As we begin the new year, you may be spending some time reflecting on the past and creating resolutions for what’s to come. It can be easy to think of the typical ones, like being more active, eating healthier, or improving our sleep schedules. This year, consider putting travel near the top of your New Year’s resolution list. Many people find travel to be one of life’s greatest joys. One of the first steps to achieving these new goals is to plan. Planning trips for the year might be a daunting task, but it can be a great way to ensure you make the most out of your travels. We’re going to discuss some of our top travel planning tips to help you get organized and achieve your New Year goals!

Checking Off Your Bucket List

If you haven’t already done so, we recommend creating a travel bucket list. Try surrounding yourself with inspiration and create a list of all the destinations, whether domestic or international, that you dream of traveling to one day. Creating a bucket list could be a fun way to stay motivated to achieve your travel goals and can help you set a plan in motion. Once you create your bucket list and set your travel goals, it now might be a bit easier to start planning.

When choosing destinations and activities to check off your bucket list for the year, you might want to consider prioritizing and organizing the destinations by category. Some destinations may require you to save up a little more money and time than others. There may be family trips as well as business trips.

Planning Weekend Getaways

If far-away destinations are not in your budget or time this year, yet you still want to achieve your goal to travel more, then consider planning weekend getaways. Many people may forget the beauty in a quick, weekend getaway. Although long, exotic vacations are great, weekend getaways have many benefits you might not have thought of. They can be an easy way to escape and explore for a few days without breaking the bank or disappearing from your day-to-day life for too long, because let’s face it - life can be hectic! We try fitting in as many weekend getaways as possible throughout the year! These trips are just one part of the equation to achieving your travel resolutions for the year.

Planning Your Activities

Once you have figured out where you want to go and when, now it’s time to start considering how you want to plan out your activities, so that you might maximize your time while traveling. Before you figure out exactly what you want to do on your trip, first you could identify your budget. Once you have your budget, try making a list of all the major activities you want to enjoy during your trip and approximately how much they cost. This can also help you be proactive by securing any reservations for tours or activities beforehand, so you don’t miss out! When setting up your itinerary, we suggest not planning every single hour of the day. Instead, try planning out a few activity options to choose from such as a group activity, hike, museum, or simply relaxing by the hotel pool. That way if a terrible storm rolls through and cancels your kayaking tour, or you wake up and your feet hurt from walking the entire day prior, you might not be terribly disappointed since you have different activity options to choose from.

Reducing Your Expenses

Some people believe one of the most important steps to the vacation planning process is planning your trip budget. This factor can ultimately affect how the rest of your vacation goes, such as the destination, length of trip, activities, meals, accommodations, and even any souvenirs you want to collect along the way. Consider finding ways to save money and figure out a timeline of how long you think it will take to save enough money for certain trips. Try coming up with some tricks to save throughout the year such as creating a travel jar or envelopes so any leftover money in your annual, monthly, or weekly budget can be put into the jar and opened when it’s time to plan your next vacation.

Not only can you put money aside for traveling, but you also can look for travel deals. There are many websites that can help you score deals on hotels, amusement park tickets, airline travel and more. It can be a huge morale boost to see that you’re coming under budget when you find a sweet travel deal. Consider using your trip as motivation when you’re working that overtime shift or turning down an event to save some extra cash. Vacations are meant to be exciting and fun, not stressful, so making a budget and planning your trip ahead of time can be a great way to avoid overspending and instead spend more time relaxing.

Booking Flights & Accommodations

You have your bucket list of destinations, travel timeline, activities, and budget all planned out. Now it’s time to book your flight and accommodation. For the best deals, it can be a good idea to book your flight about two-three months in advance and checking sites such as Skyscanner or Google Flights to help you find deals on airfare. Travel search engines such as Expedia or Orbitz can allow you to book flights, accommodations, and even rental cars all in one booking. In some instances, you may even find entire all-inclusive vacation packages depending on where you go. There are plenty of ways to save money on flights and accommodation. If your schedule is flexible, you can try playing around with different flight dates and times to find the most inexpensive option.

Going Out & Exploring!

As you plan, remember that vacations are meant to be exciting and allow you to escape from some of the daily stresses of life. Here at Travel Insured, we love nothing more than exploring the world around us and most importantly keeping you protected from mishaps along the way. As you focus on your New Year’s resolution to travel more, you may want to consider protecting your trips with a travel protection plan from Travel Insured to help bring more ease to your trip planning experience. To learn more about how our plans can protect your single trips or trips all year long, talk to your travel advisor or visit our website travelinsured.com.

This blog links to websites for the following companies, which are not affiliated with Travel Insured International or United States Fire Insurance Company: Skyscanner and Google Flights.

AH-4900