“Where do you want to go”?  is a question I have a hard time answering.  “I want to go everywhere” doesn’t quite satisfy the person who asked the question.  When I do decide on a destination, the follow up question is then “Why Go There?” which is often times even harder to explain.  Many times, the “Why” is because I had points and this was the best redemption.  So if you need a bit of destination inspiration to find somewhere new to go – here are my 5 Travel Planning Tips on Deciding Where to Go.

1. Ancestral Travel

Where is your family from?  Do you still have family there?  Often times, ancestral travel is the spark that people need to plan a trip.  “We want to see where grandma was born, visit her village, etc.”.  Ancestral travel provides a connection to a family narrative and can tangibly provide the sights, sounds and tastes of history for you. My mom wants to visit Ireland (it’s on the list Mom, don’t worry) to see where her grandparents were born.  I have friends with relatives in Italy, Greece and Portugal who grew up hearing about cousins, aunts and uncles only to visit when they were older.

2. Theme travel

Do you like Downtown Abbey, Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings?  You may want to visit the U.K., Iceland and New Zealand.  A fan of those hair bands of the 80’s?  There is a music reunion cruise for you to tease your hair and bang your head all you want cruising the high seas.  A fan of baseball?  Maybe you want to visit all the baseball stadiums that your home team visits or maybe all of the stadiums in the U.S.  Or maybe, like me, it’s all about the points! Theme travel is a great way to share your passion with like minded people as well as explore the world a bit.  My theme travel has revolved around film festivals and I have great memories of Avignon, Karlovy Vary and Locarno festivals.  Sitting under the summer stars in the center square in Locarno, Switzerland with about a thousand people watching a movie was pure magic.

3. Adventure

Trying to break out of your comfort zone or are you someone who is jumping out of planes for fun on the weekends? Adventure travel can take on many forms – for me, some foods can be an adventure as well as cooking classes when I travel.  While I’ve done some glacier hiking, flown in helicopters and rode in a Nascar, my adventures are considered soft adventures.  My bean counter personality can only go so far, especially when the legal waivers are involved.  Want to go on safari?  Ride the rapids in Zambia or maybe go camping at the local campground – everyone’s taste for adventure differs.

4. Food/Culinary Travel

Now, for me, food is an adventure (see me Devour Barcelona) but for others it is the reason to travel.  The foodies of the world, those who are adventurous and look forward to tasting the world with each bite. Their memories are made by the smells, the marriage of ingredients, the skill of the chef and the environment.  They know the chefs, the origin of the foods, the preparation, they care about all the little things that go into the food experience.  They’ve read the reviews, consumed all the glossy magazines, stalked a few Pinterest boards, salivated over a #foodporn Instagram or two, read the blogs, watched the Food Network or Travel Channel, etc. and have a list of the foods to find, the reservations to get and know the rules of bringing food back with them.

5. Learn a New Skill

I can’t quite relax and sit on the beach with a book and an umbrella drink (really trying to learn this) so when I travel, learning some new skill or technique is a bonus.  For years, cooking tours of Italy (very expensive) were the thing to do – go to the market, buy the ingredients, go back and cook.  Now practically every city and country has a cooking tour or experience for the visitor to try.  There are now photography tours, wine appreciation, cooking classes, surf school to name a few. I recently learned to Row Venice and have been intrigued by the offerings of the UK vendor Go Learn To. Traveling to learn a new skill creates great memories as well as potential lifelong benefits.

Hopefully these are a few reasons to help you start charting a travel course to somewhere new.  So what are your reasons to plan a trip?  Have you done any of the above types of travel?