Choosing the Right Destination

Lesson 1: Choosing the Right Destination

In the previous unit, we asked why you want to travel, what type of traveler you are, and what you want to get out of traveling. This may seem pointless at first, but until we really slow things down and take a step back to ask ourselves these questions, the answer remains in our subconscious. Without asking these questions, we are just traveling for the sake of getting away. Often times we lose ourselves while traveling, so this exercise was meant to make you really think about what you want most out of your travels. This will continuously come up later in different units, and it leads us into planning our trip.

In this lesson, you will want to use these resources:

• Before Traveling To-do List – Click to Download: Use this to check off items while planning your trip.

Choosing the Right Destination

This is the first, and possibly most important, step towards planning your travels. Where should you go? Well if you are like me, you already have a list of places you want to visit before you leave this Earth. Many of which have been in your mind for a long time now. So, let us start there…

Create a list of every country / destination you want to visit before you die. Do not start looking online at places! This is strictly from your mind now. If you cannot think of any, that is totally fine.

Now that you have your list, ask yourself what you want out of your travels like we did in the previous lesson. Do you want a place to relax? Then, maybe a place like Cuba or Bali would be best for you. Do you want adventure? Check out Peru or Nepal for beautiful hikes. Are you a history buff? Europe is filled with wonderful destinations to experience. Want to immerse yourself in a new culture? Travel all the way to the other side of the globe from where you are and see how others live.

The possibilities are endless, and that is the best part of traveling. It never gets old. Ask your friends, online forums, do a little bit of research, or get in contact with us, and we will help you decide on a place or narrow down your options.

Some things to consider about your location:

What kind of traveler am I?

Like we discussed in the previous lesson, what do you identify yourself as? This will be a major determining factor when choosing the right place to travel to.

When will I be traveling?

The time of year is important. For example, if you are not a skier, you would not want to go traveling to a ski resort in the middle of the winter.

How much time do I have to travel?

Do not plan a trip around the world in seven days. It just wont work.

What is my budget?

Set a number you are comfortable with spending. Alternatively, you can follow this lesson and estimate how much this trip will cost you and decide whether or not you are comfortable with spending that much money on your vacation.

Now that you have a list of places you want to visit, considering the four questions we just asked about choosing a destination, begin to narrow down your list. If you have a place you want to go that is all the way around the word, but you have a seven day vacation, maybe it is better to save that one for a time you have more time to travel. Try to get your list down to about three to five places you want to go. That will give us something to work with as we continue. If you already know where you want to go, the following information will still be useful.

Your Personal Travel Map

When you have a small list of places you want to travel, place them on your personal travel map to get started! Need some ideas to get going? Search in the Google search bar above the map to get some ideas!

If you do not have an account with us, be sure to create an account with us to begin planning your next vacation with us.

Placing markers on your map is easy…

1. Right click to add a marker.
2. Left click on a marker to add text, photos, and video to your marker.
3. Save and Close to save the changes or Remove Marker if you do not want it.
4. Left click and hold on a marker to move it around the map.

Other map features…

• Scroll up and down to zoom in and out.
• Left click and hold to move the map around.

There is so much more that your travel map can do for you when planning your next trip, but for now let us just focus on choosing the destination that we want to travel.

Lesson Resources:

• Before Traveling To-do List – Click to Download