Where do you get your travel inspiration and how do you arrive at your final decision? Do you decide? Your partner? Are you brave and leave it up to your kids? Or perhaps you’re the kind of person who thinks, ‘what the heck’ and just sticks a pin in the map, leaving the decision to chance.
We do a combination of tactics. There’s some collaboration between my husband and I as we refer to our travel bucket list (and our budget). There’s much flicking through Conde Nast Traveller for inspiration and recommendations from friends and other travel bloggers.
Now we are restricted to school holidays we don’t have many options on WHEN we go (so that narrows the options down). But I always consult my Lonely Planet Where To Go When book which has recommendations on places to visit in certain months depending on climate, festivals and various other factors.
As our two daughters get older, we’re involving them more in our decisions. We spend time looking at our globe and world map and dreaming about places we will visit. Mrs T (5) recently revealed her ideal holiday destination and will often throw up ideas such Disney World (of course), skiing, Iceland and even Russia!
One thing I’d never thought of doing was using my own name to get travel inspiration. Thanks to Flight Centre, that has added an extra dimension to travel planning. It has come up with a fun Travel Name Game to help with travel inspiration.
Using data from real bookings, it shows the most popular destinations visited by others of the same name. I popped Elizabeth into the search bar and it returned some interesting results.
Sydney
It has been eight years since my then-fiance and I visited the Australian city. It was my second time, visiting it first during my gap year. We stayed in far better accommodation than I did back there but the beaches, sunshine and city was still as I remembered. There’s something magical about being in a beach city. Knowing that the sand and sea are just a short journey away after work, definitely adds to the relaxed vibe this city exudes.
New York
The US city of New York is very close to my heart. It is where I got engaged! Paul popped the question in Central Park. Even though we had been together for three years, it was a huge surprise to me, rendering me speechless (which doesn’t happen very often). We went to the nearby Park Plaza hotel to celebrate with champagne then spent a fabulous weekend exploring the city. I’d love to go back – just the two of us – to relive some of the experience. I’m also looking forward to introducing the city to our daughters.
Auckland
New Zealand is undoubtably on our travel list. I visited during my backpacking days but my husband has never been. One of my oldest friends lives out there so we HAVE to go at some point. We’ll have our own local tour guide when we do. I know a visit to the Bay of Islands will be in order (I’ve never been) as well as exploring the awe-inspiring scenery of New Zealand’s South Island. It’s a magnificent country and I know my daughters will love its scenery and great outdoors.
How do you get your travel inspiration? What country did your name throw up in the Travel Name Game.
*Written in collaboration with Flight Centre
**Pictures courtesy of Pixabay
We have quite similar reasoning and after over 20 years of extensive travelling I know well what’s a good value for money / sensible budget for mosr destinations ? plus as you say being now limited to school holidays and escalated prices for those weeks, now there’s an added challenge, luckily there’s still plenty of hidden gems and less known destinations that my boys are keen on. As holidays are for all of us there has been no mention ever of Disneyland…? I’d love to go back to Australia with all of us, Sydney is soo cool and I loved/ we talk often about Kangaroo island and the Great Ocean Road – both magic! X
The school holidays are a big challenge – but doable – and great to find those hidden gems. I’m looking forward to revisiting Australia with the girls!
That is a very fun idea – I’m a bit like you that I always have a list of ideas, a stash of magazines with more inspiration, lovely blogs inspiring me more (of course!) and my daughter would like to visit everywhere featured in Go Jetters, so that gives us quite a list 🙂
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Mrs T is really getting into Go Jetters now so keeps coming out with these places. It’s actually rather educational!