12 Steps to Becoming a Travel Addict

1. Admit that you want to travel more. There’s a whole world out there that you haven’t seen. You know you can’t really see it on your iPad or on Discovery Channel. Watching other people travel on TV or reading about it is not going to satisfy your need to see more for yourself. Admitting it is the first step. 

2. Acknowledge that you can get help returning to sanity. The Internet has put travel planning within your reach. You can see almost every detail of hotel rooms, cruise cabins, and campgrounds online. You can research places to visit that you never thought you could. There are deals and bargains just waiting for you. You can get schedules for planes, trains, and buses. And the best part? You can research at your leisure, in your jammies, on your lunch break, and on your phone.

3. Decide that you will travel more. Until you make the decision, you are still just dreaming. You aren’t traveling. Start marking a calendar with the following: at least one week of vacation, two or three quarterly retreats in the non-vacation quarters of the year that involve at least two nights away from home, and a minimum of one night away in all the other months. It may look like quite a lot at first, but refer to step 1 if you start to waiver.

4. Take a travel inventory. Where have you been? Where have you been longing to go? Make the lists. Your commitment to the addiction will not be complete if you don’t keep a list that you can adjust every time you find a destination of interest. Try using technology—a Pinterest board maybe? That way you can share your list with fellow addicts.

5. Admit to someone else that you haven’t been traveling enough. When you say it out loud to another human being you’ll often find a partner in whom you can confide and share ideas.

6. Start surfing the Internet and let your travel dreams go wherever they will. Give in and let the addiction take hold. If you don’t look around, how will you ever know what waits for your next trip?

7. Practice shopping for bargains. Part of the reason you don’t go more is fear and the thing that often scares people most is how to pay for their addiction.

8. Admit to those you have wronged by not traveling, and prepare to make amends. This step may cause you to stumble, but it is through your connections with others that you truly enjoy travel. Here’s a list of possibilities:

• Your children—broaden their education. They will learn more while traveling than in an average month sitting in a classroom.
• Your spouse—your other half deserves time away from the world with you.
• Your parents—you haven’t been home in how long?
• Everyone who works in the travel industry—there are jobs at stake here.
• The American people—Travel addicts have the power to turn around the economic crisis.
• Third World countries—your travel dollars really do have a global impact.
• Your cousin in Utah that you only talk to on Facebook—she would really love it if you came for a visit.

9. Start living your amends. Make plans to make up lost time traveling.

10. Continue to work on your travel inventory. The easiest way to get addicted here is to travel with a purpose.  Join a car club, start a collection that requires travel to complete, or set a goal to visit all of something—states, countries in South America, wineries in your state. 

11. Digest and learn from what you encounter. Whether you are camping or staying in luxury resorts, travel is more than an exploration of the world around us. It’s about exploring who we really are and what we are capable of. Keep a journal or log while you explore and return to your words often. You’ll often be surprised at the depth of the feelings you expressed while traveling.

12. Spread the word! Your travel addiction is not something to be hidden. Share your stories with the world and you enjoy the bonus of knowing that your insight may help other travelers as they find their addiction.

Travel Panties

That would mean wearing the nice ones and packing all the ones you have been meaning to throw away. Leave those behind so you'll have less laundry to do when you come back home!

Build a Travel Plan in 6 Steps

The quickest way to get going more is to plan to go more. Once you have a plan in place you’ll begin to feel the tug of commitment and that’s a huge step toward actually going.  A pretty good formula for being rested and travel happy is to rest weekly; escape monthly; retreat quarterly; disengage annually. So that’s where you can start your travel plans.

Here's our step by step method for going more.

Step 1: Make a list of travel activities you enjoy or want to try. Make this list long. Don't hold back. Anything you want to try is fair game. This is not exactly a bucket list, but think of things that you are always saying you want to do and add them to the list.

Step 2: Go online and look for places where you can enjoy those things. Be sure to look at some places close by and some far away. Write down the locations next to the activities. 

Step 3: Decide if each activity is suited for a monthly escape, a quarterly retreat, or an annual vacation.

