Many things come to mind when someone brings up the “Golden Age of travel.” You might picture a handheld suitcase covered in stamps from around the world, a hotel bellhop in a perfect uniform, or maybe even the excitement of a departing train or ship, just like in the movies. What you probably don’t think of is your QR-coded boarding pass, posting departure photos to Instagram, or the large crowds where TikTok claimed a “hidden gem” coin be found.
Budget airlines and low-cost accommodations have enabled the masses to travel, which can sometimes make travel feel crowded, no matter how much effort you put into traveling “off the beaten path.” Of course everyone traveler wants their experience to be unique. Given this challenge, a new trend has emerged, one that gathers inspiration from the early 20th century.
The Golden Age of Travel
Over the past year, Google searches for “Golden Age travel” have rocketed up over 250 percent, search results show images of hand-painted travel posters and black-and-white photographs of spacious airplane cabins filled with well-dressed passengers. The Golden Age doesn’t have a specified beginning or end, but the consensus is that it lasted from the 1880s to the 1950s. This timeline matches some of the most popular films portraying this romanticized period of travel. Despite tragic endings, who can forget the glamour of the Titanic’s first-class dining room or the wood-trimmed cabins of the Orient Express?
Even if you’re watching these film scenes on your in-seat television while eating reheated chicken parmesan in your 18-inch-wide economy seat, it’s difficult to not yearn for an era that you’ve lived through cinema.
If the article title hasn’t already given it away, you may have noticed that Golden Age travel is about a very exclusive kind of luxury, which may be the true allure of this travel trend. In films and books that take place during this period, much of the texture comes from the velvet-upholstered scenery or the mysterious wealth of the protagonists, traveling from place to place with seemingly bottomless funds.
One element of these Golden Age epics seems to exist through every scene and, to this day, comes complimentary with every booked trip: the inescapable feeling that something exciting is about to happen.
CRUISING Through Time
If you’re chasing the aesthetics of a more refined era of travel, you have more options than you might think. Today’s travel companies have caught wind of the zeitgeist. For example, in 2023, Holland America Line will celebrate its 150th anniversary by relaunching its influential transatlantic route
The route follows the company’s maiden voyage from New York to Rotterdam. The 13-day itinerary is full of Golden-Age travel goodies, including dining experiences inspired by traditional dishes and an especially exciting “Throwback Happy Hour,” where the price per drink will cost almost the same as it did a century ago, at just 75 cents a glass!
Another cruise line designing an experience for nostalgic travelers is Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, which has just debuted the S.S. Sphinx, a luxury ship set to cruise up and down the Nile. The 12-day itinerary allows for plenty of time off the ship to explore modern and ancient Egypt. However, true Golden Age style can be found on board where suites are extravagantly decorated with works by local artists and appointed with the finer things in life, like Egyptian cotton and green marble.
Celebrating Golden Age Legends
If embodying a character from an Agatha Christie novel is on your travel vision board, keep your eye on the Accor Orient Express, whose 17 original train cars are being remodeled and will be ready to welcome passengers in 2024. But, if you don’t want to wait that long, you can spend the night on Belmond’s Venice-Simpleon-Orient Express, which runs with two Art Deco dining cars restored to their former glory. With many different companies using the term “Orient Express” for their promotional materials, we might expect a few more carriages to be uncovered and restored to their former glory as travelers chase the luxuries of the past.
But, maybe your travel style is more like Jack Kerouac than Jack Dawson. If that sounds like you, then it’s possible Contiki can entice you with its 60th anniversary Big Original trip. It’s a 60-day tour through 19 countries. The journey pays homage to Contiki’s first-ever excursion, which took travelers around Europe on a 12-seat minibus in the summer of 1962. If enough interest is registered, the 60-day itinerary will kick off this April, bringing explorers on a tour of 33 cities, 19 countries, and two continents.
The Spirit of Travel Past & Present
Exclusivity may initially seem like the natural opposite of mass tourism. Anyone who has been on a life-changing trip can tell you the moments that made them feel the most alive were the fruits of spontaneity. Whether you find yourself on the $10 night bus instead or the lush sleeper car of the new Orient Express, the only thing you need to make your trip feel truly timeless is your sense of adventure and an open mind.
