Are you dreaming of unforgettable adventures and far-flung destinations but have so many questions and just feel confused? Where do you find inspiration? What do you include in your plans? How can you keep track of all of your ideas? Where do you even start?
The first step in turning your dreams into reality is getting yourself organised with making a travel bucket list but this can be just as confusing with that endless social media doom scrolling all talking about manifestation with perfectly curated vision board, meanwhile you don’t even know where you want to go …
That’s okay though, you don’t have to have it all figured out to create a bucket list. Figuring it all out is kind of the whole point in creating your bucket list in the first place!
A travel bucket list gives you a focus, it should be personal, inspirational and achievable all at the same time, but where do you start in creating one that makes sense for you?
What’s in this post?
In this post we run through 13 tips you need to remember when making a travel bucket list. From what to include, to where to research destinations, and what you can do to make achieving your bucket list easier. We also answer some of your burning questions like how to come up with ideas for your bucket list or how to turn these ideas into a good bucket list.
If there’s something on this list you’re particularly interested in you can skip straight there by clicking on that section in the contents below. If not, then scroll down to learn our tips for making a travel bucket list.
- What’s in this post?
- 1. Have multiple easy things to tick off on a weekend
- 2. Have things that are harder to accomplish and will take longer to tick off
- 3. Create a vision board
- 4. Write everything down
- 5. Be flexible
- 6. Have a good mix of places, attractions and experiences
- 7. Do a deep dive on Youtube
- 8. Browse popular travel destination lists for inspiration
- 9. Break bigger ideas down
- 10. Create a place to save your ideas
- 11. Incorporate your hobbies and interests
- 12. Add things you’ve already done and tick them off
- 13. Involve other people
- FAQs for how to make a travel bucket list
- Summary of the tips to making a travel bucket list
- Read these next …
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1. Have multiple easy things to tick off on a weekend
When people think of bucket lists they think of far away destinations on the other side of the world 🌎, and it’s great to have some of these options on your bucket list if that’s what excites you.
However, to help you stay motivated to start achieving your bucket list it’ll help you to have a few things you can tick off a little easier than a two week vacation in paradise.
Think of places, experiences or destinations you can accomplish in a long weekend or a day trip to a nearby city to tick something off. For example an item on our list of family bucket list ideas is lunch at Borough Market which could easily be ticked off on a day trip to London if you live within a few hours from the city.
2. Have things that are harder to accomplish and will take longer to tick off
It’s good to have a mixture of easy things you can tick off your list quicker and some big ticket items that will take longer and cost more but provide you with that are more aspirational.
Where these places will be and the experiences you choose will largely depend on what part of the world you’re in but some ideas for your inspirational bucket list can include trekking through the rainforest, laying on a beach in Thailand, doing a safari in Tanzania, or eat Mickey shaped food at a Disney park.
3. Create a vision board
There’s a reason there are so many videos on social media about manifestation and vision boards. Making a vision board is really easy and you can make a physical copy of a digital version on graphic design platforms like Canva.
Manifestation is the idea that focusing your thoughts, emotions and actions can bring your goals and dreams into reality. Essentially, you’re attracting the life and travel you want through believing that they will become reality.
There are whole websites and video content about how to create a vision board to manifest the life you want. Some websites I like are the Artful Parent who has a really clear step by step on how to create a physical vision board, and the Boss Project who goes into detail on how to create a digital vision board – there’s no right or wrong way, it really depends on your preference.
What better way to view all of your travel dreams than in a board full of pictures!
4. Write everything down
I’m a list person! Especially when I have a list of tasks or are trying to organise a load of ideas in my brain.
Writing everything down is the first thing I do when I’m creating a bucket list. You can see all of your ideas clearly in front of you which makes it easier to organise and group them. Some common ways to group them can include,
- Destination – if your bucket list is global this would be grouped by continent, if it’s a bucket list of a particular country you could group by city.
