Grocery Stores Become a Surprising Highlight of Modern Travel

Ordinary grocery stores are becoming one of travel's most revealing and beloved experiences, with tourists increasingly building supermarket visits into their itineraries rather than treating them as a holiday necessity. Hilton's 2026 Trends Report found that 77% of travellers enjoy visiting grocery stores abroad, while Condé Nast Traveller recently named grocery tourism one of the biggest travel trends of 2026. The industry has noticed too. Earlier this year, K-Supermarket, one of Finland's largest grocery chains, became the first supermarket in the world to officially list its branches as tourist attractions on Tripadvisor.

Among them is a Helsinki store built around rooftop beehives that produce their own honey and another lauded for its craft beer selection, with each branch independently run and adapted to its local community. Away from traditional sightseeing, ducking into a local grocery shop remains a surprisingly raw way to travel. Nothing on the shelves has been curated for out-of-towners or stamped with a tourist board's seal of approval.