5 Easy New Year’s Travel Resolutions [Travel]
You want to travel, don’t you? Doesn’t everyone? What’s stopping you? Time? Money? Work? Everyone has an excuse – and most of the time it is a totally legitimate excuse! Life is complicated and sometimes goes down a path you aren’t prepared for. Like ours for example – spending upwards of $600 on our pup Cowboy during Christmas time for an ulcer in his eye. Ouch. On both parties.
Traveling doesn’t have to be a 3 week long backpacking trip through Thailand or a lavish museum tour in Paris – those are great (amazing actually), but for most people those travel expectations are not realistic. Let 2016 be the year where you start preparing for adventures and getting your toes wet at those sandy beaches. Here are 5 easy New Year’s travel resolutions to satisfy your wanderlust and get you to where you want to go no matter your situation.
- Be a tourist in your own town! My hubs and I take to the town almost every Friday (our day off) to seek new things in and about our town. We have grown up in ‘burbs of Houston so we venture in to the city to try a cool Ramen noodle house or some exotic game hot dogs & hamburgers from Moontower Inn. It’s been a lot of fun and very cheap to get our heads out of a map and look around to see what is already around us! You will never know what you will uncover!
- Make a plan! Have big dreams of backpacking through Europe? Google it. Pinterest it. Find out the do’s and don’ts and the secrets to really make your experience great when it happens. You may not be able to go on this trip just yet, but researching a destination can be just as much fun. Prepare for what you plan to do and how you plan to do it! Be sure to check out my Airbnb 101 tips if you are traveling on a budget!
- Create a Travel Fund! Having a separate account for traveling has been a life-saver for us. We are very smart with our money. Create an automatic transfer from your checking account to your traveling fund. Doing this will help you be able to purchase those tickets and boarding without having to dip in to your life savings. Chances are, you probably won’t miss that $15-50 every two weeks. A travel fund is a flexible way to make those dreams of Italy come to life.
- Take a Weekend Getaway! Feeling travel-fever? We often joke that I feel more at home when I am traveling than when I am actually home. I have a wanderlust that cannot be contained that is evident, but sometimes we don’t have the time or the travel fund to take a trip. With my hubs new job we haven’t been able to travel for 9 months. Which has been excruciating! :P But living in Houston we can hop in the car for a weekend getaway trip to Austin, San Antonio or even Fredericksburg to curb our taste for travel.
- Find a Travel Partner or Couple! Traveling together is so much fun – plus it can be extremely financially beneficial! When we traveled to New York for New Years Eve the rates were outrageous. (Here are some affordable rentals in NYC) We managed to find a couple to split the rent and bunk with us. Now, did we sleep on a horrible pull out sofa in the living room? Yes. But it was well worth the sacrifice to save hundreds of bucks – not kidding HUNDREDS. Traveling with friends or another couple is a lot of fun, but be sure to pick people who have the same interests as you.
Have any other New Year’s Travel Resolutions? I’d love to hear!
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