Do you keep saying you’ll travel “someday”? Or have a list of dream destinations in your head but never take action on them? Let’s fix that by creating your own, personalized Travel Bucket List.
This isn’t your average “copy and paste” bucket list. Instead, you’ll learn how to create a personal, powerful, and totally doable travel bucket list—one that motivates you to plan, save, and GO.
In this post, you’ll get:
4 simple but transformative exercises to unlock your dream destinations- A downloadable bucket list template
- Tips to organize your list by timing, cost, and interest
- The secret to keeping your list relevant and exciting for years
Let’s build a bucket list that actually gets checked off.
What is a Travel bucket list?
Traditionally, a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die. That sounds morbid. And frankly, a little overwhelming.
Let’s flip the script. A travel bucket list is your personal guide to happiness through meaningful experiences—a list of places, people, and moments that fill your “life bucket” with joy, wonder, and growth.
And because this is a travel blog, we’ll focus on where to go and why it matters to you.
What makes a Great Travel bucket list?
A travel bucket list should meet some guidelines:
1. Authenticity
Don’t add something just because it’s popular. Ask: Does this actually excite me?
For example: A safari sounds epic—but if you hate long car rides and prefer being active, maybe that’s not your vibe. On the flip side, if tracking wildlife and spotting leopards excites you? Add it!
2. Be Selective
Don’t copy-paste a generic “100 Places to Go” article. You have limited time and budget—so every item on your list should earn its place.
3. Be Specific
Swap vague goals like “Go to Asia” with something like “Eat street food in Bangkok during the Lantern Festival.” The more specific your goals, the easier they are to plan.
Bonus: Add a few “Super Bucket List Goals” that take multiple trips to complete, like “Visit all U.S. National Parks” or “See all the world’s Wonders.”
4. Add a Stretch Goal or Two
Dream big, but keep it grounded. “Private jet around the world”? Maybe not realistic. But “Round-the-world trip on points”? Very possible with planning and creativity.
5. Get Creative
Slow travel, volunteering abroad, language immersion, train adventures, sabbaticals—there are so many ways to design a travel-rich life. There are lots of ways to get creative with your travel dreams. Slow travel where you cover distances over longer periods of time can really provide a richer experience and cost less money than going and coming home and then going back out again to the same region. You may, of course, not have the luxury of time, but it is a consideration if you can work remotely.
How to Build Your Dream Travel Bucket List: 5 Powerful Exercises
Let’s turn inspiration into action. Use the template linked below and try these exercises:
Exercise 1: Brainstorm
Grab a map and write down every destination or experience you’ve ever dreamed about—before Instagram influences you. This list should come from you.
Exercise 2: Plot the Missing Pins on Your Personal Travel Map
Think about the countries, provinces, states and cities that you’ve been to. Plot those on a map and see where there are major gaps that you want to fill.
Exercise 3: Make a Travel Vision Board
A Vision board is a physical or virtual piece of paper where you visualize the pictures and words for things you want to accomplish. Use Pinterest, Canva, or old-school magazine cutouts. Seeing your goals in image form taps into your emotions and helps you stay focused.
I used to think that it wasn’t a very useful exercise. I can list what I want to accomplish, set goals and track my performance. I don’t need to do an arts and crafts project to get there. And then I made one. And folks, that’s when I realized the power of the vision board. It is something tangible that can be referenced daily. But it’s more than that. After all, you could just print out your list of goals. The difference is that these images emote something from within me. If I see a couple basking in lounge chairs on an empty beach and I know that I know that is my goal and I have a path to make it happen, I feel excited. And happy.
Exercise 4: List Ideas by Category
Use your interests to spark ideas. Some categories to get you started:
- Food & Wine: Chef’s table experiences, wine regions, street food crawls
- Festivals: Holi in India, Lunar New Year in Beijing, Edinburgh Fringe
- Wildlife: Polar bears in Manitoba, diving with manta rays in Hawaii
- Adventure & Transport: Paragliding, hot-air balloon rides, scenic train routes
- Spiritual Sites: Mecca, the Camino de Santiago, Kyoto temples
- Architecture & History: Machu Picchu, Petra, Angkor Wat
- Personal Milestones: 50 states, 7 continents, a solo trip abroad
Exercise 5: Pull Ideas from Other Resources
OK, now you can go nuts with 3rd party sources. Just kidding. Don’t do that. If you have a good list that brings you the kind of Marie Kondo joy that we all aspire to, stop for now. If you are having fun and want to keep the party going, check out some of these other tools:
- Websites and Forums (Some examples: Google Earth, Lonely Planet Thorntree, Roadtrippers)
- Social Media (e.g., Instagram, Pinterest)
- Travel Blogs (like mine! hahaha)
- Books and Guidebooks – Rand McNally’s Atlas for US road trips, Atlas Obscura)
- Television Shows and Channels (e.g., Travel Channel, National Geographic, Discovery)
- Magazines (e.g., Travel + Leisure, Outside, AFAR, Condé Nast Traveller)
- Bucket List Apps (e.g., Pin Traveler)
How to Make – and Manage – a Better Bucket List
By now, you should have a list of items that you are excited about and that are relevant for you. It’s not enough just to have a list. You need to use that list and start to think about who might be going with you, the best time of year to go and what it might cost.
- Level of Interest: Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel are excellent tools to help you manage this information. I have columns add for my husband and kids separately. I have asked them on a scale of High, Medium, or Low what their level of interest is in the places on my list. I do the same in a column for myself. In time, the “Low” ranked places may fall off of the list or if it is “High” on my place and “Low” on the rest of the family, it may become a solo or girls’ trip.
- The Best Time of Year: This may be peak season, shoulder season or for a specific festival or other timeframe.
- Cost: Definitely, do not overthink this. If you are planning something for this year, you should go into detail, otherwise just take a relative guess. I like to use dollar signs and rank each $, $$, $$$. A safari would be $$$ while my trip to the aircraft graveyard in Arizona from my home in Dallas is more like a $.
As you look to plan trips, refer back to this list and add more information to make it personalized for you.
One last thing
A bucket list is not a “one and done”. Perhaps it shouldn’t even get shorter. If you are like me, the more you travel, the more that you learn and the more that you add to your list. I can’t see any way in my lifetime that I will ever fully accomplish my bucket list and I can’t imagine it any other way. I hope that you never stop traveling!
Also, please comment with anything that I missed – what are your favorite places to go for wanderlust inspiration? What’s on your list?
Happy Travels,
Chrissy
