Travel goals

Why travel to the Pyramid of the Moon?

the Big Picture

You’re not just another pair of horns in the wildebeest migration, stampeding off to some woeful tourist trap.

You want the highest quality experience you can get for your precious time and money. You want this trip to be different and amazing. Your journey should awaken deep meaning while you’re on it and evoke fond memories long after.

If you’re limited in time and money, don’t discount the opportunity. While a short time span may limit the number of destinations and experiences, why default to a boring vacation? With as little as two or three weeks, you can have an astonishing trip. If you can liberate more time, you can craft the journey of a lifetime.

So how do you do it? How do you make your trip — short or long — the best it can be?

Ask yourself what you truly want. And why you want it.

Ponder your reasons to travel. You might have nailed them already, or maybe you haven’t given them much thought. Perhaps you have only a general or vague idea about why traveling is important to you.

You can do better. Discover your real travel goals. Build out your plans from there… and have a spectacular trip.

What you need to do

Resolve to do something huge — Don’t waste a rare opportunity to do something new, fun, fulfilling, energizing… even incredible.
Appreciate how “travel goals” can supercharge your trip — What will fill your sails, give you the best memories, even change your life? How can you focus your time and money on those goals.
Understand opportunities and constraints — Your stage of life might open some doors and close others. Traveling with a companion (or more than one) means compromise.
Probe your existing travel plans — They may be an exact fit to your needs. But maybe you could expand, contract, refine, re-prioritize or even toss them.
Explore and decide your travel goals — Brainstorm more possibilities. Depending on trip length, define at least one meaningful travel goal. Check our list of sample goals for inspiration.
Select “Wow! experiences” to achieve your goals — Specific major experiences help you meet your goals. Spend your time and money on them. (Other adventures will happen en route.)
Find the best destinations for those experiences — Where can you make it happen? Is there a choice of destinations or just one? Is a place worth the time and expense?

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Indie Logic: Save your money for experiences

What are travel goals

…and why do you need them?

Travel goals are your reasons to travel. If you’re planning to travel, you have them already. But will those reasons take you to the right destinations? Will you have the best experiences? You’ll go to a new place and do cool stuff. You’ll have a good trip. But what if you could have a great trip? The secret is to go deeper into your motives.

Travel is a unique canvas. It’s possible to tackle most personal goals without ever leaving home. But home has so many other demands on your time and energy. Travel doesn’t just wipe the window glass clean, it throws the window open to unobstructed views and fresh thinking. Every day of independent travel bursts with possibility and change.

That big trip is a rare opportunity. Most travelers assume that the chance to travel will come again. But commitments, time, finances, health and other complications can conspire to limit, delay or cancel future trips. How many people have an awesome backpacking experience when they’re young, then never get a similar chance until retirement 45 years later?

You have limited time — The opportunity to spend a chunk of time traveling is precious for most of us. You may find it difficult to carve a big time block out of your busy life. Who knows when you’ll get another chance? Don’t blow it on an uneventful tourist jaunt.
You have limited money — Maybe you must travel under budget constraints. Unless you intend to work while traveling or throw yourself upon the generosity of strangers, you’ll need enough money to finance the entire trip. Who knows when you’ll have enough money to travel again? You don’t want to blow your precious cash on a so-so trip. Use your travel budget for the best trip possible.

The over-planning trap does not apply. Many travel bloggers warn against over-planning. They’re right, but they’re talking about destinations, experiences and other trip logistics. Those are subject to change (especially on longer trips). But travel goals are different. Over a long trip it’s possible re-prioritize or refine goals, but it’s doubtful you’ll drop one altogether unless you run out of time and/or money. (If that’s a possibility, leave lower priority goals for last.)

Goals will help answer pre-departure questions:

What experiences will help you fulfill your goals?
Where you will travel to find those experiences?
What style of travel will you enjoy?
How long will your trip take?
Can you put aside that much time?
How much money should you budget?
Do you have enough money or the discipline to save enough

Never mind goals! The Laozi Way

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.
— Laozi (6th century BCE)

Ancient Chinese sage Laozi — beibaoke / Shutterstock.com

The Laozi Way: no goals, no plan. Laozi has his modern disciples. They say your only needs are your first destination and an open mind. It’s a liberating way to travel — you leave home and make up your journey as you go. Every day. You let the winds blow you where they may. You let yourself say ‘Yes’ to opportunities that fall in your lap. You let a missed train or a chance encounter lead to a life-changing experience. You let fate decide.

