We all have one (or many) places we’ve always dreamed of going or experiences we want to try. It’s the picture framed in our bedrooms, our screensaver on our computers or the “most pinned” image on our Pinterest boards. It seems like something you will do “someday,” when the time is right.
But if you wait for the right time, you could be waiting forever. So many people tell me they’d like to go somewhere I’ve been one day, but the perfect time is now.
Making your dream trip a reality is much easier than you think. I’d dreamed about going to Australia for most of my life. It was a place I bought guidebooks for long before I even planned my trip. I realized that I should go to Australia now, when I could get the most out of it, rather than waiting until retirement that may never come.
Here’s how you can make your own dream trip into a reality.
1. Pick a place.
What’s the place you’ve always wanted to go or see? Is it walking to Mont St. Michel at low tide or partying all night at the Full Moon Party in Ko Pha Ngan? Is it taking the Ghan train across the barren Australian Outback or swimming up to your above water bungalow in the Maldives? Is it feeling humbled at the Taj Mahal or learning about Civil War history in Charleston? Only you can decide where you want to go and you don’t have to justify it to anyone else.
2. Decide how long you want to go for and what you want to do.
Since this is your once-in-a-lifetime trip you’ve been imagining for years, you want to make sure to get the most out of it. When planning for my trip to Australia, I realized that a few weeks wasn’t going to cut it, which is what led me to apply for a working holiday visa.
For you, it may be only a week-long trip or could turn out to be a move to your destination. And don’t forget to map out all the things you want to do. Maybe the dream trip is a journey of its own, like a helicopter ride over Hawaii’s Na Pali Coast.
3. Set a budget.
This part is the hardest. How can you set the budget for a place you’ve been thinking of going for years? Do the research and be realistic about how much money you need to save to get the full experience that you want. Since you may have been saving up for years for this trip, don’t be afraid to splurge a little on special experiences, like a night at a luxury resort or a hot air balloon ride.
4. Get out there.
Purchase your tickets so you can’t back out. Pack your bags. And most of all, enjoy yourself! This is what you’ve been dreaming of!
Great advice! My next dream trip is take trains across Europe and Asia. There’s a “Tolstoy” train that travels between Finland and St. Petersburg, and of course the Orient Express, and several amazing high speed trains in China, and so on. Basically just trains all day every day forever.
That sounds like you, Jackie! I’ve always wanted to go on the Trans Siberian Railway too!
Great advice! Very inspiring! Made me think… I would love to visit Peru, I just need to get the money. I put it on my bucket list
There are too many palces to have only one! But at the moment I am daydreaming about buying a canal boat and traveling around the UK nice and slow.
Great advice! I always get stuck at #1. I have way too many dream destinations on my list that it’s hard to narrow them down and decide where I want to go when. I generally use some combination of searching for deals and taking advantage of timely opportunities to cross dream destinations off my list, but I have a hard time deciding I want to travel “THERE” and deliberately making it happen.