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I vividly remember the conversation I had a couple of years back when I mentioned to someone that I was heading on vacation. It was mid-September here in Canada, not cold, not warm, but autumn was approaching within a few days.
“Ohh, I’m jealous, where are you going? Somewhere nice and warm? An all-inclusive?”
“I’m going to Norway,” I said enthusiastically, with a big, excited grin plastered on my face.
“NORWAY!? Why Norway?” They looked at me with a furrowed brow and a look of total confusion.
“Umm, because it’s beautiful over there and it’s been one of my top 5 places to visit for the longest time, that’s why?!”
Since then, I’ve always been asked how I choose where to travel to next. Well, let me tell you!
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Pinterest & Instagram
These two social media platforms are my go-to sites for getting inspiration for future destinations I’d love to visit. If you look at my “Places I want to go” board on Pinterest, you’ll see I’ve got well over 1,500 pins in it. I’ve always been a highly visual individual, being obsessed with photography from a young age, I had my first camera at age 12 and my first 35mm SLR camera at the age of 14, which I still have and use to this day! Instagram is one of my favourite social media platforms out there today, solely because of the photography aspect to it, not so much for the drunk selfies and butt pics, but hey, you do you, I guess? There are a lot of great photographers, professional and amateur, that have blown up over the years by posting their work on it. By showcasing other parts of the world, it opens up areas of travel that people would never really have thought to visit, or even look into. I use Instagram to see what other people are shooting, different viewpoints of destinations etc. I use Pinterest for the same thing, but also after I’ve booked a trip, I use it to see what there is to do there, places to go, places to eat and activities or day trips to do.
Other Travel Blogs
This is a given. The more blogs I visit and read, the more inspired I get. I visualize myself standing in some of their photos with jaw dropping views around me. It’s also a good idea to see how other bloggers visited a certain city or country that you plan on visiting. What did they do there? Where did they stay? How did they get to that remote area you saw on their page? Maybe you had no desire, or had even heard of the Faroe Islands before (seriously, click here and check it out. You’ll be blown away), or perhaps you thought some place just wasn’t worth visiting, but once you read or saw another person’s view on that country, it changed your mind. Use other people’s experiences to help fuel your desire to broaden your travel horizons and to branch out from going to the “typical” holiday spot for your next trip. You won’t regret it one bit!
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Have you guys ever had any of your friends and family question, “Why the hell are you going there?” How do you guys choose where you travel next? Let me know in the comments below! xo