s the North Atlantic in early December, which means cold, gray, rainy weather: exactly the conditions for curling up with a book or two or five. Authors are on board. Other readers are on board. The afternoon tea service is, by all accounts, very good.
Nov 28 – Dec 5, 2026
4 – For the birder with high standards
Birdwatching is one of the purest forms of analog attention. You stand still, you listen, and the world slowly fills in around you. It’s almost meditative, except that something with a ludicrous beak might fly past at any moment.
Nayara Resorts, Arenal, Costa Rica
Nayara’s three properties (Gardens, Springs, and Tented Camp) sit inside working rainforest in the Arenal area. Toucans and hummingbirds appear from private balconies. Sloths are neighbors. Expert-led tours are available for the serious lister, but the resort works just as well for the person who simply wants to drink coffee and let the wildlife come to them.
As a Virtuoso property, we can arrange amenities here that aren’t available on the public booking page. Worth a conversation before you book.
5 – For the mahjong convert (you know who you are)
At some point in the past two years, mahjong moved from “thing my grandmother plays” to “thing everyone I know plays.”
Canyon Ranch American Mahjong Retreats
Canyon Ranch runs dedicated mahjong retreats at both their Tucson and Lenox (Massachusetts) properties. The settings are different enough to choose by season or temperament: desert heat in August, New England summer in July. Both come with everything else Canyon Ranch does well: spa, excellent food, and the general sense that your body is being treated kindly.
Mahjong Cruises
Our own Rachel Baumgartner is currently working with a group that has booked a private section of a Royal Caribbean sailing out of Galveston specifically to play mahjong for hours each day. This group is on facebook at Mahj on Texas and the next cruise is 01/10/2027. See info here. Or…if you want to build your own group retreat around the game, reach out. This is exactly the kind of thing we enjoy putting together.
None of these trips require expertise. Cooking programs welcome total beginners. Photography journeys are built for enthusiasts at every level. You don’t need a mahjong record to join a retreat or a life list to enjoy Nayara. What they all ask is that you show up with the intention to pay attention to one thing, deeply, in a place worth being. That turns out to be more than enough.
Want to talk through any of these? We’re happy to pull together details, check Virtuoso benefits, or help you design something from scratch around a hobby we haven’t listed here.
