If you are like me, you celebrated the New Year looking back at the good, bad and ugly and looking forward to the potential of the new year – a clean slate to start over to reinvent yourself with a new chapter in your story.  On New Year’s Eve, rather than make resolutions, I write down places I have yet to visit and then put it away to surprise myself later.   Looking at last year’s list I always ask – can I cross off a destination? do I still dream of a prior entry?  What has changed? Did I go somewhere never imagined?  Being able to cross off a visited destination and dream of more is a great way to start the year for me.  This list isn’t “the bucket list” but rather a short list of five US and International destinations.

Last night, I got to cross off “Safari” after many, many (too many) years on the list.   Last year, the stars aligned and in September I journeyed to Johannesburg to start my amazing holiday.  Everything came together (safari seminar, finding a business class reward, winning points/vouchers on Twitter and using hotel points).  I still feel like I haven’t fully decompressed from the adventure and with over four thousand photos still to sort/arrange, it may take awhile.

What wasn’t on the list last year (or any prior year) was South America. In April, I was able to visit Chile (Santiago & Easter Island) and Peru (Lima) because a travel blogger told me to (more on that later).  That’s the fun of the list – its not a concrete plan of where to go and what to see.  It’s my private time capsule.

So my 2012 travel theme ended up being “South” – South America and South Africa – on amazing trips that I can’t wait to share now that I started this blog (got to finally cross that off last night too).

So what’s your version of the travel list? Do you have New Year’s traditions involving travel?