While Bali remains the holiday of choice for Australians when they just want to sip Bintang poolside, travel trends for 2017 show we’re pushing travel boundaries in plenty of other ways.

Adventure travel is an ever-growing trend (and offers serious one-upmanship).

Visiting Paris may be fine but Pondicherry is better, Tanzania pips Tuscany, and tossing in exotic adventure activities (watching mountain gorillas, swimming with manta rays) also rates highly.

Based on interest in their increasingly diverse package tours, Luxury Escape’s General Manager Blake Hutchison believes that in 2017 travellers will be “unleashing their inner explorer like never before”.

“Whether it’s a luxury desert camp in Morocco, a bike ride along the Yangtze River, a trek through the Himalayas, Australians are embracing undiscovered environments in an authentic way,” Mr Hutchison says.

Destinations on the rise

Morocco, India, Peru, Africa and China are on Australians’ travel to-do lists, but Trip Advisor’s Top 10 list of Destinations on the Rise in Europe, Asia and South America for 2017 reveals the even more exotic locales finding favour.

It includes Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, a mix of medieval and ultra-modern on the western edge of the Caspian Sea, as well as Tbilisi in Georgia, which comes in at number nine on the list (and only seven or eight hours by car from Baku, if you happen to be in the region).

If you’re wanting to combine the beach with a brag-worthy destination, Brazil’s remote Jericoacoara (“Jeri” to the locals), six hours by bus and “four-wheel traction pick-up truck” from the nearest airport, may be your spot.

It’s known for its dunes, sandy streets and emerald sunsets. There is electricity, though streetlights are banned. It’s also number three on Trip Advisor’s destinations on the rise, so you’d better hurry.

Brazil’s Jericoacoara isn’t easy to get to, but it’s worthy the journey. Photo: Getty

Women head for the hills (and beyond)

At adventure specialists World Expeditions, a clear trend is the increased interest by women in adventure travel.

The number of women taking part in the company’s active adventures has risen from 38 per cent in 1996 to 54 per cent in 2016.

One of the first trips in their new women-only tours is a 10-day Women’s Climb of Africa’s highest peak, Kilimanjaro.

The inaugural Wild Women on Top tour of Mongolia, starting in Ulaanbaatar, will also take place in 2017.

Sisters are doing holidays for themselves. Photo: Getty

Multi-generational travel – take the whole tribe

Mum, dad, the kids, gran, grandpa – the more the merrier.

Multi-generational tourism is another key travel trend for 2017.

Mr Hutchison says: “Travel involving two or more generations of an extended family has been growing fast in recent times, fuelled by the increase in the number of weddings, engagement parties and milestone birthday celebrations being held at holiday hot spots overseas”.

In the past, multi-generational travel was mostly limited to holiday-house rentals or even a caravan park, but these days big family get-togethers are heading further afield.

And it’s not just parents and kids, as Hutchison explains. “The fact the tourism sector even has a category known as PANK (professional aunts with no kids) shows just how big multi-generational travel has become.”

Holidays are becoming a big family affair – for better or for worse. Photo: Getty