Indecisive or free? There’s a risk you will feel restless, hesitant, lost, unmoored from a sense of purpose and achievement. Or you will feel free because you will be free. There’s no timetable, no prepaid expenses, no expectation to go there or do that.

The Laozi Way is not for the lazy. If you spend all your time lounging on beaches, you might return home with a tan and not much else. The Laozi Way is for travelers who seize the day. You may not plan, but you do keep moving, seeking cool experiences wherever you happen to be.

Can you travel the Laozi Way? Apologies to the great Chinese sage, but only a scant subset of travelers are willing to leave the quality of their experience to chance. The Laozi Way is a valid travel method and it can work if you have plenty of time, enough money (or exceptional resourcefulness instead of money) and the mental readiness for continuous uncertainty.

Factors that affect goal setting

Your time of life

Opportunities and constraints affecting your choice of goals. A mix of time, money, inexperience, commitments and health might restrict your choice of goals.

You’re young — You have more time than money. Inexperience is an asset because you’re less likely to reject ambitious goals. Lack of binding commitments helps. You’re not yet stuck with ongoing financial obligations and time constraints. You’re healthy and energetic. Your travel goals can be ambitious, exciting, more risky than a more settled person might accept. Decisions made now, fired by the pure fuel of travel, can change the rest of your life.
You’re mid-career — You have more money than time. Commitments at home can be a heavy anchor on your trip duration, budget and goals. Yet a big trip can be a chance to re-assess major decisions, such as relationships and career. Travel is notorious for nudging course corrections in life.
You’re between jobs, contracts or your own businesses — It’s possible that you’re still forced to spend all your time on a relentless quest for income. If not, you’re a young traveler all over again: money might be tight, but you have time available. Now is an opportunity to set goals and go. Bonus! Depending on your monthly recurrent expenses at home, your destinations and your style of travel, it’s possible to spend less on the road than you would staying home.
You’re retired — Although money is still a problem for many retirees, it’s possible to travel on a modest budget. Other retirees have ample funds and can spend on a more comfortable travel style. Whether you have a big bankroll or not, you’re blessed with plenty of uncommitted time. The biggest limitation for older travelers is an uncooperative body. Trekking is not an option if you have gimpy knees. Even the normal walking required by travel can be too much for older travelers with health issues. The takeaway is: Go now! Go while the body is most willing.

Traveling alone or with someone

Solo travelers can please themselves, otherwise you have to compromise. If you’re planning to travel by yourself, you can make whatever travel goals you prefer. Change them, re-prioritize them, toss them. Travel is an ocean of possibilities and the world is your oyster. But all that changes if you’re traveling with someone… or more than one!

One adult companion — An adult companion, even an intimate partner of many years, may have goals that don’t mesh with yours. A mismatch may not be obvious at first. But it will become plain when you distill your goals down to trip logistics: where to go and what to do. For example, you’re enthused for an outdoor physical challenge, such as hiking. She craves Celtic art. Your No. 1 pick is the Choquequirao trek in Peru. Her No. 1 choice is museums and artists studios in Ireland and the UK. Can you settle for hiking in Ireland? Could she switch to pre-Columbian art?
Long-term partners — If your companion is your long-term intimate partner, go through goal setting together from the beginning. Make sure you are both getting your ambitions and preferences stated as clearly as possible. Neither of you should be charging ahead, making assumptions and setting the agenda.
Other companions — If your companion is not your long-term partner, consider setting your goals separately before comparing them. They could be very different and you should know that up front. Compromise may or may not be possible.
More than one adult — Yikes! Take the 1 + 1 negotiation and multiply it. It might be easier to say to your prospective travel companions, “Who’s up for the Choquequirao trek?” and see who steps forward.
Children — Young children won’t have much to say except, “Disneyland!” But teens can have passionate opinions. All kids, regardless of age, need to feel comfortable and safe. And if they’re not having fun, neither will you. Make sure your goals (and resulting destinations and activities) include their needs.

Going with someone?

