There is no doubt in my mind that for those of us with incurable wanderlust (read: a STRONG desire to travel), we are struggling with the indefinite travel restrictions in place right now. Of course, those restrictions are for our safety and abiding by them is very important. But for those of us who LOVE to travel, rely on travel for various reasons, or even constantly dream of travel, it’s a weird & unprecedented time. So, for the mean time, I’m going to dream. And, I want YOU to dream with me! Let’s talk about the 6 Ways to Cure Your Wanderlust!
Cure #1. Dream
We dream of travel a lot in our house.
Dreaming is SAFE and it is always FREE.
Are you a beach lover? Browse the internet for the Top 10 Beaches in the World and dream of which one you’ll visit next. Hint: Research & find the one that gives you all the warm fuzzy feels & put it on your dream board!
Are you an adventure junkie? Perhaps boarding a rubber boat and taking a journey into the middle of the Jokulsarlon Lagoon in Iceland is what you dream of.
Slide down the Pinterest rabbit hole of fun by searching for “Iceland Family Adventure Guide” or a “Foodie Guide to Portland, Maine.” Whatever type of travel suits your fancy, you’ll find it on Pinterest.
I do caution you – I’ve spent many hours going down this travel dreaming rabbit hole and have gotten completely sucked in! However, I should add, that I absolutely LOVED every minute of it!
Grab your favorite travel catalogs or travel agent flyers that you recieve in the mail. Y’all – I receive the thickest, glossiest, most delicious travel book every year from the Wilderness Travel Company. It only comes once per year and you can bet that I save that baby all year long until the next one arrives. I refer back to it on the weekly and dream of all the fantastic places I hope to go.
Browse old editions of travel magazines such as Travel & Leisure, Afar and Conde Nast! Recently, I found an old copy of a favorite travel publication from September 2015 in my magazine rack! I was wondering why the heck I held onto it? Oh yes. Then I looked at the dog-eared, tattered pages and I rememberd – there was an article about Zanzibar, Africa. I dream of Zanzibar. I will hang onto this article for another 5 years if I have to.
Cure #2. Create (or ammend) Your Bucket List
For all of you reading this with a lengthy bucket list –
YOU are my people.
For those of you with bucket list ideas of scaling the Peruvian mountains, diving the Great Barrier Reef, seeing all of Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower. YOU are my people. For all of you with amazing Staycation ideas of acting like a tourist in your home city. YOU are my people. Large or small, let’s add to that list during this time, shall we?
So, while I’m highly imaginative, I’m also super analytical and a tinge geeky. I love charts, spreadsheets, diagrams – GAHHH! So, during this time of dreaming and wanderlusting, we’ve started to ammend our bucket list with sub categories of “Adventure Travel,” “Family Road Trips,” “Foodie Travels,” “Staycations” – You name it and we’ve probably created a category for it.
I love lofty bucket lists. The ones which appear unattainable, but are not. Nothing and no where is unattainable in this life. Research, plan, save, travel, repeat. Now go grab some coffee (or wine, depending on the time of day) and grab that bucket list & add to it!!
Cure #3. Reminisce
Grab a glass of wine + dessert (Do you notice a theme here? Drinks & food are always involved in our travels!) and go through old travel photos, travel memory books, videos, drone footage or journals of vacations that you’ve already taken & absolutely loved!
Talk about WHY it was so incredible. What did you love about that particular trip? Was there something that you didn’t care for? Did something crazy happen on that trip? Talk about that, too!
Tell the stories. Relive the amazing memories.
This will keep you going until your next adventure AND it will help you to relive some amazing times in your life!
Cure #4. Turn Your Travel Photos Into Keepsakes
I used to make scrapbooking and memory-keeping a priority. My rule was that I had to have the photo book created within a year of the trip. Rules – Schmules. Welp, I had several kids, owned my own business, built a house and unfortunately had to shift my time to other things. That rule got thrown out the window in a hot minute.
During this time of sheltering-in-place, I’m playing “catch up” on creating photo books and creating travel memory keepsakes that will last our family a lifetime! My favorite website to use is Mixbook.com Mixbook offers the largest selection of photo book sizes, options for layouts and pages, bindings, and book finishes in the industry. Their beautiful quality is unparalleled – thick, glossy pages printed with vibrant, brilliant ink. They also offer frequent sales which is a win in my book!
*All opinions of Mixbook are my own. I am a Mixbook affiliate, which means at no additional cost to you, I may earn a money if you click the link below. For full details, visit my Privacy & Disclosure Policy Page.*
Cure #5. Play Travel-Related Games & Read Travel Books
My children recently discovered the Trip Talk Game by Melissa & Doug and it is SO FUN! These cards spark great conversation and it allows the dreamer inside of us to come alive!
I also love these other travel-related games and books below. There’s no better way to temporarily cure my wanderlust than with a game of Travel Bingo or flipping through a book about the globe’s best destinations!
Cure #6. Discuss Your Travel Dreams With an Avid Traveler or Travel Advisor
There is no better way to see your dreams come to fruition than to discuss and make a plan for when the time is right!
Talk to a friend who is an experienced traveler OR discuss your dreams with a travel advisor. These experienced individuals may offer some really great tips & options for you to research! Many travel advisors, such as myself, LOVE to talk about travel in general and want to provide you with the trip of your dreams! Often times, travel advisors have access to travel products, packages and options that aren’t offered to the public and may be exactly what you are looking for.
If you have a travel dream, I’d be honored to help you curate the vacation of your dreams. As a full service global travel advisor, I can help you plan and execute any size travel dream you may have. For more information, please contact me:
218-259-7090
or
tarahallie@hotmail.com
Create an action plan. Save. Travel. Repeat
While nothing but the physical act of travel can completely cure our wanderlust, I sure hope you’ve found solace in the list above. I find comfort in the hope that one day, the world will return to some semblance of normal, and that we will get to discover new places and journey again.