Here's a sample wish list with notes about where & when to do them. Notice the overlaps that develop as the list takes shape:

Activity	Where	Rest, Retreat, or Vacation?
Learn to Scuba dive	Start course online or at local shop, get certified nearby, then dive on a cruise	Escape, then Vacation
Visit Mother	Take her on a trip to see a Broadway play	Retreat
Relax with a book	Local B&B	Escape
See a Broadway play	Manhattan	Escape
Take the kids to Seaworld	San Antonio, San Diego, or Orlando Combine with cruise maybe	Vacation
Take Dad fishing	Local lake or port	Escape
Get together with cousins	Camping? Nearby cabin resort?	Retreat
Take a photography workshop	Almost any city in the country	Retreat
Take a cruise	Orlando? San Diego?	Vacation
Go to a really good zoo	Washington DC maybe?	Retreat
Go to Washington DC		Retreat
Hike	Start with a park nearby	Escape
See a professional baseball game	Nearest city with a team	Escape

Step 4: Get your calendar and start blocking the time. Do this before you do any budgeting or actual planning. If you block the time you are making a commitment.

Step 5: Now research the cost of each outing. Figure out what you can realistically afford for each trip. You may have trips that you'll have to save up for, maybe even for a year or two. If that's the case, don't take them off the list, just find a substitute trip for this year and start saving. If money is tight think of what you want to give up to make the trip happen. Salon visits? Daily coffee on your commute? I can guarantee you that any one of the trips on your list will be more rewarding than the little things you give up to get there. 

Step 6: This is the hardest step... go on your first monthly escape. Go two days if you can, but go for at least one night away from your house. Sleep in the car if you have to, but go! It will energize you and bring you back to your list, your calendar, and your budget to figure out how to make the rest of the year happen.

Be a Purposeful Traveler

The happiest travelers we see at the resort are the ones who plan their visits well in advance and have some purpose for their stay with us. Develop that purpose by thinking of activities you’d like or need to do, like sightseeing, golfing, water skiing, visiting family and friends, continuing education, or simply resting. Unless you’re planning to make all of your journeys alone, be sure to include activities that can be enjoyed by your travel companions. As you make your list of activities start adding notations beside each one of possible destinations at which you could engage in the activity. Don’t limit yourself in any way. This is the time to dream. It’s the time to figure out ways to expand your life or make more memories with your kids.

Travel Activities to Consider

Camping—some people camp just for the sake of camping. For them it becomes both the type of accommodation and the activity engaged in on the trip.

Rock Collecting—this is a great one for kids. They all like rocks and it’s edu-fun. For those of us in the older set it allows us to enjoy the landscape while playing a big game of seek and find.

Caving—Gary and I spent several years pursuing this activity. The nice thing is that there’s a level of participation for almost anyone, from fully developed touristy caverns to genuine spelunking adventures.

Roller coasters/amusement parks—not everyone’s cup of tea, but one with plenty of options for those without motion sickness.

Fishing—one of the most popular travel activities in the U.S., and a great one to share with kids or the older generation.

Photography--add this activity to any of the others on this list or travel just for the sake of documenting it in photos.

Water sports—ranging from water skiing to surfing to scuba diving. Anywhere there’s a decent sized body of water, you can bet someone will be ready to help you get in it, on it, or under it.

Hiking/climbing—this is one that can take you to all points of the globe.

Zoos, aquariums, museums—don’t’ think that these are all about educating your kids and grandkids. Today’s zoos are a treat for any age.

Wildlife watching/wildflower viewing—what better reason to travel to a new destination than to simply enjoy the beauty of its wildlife?

Motorcycle riding—motorcyclists are some of the happiest travelers I know, and some of the most well-traveled.

A Destination to Match

If you haven’t got a destination in mind for each of the activities you picked out, now is the time to do a little research. Say you want to start touring zoos. Pick several possible destinations, including one close to home, a few that might be car trips, and a few more that would be your “dream zoos” to see. There’s an Internet resource for almost anything these days. To find zoos and aquariums try the Association of Zoos and Aquariums at www.aza.org/findzooaquarium/.  

Become an Internet travel junkie. It is easier than ever before to learn about the destinations you long to visit.  Indulge yourself on rainy Saturday mornings before the kids get up. Research places on your list until they become real in your mind. Travel planning has a way of solidifying your intentions and your goals. There’s a huge difference between just saying you’d like to see the Smithsonian and having a firm idea of how to get there and what you’ll see when you arrive. There’s nothing wrong with spontaneous travel, of course, but a trip well planned is a trip well executed.

When Can You Really Go?

The next step is to sort your entire list into the following categories: “This Year,” “Next Year,” and “Someday.” Now you have to get real. What can you afford this year? How much can you save up for next year’s travel? Everything else goes under “Someday.” Just knowing that you actually have a plan to go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef makes it more real, even if it falls under the someday heading. If you see it every time you look at your list, someday you will make it happen.