Every now and then I like to do a Google news search on travel to see what are the latest trends and top destinations. The problem with the results are these posts are geared more towards the Western market, namely United States. It’s really not relevant to us. We want to know what are the trends and top destinations that people want to or are visiting from Asia. So it got us thinking that we should make our own little survey. So we went ahead and asked where are our friends traveling in 2018.

It was a simple, albeit, incomplete task. We went on Facebook and asked our friends where are they planning to go this year. Here’s what we found.

Japan is #1

Japan seems to be a favorite among our friends.  Out of the 30 people who responded to our survey, 10 indicated that are planning to visit. We didn’t ask which cities are their top favorites but we are guessing Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto

We are not surprised as it is also one of the most popular destination from Thailand. If you walk around Bangkok and notice the travel agents, they are all selling unbelievable packages to Japan. Most people like to go during Songkran for holidays, which is from April 13 – 16. Another popular time of the year is December during Christmas and New Year.

Japan is also high on our list for 2018.

Myanmar is a close 2nd

5 people said that they want to or are going to visit Myanmar. With the country bordering Thailand, why would it be on the list? It’s cheap to get there and around. For budget travelers, it is a great choice. If you have money to spend, you could travel like a king in the country. From what we’ve seen, a good 4-5* hotel/resort won’t cost you more than $100 a night.

There is plenty of culture to soak in here with dozens of temple sites. Local markets, food and festivals are also great reasons to visit.

Again, we can’t say much since we haven’t been there yet. We hope to soon.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore for work

Many of our respondents mentioned they are planning to visit either Taiwan, Hong Kong or Singapore but mainly it’s for work. Again not a very surprising finding.

It is also important to note that these countries are part of several other countries that our friends are planning to visit. You can expect the trips to be quite short.

Beyond South East Asia

Outside of South East Asia, some of our friends are planning trips to USA, UK and Australia. Very few have more exotic destinations in mind such as Netherlands, Iceland, Mexico, Switzerland and even Jordan.

All sound amazing. We are just so astonished with all these travel plans that we are almost jealous. We have travel plans this year too but we aren’t even sure any of them will happen. You can imagine the reasons why.

So what about you? Where are you going this year?