Travel| 3 Reasons Why You Should Have a Travel Bucket List

If you follow me on Instagram, it’s no secret that I love to travel. I think it started when I was in college and my friends and I would take one trip per year as our girls vacation. We’ve been to many places within the states and also outside of the states. Because I’m in education, my travel times are limited. I know you are thinking “You have the summers off and you get so many weeks off how is your time limited???” That right there explains my limitations because those are peak times for travel because families do not want to take children out of school for a week’s vacation and teacher’s can’t take weeks off to during the school year to travel. So yes there is a lot of free time, but prices sky rocket for that very reason.

If you remember from my post two weeks ago about 6 Major Keys I Would Have Told Myself in My 20s…. key #2 said “Strive for Great Experiences.” I still consider myself to be a newbie traveller even though I’ve been to quite a few countries, but there is so much of the world to see! In 2015 I finally decided to create my travel bucket list.

What is a travel bucket list? A travel bucket list is a list of places (local, national, or international) that you want to visit and activities that you want to do. It’s supposed to help add adventure to your life. This is the “Before I _____” list. So someone may want to go skydiving in Dubai or some other place.

This list has helped me in many ways when it comes to traveling. Here are my 3 Reasons Why You Should Have a Travel Bucket List

1. It saves money! I come across A LOT of travel deals. Usually I am quick to jump on a travel deal if the price is right, but I have passed up on a lot of trips because I made a decision to follow my bucket list. Unless I come across an unbelievable deal, I usually just pass on places that I am not that passionate about, therefore saving me money on planning trips.

2. It allows me to focus! Sometimes it is extremely difficult trying to narrow down a place to travel. I used to spend so much time trying to find a place that I want to go. Now I think about different sites I want to see based on specific countries and continents I want to visit. I also can choose the best places to visit based on the seasons.

3.  It challenges you to step outside of your comfort zone! Now the travel bucket list isn’t just places you want to visit, but things you want to actually accomplish. So on my bucket list, watch the sun set in the desert and I did that this past February in Morocco. I also camped in the desert. Now if you know me you know I cringe at the thought of camping, but that experience was surreal.

How do you create a travel bucket list? It is simple. Think about all of the places you want to visit and the main attractions in those places and start from there. Here are a few things that are on my bucket list:

1. Visit the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon

2. Visit the Blue Lagoon Thermal Spa in Iceland

3. Hike Machu Picchu (A friend of mine just did this and the pictures were amazing!)

4. Ride on a gondola in Italy

5. Visit the pyramids in Egypt

I use an excel spreadsheet to organize the places I want to visit based on the country and continent (Strange I know). It also serves as my trip budget list so I can get an idea of how much money I will be spending for flights, hotels, and excursions when I travel. I know some people think that travel bucket lists take away from the spontaneity of traveling, but they definitely take away some of the pressures of planning a trip without proper planning and you can make sure you plan to accomplish something adventurous.

Do you have a travel bucket list? What are some places that you want to travel around the world?