A few years ago, I sat down with my maps and books and made a list of every place we wanted to go in the world.  I was methodical.  I did it continent by continent, country by country.  I even mentioned if there were a particular adventure or activity that we wanted to see. Northern lights, for example. Or the balloon festival in New Mexico.  The cave houses in Urgup.  Sting Ray City in the Caymans.  It was a very long list.  I still have it, and still refer to and revise it from time to time.

I realized (immediately) that at the rate we could afford to take a trip (once or twice a year) that I wouldn’t live long enough to see every place on my list.  If I were 20 years old (which I’m not) I still wouldn’t live long enough to see every place on my list.

So I had to do one of two things:  I either had to win the lottery (still trying); or I had to prioritize that list.  Obviously there were some places that we wanted to visit more than others.  What else might be a factor?  Money, of course (AARRRRRRGGGGHHH) is a defining factor.  What else?   Here’s what I came up with:

CONSIDERATIONS AFFECTING WHERE AND WHEN WE TRAVEL

A) New visit or Re-visit.  This is the perennial toughie.  There are some places we loved.  Peru, Paris, Hawaii….  We’ve never been back to any of them. Returning to one place at this end means scratching off another place at the other end.

B) Age categories.  This includes trip length, stamina, continued vitality, etc.  This is something to consider no matter how old you are.  You aren’t going to live forever.  And over time, you won’t be able to do the things that you do today.  How soon that happens depends on how you are today, so get out your pencils:

1) Active period (capable of diving, snorkeling, hiking, biking, kayaking, camping, etc).  This is where   you     schedule doing the Appalachian Trail.  Or taking a biking tour across Italy.  Or spending the entire summer backpacking across Europe, sleeping in hostals and eating street food.

2) Less active period (still able to take stairs, trains, walking tours, etc).  This is when you can’t do (or at least  don’t want to do) the Appalachian Trail but the Milford Trek sounds good (hut to hut).

3) Inactive period (must use elevators, cruises, tours, etc.).  Of course, you could do these things before (lots of young people go on cruises), but now it’s no longer a choice.

C) Other age-based factors (discounts, rental car refusals, tour cut  offs, etc).  Once you reach a certain age, some car   rental companies simply won’t rent you a car.  It’s not at that old an age either.  You’d be surprised.  And even if you go on a cruise, not all of the excursions will be open to you.  You might be the fittest one in the group, but if you’re the oldest one, you might not be able to go.

D) Language connections:  Plan on grouping countries with common languages  into same trip, that way you can learn a little of the language and use it for the whole journey.

E) Cost Cutting Techniques: This includes drive vs fly, home swaps, cultural stay  organizations, long term apartments, frequent flyer miles, single-base trips vs a series of hotel rooms, etc.  For instance,  an immersion school might be cheaper than a hotel if it includes home stay (with meals) and if you only take a few group class hours.

F) Interest Level:  What’s first on your list – the Taj Mahal or the Amazon?

G) Safety Level:  What’s your level of tolerance for bugs, poor hygiene, disease, violence, crime, etc.?

H) Cultural insult level:  And is the insult to you or them?  For instance, the treatment of women – restrictions on female visitors, etc.  Are you going to be able to deal with that?  And do you think it supports the practices you disagree with by going there or does it help widen the perspective of the people you come in contact with.

I) Difficulty and cost of reaching your destination.  Some places are just difficult to get to, and there’s nothing else nearby.  Easter Island is the obvious example.  What a place!  What a distance!  What an expense!  How badly do you want to go?

J) Food:  Guinea Pig not your thing?  Would it bother you to be sitting at the next table from someone who was eating it (in say, Peru)?    Is the place you want to go vegetarian friendly?  What are the sanitation standards?  How susceptible are you to random germs?

K) Geographic connections:  Group trips by area.  For example, all of  Scandinavia or  New England or Great  Britain.  But geographic proximity isn’t always applicable.    Moscow is nearest Scandinavia, but the cheapest flights are out of London.  Still, it makes sense to do a “grand circle” in most cases.  Or fly open jaw.

L) Here’s the biggie:   Admit that we’re never going to get to some places!  Ohhh, that’s hard.

(Originally published on Learn Spanish Travel Spanish on 10/12/2009)

This entry was posted on January 7, 2012