Every year, instead of making New Year’s Resolutions I potentially won’t keep because A) they’re not realistic, or B) I’ve forgotten what they are entirely, I make goals.
And I make specific goals, tied to things I want to achieve, like new travel publications I’d like to be published in, or an amount of money I’d like to save. When it comes to travel, I like to outline overall aspirations, plus more pointed things I’d like to see happen in the year ahead.
So, in honor of 2019, here are 19 travel goals for this year. Yes, it may be my list, but the goals should speak to any wanderer who wants more out of life’s greatest adventures.
1. Just travel more
For a traveler, this one probably makes it into every resolution or goal list. But then life happens, money goes, friends flake and you find yourself setting the same goal the next year. Instead, decide how much “more” actually means. Outline the places you definitely want to get to, or the number of trips you definitely want to take and make it happen. Save for each of those adventures, set out to go with or without flaky friends and make sure it’s just as much of a priority as anything else that’s important to you. More musings on how to spend less and travel more here.
2. Use Hopper religiously
OK, for those of you who have already been hip to the Hopper game long before me, I have two things to say: 1) shame on you for not sharing the knowledge and 2) it’s the best, isn’t it?! Finding flights at the best prices is probably the most un-fun part of traveling, but Hopper comes in like your travel agent best friend to help do the dirty work. Just put in the places and dates you’re planning to travel and let the app watch them for you. This year, I’ve gotten some ridiculous deals thanks to what Hopper found for me, and I’ve found them consistently right when they tell you to “book now” or wait for a lower price.
3. Make it to three new countries
This is one overarching goal I set each year: to make it to three countries I haven’t yet been to. With so much to see in the world, I want my travel to also include new adventures alongside revisiting beloved places or traveling to see family and friends. It’s one way I quantify what “travel more” means to me. This doesn’t happen for me every year, but I’ve found that setting the goal early on at least makes me work hard to reach this goal. I’m grateful to have nailed it in 2018 with trips to Brazil, Italy and St. Lucia—three places I’d never been before.
4. Consider how I can leave a smaller imprint
All around the world, the environment is in jeopardy thanks to resource overuse, global warming (whether you believe in it or not) and too much waste. This year, I want to be the kind of traveler who carefully considers how I’m leaving the places I visit. We should all be doing our best to figure out how we can reduce waste, stay at environmentally friendly locations or somehow give back to the communities we’re exploring. I don’t have all the answers yet, but working on it.
5. Spend more time with locals
In certain places, particularly when you’re traveling for work, it’s too easy just to go to your trade show or conference, eat in or near the hotel and stay confined within the main tourist drags because you have little time for exploration. This year, I want to make sure that even within those constraints, I try to find at least one local haunt, one hole-in-the-wall restaurant or beloved experience among locals and at least immerse myself in that thing.
6. Get to Cuba
This is the third year visiting Cuba is on my travel goals list, which means I have failed two years in a row in getting there. This year, I want it to happen for real. I want to be immersed in the color and culture of the place and relish its uniqueness. I want to salsa in the streets and gape at art all over Old Havana. I want to feel Cuba and all it has to offer.
7. Set clearer budgets for travel
It’s easy to save up for airfare and accommodations and to budget accordingly for it, but once you factor in eating, exploring and unforeseen (or foreseen, let’s be real) shopping, the trip can come in much pricier than you had planned for. This year, I will budget spending money into my travels and work to stay within that so one trip doesn’t have to mean dining on ramen noodles for two months when I come back.
8. Choose one must-try restaurant for each place
Whenever I travel to a new place, I always want to eat at all the best places. Now, without knowing a local or getting a really good recommendation from one, it’s hard to tell what that place is. And depending on who you’re traveling with, they may not want to constantly scour recommendations and reviews just to decide where to eat. Especially when hunger has already set in. So, to avoid that—and to minimize the stress of travel planning—I’m going to research my reviews and recommendations to determine at least one must-eat dish and the place to eat it. Everything else I want to be willing to discover.
