Making Your Travel Resolutions A Reality

Every wander-lusting individual has made their fair share of travel-based New Year’s resolutions, and then proceeded to break that resolution for one reason or another. Maybe you don’t think you have enough time for that road trip across the States. Maybe you think a trip to the French countryside would be way too expensive for you to ever pull off. There’s no reason to give up on your travel resolutions, though! A little bit of realism and a lot of work can make sure you see them through.

Firstly, make sure you choose a travel resolution that makes sense for you, even if you do have to strive a little bit to reach your goal. Instead of choosing a vacation that would be way out of your price range (and just about everyone else’s), choose something that will be doable with the proper amount of extra work and a few creature comfort sacrifices here and there. If you love your job and don’t want to lose it, don’t pick a dream trip that would require you to be completely off the grid for two months; instead, see if there would be a way for you to work while traveling, or to get a few extra days off by putting in extra night hours.

Once you know what you want to do or where you want to go, figure out how. Scour the Web for great deals, figure out the best way to get to where you want to go, compare options to discover how to do as much as possible for as little as possible. Talk to the locals. Online travel forums are a great place to find out what you need to know from people who have actually done it.

Then, simply do what it takes. If you have to give up your $5 Starbucks specialty coffee every day for six months, do it. That’s nearly $1,000, which can buy you a round-trip plane ticket to quite a lot of destinations. Grab dinner on the go two nights a week instead of three. Switch to a cheaper bottle of wine. Rent the movie instead of going to the theater. Take all of that and put it into your travel fund dedicated to your one specific travel resolution. It all adds up much quicker than you think.

The most important thing to do, though, is to stop treating your dream trip like a dream and start acting like it’s actually going to happen. Request the days off from work, start learning the language of the destination and arrange for someone to housesit for you. Start saying, “I’m going to Italy this year,” instead of “I want to go to Italy this year.” Believe it, then do it.