3 steps to choosing your next travel destination
I wrote this prior to COVID-19, but hopefully, travel will start opening back up soon.
I wrote this prior to COVID-19, but hopefully, travel will start opening back up soon.
You need a new travel destination. There are so many places you want to go and so many things you want to do. But, you can’t decide.
You are scared you’ll pick the wrong destination. You think, “what if I spend all this money on a trip, and I don’t enjoy where I am”? You struggle to find a reason to go to a certain place. At this point, you’re waiting for someone to tell you where to go
Like you, traveling stresses me out. Not the act of traveling though: it’s deciding where to go, planning what to do, booking flights and accommodations, literally anything leading up TO the traveling part.
I read a book called Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. It helped me create a clear 3 step plan for picking a destination.
Step 1: Ask yourself, “What do I like to do?”
Ask yourself what you like to do. Better yet, ask yourself, “what would my perfect day look like”? Are you on a beach? Are you in the mountains? Are you learning something new? This will help you define what makes you happy.
By defining the activities that make you happy, you can narrow the scope of your destination. Some examples include: hiking, eating good food, drinking coffee, going to cool bars, etc.
Exercise: Take out a sheet of paper. Write “what do I like to do?”. Set a timer for 60 seconds. Write as many bullet points as you can about what you like to do.
Step 2: Ask yourself, “What do I dream of doing?”
You don’t really need a huge reason to go somewhere. All you need is the motivation to get there; “you’ll rarely get what you expect when you go there — and this is almost always a good thing” (Plotts, 67).
Exercise: On the same sheet of paper, write “what do you dream of doing?”. Write bullet points using this format I dream about *activity* in *destination*. For example, I dream of surfing in Hawaii. Set a timer for 60 seconds. Write as many bullet points as you can!
Here’re my lists from step 1 and step 2 for some guidance.
Step 3: Choose a destination
It’s time to choose a destination. Choose a destination where you can live your dream, and do things that make you happy! The good thing is, we now have lists of both of these things. :)
Exercise: Go back to your paper. Review your step 1 bullets. For each bullet in step 2, put a tally next to the bullets where you can do things from the list from step 1. The destinations with the most tallies are your most desired destinations.
There’s no need to stress about choosing a travel destination! Next time you feel uncertain about where you should go next, follow this exercise.