How To Pick A Travel Destination

Ask yourself some simple questions, and the destination will choose itself.

Why do you want to travel? Seriously. WHY do you want to travel?

Do you just want to get away?  Do you need to get in touch with yourself?  What drives you, on a basic level, to travel?  Make sure that you match that inner need so that you experience real value when spending your hard earned dollars on travel.

Who are you traveling with?

Your destination choices can be affected dramatically by your traveling companions, as they should be.

If you travel as a family, discuss your ideas and interests with everyone going.  Memorable trips are those where each member of the family gets to experience something they love.  Balance the details so everyone enjoys what’s important to them.

If you are traveling with one other person, be sure to discuss how you would like to spend your time.  Does the style of travel, luxury vs. economy, matter more, or the culture you experience?  If your views on travel are distinctly different, perhaps taking turns arranging travel would be the answer.

What kind of trip did you have in mind?

A big part of your decision will come down to personal travel style, what do you like to experience, and what is your everyday life like?  Do you want a travel experience that takes you completely outside of your comfort zone or something that feels familiar?

How much time do you have?

Time constraints need to be considered when choosing a destination.  If you are going to travel for over 24 hours, and stay for 3 days, and travel back, you will feel cheated and you won’t even have a chance to recover from getting to the destination enough to enjoy it.  If you are looking at a week or so, you can’t really see Europe.  It’s just too big.  You need to zero in on a country, and then just a couple of cities in that country.  If you have weeks to spend, things really start to open up and you can experience many more locations in any region.  Planning that time out well will keep you from being immobilized once in your destination with too many choices.  The best plans include unassigned time for wandering and taking advantage of festivals or art museums and other things of that nature that you hadn’t considered before you left home.

What is your budget?

Money, like time, is a finite resource.  Let your budget help you decide on the best location.  If you really want to visit a country, and the destination is slightly out of reach financially, consider going on off season, when your dollar will go farther.

What are you passionate about?

Is it people?  Food?  Art?  A crazy adrenalin rush?  History?  Are you a skier, scuba diver, golfer?  Combine some of your favorite things, and your next travel destination will start to come into focus.

What seasons do you like?

Are you a summer or winter person?  Perhaps, like me, you like that happy middle ground, not too hot, not too cold.

Do you hate having to move from place to place, but really want to see it all?

A cruise might be just the right thing for you.  Your hotel goes with you, bringing you to new ports throughout the trip.  All kinds of food are right there.  And with all the different styles of cruising, both between cruise lines and on individual ships, you can go luxury, economy and everything in between.  Most lines cater to all generations and a myriad of interests.  Everyone traveling with you will find things to do on board, and you can be as active or as sedate as you wish.

Spending some time reviewing these basic questions before you start planning can keep you from investing long hours in researching the wrong destination for yourself and those you are traveling with.  Of course, if you have many different interests, and just don’t know how to narrow things down, your local travel professional does this for a living and can give you guidance on making sure your next vacation is exactly what you needed and wanted, whether you knew what you wanted or not.