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Forget the bucket list. More travelers in 2026 are seeking experiences that resonate on a personal level - trips built entirely around what they love most.
It’s called passion-led travel, and the idea is simple: instead of choosing a destination and figuring out what to do, you start with your passion and find the city that does it best.
This shift is reshaping the travel industry. According to Marriott, 72% of global travelers have already taken a trip specifically to follow a hobby, a figure that jumps to 84% among Gen Z.
The latest travel trends confirm that in 2026, travelers will prioritize experiences that reflect who they are and what they love, rather than trips focused on ticking off attractions.
But with dozens of world-class cities to choose from, which ones truly deliver? The Holafly research team has ranked the world’s top 50 cities across five categories: creative & cultural hobbies, music & performance hobbies, sports & adventure hobbies, food & drink hobbies, and literature hobbies to find out.
So whether you’re a foodie, a sports fanatic or a literature lover, here’s the best places to travel to.
1. Rome, Italy - Overall Score: 67/100
Rome doesn’t just have history. It lives it. And for passion-led travelers, that makes it the world’s number one destination.
The city tops the food & drink rankings with a near-perfect score of 99.9, driven by 134 food tours, 362 cooking classes, and 423 wine tasting experiences. The most of any city in the index on all three counts.
Its literary credentials are equally good. Rome scores 79.6 in the literary category, the highest in the index, thanks to its 897 literary tours (again, the most of any city) and 87 libraries.
With 70 sporting arenas and 514 outdoor activities, it also leads the sports & adventure category (74.7). Rome isn’t simply a city to visit. It’s a city to experience, taste, read, and lose yourself in.
2. Prague, Czechia - Overall Score: 55.1/100
Prague leads the world in creative & cultural experiences with a score of 90.2, the highest of any city in the index. With 274 art galleries and 436 museums packed into a relatively compact urban area, you won’t find yourself short of inspiration.
Prague also ranks fourth for food & drink (52.4), with a strong showing of food tours and wine tastings, and performs respectably in music & performance (43.4).
What truly sets Prague apart is its cultural tours. With 874 available (from gothic architecture walks to Kafka-themed literary trails), no city comes close if you want to be fully immersed in its culture.
3. London, UK - Overall Score: 50.2/100
London is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. That shows across every category in this index. It scores 67.7 for music & performance, driven by the highest comedy club density of any city and 255 theatres.
With 595 art galleries, 858 museums, and 2,361 cultural tours, London’s creative & cultural offering is vast. Its literary score of 49.6 is boosted by 875 bookstores, one of the highest counts in the index.
4. Vienna, Austria - Overall Score: 50/100
Vienna has built a global reputation as the city of music. The data backs it up. It leads the world for music & performance (69.6), driven by the highest live music venue density per km² of any city in the index.
Its theatre scene is equally strong, with 57 theatres scoring 81.5 in the theatrical category. Vienna is a city that takes performance seriously.
Vienna also leads all 50 cities for bookstore density, giving it one of the strongest literary scores in the ranking (48.9). Whether you’re moving between a coffee house and a concert hall or browsing a centuries-old bookshop, Vienna is as compelling for book lovers as it is for music fans.
5. Berlin, Germany - Overall Score: 48/100
With the highest art gallery density in the entire index and the highest museum density, Berlin’s creative & cultural score of 82.5 is second only to Prague. One of the world’s most creatively dense cities.
Its literary score of 53.7 is among the highest in the index, underpinned by 418 bookstores and 44 libraries, making Berlin the destination for readers and writers.
The city also has a decent sports & adventure offering (49.5), with 42 sporting arenas and 53 outdoor activities. Whether you’re gallery-hopping in Mitte or watching football at the Olympiastadion, Berlin rewards every kind of passionate traveler.
The Best City for Creative & Cultural Experiences: Prague
Prague leads the world for creative and cultural travel. With 274 art galleries and 436 museums packed into a compact urban area, it has one of the highest density of both in the entire index. What truly sets it apart is the sheer volume of ways to experience it: 874 cultural tours, from gothic architecture walks to Kafka-themed literary trails.
The Best City for Music & Performance: Vienna
Vienna has spent centuries earning its reputation as the world’s music capital, and the numbers back it up. It leads all 50 cities for live music venue density, and is home to 57 theaters spread throughout the city. A city that takes performance as seriously as its coffee, Vienna is the undisputed home of music and live performance travel.
The Best City for Sports & Adventure: Rome
Rome leads the sports and adventure category with 70 sporting arenas (the most per capita of any city in the index) alongside 514 outdoor activities. For travelers who want to combine culture with an active itinerary, no city delivers quite like Rome.
The Best City for Food & Drink: Rome
Rome doesn’t just lead this category. It dominates it. With 134 food tours, 362 cooking classes, and 423 wine tasting experiences, it tops all three counts and lands a near-perfect score of 99.9. For serious food travelers, there is simply nowhere else.
The Best City for Literary Experiences: Rome
Rome tops the literary category too, driven by 897 literary tours (the most of any city in the index) and the highest library density of all 50 cities. For a city better known for its food and history, its literary credentials are also quietly remarkable.
The hardest part of passion-led travel isn’t finding the destination. It’s knowing where to start. Here’s how to do it well.
Start with your passion, not the place. Before you begin searching, get specific about what you actually want to do. Not just “food” but do you want cooking classes, wine regions, street food markets, or Michelin-starred tasting menus? The more specific you are, the easier it is to match a destination to what you’re passionate about.
Build your itinerary around your experiences. Identify two or three unmissable experiences, whether that’s a cooking school, a stadium tour, or a concert. Then plan everything else around them.
Look beyond the obvious neighborhoods. The best passion-led experiences are rarely in the tourist centre. Berlin’s literary scene lives in Prenzlauer Berg, whereas Prague’s music venues are scattered across Žižkov. A little local research goes a long way.
Travel in season. Many passion categories have a peak. Music festivals, literary events, and sporting seasons all follow a calendar. Matching your trip to the right time of year can turn a good experience into an unforgettable one.
Stay connected on the go. Having reliable data wherever you are means you can explore freely, look things up on the spot, and never miss what’s just around the corner. If your passion takes you to different countries, a regional eSIM is a great way to stay connected. You can move from country to country without interruptions, all on the same data plan.
The shift towards passion-led travel marks something more fundamental: a move away from tourism as a checklist and towards travel as a genuine expression of who you are.
The cities at the top of this index aren’t just well-rounded destinations. They’re places where a specific kind of traveler will feel completely at home. Rome rewards the food lover, the literary explorer, and the sports enthusiast in equal measure. Prague offers cultural immersion that no other city can match. Vienna is the undisputed home of music and performance. Berlin draws the reader, the gallery-goer, and the art obsessive. London, characteristically, does a little of everything and does it well.
Whatever your passion, the best trips start with the same question: not where do I want to go, but what do I want to feel?
To create our index, we analysed 50 global cities across five passion-led travel categories: creative & cultural, music & performance, sports & adventure, food & drink, and literature. Fifteen metrics were assessed in total.
Data sources: TripAdvisor (art galleries, museums, cultural tours, live music venues, comedy clubs, theatres, sporting arenas/stadiums, food tours, cooking classes, wine tastings, literary tours), GetYourGuide (watersport activities), and OpenStreetMap ia Overpass API (bookstores, libraries). Physical venue metrics were scored per km². Experience and participation metrics were scored per 100,000 population. Outdoor and watersport activities were assessed on absolute counts. Category scores are the average of the three metric scores within each category. The overall index is the average of all 15 metric scores.
