Has this ever happened to you:
You’re at lunch with coworkers, and one of them is regaling the group with stories about all their travels, and you think to yourself, “I want to travel,” but you don’t know how to make it happen?
Maybe you’ve had that same feeling scrolling through Instagram or watching a travel video. You want to travel, but the big question is: Where do you start?
WHAT IS A BUCKET LIST?
A travel bucket list is simply a collection of places you want to visit and experiences you want to have.
And don’t think your list has to be filled with expensive, once-in-a-lifetime trips to faraway places. It can include a dream trip to Australia, a road trip through New England, a national park you’ve always wanted to visit, a weekend getaway a few hours from home, or an experience like seeing the Northern Lights.
It’s YOUR list. There are no rules about what belongs on it.
WHY MAKE A BUCKET LIST
I know what you’re wondering:
Do I REALLY need to make a bucket list? What’s the big deal? Can’t I simply start traveling?
Of course you can! But if your goal is to travel more, having a list gives you somewhere to start. After all, it’s pretty hard to plan a trip when you haven’t decided where you want to go.
Think of your bucket list as the first step between “I want to travel more” and “I’m going to ______.”
First, it makes you get specific. “I want to travel more” is a wish. “I want to visit Portugal” gives you something you can research, budget for, and eventually put on the calendar.
BENEFITS OF MAKING A BUCKET LIST
Creating a bucket list comes with several major benefits
If you’ve heard of the Law of Attraction, you know the core principle: whatever you focus on, you will attract. By visualizing the destinations on your list, you make it far more likely that you’ll actually plan and take those trips.
Having a bucket list gives you something to look forward to.
It can also help you:
- Prioritize the places you most want to visit.
- Figure out how much money you’ll need to save.
- Take advantage of a great airfare or hotel deal when one pops up.
- Make better use of your vacation time.
- Remember all those great places you’ve heard about instead of losing them in a sea of saved Instagram posts and browser tabs.
- Give yourself something pretty darn exciting to look forward to.
And every time you actually take one of those trips, you’re creating memories instead of just collecting places you’d like to visit “someday.”
DO I (A TRAVELING BROAD) HAVE A BUCKET LIST?
Well, of course I do! I have an evolving bucket list. I check off places as I visit them and add new ones as I discover them.
The funny thing is, the list never seems to get any shorter! Every trip introduces me to another place I want to visit or gives me three more ideas for future adventures.
And that’s exactly how a travel bucket list should work. It’s not something you make once and finish. Let it evolve with you. Add places. Remove ones you’re no longer excited about. Change your priorities. There are no bucket-list police coming to check your work.
HOW TO BUILD YOUR BUCKET LIST
Ready to make yours? Don’t overthink it.
Start with a brain dump. Write down every place or travel experience that comes to mind. At this point, don’t worry about whether you can afford it, how much vacation time you’ll need, or whether it’s realistic. We’re dreaming first. We’ll deal with reality later.
And don’t limit yourself to destinations. Think about experiences, too.
- Places: Portugal, Japan, Alaska, New Orleans
- Road trips: Route 66, the Pacific Coast Highway, fall foliage in New England
- Experiences: See the Northern Lights, go whale watching, stay overnight in a castle
- Events: Mardi Gras, Christmas markets, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
- Interests: Food, history, architecture, national parks, beaches, music
Need more ideas? Pinterest, YouTube, travel blogs, Google Maps, travel shows, books, and even conversations with other travelers can all be great sources of inspiration.
NEED A LITTLE HELP GETTING STARTED?
Download my free Travel Bucket List Planner to start collecting your ideas and deciding which adventures you want to tackle first.
DON’T STOP AT MAKING THE LIST
Here’s where a lot of bucket lists go wrong.
You make a giant list of 47 places you’d love to visit…and then what?
Instead of treating every trip on your list equally, start narrowing it down. Try putting your trips into a few simple categories:
- Do Soon: Places you realistically want to visit within the next year or two
- Easy Getaways: Trips you could pull off with a long weekend or a relatively small budget
- Dream Trips: Bigger adventures that will take more time, money, or planning
- Someday: Places that sound interesting, but aren’t a priority right now
Then choose your Top 5.
Now, instead of staring at an overwhelming list of everywhere you’d like to go, you have five trips you can start investigating.
TURN YOUR BUCKET LIST INTO A TRAVEL PLAN
This is the part that really matters. A bucket list shouldn’t just remind you of all the places you’d like to go. It should help you actually get there.
Take those Top 5 trips and start doing a little research. You don’t need to plan the entire vacation yet. For each destination, figure out:
- When is the best time to go?
- How many days would you need?
- Roughly how much would the trip cost?
- What’s the easiest way to get there?
- What would you want to see or do?
You might discover that one of your “someday” trips is actually much more doable than you thought. Or you might realize that another one needs to wait a few years while you save money or accrue enough vacation time.
Either way, you’ve gone from dreaming to planning.
GO BEYOND THE BUCKET LIST
Want a little more help turning those dream trips into actual plans? My Beyond the Bucket List travel-planning workbook gives you a place to research and organize up to 15 destinations, so you’ve already done much of the homework when you’re ready to choose your next adventure.
Check out Beyond the Bucket List on Amazon→
YOUR BUCKET LIST IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Your travel bucket list isn’t supposed to be another list that sits forgotten in a drawer. It’s a starting point.
Pick the places that excite you. Figure out which ones are actually doable. Start researching one of them. Start saving. Watch for airfare. Request the PTO.
You don’t have to figure out every trip today. You just need to start moving one of them from “someday” to “I’m going.”
So tell me: What’s at the very top of your travel bucket list right now? Leave it in the comments. I may end up adding it to mine!
And if you’re looking for more practical tips to help you travel smarter, sign up for #TravelTuesday. I’ll send travel tips, useful tools, travel news, and inspiration straight to your inbox every Tuesday.
Wishing you awesome and affordable travels!