As the new year has just been, I know a lot of people would have set a new years resolution. Of those resolutions, many may include travel in some way or another. Whether that be to travel more or to visit a particular place. If you’re anything like me, you will have a million ideas of places to visit floating around in your head at any one time so I always like to have a specific travel goal in mind. Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t travel spontaneously sometimes as well, but I always have an idea about one place specifically I want to head next. I think its really important to have these goals even if you can’t travel right now. If you’re stuck at home because of all this coronavirus stuff, now is a great time to start thinking of your next travel goal.
My last goal was to visit Iceland and I had that in my mind for a few years. However, as I visited Iceland last year, I’ve started looking forward to my next goal which I’ve decided will be to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. Here are 7 reasons I think it’s important to have travel goals in mind.
1. Time to prepare
If you have a travel goal in mind, it gives you lots of time to prepare. Jetting off as soon as you decide on a place can be a lot of fun but it doesn’t give you a chance to really look into a place. If you have a set travel goal, you can start researching into the place before you’ve even booked a flight. You have plenty of time to explore the history of a place, find the best things to do and which places are tourist traps, local delicacies and pretty much everything you need to know about visiting the place.
2. Save money
Following on from point 1, if you have time to prepare you also have time to save. During the research stage, you will get a good idea of how much everything costs where you’re going. This means you can make an exact plan for how much money you’ll need and start saving early to make it happen. You can also spread the cost out over time which means you can afford to spend a bit more on that dream holiday.
For Iceland, we booked the flight and hotel at the start and were planning to book one day trip or excursion a month leading up to the trip to spread the cost. Unfortunately, I completely forgot and ended up booking them all last minute resulting in my card actually getting blocked for too many expensive purchases in a foreign currency at the same time! If you save money up over time you can also save money for other big things you need like a car or house.
3. Get in shape
Setting a travel goal can also be linked to a more personal goal such as getting in shape. If your goal is to climb to Everest base camp (Or Kilimanjaro like mine was) you will need to do some training for that. Even if your travel goal is not something so physical, you may just want to get a bit more in shape so you’re looking your best in all those Instagram pics. Having that travel goal can inspire you to start living a healthier lifestyle and with plenty of time to prepare you can get in shape ready for that dream trip.
4. Learn a language
Another more personal goal related to your travel goal may be to learn a new language. Maybe you started in school and have forgotten most of it or maybe it’s just something you’ve always wanted to do. Some places may even require you to have a basic understanding of the language if it’s not very touristy so a lot of people there aren’t multilingual. If you know you will be visiting a certain place, it’s a perfect time to start learning their language. For my next goal of visiting Peru, I want to learn at least a bit of Spanish so that I can get around even in rural areas.
5. Turn dreams into reality
Many people make a kind of bucket list of places they want to visit but a list in itself means nothing. Instead of just making a list and not doing anything about it, start setting travel goals and work towards making it happen. Instead of drifting around hoping you might get the chance to visit one of your bucket list destinations, focus on one place at a time and start ticking them off.
6. Sense of achievement
Similarly to the last point, once you do start ticking these dream destinations off your list, you’ll start to get a real sense of achievement. Setting a goal and seeing it all the way through to the end really helps you to travel with a purpose. I always had a goal to study abroad whilst at university so I worked at making sure I could do this. All the decisions I made up to that point were leading up to studying abroad even up to the university I went to. It was so worth it when I made it to my new university in Sydney and I had the best time whilst there.
7. Prioritise travel
The final and possibly most important reason to set travel goals is that it allows you to prioritise travel. If you love
Even if you can’t afford to book a trip or can’t travel for whatever reason, you can always research, prepare and learn about your goal location. Having a travel goal in mind has really helped me to stay positive when I couldn’t travel for over a year while I was saving up for a house. With all this coronavirus stuff going around, setting a travel goal and starting to research your trip for once this all blows over could be a great way to get through it, especially if you have to self-quarantine.