- Excitement level – have one group with all the ideas that really excite you and one with ideas that are still cool but wouldn’t be top of your list
- Type of travel – group these by activity level (adventure or relaxing) or by activity (hiking, beach or skiing)
- Cost – Decide what is a low, medium and high budget for you and group them by these categories. This will be individual to you, where you live and what your overall budget is.
5. Be flexible
Flexibility is important in your bucket list as sometimes things don’t turn out the way we’d hoped, life changes could happen or countries that were once safe aren’t places you’d now want to travel to.
Some easy ways to include flexibility in your bucket list are,
- Have a range of places, experiences and activities so that moving one or switching it out for something else doesn’t derail all of your plans.
- Track your bucket list digitally so you can easily flex your plans including hotel bookings or travel plans.
- Keep your bucket list manageable by narrowing your ideas down to an achievable amount of ideas. We can all choose 250 amazing places to visit but it’s unlikely we’d be able to achieve all of them.
- Regularly review and evolve your bucket list as your lifestyle changes. You can do this quarterly, after you tick something off, or whenever you have a big life change like having a child or moving to a more expensive house.
6. Have a good mix of places, attractions and experiences
A huge tip to making your bucket list achievable is to make it varied.
This means incorporating a wide range of different places, attractions and experiences so no matter your specific interests or budget at the time you’ll be able to find at least one item to tick off during your travels.
For instance, on my bucket list is to visit Thailand, visit Khao Sok National Park, and Travel through the Phang Nga Bay. With one two week holiday to Thailand we were able to tick two activities and one destination off our bucket list.
7. Do a deep dive on Youtube
Whether you’re looking for travel bucket list inspiration, or want to research a specific destination or experience YouTube is a great tool to use. With so many different videos available you’re bound to find something useful that can help you plan.
I always do a real deep dive into YouTube when I’m planning to visit somewhere so here are my top 3 tips,
- Focus on more recent videos to avoid getting outdated information. I try to stick to the last 2 -3 years depending on what kind of video it is.
- If you find a creator that draws you in and you enjoy their video style then subscribe to keep track of them and look through the rest of the videos on their channel
- Search with a specific keyword in mind. If you’re looking for things to do in Boston with kids but you just search travel to Boston then you’re going to find a lot of irrelevant videos about where to stay and activities that may not be suitable for kids
8. Browse popular travel destination lists for inspiration
Travel is increasingly popular so there’s plenty of inspiration out there for you, whether you’re looking for lists full of destination inspiration or dipping your toe in with simple family friendly places to travel you can find all of the information
From individual travel blogs recommending based on experience to big travel names suggesting the top travel destinations based on popularity and trends. Some reliable websites you can look at are CN Traveller, Lonely Planet and National Geographic.
If you prefer to look through books there are some good travel bucket list book recommendations including Lonely Planet Trip Builder, Go Here Instead and Where to Go When.
If you’re travelling with kids then there are specific family friendly travel bucket list books you can buy, including The Family Bucket List: 1,000 Trips to Take and Memories to Make All Over the World and National Geographic Bucket List Family Travel: Share the World with Your Kids on 50 Adventures of a Lifetime.
If you want to read more about our travels as a family, on this site you’ll find destination inspiration with trips to London, New York, Disneyland Paris, and Thailand. We also share guides for traveling with kids and the family travel tips, tricks and hacks that we’ve picked up along the way.
9. Break bigger ideas down
Along the same vein of having a good mixture of different ideas on your list, breaking bigger ideas into smaller achievable travel goals is another way to help you create a bucket list you’ll actually be able to complete.
Rather than travel Europe as your bucket list entry split this into different places or even different experiences. For instance, you may have visit a Cotswolds village and take a ride on the London Eye as two separate bucket list ideas rather than just visit England.
