Do You Have a Travel Plan?

Why do you travel?  For many, we travel to visit family and friends. For others, it may be to relax, unwind and have fun. For me, it is also to explore and discover new things.  When you know the reasons for your travels, do you set goals?  Most of us probably do. There are things we want to accomplish when we travel.  If you have goals, do you make plans to be sure to accomplish your goals?  For those with full-time jobs and limited vacations, you probably make plans to be sure you take advantage of every moment. 

But, wait. You hate goals and planning!  You want to just make it up as you go along. Well, recently, I decided to try that. If you know me personally, you know this was tough for me. I usually like to plan ahead so I can see and do a lot of things in a limited amount of time. As you may have guessed, I really hated the experience of "winging it". When I would talk to other campers, they would ask if I had seen or done something in a place I visited and I hadn't. I felt like I was missing things. It was like I was going on a hike without a map. I felt lost. 

So, to help myself out a little bit, I made an "explorer's checklist".  This list is not a must-do list. Instead, it is a list of ideas.  About a month before I go somewhere, I look to see if there are any places to go or things to do in the area where I am going to be. Then I make a note on the checklist if things need advance reservations. Otherwise, I just fill out the list with ideas and then it is available as I decide each day what I might like to do based on the weather.  Below are things I look for in the places where I go. You can edit this list based on your own reasons for traveling. If you think I missed something important, add a comment at the end of this post to share your ideas.

MY EXPLORER'S CHECKLIST

People I Love

1. Family
2. Friends

Cultural Heritage

1. UNESCO sites
2. Churches
3. Museums
4. Other Locally Significant Places

Food and Drinks

1. Farmer's Markets and Pick Your Own Farms
2. Breweries, Distilleries, and Vineyards
3. Restaurants, Pubs and Cafes

Outdoor Adventures

1. National Parks and Provincial Parks
2. Hiking Trails
3. Amazing View, Waterfalls and Scenic Photo Opportunities

Wonderful Wildlife

1. Regionally Unique Animals, Birds, and Plants to Find and See

Meeting New People

1. Campground Socials, Game Nights, Outings
2. Travel Club Membership Rallies 
3. Work Events (Young Living conferences, VIPID Meet-Ups)

Just for Fun

1. Concerts
2. Fairs
3. Festivals
4. Shows

But, what about those of us who live, work, and travel full-time in an RV? Do we have other goals for our travels? Are there EPIC GOALS that go beyond just one place? Well, since you asked, yes there are.

First, for many of the full-time RV travelers I've met, they want to visit all 50 states in the United States of America (USA). Some of my fellow campers also want to visit all of the provinces and territories in Canada. I must confess, this is one of my travel goals. I even bought sticker maps to display the progress I made for others to see. If you see an RV in a campground, look around and see if you can find their map. If they have one, they are telling you that they would like to share stories about their travels, so ask them about the places they've been. It makes those few awkward conversational moments a little easier when you first meet your camping neighbors. My USA and Canada maps are on my entry door and every time I go in and out of my camper, I smile to see how many places I visited.  As of today, while living full-time in my RV, I visited 21 states and 3 Canadian provinces. My RV maps show the states and provinces where my RV has been, as well as places I've lived or camped in Canada. For example, I've lived in Alberta for a summer and I've tent camped in the Northwest Territories and Ontario, so I put these stickers on my map.  Now, you might be saying this violates the unwritten RV sticker map rules, but hey, each of us makes our own rules for how we use these maps. If you set this goal for yourself, you get to set your own rules, too.

Second, since many RV campers are planning to travel the entire country, they set a secondary goal to visit all of the national parks in the USA. As of 2019, there are 61 places designated as national parks.  This year, I added this to my EPIC goal list. You can buy maps similar to the sticker maps to chronicle your progress. Unfortunately, I don't have any free wall space right now to hang a map, so I am checking them off on a paper checklist that I keep in my travel journal. While I have visited many of these parks in my lifetime, I would like to visit them again in my RV travels. Acadia National Park is the first park I re-visited while living and traveling in my RV. I will tell you more about this amazingly beautiful park in a future post.

So, let me ask you again, "Why do you travel?" and "Do you make a plan to help you meet your travel goals?"  I hope this quick post has inspired you to travel with a goal in mind and maybe even make a little bit of a plan.  

If you have some time, post your reasons for traveling in the comments section below. If no one else has posted comments yet, click the "no comments" link to open the comment box. Thank you for sharing.

I hope that whatever your reasons for traveling, you have an amazing adventure!