It would be nice to hop on a ship or plane and travel the world for a year. You can do it for a price, but don’t dismiss the idea yet. Learn how to travel the world on smaller adventures and see as much as you can. Gather around my table to talk about tips for starting to travel the world.
Travel Tips
Set Travel Goals- Small or Large
First, you have to want to travel the world. My husband and I didn’t really set out to travel the world, but we started by starting small. We wanted to see different parts of the USA, but it seemed we kept expanding, and soon we were traveling the world for various reasons.
Planning is a Priority
Planning for travel has to be a priority. We saved our money and invested in family vacations to provide time together and memories. We decided these were the places we wanted to visit with our kids before they graduated. When we look back now, it was always time spent together that was well invested.
After I lost the stone of my wedding ring, I didn’t ask to have it replaced; I said, I’d rather travel. Make travel your priority. Something has to give in the budget. We also didn’t drive new cars, but drove our cars until they died.
Start Small
When our kids were young, we started by going to state parks in the summer. We would do day trips. For many years, we had tent camping weekends at state parks. Then we expanded camping from Minnesota to Wisconsin, Michigan, and South Dakota. We would sleep in camping cabins to make sure we didn’t get rained out.
Seeing the USA
As the kids got older, we planned for one trip a year to other parts of the USA. We either drove our minivan or flew. Sometimes it was just with our family, and other times it was a trip with extended family or friends. We had to save money and plan. These included trips to Florida, Yellowstone/Glacier, Washington DC/Virginia, Grand Canyon/Arizona, Texas, and Colorado.
Seeing the World
My husband got in a little more world travel than I when he traveled to Japan and South America for work. We took a trip to China with our church family, and we each went to Honduras or Mexico with each of our kids to experience a mission trip. When our kids grew up, my husband and I also took a tour group trip to Israel to see the country and bring the bible to life.
Empty Nest Travel
When the kids graduated and got older, travel expanded mainly because my husband is adventurous, and we took a four-month traveling sabbatical across the Middle States. We adventured in the national parks and wanted to decide where we would live in the future.
We hiked, biked, toured, and asked the locals about each place we visited in SC, NC, VA, TN, AL, MI, AR, TX, NM, AZ, UT, ID, OR, and CA. Unfortunately, COVID hit, and for the last 50 days of our trip, we had to improvise. Check out links to our traveling sabbatical blog.
After we moved to Virginia, our trips expanded with a mission trip to Panama. Our friends kept wanting us to go on their “travel goal trips,” and finally, it worked out. We traveled to Turkey, Greece, Rome, and the Vatican for a tour group with our friend.
I never dreamed we would see all of these places. But God has blessed us by traveling the world. Our kids live in different states across the USA from us, so we keep traveling if we want to see family. We don’t have nice cars or expensive things, but I’ve got great memories and can’t wait to see how amazing Heaven will be after we are done traveling this earth.
Traveling Goal Tips
- Set travel goals, year by year.
- Start small with state by state.
- Plan for the future in an empty nest
- Go on mission trips to expand your worldview.
- Dream and pray about God’s plan for you.
- Stay healthy and active so you can travel.
- Remember that vacations are a time for the family to connect and build Memories.
Research shows, if you go to the same place on vacation each year, your brain compresses those memories into one giant memory. When you go to a different place each year, you hope something from each trip or the top trips will stand out in the memory banks.
Things I like and dislike about Europe
Likes-
- The sparkling and still water choices are everywhere.
- Europeans serve a glass of water with your coffee. (Hydration)
- Coffee is not that expensive, but small and good.
- The Food is thumbs up. Fresh, homemade, and delish.
- I loved the chocolate and the tea choices.
- You get to walk a lot.
- Gelato- do I say more?
Dislike-
- They like their heat in the hotels in the winter/spring months. – too hot to sleep for me.
- Europeans use Duvets, and if you need the sheet because it’s too hot, it doesn’t work.
- You have to haul your suitcases up flights of stairs in many places.
- Graffiti in some of the bigger cities.
- Watch out for pickpockets in the tourist areas.
- The Euro is higher than the US dollar, so not as cheap as other countries.
- They smoke everywhere- in restaurants, coffee shops, outside.
Travel Blogs– Beach Vacations, Summer USA Vacations, Israel Trip, Teton National Park, Yosemite National Park, Minnesota North Shore Vacation,
What are your travel goals for the future?
