The Quest for Amazing Destinations

As someone whose bucket list is so long that it is easier to ask what is not on it, answering the question of how to find amazing destinations is easy for me. How to choose which one should be next is the harder question! But for people struggling with the first question, here are some helpful tips to help you find that next great destination.

What Makes You Smile?

There are so many amazing places in the world that you could spend a lifetime exploring and never get to them all. Really almost any place can be a worthwhile travel destination if you approach it with the right attitude and plan it the right way, with curiosity and an open mind. While many of the places I go are beautiful and picture worthy, I’ve also been to places that are not necessarily awe-inspiring visually but the people you meet, food you eat or the lessons you learn more than make up for the visual lack of interest. It all depends on your goals for that particular trip and how you chose to experience it.

Of course, what is valuable for me in a destination may not be important for you so the first step in picking a location is determining your passions. Ask yourself this simple question: What brings you joy? Is it being out in stunning scenery, visiting a world class museum, listening to an amazing street performance, eating mouth-watering cuisine, having a thrilling adventure? These passions should be the driver to determine the places you want to explore, of course blending these with all of your travel companions’ passions as well! My passions are landscape photography, being out in nature and life-long learning which blends well with my husband’s desire for physical activity, interest in people and curiosity in exploring new places. We’ve discovered that the trips that include places to hike and immerse ourselves in nature, historical cities that allow us to step back into another time and place, and/or destinations that tell us a story we haven’t heard before all work really well for us.  Great pubs with great beer are a welcome bonus particularly after long hikes!

Time for Armchair Exploration

Once you’ve discovered those things that make you smile, how do you find those places that fulfill what you are looking for? Done right, this can be almost a daily source of pleasure. There are many tools out there for exploring great destinations but these are the ones that I use most consistently:

Instagram

So many of the places I go are inspired by the world class photographers I follow on Instagram. Instagram has a great feature that allows you to bookmark and categorize posts you like which makes it really easy to build a list. I have a category called “Future vacations” filled with jaw dropping photos of the worlds most incredible places that serves as a visual bucket list for me. A lot of the accounts I follow also give helpful tips in their posts so I have a base to start planning from when we commit to a location.

These are some of the accounts I follow. Of course if your passion is food and not nature and photography, you will want to find accounts of foodies who travel the world. But these are fun to follow whatever your passions!

Travel Communities / Blogs

Our goal is for Oh, the Places You Go! to be one of those places for people to share their ideas and inspire others to travel to amazing destinations. Here are some other communities out there you can use for inspiration as well with slightly different angles.

Thoughtful Travelers: This is a community of travelers run by the Australian author of Not a Ballerina blog. There is a FB group for discussion and a podcast called Thoughtful Travelers. While the content is sometimes more geared for why and how people should travel, there is a lot of discussion about unusual travel destinations that might encourage you to do something a little different.

Rick Steves: If you love Europe and want to insight into the countries there, Rick Steves’ website, tv show, radio show, travel community and blog is a treasure trove on information. I use this more after determining my destinations but it could serve as a good source with finding places to go as well. Just beware that when he outs a destination as being a quaint “secret” place, it quickly gets overrun since his followers are many and truly follow where he goes.

Travel Companies: While I tend to mostly do independent travel, I do love looking at tour companies websites and see the fascinating itineraries they put together. When my kids were young, we didn’t travel as much as I wish we had, but we always traveled vicariously through the brochures of Back Roads imagining biking through Tuscany or hiking through Japan. Classic Journeys has some great itineraries as well as also has them categorized by culture, walking, culinary and family so you can see what places would fit your passions. I can’t speak to the tours themselves since I haven’t been on them but they are great sites to get inspired.

Books/ Movies / TV

Note: Books mentioned are linked to IndieBound through affiliate links. Purchases made through these links help independent bookstores and provides us with a little commission to help run our site.

Have you ever watched a movie and the stunning scenery immediately inspires you to look up where it was filmed or read a book where the intriguing culture makes you want to visit? I often find inspiration for destinations in books, movies or tv shows and frequently look up where something was filmed to see if it would make a suitable trip. When watching Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit how could you not want to instantly jump on a plane and head to New Zealand? Or go to the UK to visit the Cotswolds, the original place author J.R.R. Tolkien based Hobbiton on?  Visit the centuries old castles and palaces in Croatia where the Game Of Thrones was filmed. Ride the “Hogwarts Express” train through Scotland while reminiscing about Harry Potter. It’s really easy to find where these locations are by searching for the name of the show and filming locations or looking for author interviews if inspired by a book.

Of course, there are wonderful books that also showcase fantastic destinations, like National Geographic Journeys of a Lifetime and the classic 1000 Places to See Before You Die, updated in a beautiful coffee table version. One of the most fun of these is Atlas Obscura: An Explorers Guide to the Worlds Hidden Wonders which not only highlights natural wonders like glowworm caves in NZ but also crazy festivals, man-made marvels and tacky museums. It celebrates the wacky and weird as well as the truly wonderful. There is a beautifully illustrated children’s version of the book for your younger explorers. And you can visit the website/blog for even more inspiration.

Ok, Sounds Great…But Can You Just Give Me Some Ideas?

What, you don’t find research fun? Well, for some more immediate satisfaction, here are some of my favorite places. And you can visit our gallery for even more ideas!

Historic Cities

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Stunning Scenery

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Quaint Towns

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Cultural, Spiritual or Architectural Treasures

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Hope you have found some inspiration here and get as much enjoyment out of armchair travel as I do when adding to my ever growing bucket list. Next up for us is Portugal, or possibly Torres del Paine, Patagonia. Iceland would be cool and Yosemite is always near the top…maybe a long trip to New Zealand or walking El Camino in Spain? So many possibilities! What’s on your list? What would you recommend to others? Let me know in the comments.

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