Your traveling companion can make or break your trip

about traveling together

Discover your true travel goals

Find your personal travel goals. Does deciding goals remind you of a boring whiteboard session at work or school? Maybe. But you’re committing a big chunk of your free time and a pile of money to this trip. To make the most of your journey, reach further. Think big. After you clarify your personal travel goals, your destinations and priority experiences will come into sharper focus. And you’ll be more fired-up to get going.

Stage 1: Explore existing travel plans

You have your reasons. Many of us already have compelling ideas about where to go and what to do. But what’s the foundation for those decisions? Choosing destinations and experiences before considering “why?” is putting the cart before the horse. Your goals are the horse, with your planned destinations and experiences loaded on the cart. Yet you didn’t pick those destinations and experiences for no reason. So, let’s put that cart before the horse anyway and see what’s in there.

Destinations — Make two columns on a sheet and list your proposed destinations on the RIGHT side column (Example: Tanzania)
Activities — List any major activities or experiences under each destination (Examples: Ngorongoro walking safari / Kilimanjaro climb / Zanzibar chill)
Travel goals — On the LEFT side, write any goals fulfilled by those destinations and activities. Ask yourself why you should travel to that destination to have that experience. If this is proving difficult, take a look at our sample list of goals down the page. (Our Tanzania goals: Take on a physical challenge / Increase ecological awareness / Learn about a new culture)
Put on hold — Set your sheet to one side and move on to Stage 2. We’ll come back to it there.

It’s possible that your existing travel ideas were correct and this list captures your goals already. But upon further reflection you might expand, refine or rank those goals.

Stage 2: Reasons to travel

Start from scratch. Brainstorm reasons why you want to travel. Don’t limit yourself to what you assume is practical or doable or affordable. We’re trying to pinpoint travel goals, which may not differ from your general life goals. Travel that helps fulfill general life goals is the best of all. This might be a big ask for a short trip, but mind-blowing stuff can happen in mere weeks. For a longer trip, failure to think about how travel can serve life goals is a mistake.

List your life goals — Create two columns. Write your general life goals to the LEFT. Ponder whether travel could contribute to each goal. It’s true you can manage most goals at home. Or travel might not contribute much value. Strike those from your list. Is there at least one goal left?
List travel-specific goals — List these on the RIGHT, including any you revealed in Stage 1. Travel might be the best or only way to fulfill a high-priority goal. For example, to explore your cultural roots you have to travel to ancestral homelands or locations of cultural, religious or historical importance.
Don’t mistake experiences for goals — Sightseeing, partying, shopping, trekking, surfing, going on safari and lying on the beach are not goals. They are experiences that may contribute to your goals.
Stuck for goals? — Use our sample goals list below to get ideas, but don’t let it limit you. It’s very much focused on travel goals, not general life goals.
Rank them — Re-order your goals, in order of importance. The best travel goals make powerful contributions to life goals. Depending upon the duration of your trip and your finances, you may have to limit the number of goals.
Can you change your goals? — Sure. It’s less likely that you’ll dump a goal than change goal priorities before or during your trip. Changing or re-prioritizing isn’t common during a short trip, but longer trips are legendary for fresh insights that trigger changes. That’s part of the adventure. Roll with it!

Next stage: plan experiences & destinations

Goals = the seeds of your trip
Plans = the soil where you plant them
Time and money = the water that germinates them

Because it’s something you want, a goal will incentivize your trip preparation. To fulfill your goals, you will visit destinations and have experiences on location. That’s why you should be explicit about your reasons to travel before completing your destinations and experiences.

What to do? Where to go?

A trip you’ll remember forever

how to choose

A menu of travel goals

I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

— Hilaire Belloc

Why do people travel? Easy question, right? They travel to take a break from home, see the world and have fun. Yes, those are correct answers! But you can pick more precise reasons to travel abroad. To get you started, here are examples of travel goals. Pick any that fit, combine them, rewrite them as you please or invent your own.

The advantages of traveling. The benefits of travel are pronounced on young or solo travelers. If you’re young AND solo, benefits are turbo-charged. And it never stops. Old road warriors may dismiss goal setting as a crutch for less-experienced travelers. Yet even the most grizzled traveler can gain from a goal or two. An addiction to mind-expanding adventure is a big reason veteran wanderers stay on the road.

Passive goals

Passive travel goals are changes that happen to you when you travel. You don’t have to plan for them. They will happen, regardless of where you go and what you do.

