T+L’s Travel Hotspots :: 70s, 80s, 90s & 00s

[trip style = any]

This month Travel+Leisure Magazine celebrates its 40th anniversary. Recently they reminisced about destinations, hotels and travel trends that were “hot” through the ages. Here are a few of the highlights from decades marked with disco, moonwalking, voguing and babies boogying to Bootylicious {on YouTube}.

’70s
Wearing polyester, bell-bottomed pantsuits, there was a five-year period {1977-1982} when Americans flocked to Cuba; then the doors were closed. The two destinations on jetsetters’ hotlists: Burma {also referred to as Myanmar} and Iran. In Mexico, Acapulco was still hot to trot before its slump, while Cabo’s popularity was growing and developers were breaking ground in Cancun. Finally, Mickey and the gang set up shop in Florida when Disneyworld opened in the backwaters of Orlando.

’80s
Excess was on the rise and along with the high-cut, neon spandex fitness trend, luxe health retreats followed suit. Speaking of suits, power suits gave way to power dining and the foodie travel trend started to sizzle. Crocodile Dundee drew visitors en masse to Australia’s coastline and outback in search of kangaroos, crocs and shrimps on the barbie.

’90s
Like voguing, volunteer vacations {aka voluntourism} became en-vogue and Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were opening their doors to adventurous vacationers, while a lucky few were lounging in newly built over-water, thatched-roof bungalows in the Maldives and Seychelles.

’00s
The desert utopia known as Dubai moved up Travel Editors’ must-visit lists along with the world’s tallest hotel, sand skiing and palm-shaped, man-made islands. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the green movement spurs ecotourism and Buenos Aires is a steal while Europe is a splurge.

[images in collage sourced online]