Aelfgifu Travels

Losing inspiration as to where to go next?

A fun but unrealistic idea is to close your eyes and throw a dart at a map. Unfortunately, with my luck I would expect this to land somewhere like Syria. To avoid this potential dilemma, here are a few factors to help you consider where next to go:

1. Your budget. Now, whilst mainland Europe outside of school holidays may seem the cheapest option, there are actually ways to go further afield whilst still not breaking the bank. I recommend sky scanner (https://www.skyscanner.net/) – you can put in the specific dates you want to travel OR you can put in an entire month (to see the cheapest option for dates) and set the destination to ‘explore everywhere’. They will then provide a list of locations you may not have considered. So, if the summer (‘school holiday’) period is your only option, you can at least find the cheapest dates within this period to fly, as well as the perhaps less popular locations to help save some funds. See below:
2. The length of your stay. Of course, if you can take weeks off at a time then somewhere further afield seems more economical as when paying hundreds of pounds to fly – you will want to make sure you get a decent amount of time there. Whereas, if you have a long weekend – a Eurostar trip to Brussels may be more of a plausible option as it is a 2 hour direct train to the centre and when booked in advance, not likely to use up the entire budget.
3. Your interests. Whether you prefer seeing some sun and relaxing on a beach, you enjoy immersing in the history of a city to see the architecture, or you like hiking in mountains or rainforests, your interests should help dictate where you go. I would recommend writing a list of your interests and what you would be looking to enjoy on your break. An example of a list is as follows:

• An interest in learning the local dance, e.g. tango in Argentina or flamenco in Andalusia, Spain.
• An interest in natural beauties, e.g. Patagonia in South America.
• To learn a language .
• Activities such as hiking, swimming and skiing.
• Adventure sports like skydiving, scuba diving and paragliding.
• An interest in history – seeing architecture or historically significant sites.
• You love partying – researching somewhere with cheap drinks and good nightlife is a place to start.
• Food – you love a certain cuisine.
• You want a change in weather – if you are keen to get some summer sun during winter at home, going to the opposite hemisphere could be an option, and vice versa.
• An interest in Christmas markets, music festivals or culture festivals such as Oktoberfest.

With those in mind, you can then look up places known for the specific interest you have and can plan accordingly. 

4. Opportunities you may not encounter again. You may find yourself in a situation with potential opportunities in places you had not considered. For example, mainland China was never high on my list of somewhere I wanted to go. However, knowing I don’t speak any dialect/version of Chinese and knowing I was unlikely to take it up in my life – the opportunity presented itself to me when I learnt of a friend studying and living in Kunming. They had one year left of their course and after this, their VISA expired meaning this was likely my only opportunity to go to China with the help of someone living in the country, to help me with translation and any help with navigating my way around (which proved to be extremely useful – for example,  I wasn’t able to book train tickets on the common ‘Railway 12306’ app due to a lack of Chinese citizenship, so it would have become quite a problem if I did not have the help of my friend to book these for me)! To summarise: if friends or family have moved somewhere new for work or study, it is a great opportunity to go and visit with the help of someone knowledgeable of the area.
5. Scratch-maps of the world for your travels. There are maps/globes you can buy where you can scratch out where you have been with a coin (they can be found in multitudes of places searching ’travel scratch map’ online) or apps where you can see the extent of your travels. If something like this motivates you, you could see which continent you have yet to go to (for example) and then plan a trip around this. Alternatively, seeing everywhere demonstrated on a map could help with point 3 above – it may give you ideas of for example:
   • You like swimming in oceans and haven’t yet swum in the Pacific Ocean so could organise this. Or could help you see clearly all areas that have the opportunity to swim and then pick on this basis. 
   • Likewise with languages, say you are learning Spanish – looking on a map, you could highlight the places that speak Spanish and then decide where you want to learn or practice.

Let me know if any of the above tips work for you and any others you have come across that you think are worth noting!

Hugs and tickles,

Aelfgifu