Your Travel Bucket List!

I’m just about to go to Vegas to meet my Mastermind group who I haven’t seen in person for over two years.  Have you been? or is it on your Bucket list?

Back in my blog called, 5 Things You Should Do at least Once in Your Life! I actually had more answers, and since so many had to do with travel, this week’s blog is a curated list of the answers for your travel bucket list.

These are still suggestions from the women in my Dynamic Women Global Community on Facebook! Are you part of the group yet? It's free to join.

1. Travel to a different country. ~ Denise

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 

I don't know how many times I have been to a place where the people haven't left. Even worse, they haven't even left their city, state or province. 

You really need to go to a different country. The benefits of that are:

• learning that the world is so much bigger than what's around you 
• meeting different people both locals and other travelers 
• taking in their culture, their food, their art and music and
• appreciating what matters most to them and their lifestyle ​

When I lived in Japan for three years, I learned a lot about their culture:

• How the Japanese people put the good of the group ahead of the good of the individual or the desires of the individual. 
• I appreciate how they eat in a group and they continue to order multiple small dishes to share. They decide to stop ordering when one dish is left with one bite on it which shows that everybody was so full they couldn't eat that last morsel. I really thought that was lovely. 
• I also love the cultural norm of pouring drinks for each other. That's just such a kind way of being. 

I've been to a bunch of countries, but a lot more to go because I slowed down after having kids. While in Thailand, I was supposed to go to some other countries in Asia as well, but I loved Thailand so much that I stayed there for over a month. I’ve also been to Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, England, Mexico, and my neighbor, the US. 

I have lots more to go! My list includes Finland, Portugal, Barbados, Jamaica, and any of those, really gorgeous beach countries. 

2. Drive to Vegas. ~ Camille 

I haven't driven to Vegas, but I've flown to Vegas. It's pretty close since I’m in BC, Canada, so I guess we could try. Plus it’d be great to have a car to drive around. The only longer driving trip I did was to drive across Canada, from Ontario to BC, to come out here in Vancouver. My boyfriend at the time, now my husband, was the one driving. We took 10 days to make it a nice journey. 

I also drove around New Zealand in a car for about a month. I think it was mainly the South Island. When I was a kid, I went with my friend’s family from Ontario to Florida to go to Disney World. That was good. 

So back to Vegas, my first visit wasn’t until I was in my 30s. I feel like I missed out on my party days in Vegas because when I went I was starting keto (so no sugar, low carbs etc) and so I didn't have a single drop of alcohol, which was interesting. 

3. Go on a vacation solo. ~Sandy

I totally agree with this. I did a bunch of traveling around Japan solo. I then went to New Zealand and Australia solo. Three months in each. Those were awesome experiences. When you travel solo…

• You get to meet a whole bunch of new people. 
• You get to be pushed out of your comfort zone and have new experiences. 
• You're not tied down by anyone else. 
• You get to make the choices you want to make in the moment. 

I think it's absolutely amazing. I also traveled to Thailand by myself. I met so many people while I was there, I traveled with some Aussies, for a while. I ended up adding on some different destinations with them. I also traveled and hung out with some Israelis and some Thai people. 

I definitely recommend doing this. Just make sure you're safe, especially as a woman. Before you go, you can check to see how safe that country is based on your country's travel advisories.  You want to make sure you understand their religious and cultural beliefs so you can honour them and not be a target.

Japan actually was a really great place to be able to travel by yourself. It's a very safe country. ​

4. Travel with a backpack and travel wherever the road takes you. ~Jacquie

I'm such an A-type planner. I have overly planned certain vacations. Some of the best ones are ones where I have a backpack and a very, very loose plan. It allows spontaneity. A lot of times when backpacked around, my mantra was if someone offers me an amazing opportunity, I'm going to say ‘Yes.’ 

When I was in New Zealand I had a few cool experiences: I did a radio show to talk about women's rugby in Canada. I was invited to do a bungee jump. I also went to a cricket match. A lot of cool stuff can happen when you are just “go where the road takes you.” 

I don't know if I would travel with a backpack with my kids because they're still too young (7 and 10). I want them to be able to carry their own backpack. Right now, I'm a hotel-with-a-suitcase-kind-of-gal. But in the future, yes I’d love to. 

5. Go on a weekend away with your friends. ~Rupinder

Girlfriend weekends are amazing!!! Also equally as awesome… Girlfriend overnight trips. Girlfriend weeklong trips. A lot of times, my friend, Michelle and I, will go to different learning places. It all started when she invited me to go to Brendon Burchard's event in California. Then I invited her to one and then she invited me back. 

We're kind of each others’ plus one for a lot of these programs. It was so fun when we got to bring our other friends Kirsten and Tazeem with us. You get to just be silly and have fun. 

I also spent a week in Hawaii with one of my friends and two of her friends who I didn't know. I definitely went into that with a little bit of apprehension, but I “designed the relationships” and it was amazing. 

FYI - Designing relationships is a coaching term that is basically two people talking about how they will be in a relationship with each other. All relationships: sibling, parent/child, romantic, platonic, coworkers etc. You talk about what you need and want to be happy, how you hope each other will be, any guidelines needed for the time together.  It’s one thing I help clients with and is the 8th Pillar in the Dynamic You Program and the Dynamic You Book.

These women didn't know me, and so on the first morning, they offered me coffee, but I said I drink tea first thing in the morning. Then the next day, one of them said that she had put the kettle on for my tea. That’s so caring and lovely. 

6. Be somewhere where no one can speak your language. ~Marilyn

Or vice versa, somewhere where you can't speak their language. There were places I went where people didn't really speak English, or they were too shy to or they just decided they didn't want to. 

It's so cool to stretch yourself and to see how you communicate with people through other means. If you can't pick up the language or you can't piece it together, somehow you both can use hand signals or sign language. It's a humbling experience to go somewhere where you don't know their language. ​

What I found in Japan is that not knowing how to speak Japanese fluently and very quickly meant that when I did go places and people were on the train chatting or on the streets and then in cafes, I could zone everybody out. It was just white noise. 

But after three years, when I came back to Canada, it was absolutely overwhelming. I was understanding everyone's conversation. The first place I realized that was the lineup at the airport to get onto the plane. There were so many people speaking English. When I got to the airport in Canada, and I wanted to go pick up my first Timmies in a long time (Tim Horton’s is a famous coffee and donut shop in Canada), I could hear what people were ordering. Too much English! I felt like I couldn't handle it and just wanted all the white noise to come back. 

But definitely a really cool experience to try a new language and be creative and patient in understanding each other. 

Those are six things you can add on your travel bucket list! Which one will you do? Let us know in the comments! Better yet, join the Dynamic Women Global Community so you can share your experiences and be able to connect and learn with other dynamic women!

Read my other blogs here:

1. Stop Being Vanilla!
   
2. The Three Things That Make You EXTRAORDINARY
   
3. Manifest More with your Vision Board