That looks interesting: Starting your travel journey

“Don’t listen to what they say, go see”

Full disclosure – when I say I’m taking a trip it generally means I’m crossing an ocean. I define travel as anywhere outside of the country where I reside – the United States. That’s not to say that the USA doesn’t have places of interest that I’ve seen, but for the purposes of this blog I’m focusing on things to see in the rest of the world.

Pick something

Person, place or thing – maybe you know someone who lives in a place you’ve never been, or you viewed a photo that piqued your interest. Or perhaps you want to know what pizza and pasta taste like in Italy as opposed to at home. Most of my travel experiences have been because I saw something of interest in print or on television and decided to see it in person. I also became determined during my trip to Egypt to see as many wonders of the world as possible, as well as visit as many continents as I could.

Do some research

At a minimum you want to know what travel documents are required i.e passport and visa, the language(s) spoken, security concerns, medical concerns, whether or not the water is safe to drink, the local currency and prevalence of banks/atms, the weather, and available transportation options. Once you decide on a place you should also register your trip with the Department of State in case of an emergency.

Research sources:

• US Department of State
• CDC
• Country tourism/travel website
• Travel Blogs

Know yourself and plan accordingly

I’m not a camper, I don’t care for bugs and I like structured spontaneity. That being said, you’re probably not going to find me backpacking anywhere and my trips will involve hotel stays and planned itineraries with flexibility. No, I don’t schedule myself down to the exact minute but I do like to know how long it takes to get there, have a general idea of sites I want to see and things to eat. This knowledge helps when deciding how many days to spend in a location. To date, the farthest destination I’ve been is Sydney, Australia which was a 26 hour travel journey – with a layover in Dubai. My shortest international flight (leaving North America) was 6 hours to Reykjavik, Iceland. If you know you don’t like long flights, decide on your flight time limit and then look for places within it or make sure your trip includes a layover – book the flight in more manageable time lengths for you. (There’s also the option of cruises, trains and road trips).