No Travel Bucket List? No Problem!
Here's How I Decide Where To Travel When I Didn't Have A Bucket List Either!
I have a robust travel bucket list with destinations like Hiroshima’s Peace Watch Tower, Akihabara’s maid cafes, and a cruise to Antarctica. But before becoming a travel consultant, I didn't know just how much of the world was out there to see. If you don’t have a travel bucket list yet, don't worry! Here are some methods to find travel inspiration.
The Skim
When you don’t have a robust travel bucket list, consider reflecting on your interests and passions, planning a trip based on something you love, and taking into account your time and budget. Seek inspiration around you from books, movies, magazines, and documentaries. Talk to friends and family about their travels, or consult a travel agent for ideas. Ultimately, follow your heart and instincts.
The Deep Dive
Let’s get into the details of how you do all that good stuff.
Reflect on your interest and passions
When you want to travel somewhere, near or far it can be helpful to look at what interests you. Travel does not always have to be about hopping on a plane and visiting a far off place. Sometimes There’s great destinations near home that can be just as inspiring.
Consider activities you love such as reading, exercising, spa days or even eating.
By exploring your interests you can uncover some great destinations. Be it a food tour in Paris or your local city, an art exhibit in England or a theme park you’ve been wanting to visit for a long time.
A good friend of mine had a blast on Prince Edward Island visiting one of her favorite author’s home and the places that inspired her book! Anne of Green Gables is set on the ideal island and the real life island had many things dedicated to her and the characters she created.
Consider your time and budget
When you don’t know exactly where you want to go sometimes it helps to think bout how much time you’d want to spend away from home. Is one day enough or do you want to be gone for weeks at a time. Knowing how long you’d like to be gone can help inform where you’ll go.
When considering time constrictions as an employee it’s important to know your company’s PTO policy. Knowing how to extend or use PTO for actual time off can help rejuvenate you!
A good rule of thumb I’ve learned to follow is if you are traveling away always schedule one day before to prepare and one day after to recover. So suddenly that weekend trip went from 2 days to 4 days.
You’d be surprised how much it helps to have a day to recover and prepare for a trip.
Along with time constraints comes the all mighty budget question.
How much do you want to spend on your travels?
Budgets are relative to each person. I’ve been on trips with friends who felt spending $200 on dinner per person was totally acceptable when I could have just done with a $20 burger.
I spent over $9,000 as a solo traveler to see Alaska for 15 days and felt every penny was well spent and each experience life changing. (I saved for 2+ years for this trip.)
It’s important to think about how much you want to spend on your adventure and only you will know the right number.
Discovering the costs of travel can be done with an internet search or by speaking with a travel agent or travel consultant. They can help give you ball park figures on trip packages or how much the average price of a location is during certain times of the year.
When you aren’t sure where to go it’s important to know how much time and how much money you want to spend to get away.
Find Inspiration around you
Believe it or not sometimes your next travel destination is hiding right in front of you. It can be a location from a movie you’ve seen, a book you’ve read, the instagram wall you scroll at break time at work or even a documentary you watched.
During a cash crunch I was a Lyft driver and during that time I meet many people who were visiting restaurants seen on Food Network TV shows that were in my home state.
My personal desire to one day visit Maine comes from wanting to go to a real Lobster Festival after seeing one on a Food Network Show.
Many people book trips to see famous houses, castles and estates used in their favorite movies and TV shows.
When you aren’t sure where to go look to TV shows, documentaries and books to get an idea.
You can go to your local public library and look at Magazines such as Travel and Leisure or walk through your Local AAA to see what they’re advertising for inspriation.
Ask friends and family about their travels
When all else has failed you can always reach out to family, friends and even coworkers and ask about places they’ve been. It can come up in simple conversations or you can ask directly.
My life changing Alaska trip came onto my radar because it was a former coworkers DREAM trip. To take the Alaskan Railroad through the back country and then a cruise to see the glaciers… He made it sound so good I ended up doing it!
Speaking with family and friends allows you to get an opinion from someone you know and trust. This lets you gauge how much you may like a destination as well.
Some questions I usually ask when getting references from friends or family are as follows:
Where did you go?
Why did you go?
What is the one thing I’d have to do once I get there?
What’s one thing you didn’t like about it?
I prefer to know the positive with the negative.
I have had negative experiences almost everywhere I’ve traveled but I never let it overshadow all the positive things I experienced. But I also make sure to share it during my conversations about places I’ve been.
Sharing both positive and negative experiences gives a better holistic view of your travels and what others can expect.
As a woman of color I have experienced more than my fair share of racially motivated encounters but one of my worst experiences was actually in the United Kingdom and I wasn’t even the victim. My two travel companions as asian women were the targets of the harassment.
I share my stories about my encounters not to spread negativity but awareness. All the good we experienced in those 18 days could not be overshadowed by the blatant negativity my two friends suffered for doing nothing wrong but being asian. But I do share the experience because it was part of it.
Would be visit again? Of course.
Are we more aware now of what to expect?
Yes.
Talk to a travel agent or travel consultant for ideas
If you don’t want to ask friends and family for ideas you can always speak to a travel agent or travel consultant.
Travel agents assist with the booking of flights, vacation packages and activities.
Travel consultants provide a more holistic approach to your travel needs and can assist with personalized recommendations based on your travel preferences.
Many travel agents also work as travel consultants.
Both travel agents and travel consultants go through a variety of vender provided trainings to become experts on destinations, activities, whole countries and regions and even cruise ships so that they can better serve you the client looking for recommendations.
You can approach a travel consultant with a vague idea of what you want to do or how much you want to spend and they can help you decide on the trip that’s right for you.
It helps if you come prepared with a brief idea of where you want to go or at least how much you want to spend.
Follow your heart/instincts
If nothing else above has worked consider looking into your heart or even like I did once using a random location generator (lol) and letting the fates decide.
Let fate decide and then see how the destination that arrives sits with you. If it feels good consider making it the end destination. If you don’t think you’d like to go there spin the wheel again.
Choosing your next travel destination doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By reflecting on your interests, considering your time and budget, finding inspiration around you, asking for recommendations, and following your instincts, you can discover amazing places.
Travel is personal—only you can decide the best destination for you. Enjoy exploring the world at your own pace; it’s out there waiting for you!
Enjoy exploring the world at your own pace!
It’s out there waiting for you!
What do you think?
Would you be interested in me creating a workbook for you to help you create curate your travel details as outlined in this article? Let me know.