9. Learn to make a foreign meal
In keeping with the food vibe, it’s a beautiful thing when you taste something delicious in another country and you can learn how to make it (or a least a reasonable semblance of it). It means you have at least some cooking skills and you may be able to impress people with the dish, but most importantly, it means you get to keep a part of that place with you long after the trip is over.
10. Visit one new place in my home city per month
Sometimes we take for granted that travel can happen in our own neighborhoods too. And more often than not, there’s a lot locals haven’t seen in the places they live. This year, I want to aim to see one new place each month, whether that means trying a new restaurant I haven’t been to yet, exploring a new neighborhood, hitting a new museum or taking a drive to a new place Upstate that I’d like to see.
11. Stay in a really unique Airbnb
I stayed in my first Airbnb in Venice this year, and it was great. Good service, great location, nice local vibe. This year, I want to continue exploring interesting (and well-priced) properties to stay in, but in a really unique place, like the middle of Joshua Tree or a treehouse in some jungle somewhere.
12. Take more long weekends
Long weekends are like the gift to quick travel. There’s a lot you can do with three days off, provided you don’t have to travel too far. This year, I want to take at least one long weekend every couple of months to break up the monotony of routine and turn three days into even more travel adventures. This is a good time for road trips, too.
13. Go back to Milan
I’ll admit it: I’m a shopper. And for anyone else like me, particularly those keen on fashion, there’s no better place I’ve been to in the world than Milan. It’s an added bonus that traveling there also means treating yourself to pasta and gelato daily and taking in all the beauty that is Italian architecture and craftsmanship. Going back to Milan this year is a must.
14. Try new in-country experiences
There are so many mind-blowingly cool things to do in other countries, but the average traveler either won’t necessarily know what that thing is, or won’t always have access to it. This year, I want to try out more things like Eatwith, which let’s you learn to make homemade pasta from an Italian lady in Rome or do a tour of Catalan cuisine in Barcelona (check this one out in my gift guide for this year). Airbnb also has Experiences, where you can cycle and snack your way through Bangkok or watch the sun set over desert hot springs with your boo.
15. Take a wellness-focused trip
Wellness has become a trend all over the world as we finally start to realize how important it is to take care of ourselves. Now, people are turning healthy things into trip ideas. This year, I’d like to travel for yoga, to stay in an ashram somewhere or wake to a morning beach practice. It’s good to do things that feel good. And doing them while you travel will feel even better.
16. Hit up a Caribbean Carnival
It may be in my roots, but I wholly believe a Caribbean Carnival is the most liberating, exciting fete-focused experience there is to be had in this world. Naturally, I stand behind Trinidad Carnival as the best, but this year I’d be happy to enjoy one on any other island too. Each island has its own flavor, its own traditions and its own spin on the Carnival celebrations and I’ll gladly let any and/or all of it wash over me.
17. Learn how to take better travel photos
There’s little good about having a great camera if you’re not fully versed in how to use it. And there’s too much beauty in the world to relish to miss it because you’re fancy camera averse. This year, I want to really learn how to use my Canon Rebel, how to take the kind of photos I get travel envy over and ones that I can keep in my family forever.
18. Spend more time at the beach
The beach is my single favorite type of place in the world. And sadly, I live on the wrong kind of island for enjoying the kind of beaches I want to spend my time on. This year, I fully intend to go to every beach I can get to. And I may even plan specific trips with beach time in mind. Though, if I’m being honest, that’s pretty much how I plan a lot of my trips.
19. Embrace the spontaneity of a travel deal
Let’s end things for our 2019 travel goals on a spontaneous note. Travel is so much about taking chances, seizing opportunities and trying new things, so this year I want to do a better job of remembering that. Every week I search and write about travel deals that sometimes seem too good to be true (but are actually true). In 2019, I’m going to take one, going to book a trip based on a good deal alone. Maybe it will make me uncover a place I didn’t know much about. And it could certainly help with goals No. 3 and No. 7 on this list if I get a really good deal.
So with that, I’ll wish you a travel-filled 2019, complete with memories to cherish for years to come, meals to lust after long after and the kind of adventure that keeps your soul alive.
