OK, so the second part of that title is a lie. I don’t hate travel dreams, at all. I’m full of them.
From riding the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Russia to snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to skiing in New Zealand to wine tasting in Chile, you’d be hard-pressed to find a person with more travel dreams than me.
However, “travel dreams” doesn’t mean the same thing to all people. As far as I’m concerned, they come in two varieties:
Person 1: “I really want to visit Bali and learn to scuba dive. I’ve been putting away money for the trip for the past six months and this week I started checking out airfares, and I just bought a guidebook and am researching Bali on Pinterest every day. I can’t wait to go!” (Ed. Note: not that I really know what Pinterest is, but it seems to be a big travel deal).
Person 2: “Oh, I’d love to go to Greece. I’ve heard it’s so beautiful. But you know, it’s a really long flight, and probably pretty expensive to travel there. I’m not sure when I could get time off for a big trip like that. Sigh…maybe someday.”
See the difference?
Dreams can mean a lot of different things. They can be sheer fantasy, as they sadly remain for far too many of us. Or they can be less dreams and more goals: things we’re motivated to work towards because we know they are achievable, step by step, and that the work we put into making them happen will be well worth it. We apply this logic to our careers, our personal lives, our long-term plans (hopefully), so why can’t we do the same for our travel dreams?
The answer is: we can! And we should.
So rather than prattle on about how we all need to get off our butts and get proactive, I thought I’d offer a few examples of how we can make our travel dreams happen, one little step at a time.
(I’ve already written more extensively about trip-planning how-to’s HERE.)
Five Things You Can Do Today (or soon) To Make Your Travel Dreams Into Reality
- Buy a Guidebook. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to walk into a bookstore travel section and just wander around, entranced by all the beautiful places and potential adventures in exotic locations around the globe. Take an hour or so this weekend to visit your neighborhood bookshop (or go on Amazon if you’re really time crunched, but bookstores work better), and take a look at all the guidebooks on display for different cities, countries, and regions, then buy one to read up at home. Spain? Thailand? South America? You may already have a dream destination picked out, or an afternoon of browsing could turn you on to a destination you never even considered and get you excited to begin the planning process for your next trip. I may be hopelessly old-school, but even in today’s online world, I find guidebooks the best way both to incite wanderlust and give a real, practical handle on where you’ll be traveling, what to see/do/eat there, and how to make your dream trip into a reality. Shop away!
- Sign Up for Travel Deal Emails. There are any number of email lists you can quickly sign yourself up for that will deliver travel deals to you inbox every week or so. Some of these can contain pretty great deals, so it pays to be a bit flexible and spontaneous in your travel plans, but some offers are good for a few months so when you see a deal you like, you can snap it up now and travel later. Hopefully seeing a fantastic deal to a dreamy destination will help kick your serious travel planning phase into gear! I recommend signing up for Travelzoo and Sherman’s Travels weekly e-newsletters for some excellent travel deals and inspiration.
- Start putting aside money each month/paycheck. Ah, the really fun stuff…but this is how you can start, dollar by dollar, to commit to making your dreams of travel a reality. Every month or paycheck, figure out how much you can afford to put aside into a travel fund, then commit to doing so. Even small contributions can add up quickly: $20 a paycheck times 25 paychecks a year = $500. Of course, the more you can sock away, the quicker you can finance your dream trip, but if you have to start small, it will still build momentum and help keep your goals on track!
- Download Skyscanner. The Skyscanner app is not just my new favorite app but one of my new favorite things, period. It’s an amazing tool for travelers and those planning future trips, which allows you to type in where you want to go, where you’ll be flying out of, and see what months/days offer the best deals for that route (you can also search specific dates, but being flexible can often pay off). Or even more magically, you can simply type in your location, enter “everywhere” as your search, and see how far you can travel for how much money. This app is free, so if you have a smartphone, go ahead and download it today and begin playing and dreaming!
- Immerse Yourself in Your Chosen Culture. This last is a fun one: start immersing yourself in the place you want to go, in any way you like. Have dinner at a Thai restaurant; stream a Bollywood film on Netflix; check out an exhibit of Asian art at a nearby museum; start reading that Russian novel you always meant to get around to. Do anything that will help you get a sense of the place you’ll be visiting and what you want to see, do, eat, and experience there, and get excited about the adventure!
Anything to add to this list? How do you begin the travel planning process? What is your dream destination that you’re determined to make a reality?