Nostalgia is Trending - Are you in?
Nostalgia is Trending. Apparently 2026 is beginning with a reminiscence of 2016.
And I’m all too happy to get on board since it was a monumental year for me. Most notably, it was the year I became a mother—a seismic shift for the better.
It was the year I moved out of the city and into the suburbs—a huge change I didn’t even know I needed until I was there.
It was also the first year that my career began to morph into something new. I found myself in the travel industry without even trying. In that year I co-designed and hosted a yoga retreat/wellness & wine experience with my new husband and, somewhat miraculously, it was a great success!
Politics aside, 2016 was a very good year. And it brings me great comfort to connect to it and to look through old photos of the people who made it so. In the end, it really is the people we meet more than the places we go that makes a memory—that creates nostalgia.
What interests me most about this trend is not how universal and unifying it is, but how instinctual. Even my Italian in-laws, without having any idea of the trend (or any interest in trends in general), are feeling it. Over the weekend they printed a large picture of them holding our infant daughter, their only grandchild, in November of 2016. I was struck. How is it possible that they are feeling nostalgic too? Curios, indeed.
According to Oxford languages, the etymology of the word “nostalgia” stems from the Ancient Greek words “nostos” meaning “homecoming” and “algos” meaning “pain” or “suffering.” Various sources contain the phrase “sad pleasure” in their definitions. Home, pain, pleasure…one doesn’t really have to wonder long to figure out or assume the source of this longing. The world seems more upset than ever right now—more divided; generally untrustworthy; less secure; less sure, but surely sad. And at this very moment—things are heating up, both figuratively and literally. Therefore, of course, we’re all wistfully yearning to be somewhere else. We are collectively aching for an easier, seemingly safer moment in time. We’re universally “homesick” for something or someone to bring us back to baseline.
We’re escaping by way of reminiscing. I’ve noticed a craving for nostalgia in the travel industry too, with the rebirth of voyages by trains and ships. I’m seeing a desire for authenticity, a craving for connection—not only from travelers but even the travel providers want to feel that they are doing something meaningful. The public discourse is examining the friction between AI and reality, the tension between productivity and creativity, and where and how these pairs of opposites can coalesce (or if they can at all). There’s no escaping that tension seems to be the word of the moment.
While friction and tension are inevitable even necessary for energy to exist and progress to continue, there is a tipping point at which these become too tense—too heated and oft inflamed. At this particular moment everyone could use a little less tension between potential points of connection; a little less friction in exchange for a touch of peace and tranquility; less artifice, more authenticity.
Perhaps these are all the reasons that I have a deep desire to design and organize another small group experience in a way that I haven’t for a few years. I’m longing to engage in the act of sharing—sharing a place in the world that is intriguing, a cuisine that is nourishing, with a daily rhythm that is balancing and grounding. But most of all, I want to bring together a collection of people—friends and foreigners who are also craving a sense of meaningful connection. Because it is now, more than ever, that I know we need to be winning hearts and minds. We need to put on our own oxygen masks first in order to “be the change” that is needed—to go forth with fuller hearts and open minds. Perhaps all we need is to remember how to just be.
What about you? I’m interested to hear your thoughts, especially if you would be interested in traveling and connecting with a small group somewhere in this big world in the near future! Email me here or answer below.
Thank you for reading! xo~S
