After a year like no other in 2020, it’s finally 2021. Like many others, our lives changed dramatically in the past year. It started off great with David completing his first marathon in January by running 26.2 miles through Disney World. It was an incredible way to kick off a new year after investing a significant amount of time to train for this event. All of us plus David’s mom went down to Orlando to cheer him on and enjoy a few days in the most magical place on Earth. But as a family that prioritizes travel, we never thought that this would be the last trip we would take all year.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, both of us transitioned to working from home. We are grateful that David has a flexible corporate job that allowed him to work fully remote while Karen navigated the challenges of online teaching with her elementary school students.
After our busiest year of travel in 2019, we ended up canceling all the trips we had already planned for 2020. These included destinations like Vancouver, Whistler, Seattle, Toronto and Atlanta. With the combination of COVID and being pregnant with our first child, we decided staying home was the best decision for our family.
Maybe you weren’t a big traveler before, but having to socially distance and stay at home sparked some wanderlust in you. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to travel more and your recent cabin fever has inspired you to make it a larger priority in your life. If any of these examples sound familiar, you’ve come to the right place! In this post, we share 3 easy and practical ways to prioritize travel more in your life.
So without further ado, let’s get started…
TIP #1: SET SOME GOALS
Whenever you’re working towards a change or challenge, it is important to set some goals. But make sure they’re right for you. When it comes to travel, there’s all sorts of ways to approach it. Some may prefer luxury hotels and spa treatments while others want to camp and hike in the mountains. Don’t feel like you have to do what’s popular on Instagram. If you aren’t into beaches or long flights, don’t make it your goal to stay at an overwater bungalow in the Maldives. Instead, tailor your goals to what you already personally enjoy and your travels will be more fulfilling.
One approach we take when setting travel goals is to set both small and large goals. For example, small goals may include trips that will reasonably happen within the year. These include weekend getaways and shorter trips within the U.S. or nearby countries. We also set a few large goals for more significant trips, such as major international travel. These likely require more saving and planning so it helps us to think ahead.By setting travel goals, you’ll have a better idea of how to space out your trips throughout the year and how much time you’ll need to take off from work (if applicable). But more importantly, once you have specific goals,you’ll be more likely to prioritize travel since you have concrete bucket list items to work towards. Make it more real by booking a hotel or flight if it makes sense to do so!
TIP #2: RETHINK YOUR BUDGET
Once you set some goals, the next important step is to think about your budget. Many people think they can’t make travel a priority because it’s too expensive. Yes, it does cost money to travel. But it doesn’t have to drain your wallet and it may be more possible than you think.
The key thing to remember here is if you want to prioritize travel, you are saying that it’s more important in your life than other things. That means making sacrifices and saving money elsewhere on what’s less important to you in order to have more to spend on travel. Our family does this in various ways. We’ve agreed to generally forego birthday and Christmas presents and instead use that money towards a trip we can all enjoy. We also don’t eat out a ton while we are home and would rather check out new restaurants when we’re traveling. We meal plan to be more efficient with grocery shopping and only subscribe to streaming services we really watch. This doesn’t mean we don’t have fun in our everyday lives. We just limit ourselves on things we don’t find as valuable.
Doing some research in advance can help you budget for future travel. One way is to use price alerts to get the best deals. You can also get a general idea of how much you’ll spend on a trip by looking at restaurant menus, rideshare fare estimators and attraction prices. Many times, museums and other attractions may offer a discount if you buy in advance online. Plus, you may be able to skip long ticket lines by doing this, so win-win!
For a sample budgeting tool as well as other suggestions on how you can set aside more money for travel, check out our post on 5 Easy Ways to Save Money for Travel.
TIP #3: LEARN. THEN LEARN SOME MORE.
If something is a priority in your life (or you want it to be a priority), you will hopefully have a desire to learn more about it. We are definitely this way when it comes to travel. For us, one of the ways we remember to prioritize travel is to listen to podcasts. One episode may inspire us to add a new destination to our list, while another may teach us a money-saving tip for travel. Some of our favorite travel podcasts include:
We also enjoy learning about both new and favorite places by following the official accounts of those destinations on Instagram, as well as through travel websites and books. Others may enjoy learning more about travel hacking and credit card rewards. David can spend hours on Google Maps and Google Earth looking at routes and destinations. We have enjoyed having like-minded friends that we can chat with about travel or even go on trips together. Whatever you choose to learn more about, it will help broaden your mind, maintain your focus and excitement on travel, and help you become a better traveler!
HOW WILL YOU PRIORITIZE TRAVEL?
Everyone will prioritize travel in different ways. But if you’re wanting to fill your life with more travel, remember our three tips:
- Set some goals.
- Rethink your budget.
- Keep learning. Then learn some more.
Travel has changed our lives. It has helped us get out of our comfort zones, expand our perspectives and try new things. It’s not always easy, but in the end, it has always been worth it. We believe that experiences are more valuable than things, and our travel memories are something we definitely treasure.
If you are looking for more travel advice, be sure to check out our Trips and Tips page for posts such as:
- 5 Tips and Ideas for Planning a Long Weekend Trip: If you haven’t traveled much before, start small! Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to plan a 2 week international trip. There are tons of great long weekend trips waiting to be taken.
- How Much Will My Vacation Actually Cost? When thinking of the cost of travel, it’s easy to remember airfare and hotel accommodations. But there’s a lot more to it than that. We help you think through all the other items to give you a better picture of your total trip costs.
- 5 Easy Ways to Save Money for Travel: We mentioned this post earlier, but it includes a great sample budget worksheet as well as other ideas to help you save more money to travel the world.
Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear how you make travel a priority. Let us know in the comments below!