How You Can Still Travel in 2018

It’s April 2018 and perhaps you set some travel goals and they haven’t gone as planned for whatever reason. Better yet, you want to explore more but wonder if you’ve missed the bandwagon for travel in 2018. The good news is, there’s still 75% or 3/4^th of the year to go and a lot can happen in that time. In this post, I’ll be sharing seven practical steps to take to sprinkle adventure all over your 2018 (and beyond)!

Start Saving Now:

Many would agree that an important determining factor in picking a travel destination is funds. What better way to plan than to start saving right away? To save towards my very first backpacking trip, I started putting away $50 a month into a separate travel account which I named ‘See the world’ before I ever went anywhere. Whatever you can, start putting a fixed amount away each payday or monthly. It will add up. When you get bonuses, an extra paycheck, a birthday cash gift, or you win the office raffle, put it aside some of it to fund your version of the ‘See The World’ fund.

 

Make a List of Places and Get to Know These Places:

Even if it’s a mental list, have a list of one or two places you’d like to visit this year. The more our plans start to take shape, the more likely they are to happen. When I have a destination in mind, I’ll pick up a book about the place from the Library to get to know the place a bit more. This often gets me even more excited. If going to the Library is too old school, how about good old blogs and vlogs? Go to your favorite travel blogs (including this one, of course) and see what people have done in these places. Let’s not forget instagram. Hop on over and search for hash tags for those locations. I do this quite often and find myself re-energized and inspired, especially as I fill out one visa application after the other. See my 2018 and 2017 travel goals.

 

Request Time Off Now:

Most people work in organizations where time off has to be requested and approved in advance. It is tempting to want to wait until you’re absolutely certain but it might be too late. A good recommendation is to ask for time off to be approved as early as possible and if the specific dates need to be tweaked later, then at least you already have time off planned and your supervisors are aware.

 

Don’t Forget Every Day Adventures:

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of international travel and forget the adventures in one’s backyard. When making my travel goals for the year, I always make it a point to list out local experiences too. This year, I really wanted to have afternoon tea in London. I went with Kachi at the end of February and she wrote about it here. Regardless of where you’re reading from, there’s something you haven’t done in your city or country. These experiences are usually more budget-friendly. Make plans!!

 

Be Flexible:

I cannot say this enough. You might spend time getting to know a location and realize that you’re better off visiting at a different time of the year, or your first choice may be slightly out of your current budget. Be flexible with your plans and be open to looking into alternatives. Alternatives may come in different shapes: an unexpected invitation from a friend, a work trip add-on, or a flight deal

Decide to Go Solo If You Have To:

This one’s big! My first backpacking trip was never meant to be a solo trip but my friend couldn’t go. I had a choice to make, to stay or to go. I chose to go (duh!) but it’s not because I’m this super fearless person, I simply decided that my desire to see the world outweighed my fear or anxiety about the unknown. Now, that trip will always be special to me (I wrote about it here). More importantly, it amped up my wanderlust; 8 years and 46 countries later, all I can say is wow!

Please, go! Take that first step. Send me a message if you need extra motivation, I will be in your DMs checking on you at the most random times! The world awaits your magic!

Commit To It:

Mind over matter, always! Often times all it takes is fully committing to making anything (in this case, travel) happen. Once you commit, deterrents are often hurdles waiting to be overcome.

 

Go solo if you have to, change destinations if you must, do something in your city! Let your boss know now and put those coins aside.

 

Which of these steps resonates the most with you and what will you be doing to sprinkle travel/adventure into the rest of 2018? What other major tips would you share? I particularly love it when we learn from each other in the comments section.

 

If you’ve found this helpful and would like to get more tips, stories, and travel inspiration from me, subscribe here and share this post with your social network. Look out for my monthly newsletters starting at the end of the month!

 

Till next week,

 

WWH!