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January is rolling on fast, but the lists of travel trends for 2008 are still hitting the news stands. After I learned about the 53 places to go in 2008 and the tips on hotel and restaurant trends for the year, I thought that’d be it, but I was wrong. This week in the news, more trends have been identified and predicted:

• An article about experiential travel - that is, traveling to experience or learn something rather than just to head to a specific destination - predicted rising popularity for several kinds of travel in 2008. These included volunteer tourism, trips designed specifically for singles, more last minute, weekend breaks for time-pushed travelers, a big increase in green or eco-travel, and an increase in family-friendly travel packages.

• And meanwhile on the destination track, the BootsnAll website predicted the ten most popular destinations for independent travelers during 2008. These included Budapest in Hungary (to take over from Prague), Chiang Mai in far northern Thailand, Ethiopia which is experiencing a big expansion in its tourism infrastructure, Sicily as the cheaper part of Italy, Jordan as the safer part of the Middle East and Belize, which is still a cheap Caribbean destination but might not be for much longer. First on the list was Nepal, which sounds appealing with its $10 per night hotels and much more to see than just the mountains.