A holiday used to mean escaping your exercise routine. Now a growing number of travellers are booking trips specifically to run in them. Data from Google and Tripadvisor points to a boom in the so-called race-cation, where a marathon, half-marathon or fitness race becomes the reason for the trip rather than an afterthought.
The numbers are striking. Google searches for "marathon abroad" have jumped 1,255% in the past year, and analysis by booking platform Bókun found that short-break searches spike in cities hosting big running events. Around "What to do for a day in Hamburg" queries surged 500% ahead of a HYROX fitness race there at the end of October. Lisbon rose 400%, Munich 250%, Berlin 119%, Budapest 84% and Amsterdam 70%.
Autumn is peak season for this kind of trip: roughly 42% of Europe's marathon calendar falls between September and November. The Berlin Marathon kicks things off in September, with Amsterdam, Budapest, Lisbon and Munich following in October. Alongside the traditional marathons, HYROX — a fitness racing series launched in 2017 that has since picked up tens of thousands of members — is staging events in cities from Birmingham and Bordeaux to Karlsruhe, Oslo and Valencia.
The trend has deep roots online. TikTok is full of viral posts offering travel tips around international HYROX races, while Strava data shows new running clubs nearly quadrupled in 2025, pushing the platform past one million active groups. Worldwide participation on the app jumped 59% year-on-year. Running has become a social, shareable hobby, and travelling to a race is a natural next step.
It also fits a broader shift in how people travel. Rather than ticking off sights, more visitors want to join in with whatever a city does well — a music festival, a food scene, a big sporting event. Booking a trip around a race gives structure to a city break and a goal to train for, which is part of the appeal.
There's a flip side worth knowing about. Travelling during a major race weekend usually means higher hotel rates and busier restaurants, so if you'd rather have the city to yourself, it can pay to check the marathon calendar and travel a week or two either side. Race weekends often book out accommodation months in advance, so planning early matters if you do want to run.
For travellers, the race-cation is an easy way to combine two passions and see a city on foot, quite literally. For destinations and hoteliers, it's a welcome source of bookings outside the summer peak — Bókun's Samuel Jefferies notes the segment offers a chance to attract new customers beyond the traditional season. Either way, expect more race-weekend crowds in Europe's cities this autumn.