Example: improve communication skills. If you’re an introvert who labors to approach people (especially strangers) travel will cure you. You need to communicate many times every day of your trip (perhaps with people who don’t speak English). After a longer trip, the boosted confidence and improvemed communication skills will be permanent.

Sample passive goals…

Fast track breadth and depth of experience — This is obvious, but the effects can be profound. If you’re young, travel can influence important decisions before you get locked into commitments back home.
(Re)discover yourself — Solo travel means you don’t have to live up to the expectations of people you know. It reveals your personality traits to the person who matters most. You. Your beliefs, biases, strengths and weaknesses will appear in sharp relief. What will you do with that insight?
Explore career directions — Travel often jolts working people to re-evaluate their jobs and career paths. For young people who haven’t made those decisions yet, travel has even more profound effects.
Live in the present — Unless you’re a spiritual master, it’s hard to be in the present all the time. But travel drags you into the present relentlessly.

FuGazi images | Shutterstock.com
Become tolerant and understanding — When exposed to different races, ethnicities and cultures, you will appreciate the contributions they make to food, art, science, religion, language, industry, commerce, environmental stewardship and more. You may not approve of what you discover, but you’ll better understand how history, culture and circumstance made it so. By hanging out with ordinary people, you’ll realize that differences do not make enemies.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

— Mark Twain

Realize empathy — Many rich country people don’t know how fortunate they are until they travel and witness people struggling through day-to-day life. With fresh insight comes respect for the poor and oppressed.
Sharpen your mind — Travel throws so much that’s new at you. You’ll do mental gymnastics every day you’re on the move, from currency conversions to foreign language phrases.
Build confidence — The challenges of independent travel force you to cope in all kinds of unusual scenarios. Your repeated success will give you a permanent boost in confidence.
Improve communication skills — Even the most introverted traveler will learn to make herself understood by strangers, many of whom will not share a common language.
Smooth social interaction — Where deeper communication is possible, you will expand your relationships, cultural sensitivity and social graces.
Divine how to read people — You meet so many people, not all of whom have your welfare in mind. After traveling a while, you’ll develop fine-tuned radar, hinting whether a person is safe or doubtful. This radar can transcend language barriers
Master personal budgeting and cost control — If you didn’t learn this as a starving student or minimum wage worker, now is your chance. New budgeting skills will be useful throughout your life.
Unmask materialism — In poor countries, you will meet happy people getting by with much less than you. As for your own stuff: when you travel for months (years!) with everything for day-to-day living in your luggage, you will question how much stuff you need to live back home.
Upgrade risk assessment skill — You’ll be making lots of decisions, big and small, often with sparse information. You’ll have lots of practice assessing when a risk is acceptable and when it’s not.
Appreciate your own home and culture — Sure, “there’s no place like home.” But when you return there you will compare home in stark contrast with the other places and cultures you’ve experienced.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

— T. S. Eliot

Cope with pressure and gain resilience — Independent travel invites challenges such as visa problems, missed transport, attempted rip-offs, maniac drivers and more. Each one creates pressure to decide on a course of action. Over time you will get better at managing pressure and accepting the consequences of your decisions.
Enjoy health benefits of traveling — Yes, travel is infamous for digestive upsets. More serious illnesses lurk, depending on your destinations, preventive diligence and luck. Despite those possibilities, travel is good for your health. It’s a great stress reliever, getting you away from whatever was making you crazy at home. It can increase happiness, boost mood and reduce anxiety and depression. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology notes that those who travel and study abroad are more open and emotionally stable. Other studies show a correlation (not causation) between travel and reduced heart problems and other physical ailments.
Recover from emotional trauma — Travel offers a clean break to recover from traumatic events, such as illness, loss of a loved one, loss of a job or an abusive relationship. Maybe you can’t run away from a problem and will have to confront it back home, but travel will at least give you breathing space. The scene back home might cool off too.

Active goals

Active goals are those you choose and plan for. They don’t happen if you don’t build your trip around them or at least use the trip to create an environment for them to flourish. And, yes, you can fulfill most goals (in whole or in part) without leaving home. Yet the advantages of traveling for tackling goals are obvious.

Example: rejuvenate your relationship with your partner. You can work on that at home and you should. But travel clears the table of clutter (work, home chores and other relationships). Out on the road the only familiar things left will be each other. You two will solve travel problems as a team and share the joys of your trip. In all likelihood, it will be wonderful. But fair warning: most (or all) travel days you will be together all day. That’s more together time than a lot of busy couples have ever had.

