Everyone says that you discover the best (and worst) parts of yourself when you travel, and they have all these ideas about where you should go and what you should when you get there. But isn’t one of the main reasons why we travel is to learn about ourselves?
It’s incredibly hard to choose a life-changing trip with ten different voices in your head screaming for attention: Europe! No South America! You have to keep it chilled! No pack in as much as you can!
The only way you’re going to go on the trip of a lifetime is if you tell those voices to get the hell out, and ask yourself a series of simple questions. This way, you’ll be travelling for you – and experiencing things that are in line with what you want out of life. At the end of the day, the journeys we take shape our lives. Here’s how to choose a trip destination that appeals to you…
#1: Choose where you want to go
Seems like a fairly obvious question, but bear with me. If you don’t have a clear idea of where you want to go, you’ll end up going somewhere that someone else really wants to go. Start off with a list of places. That list can take up half a page or it can fill a notebook. You could want to go to these places for any number of reasons: it’s a place someone special to you visited, or you saw a scene in a movie and now all you want is to recreate that scene in the exact spot it happened.
Once you have the list, start organising the spots in geographical areas, so you can see how many places are close together. This is especially useful if you want to tick off a couple of places in one trip. Once this is done, give the places a rating out of 10 (which place you really want to go to first). Once your dreams are written out in front of you, it makes it a lot easier to visualise and achieve them.
#2: Ask yourself what you want to get out of it
If you are a history lover and want to visit ancient sites with centuries of stories behind it, then pick places that would satisfy this love. Places like Greece, Ireland and Cambodia spring to mind. Don’t worry about what other people think, you’re doing this for you! If all you want is to leave your troubles behind and soak up the sun rays then all the power to you! Tropical paradises such as Thailand, Australia and Costa Rica will be just what the doctor ordered.
You may also want a combination of the two – and I think I can safely say that all these countries I’ve mentioned (and more) can definitely deliver! Once you know what you want then you know where to look.
RELATED: WHERE TO GO IF WELLNESS IS YOUR PRIORITY
#3: Figure out how much time you have
Knowing how long you have to travel (this is especially important once you start working) will have an effect on how far you can go and what you can do. You may want to spend less time in some places so you can get around, or you want to really dive into a couple of spots to get the local take on it. Whatever floats your boat!
Either way, it’s important to make the most of the time you have. And yes, this means getting outside of your comfort zone (excuse the soppy moment) and try something or do an activity you never would’ve done at home. At one point or another during your trip, you need to experience something that will forever change you. Whether it is trying a different cuisine, taking part in an extreme sport or making friends with the people in your group. Happy travelling!
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