For nearly six in ten French people, setting off on an adventure means first and foremost escaping everyday life. The French adventurer of 2026 is seeking less a feat than a break.
French travelers have never talked so much about overtourism and the climate. In practice, the shift remains slight: only 5% ultimately chose their 2026 destination because it was less crowded, according to the annual report from the Polarsteps app.
The gap is at the heart of the portrait. On paper, the French look like model pupils. The destinations they favor, however, confirm that wide divide.
Three in four say their habits are being disrupted by climate change. Seven in ten say they are ready to choose a destination to escape the crowds, a record among the five countries studied.
Among 18- to 29-year-olds, the share reaches 84%. The intention to move away from overcrowded places is therefore even more pronounced in this age group.
The destinations gaining the most ground among the French are hardly unspoiled lands. They are prestigious places, now easy to reach, that attract travelers seeking elsewhere without taking them far from the beaten track.
They are well served, simple to organize, and concentrate the sites everyone dreams of. The promise of escape thus ends, more often than not, on routes already marked out.
The variations noted in the report illustrate this tendency. Egypt, with its pyramids and the Nile Valley, records the strongest rise, at 27.4%.
At the other end of the ranking, the United States, long the promised land of road trips, records the sharpest decline of any country, at 20.4%.
Japan, though often cited among the countries struggling to absorb the influx of visitors, enters the top ten destinations.
The dream of effortless adventure and crowd-free travel therefore collides with real choices. The French describe a break. For the most part, they settle on elsewheres that are already well traveled.