Sample active goals…

Reassess your life priorities — Away from familiar constraints and social pressures, seeing new things in the world, you have a better chance to reflect than at home.
Simplify your daily life — If your life is complicated at home, travel is a liberation. You have few material possessions with you. And while travel logistics throw up challenges from time to time, daily routines are few and simple.
Take a gap year after school or a reward after a period of hard work — This isn’t a goal, it’s a gift to yourself for achieving a goal at home. Combine it with an active goal.
Gain perspective on your next career move — Travel gets you out of your workplace so that you have peace and quiet to think about what next. Enterprising travelers can explore their options on the road. Example: if you’re thinking to start a craft brewery at home, explore beer making in Belgium or Czechia.
Live and work abroad — International work experience in your profession is a huge addition to your CV. Or you can work to continue your travels. Either way you get all the benefits of traveling to a new place, a new culture and possibly a new language. But you don’t drain your wallet.
Build international business skills and networks — You can meet people, learn from them and their businesses, create and build networks for later use. Or you can initiate business deals on the go.
Become a digital nomad — Travel and work online from wherever you are. Take care and don’t assume you can do it. Being a digital nomad sounds enticing, but you still have to do loads of real work and earn real money.
Disrupt or defeat harmful habits — You might break a habit at home, but if you have to wrestle with it, getting away from the routines that support it at home can be a big boost.

One of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaded weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Home, man feels once more Happy.

— Sir Richard Francis Burton (December 2, 1856)

Learn a language — The more you learn, the deeper you can get into local culture. It’s common to learn a few phrases and numbers by spending time in a single foreign language zone. Even with instant immersion, getting to a conversational level (much less fluent) takes deliberate effort: online courses, language schools or tutors.
Lessen stress and/or boredom — Yes, this happens passively too. But you can choose to travel to get away from stress and boredom at home.
Stretch your physical limits — A popular goal for travelers of all ages, but be realistic about your abilities. Yuichiro Miura climbed Mt. Everest at 80, but you won’t.
Seek personal spiritual growth — Many travelers search on their own or journey to places of instruction to advance their spiritual quest.
Learn about your roots — Everybody’s ancestors come from somewhere or have locations of cultural, historical, religious or family significance.
Keep active and energized after retirement — Now you have the time and (maybe) the money. Travel will help keep you mind keen and body fit.
Gift your child or children — There’s little you can do for your kid or kids that’s more enriching than traveling. Make sure it’s fun!
Rejuvenate your relationship with your partner — One of the best goals. (See our example above.)
Make a clean break from a toxic relationship, heartbreak or loss — Sometimes getting away and breathing fresh air is the best thing to do.
Reignite relationships with distant friends and relatives — What can be better than seeing long-missed friends and relatives far away?
Find new friends or even romance — Travel makes it easy to make new friends, both locals and other travelers. While travel doesn’t guarantee romance, it does hothouse close relationships.
Fulfill a long-held curiosity about the world —Or special places in it. This is so general it’s not a true goal, but it can be a powerful urge nonetheless. Try to couple it with another goal.

Don’t listen to what they say, go see.

— Chinese proverb

Understand more about other peoples and cultures — This one is also passive, but you can choose a specific culture and go deeper in your learning than tourists do.
See and learn about natural environments and ecosystems — Tourism is a blessing and a curse to natural environments. Be sure your safari or other exploration of sensitive environments is a net contributor to preserving them.
Pay it back through volunteering — You can volunteer at home, but volunteering abroad gives you benefits of travel, allowing you to focus on other goals at the same time.
Get medical or dental treatment in a cheaper country — Depending on public coverage or private insurance in your home country, high quality medical and dental procedures may be available abroad for much less.

The Laozi Way. If you have no goals, don’t want any and will let serendipity decide, here are a few non-goals!

Wander — Because you have an irresistible urge to go.
Relax, party and have a good time — Default mode for many Laozi fans. Don’t get stuck in it.
Follow your gut — How to decide your next move whenever fate presents a fork in the road.
Do a digital detox — Unplug from social networks. Travel Old School, minus online booking and other resources.
Find Enlightenment — ? –> !

Not all those who wander are lost.

— JRR Tolkien