10. Create a place to save your ideas
There’s no point doing loads of research if you’re not saving your favourite ideas somewhere to look back on and organise into a plan. There are a few ways to save the best ideas you come across,
- Save collections of videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
- Create a mood board using a tool like Canva
- Track on a spreadsheet or organisation app like Google Sheets or Notion
- Use Google Maps to build a personalised map with colour coded attractions, food and activities.
- Download apps to keep you organised. A great basic version is the Matador Network Travel Map that lets you not only track where you’ve been but also the other places on your bucket list. However, if you’re an organisation obsessed type A kind of person then Pin Traveller is a great option. You can add places you’ve been, add your bucket list destinations, complete research, store your photos and get recommendations based on your preferences.
11. Incorporate your hobbies and interests
This one might sound obvious but don’t just do some research and write down all of the most popular destinations according to what other people think should be on a bucket list.
Make sure to include the things that make it unique to you. If you enjoy cooking then an idea could be to take a cooking class in Italy. If you enjoy hiking you could research where there are the best hiking trails.
12. Add things you’ve already done and tick them off
Maybe you’ve already travelled to some amazing places and completed a couple of things you’ve always wanted to do. Now you’ve decided to build a bucket list to make your plans more formal and track against them.
Adding things to your bucket list that you’ve already done makes sense – even if you are going to tick them off straight away. It’ll give you a sense of achievement, keep you motivated, and you can include it when you track your progress.
Plus, there’s nothing more satisfying than getting to tick things off your list!
13. Involve other people
You’ve heard the saying – a problem shared is a problem halved. Well this is also true when it comes to trying to decide what you want to add to your bucket list!
Whether you’re a solo traveller or you travel with friends and family, use them to help with inspiration for new ideas and to review the places and experiences already on your list.
If you’re planning to travel with kids then get them involved in creating the bucket list too. They may not have any destinations in mind but, depending on their age, they’ll likely know something they want to do or they can do research.
This worked really well for us when we visited New York. I found videos on Youtube about things to do for kids in New York and watched them with the kids, asking them to tell me every time they saw something they liked and wanted to add to our New York bucket list.
FAQs for how to make a travel bucket list
Creating a good bucket list is as simple as writing down a list of places, activities and experiences that are personal to you and bring you excitement. Once you’ve got everything written down you either start planning or narrow it down a bit more if you’ve got so many places that it feels a bit unmanageable
Travel is really popular so there’s loads of places to look for ideas and inspiration. You can search for travel blogs, look at some big travel companies, read travel bucket list books, watch YouTube videos, or scroll social media platforms.
Step 1: understand what your budget is for the trip so you don’t start planning a trip you can’t afford
Step 2: research destinations and narrow it down to a list of places that fit into your budget
Step 3: once you’ve picked a destination get your travel and hotels or holiday home booked
Step 4: research things to do in the area and book any excursions or activities
Step 5: create a packing list to ensure you’re prepared with everything you could need
Start with the easier things on your list to help you get started. For the bigger places or experiences that will cost more money, start to build plans on how and when you’ll achieve them. If you have one big holiday every year then make sure it fits with one or even a few things on your bucket list.
To help you get started you can also add things to your bucket list you’ve already done and tick them off as achieved.
Summary of the tips to making a travel bucket list
Hopefully all of these 13 tips feel achievable and inspire you to start making your own bucket list, but if you’re struggling to find a point to start then try to incorporate these three tips to give yourself a good base and make a start.
- Write everything down: write all of your ideas down so you can clearly see everything and are able to organise and group your ideas into a more manageable list
- Have a mix of places, attractions and experiences: having a wide range of ideas on your bucket list makes it more achievable as you can often tick a few different things off in one trip
- Create a place to save your ideas: there are apps and platforms that enable you to store your bucket list, plan trips and track the things you’ve already done
By applying these 13 tips when you make your own travel bucket list, you’ll be able to organise your thoughts, turn them into achievable goals, and be in great shape to start traveling the world!
