So You Want to Travel?

Looking to plan some adventures and travel the world? A little travel planning goes a long way in making a great trip and it doesn’t have to be overly complicated or confusing.

Travel planning is key

So firstly… fantastic…. brilliant… and many other lovely words. We are so glad you have decided you want to get off your bum and travel. Good for you.

Of course, travelling is a pretty broad term and comes in many forms but the general outcomes are always similar. New places, people and experiences is what you’ll find out there just waiting for you.

There were many things that we didn’t realise we needed to plan, buy or apply for in advance and ended up making costly mistakes or missing out. This left us feeling underprepared before starting our travels.

If we had known the things we know now before we started planning our trip then, trust us, the whole process would have been much smoother.

Why do we know about travel planning?

On a 2 week trip to Cuba, we made a decision to change our lives for the better.

We were sitting on the Playa Pillar beach in the north of Cuba. We had just watched the sun sink down over the Straits of Florida and were sipping on a chilled glass of rum and a fat Cuban cigar. It was the kind of moment that you travel for and exactly how we had dreamed Cuba would be.

As we sat there that night we turned to each other and agreed that we would like to do more of this. The seed was planted at the moment and quickly grew from the idea of travelling for a few months into selling our stuff and just heading off.

Now, this is a lovely story but how does it help you right now? Well from the moment we made the decision to travel and eventually become location independent nomads we have been planning.

There are basic steps that we took from that moment until now to save, plan, book, pack and go that we want to share with you to help you do the same.

We equally want to share some of the key travel planning mistakes we made so you can avoid them. We’re nice like that.

If you’re interested there’s more about us here.

Firstly… commitment

This a big scary word for some people but an important one. We’re not going to get all preachy here but as with anything worth doing in life you have to fully commit to it.

You can stick travelling into the same box as writing a book or running a marathon. Then stick a great big label on that box which reads ‘One Day’. It’s just one of those things in life that so many people say that they would like to do, should do or will get around to doing.

We know from our own experience that if you don’t fully commit to travelling from the start, it’s never going to happen. You’ll still be sitting there in 10 years time listening to someone embellish you with tales about the great time they had travelling and all you can respond with is ‘Yeah, I nearly went travelling once’. Don’t be that person.

You’ve read this far so you are certainly interested in getting out there and seeing more of the world so for your sake, commit to it NOW.

Write it down, now

Go on, grab a pen (remember those?) and write it down in ink… ‘I’m going to travel’.

If you feel silly, don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone. It’s a proven concept that once you’ve written something down you’re more likely to do it, so go ahead and scribble away at once. We can wait…

There. Does that feel better? It’s the first little step, there are plenty more but forget those for now and just take a moment to feel the excitement of what’s just happened. You’ve committed to traveling.

Now have a cup of tea or champagne (or both) to celebrate.

Again, well done on committing to travel. Go you!