Feel the sand between our toes.
Gaze up at an ink black sky and witness a shooting star or view the great Northern Lights.
Climb one of the world’s tallest towering mountains.
Whatever your travel dream is…I sure hope you can use this time to relive, reminisce and get ready for whatever is next.
Until next time…Eat Well. Travel Often. Love Much.
xoxo
Fabulous logo, great blog, and wonderful post! Thank you for sharing. We too went to Kauai – probably one of our favorite destinations on the planet!! Blessings!
Thank you so much for the kind compliment! You’re so welcome for sharing! Kauai is one of our favorite family destinations as well. We’d love to go back soon!
Great list. Creating travel books with photos is a great idea. They take so much time and now we have it!
The photo books do take so much time. I’m hoping to create at least 1 during this quarantine time. I’m glad you found the list helpful!
Great ideas! I’ve got making photo books from our last few trips on my list of things to do!
That’s great; good for you!
Yes! I should be working on my bucket list during this down time. I mean I have a big one but organizing it and adding to it are needed.
HA! We sat down and looked at ours and surprisingly we had not added to it in a few years! So…this makes a great time to be looking it over again!
Love this! Definitely dreaming of my next vacation!
Thank you – Dreaming is the best thing we can do right now!
Great ideas! I reminisce regularly, but only plan when I’m going somewhere. I should change that!
Planning ahead may help you make a quick decision when the time is right – good luck!
I love this post so much! You nailed each point, and best of all, it’s free/low cost.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m glad you found it useful.
Great ideas to occupy a wandering mind while grounded….
The wandering mind is a beautiful place…
Great ideas! I kind of do this stuff all the time, reading about places I want to go and figuring out what I can do along the way. Even today, I was looking at Disney World menus to see what I could get away with trying with my picky family! Ha!
I’m brewing a cup of coffee now, I wish I could sit down, relax, dreamily gaze and revise my bucket list but no, I’m just starting the day of working from home. It’ll be a glass of wine tonight for cure #2 & 3 then -:)
I need to order a copy of the Wilderness Travel book! I’ve never heard of it but it looks incredible.
It is my absolute favorite travel magazine that I receive. It’s SO gorgeous! Beware: You WILL get sucked in!
Good ideas memorize travel
Thank you!
These are all great ideas to help the travel tribe during this time. I’m currently organizing my photos (which is way overdue) and will definitely be looking into creating some keepsake photo books.
Karen – when you’re done, could you come over and organize my travel photos?! HAHAHA! Seriously, I could spend weeks just working on this task…but it must get done at some point. Thanks for the compliment & for reading the post!
Such great ideas, thanks! I need to work on my travel photo organization for sure!
Thank you for the compliment!
Great ideas! I’m so missing my travel days right now.
Thank you & I agree! It’s so hard to be grounded…but we will travel again!
I’ve been channeling my desire to travel into working on my blog, and looking at other travel blogs for places to add to my bucket list. We also purchased a large wooden wall map that you have to assemble (think large wall puzzle) and will spend some time as a family putting that together.
That wall puzzle sounds like a really fun idea! And…such great things to be doing during this “down time” of no travel. I too, and working on my blog by getting “caught up” on writing.
We’ve been talking a lot about where we want to go when the travel ban is lifted. The girls have been asking me to get up to date with organizing our photos. I need to get on that.
Organizing photos is such a daunting task but a very important one – good luck & happy travel dreaming!
What a great post! I love the layout and the recommendations. We’ve been working on our bucket list, as well as prioritizing when we want to do different trips. Right now Disney World, Hawaii, and Napa seem to be the ones we’ve agreed on to try to do over the course of this next year. Hopefully we can make it happen!
Thank you for the compliment! Those sounds like fantastic destinations once we can travel again! Hawaii is one of our favorites – what islands are you thinking of?
I love all of these idea! I dream and plan and dream somemore!
Dreaming is the perfect thing to do right now!
Reminiscing is about all I can do now. Maybe some planning but not wanting to get my hopes up too soon!
It’s tough not to get our hopes up, isn’t it?!
I enjoy reading travel books.
Me too…so much fun!
I don’t want a cure for wanderlust! But these are great ways to keep it at bay until we can travel again.
I understand! Perhaps a Way to “Distract” us from Wanderlust!
I love this list! Dreaming and planning my next trip is all that’s keeping me sane through this!
Absolutely; we fully agree!
Great tips for keeping the wanderlust alive during these times of travel restrictions. I needed this!
Great; that’s fantastic! Thank you for reading it!
Finally having some time to make our photo keepsakes. Mike’s grandma sent us a photo book of our travel pics for his recent birthday and we loved it! We wanna make more. Feeling incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful travel memories to reminisce !
I get it…I fell like we’ve traveled so much over the last several years that there wasn’t time in between to create the keepsakes. Now, we have nothing but time on the ground! Travel books are such a wonderful keepsake; good luck making yours. You have such wonderful travels to remember!!
These are some great ideas to help us get through this tough time. I’m a lofty bucket list person also! There are just so many amazing places to see in the world, and in your backyard.
Yes! So many places near & far so organizing those now will help us make better, quicker decisions in the future!
I’m finally getting around to rewriting my posts from my Route 66 road trip in April 2018. Those were my first blogging attempts and need work.
That’s a great project, Stan. Rewriting blog posts is a great thing to do during this “down time.”
These are great ways to cure wanderlust when stuck at home. I am beyond ready to start traveling again!
We are too…hang in there! It’ll happen soon enough!
Great ideas. I have been doing all of these lately to keep my sanity!
I get it…it’s about all we can right now! Hang in there!