Let me start with a little Orlando mom confession: every single year around this time, my Instagram feed turns into a slow-motion summer travel highlight reel. Friends in Italy. Cousins in Hawaii. That one mom from kindergarten pickup somehow doing a 14-day Disney cruise and a Greek island hop. Captions like “Memories made forever 🤍” while I’m standing in my own kitchen unloading the dishwasher and Googling “how to make taco Tuesday feel exciting again.”
The pressure to travel, mama. It is real. It is loud. And it gets very loud right around summer.
So when I saw a new survey of 5,000 Americans revealing that nearly 4 in 10 of us aren’t going on a single trip this summer — and that the #1 reason is cost — I felt a wave of relief I didn’t expect. We are not alone, friends. We are very, very not alone.
The Survey That Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
The study, commissioned by Current and conducted by Talker Research, polled 5,000 Americans split evenly by state and generation. Here’s what jumped out:
- 37% of Americans aren’t traveling this summer at all
- Of those who aren’t going anywhere: 52% can’t afford it, 25% are saving money, 22% are paying off debt, and 21% are spooked by the rising cost of travel
- Of those who ARE going: 31% are being more budget-conscious, 25% are picking cheaper destinations, 22% are doing day trips closer to home, and 22% are taking shorter trips than last year
For all of us doing math at the kitchen counter trying to figure out how to make summer feel special without putting it on a credit card — these numbers are weirdly comforting. The American summer travel landscape isn’t villas in Tuscany this year. It’s “let’s drive somewhere within two hours and call it a getaway.”
And as someone who lives where everybody else wants to go on vacation? I have thoughts.
Florida Moms, We’re at 61% — and We’re Still Stretched
Per the survey, Florida ranks #15 in states most likely to be planning a summer vacation, at 61%. So yes — a lot of us Orlando moms ARE planning something. But here’s what the numbers don’t capture: we are also the people fielding “we’re thinking of coming down to see y’all!” texts from every relative we have between now and Labor Day.
Living in Orlando means living inside a paradox. We are surrounded by world-famous theme parks, white-sand beaches a 60-minute drive away, springs, lakes, day trips, and weekend escapes. The vacation is literally HERE. And yet — we still feel the pressure to go somewhere else to make summer count. We still feel like a road trip to Naples doesn’t quite qualify as a “real” vacation. We still feel like if we didn’t board a plane, we kind of failed at summer.
This survey is begging us to drop that. (And I am begging too….a road trip to Naples is the best!)
The Trends That Are Actually Doable
Look at what the survey identified as the TOP predicted travel trends for summer 2026:
- Staycations (32%) — staying in your own city/state and just doing it casually
- “Quietcations” (30%) — vacations specifically to unplug and recharge
- “Micro-breaks” / “Micro-cations” (30%) — long weekend mini-trips
- “City-cations” (21%) — hotel stays in a nearby city
- Pet-friendly travel (20%) — bringing the dog
- “Destination dupes” (18%) — white sand beach close to home instead of flying abroad
Read that #6 again. “Destination dupes.” Finding a white sand beach close to home instead of flying somewhere far. Friends. We are the destination dupe. Cocoa Beach. New Smyrna. Anna Maria Island. Siesta Key. People are saving for YEARS to fly to a beach we can be at by lunch.
The “decision-detox” trend (13%) also stopped me — a pre-arranged trip with zero logistics to figure out once you arrive. As a mom who has been the unofficial CEO, COO, and travel coordinator of every family vacation we’ve ever taken, I would like to subscribe to decision-detox immediately, please.
The Bragging Stat That Made Me Sad
Now here’s the part of the survey I want every mom to sit with for a second:
17% of Americans admitted they’ve traveled to a destination exclusively so they could tell their loved ones that they’d been there.
Not because they wanted to go. Not because the trip would nourish them. Not because the kids would love it. Just to say they went.
And the breakdown by generation is brutal:
- 24% of Gen Z have brag-traveled
- 21% of millennials
- 14% of Gen X
- 7% of baby boomers
So the younger you are, the more likely you are to be taking a vacation FOR THE POST. Not for the memory. For the post….(not this mama, I don’t have cash to spend like that!)
The social pressure cuts even deeper:
- 42% of all respondents feel pressure to be well-traveled
- 49% feel pressure to spend money while traveling
- For Gen Z: 60% feel pressure to be well-traveled, 62% feel pressure to spend on trips
- For millennials: 52% well-traveled, 58% pressure to spend
These numbers are from our generation. We are the ones drowning in this. And the older generations aren’t fully immune — Gen X is actually the MOST likely group to have gone into debt for a vacation (23%).
Twenty-three percent of Gen X has gone into DEBT. For a TRIP. So that they could be the kind of family that takes that kind of trip.
Mama, no.
What I’m Telling My Kids and Myself This Summer
I have a foot in two generations of parenting — older kids who are deep in the social media swirl and younger ones who are just learning what “vacation” even means. And here’s the message I’m trying to pass down to both of them:
The point of a vacation isn’t the photo. It’s the time together.
That can happen at the Magic Kingdom. It can also happen at the beach 45 minutes from our house with a cooler and a stack of pool noodles. It can happen on a rainy weekend in a cheap hotel in St. Augustine where everyone watches the same movie on a too-small TV. It can happen in our own backyard.
Erin Bruehl, VP of Communications at Current, summed it up perfectly in the survey announcement: “What stands out is how resourceful Americans are being in balancing the desire to travel with the realities of their budgets. They’re shortening trips, staying closer to home and searching for more affordable options that will still allow them to have experiences that matter but keep their finances on solid ground.”
Experiences that matter. Finances on solid ground. Yes please, to both.
A Permission Slip for the Mom Reading This
If you’re a mom right now reading this and feeling weird about the fact that your summer plans are “the community pool, maybe Crystal River one weekend, and a hotel night at Disney Springs for my birthday” — let me say this clearly:
That is a beautiful summer. That counts. That is enough.
You do not need to fly to Europe to be a good mom. You do not need to do a “viral” trip to give your kids a magical summer. You do not need to put a single thing on a credit card to prove you took your family somewhere. You don’t owe Instagram a single sunset photo with a perfectly captioned cocktail in front of it.
The 37% of Americans not traveling at all this summer? They are not failing. They are budgeting. I am fully embracing a 90s nostalgic summer for the kids…
The people picking destination dupes and staycations and decision-detox weekends? They are not settling. They are adapting — and honestly, kind of winning. The “vacation industrial complex” has had us in a chokehold for years. This is a beautiful little uprising.
So if your summer is going to be more pool noodle than passport stamp — high five from this Orlando mom. We’ve got springs. We’ve got beaches. We’ve got a backyard sprinkler and an ice cream truck. We’ve got each other.
That is more than enough vacation for one summer.
Research methodology: Talker Research surveyed 5,000 Americans (split evenly by state and generation) with internet access; the survey was commissioned by Current and conducted online between March 13–25, 2026.
