We are firm believers that travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer. Travel is such a big part of our lives, and we always have at least one trip in the works. We get asked lots of questions about how we plan our travels, so I thought it might be helpful to document our process, starting with how we find travel inspiration.
To be able to plan a trip, first you must gather some ideas of where you might want to go. Our travel bucket list is a good place to start, but it’s likely you already have a few dream destinations in mind.
This inspiration gathering process will be different for everyone, and will vary depending on your interests. For us, we find inspiration in so many different ways. Watching TV shows and movies is a great place to start. Make note of the places your favorite character visits, or where the filming locations are for the beautiful landscapes shown onscreen. We get a lot of travel inspiration from watching The Bachelor, believe it or not, as they are always traveling to cool places. They always talk a lot about the hotels they are staying in, so if you see something you like be sure to take note.
Social media is another place we gather most of our travel inspiration, particularly Pinterest and Instagram. What’s also great about these social channels is that they easily allow you to store your inspiration. Create Pinterest boards where you can start gathering places you want to see and the things you want to be able to do at these places. We have general travel boards where we pin stuff from all over the world we don’t want to forget, but we also have specific boards for destinations we are actively planning trips for. This makes it easy when you get to the planning phase to easily access the inspiration for that particular place.
Did you know you can now “bookmark” photos on Instagram? So the next time you are scrolling through your feed and see a really cool landscape or a restaurant you want to be sure to try, you can save it in your Instagram bookmarks for later access. Similar to Pinterest, organize your bookmarks into folders so you easily access later.
Other places we find inspiration are travel magazines, other blogs, and of course friend/family recommendations.
Most of the time we start with the location we want to go and research inspiration for places to stay and eat as well as things to do. But occasionally we’ll come across a really cool hotel or something as silly as these amazing ice cream cones, and plan a trip specifically around that. We’re going to London next month simply because we bought tickets to an Adele concert on a whim. Sometimes when I’m board I’ll just aimlessly search for really cool AirBnB’s. Did you know you can rent a castle?!
The most important thing to remember as you’re finding your travel inspiration is to think about organization from the start. I mentioned this with creating Pinterest boards or folders within your Instagram bookmarks, but you can easily create a document or spreadsheet, use the Notes in your phone, or if your more of a pen and paper person pick up a dedicated travel notebook where you can jot down ideas as inspiration strikes.
How do you find travel inspiration? Where are some of the places you are dy dreaming about right now? We’d love to hear!
-Ash xx