Travel Goals To Tick Off Your Bucket List This Year

January is a bit of a ‘nothing’ month, with the excitement of Christmas and the new year over and it’s back to work it can leave us feeling a little dull and uninspired. But actually, January is an excellent month to start making plans. You have a fresh new year stretched out ahead of you, so it’s time to start deciding what you want to do with it. Where do you want to go, what do you want to see? Here are just a few of the travel goals you could add to your bucket list for 2017.

From source: Pexels

Be A Tourist In Your Home Town/ City

Travelling somewhere new is always exciting, and when wanderlust starts creeping in chances are you start picturing all kinds of exotic places. But when was the last time you explored the place right under your feet? Everywhere has places of interest, there are bound to be sights, tourist attractions and things to do that you’ve either never bothered to see or haven’t explored in many years. If you live in the countryside, you could go on a hike, explore woods and go camping with friends. If you live in a city, you could check out the different attractions and things to do that it offers. Don’t just disregard the place where you live, take the time to enjoy it and see and do everything that’s available.

Volunteer Abroad

Volunteering allows you to help others while building your skills and gaining new experiences. Many countries in the world have different kinds of volunteering opportunities available, so decide on what kind of projects interest you most and go from there. For example, if you want to help abandoned children by building orphanages you could volunteer in Ghana. If you want to help with conservation efforts and wildlife, you could volunteer in Australia. If you already speak another language such as Spanish, you could volunteer somewhere like South America by teaching children to speak English. It looks incredible on your CV; you get to see a different part of the world, and it can give you a new perspective on your own life too.

Go Backpacking

Backpacking allows you to see the world in a completely different way. Instead of relaxing in a five-star resort, you’re mixing with the locals, exploring the area, travelling by foot and public transport. You can immerse yourself in a culture and get to understand a place in a way that just isn’t possible when you’re on a luxury vacation. You could sign up with a chain of hostels and travel from place to place, meeting other explorers and like-minded people. If you don’t have a whole lot of money, this is also ideal since backpacking is much cheaper than other forms of travel. If you’re new to backpacking, you could sign up with a tour group, or you and your friends could sit down together and plan your own route.

From source: Pexels

What are your travel goals for this year?

Cherry Blossoms In New York's Central Park

I love New York and I already sound like a broken record saying that. Everybody who knows me too well know for a fact that I am quite fussy when it comes to traveling and I have my set criteria for me to like a certain place. And New York has that charm that draws me to it like moth to a fire.

We've been to New York a number of times already. Most of our travels are during autumn and spring and never on winter. Why not winter? It is because, you'll never know when you'll get stuck because of a blizzard. We have had the misfortune of getting stuck in New York during Hurricane Sandy and we wouldn't re-live the fear by exposing ourselves to inclement weather system during winter. It can be brutal. So, we prefer the not-so-cold seasons of Spring and Autumn.

We spent few days last April 2012 in New York City. It was only 3 nights and 4 days but I made sure to check another bucket item in my bucket list - to see Cherry Blossoms regardless of country or city. And April was the perfect time to view the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.

We went straight to Central Park because they have lovely Cherry Blossoms there. We had fun with the photo op under the Cherry Tree branches filled with lovely pink blooms. I feel bad though that our daughter couldn't come because her passport was being renewed. So, I took these lovely snaps for her to view and enjoy virtually.

This is my favorite photo, the jump shot! :)

Seeing these pretty flowers in the flesh is a dream come true! Next goal is to see them in their country of origin - Japan!

Disneyland Resort in Shanghai

Well, what do you know? I was just casually browsing through DisneyPark.com's site and was going through the different Disney parks we have visited in the past and the ones we have yet to visit. I'm so surprised to see Shanghai in the other park's location in the list.

I have heard of  the  rumors sometime back but  really  never  paid  much attention until  I saw the  branch of Disneyland Resort Shanghai was  added in  the website. If you  want to read more about it,  just follow this URL to be directed to the Disneyland Resort Shanghai page in English: http://en.shanghaidisneyresort.com.cn/en/about/

The image is from disneypark.com.

I was just telling my daughter that there's another site added in the Disneyland parks we have to visit. I thought we were down to California and Orlando, Florida to complete the "bucket list" of visiting all the Disney resorts around the world.

This can only mean one thing - time to save some major moolah!

My Travel Goals For 2014

It has been a wonderful year for my family in terms of traveling. We managed to visit Niagara and Tokyo this year which made me tick several items off my bucket list.

It's been really great so I am looking forward to 2014 with more destinations in mind, more attractions to see, more great stuff to discover, more food to taste and more culture to immerse ourselves to.

2014 will be a busy year for us as my daughter starts college back home. That means, our travels will become tricky as we are miles apart. Unlike this year, we are all coming from Dubai so it is easier to plan our travels and getaways. Once she is back home, we will have to plan our leave dates according to her new schedule.

The changes to come in our schedules and living arrangement will not dampen our desire to see the world. For 2014, I plan to go to Canada and Australia, covering both the northern and southern part of the globe. It won't happen one after the other as the terrible jet lag will be too hard to miss. I also want to include another Japan trip next year, perhaps in a different prefecture like Kyoto or Okinawa where we will see more of nature and pagodas. I also want to visit more US states next year aside from our favorite NYC! I like to visit Washington D.C., Massachusetts, San Francisco, Seattle, Texas, Florida and Georgia.

Those are a lot of places to see, countries to visit and definitely more money to spend. But there's no harm in dreaming and when I dream, I want to dream big!