It seemed eons ago—not just a year and a half—that people around the world could travel freely and safely. If you wanted to go to London for a business trip, you’d book your flight and hotel accommodations and be off. A dream getaway to Phuket could easily be turned into reality. Visiting your family and friends in Canberra would be an uneventful few hours’ drive from your home base in Sydney.
Sadly, it might still take a while for travel to return to normal. However, nothing’s stopping you from making your travel plans now so that you’ll be good and ready to go once travel around the world is no longer limited.
Here are some travel ideas to help you get started on your plans.
Go on an adventure
For sure, after more than a year of limited travel, many of you are looking for something exciting when you finally go on a lengthy trip. And is there anything more thrilling than going on an adventure trip? For some adrenaline-pumping adventure, you can head to Palm Jumeirah in Dubai for skydiving or Verzasca Dam in Switzerland for bungee jumping.
If you’re more into adventure and nature, then trekking on the Larapinta Trail in Australia or sleeping in an igloo and witnessing the Northern Lights in Finland would be the perfect adventure trip for you. Close encounters with animals can also be just as exciting. You can go on a safari in Masai Mara in Kenya to see the Big Five (lions, African elephants, rhinoceros, Cape buffalo and leopards) or swim with the dolphins in the Azores, an archipelago in Portugal.
Explore a big city
You’ll never run out of places to visit or activities to do in cities or urban areas. So why not travel to a city or two on your next trip? Take New York City, for example. There are many iconic structures worth seeing there. To name a few, you have the Empire State Building, the One World Trade Centre, which has an observatory deck, the Grand Central Terminal, and the Statue of Liberty. Just the experience of seeing these legendary structures in person is enough to make a trip to The Big Apple worth it.
What’s more, The City That Never Sleeps offers a lot of entertainment. If you’re a theatre fan, you can catch some Broadway shows while you’re in NYC. For art lovers, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Met, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) should be on your must-visit list.
Experience the countryside
If city tours aren’t your thing, you can always go for a trip to the countryside. There’s nothing more relaxing than seeing rolling hills, colourful flowers, serene lakes, quaint houses, etc., around you. In Nagano, Japan, for instance, there’s a mountain town called Chino. The town has moss-covered forests and the big Suwa Lake. In Chino, you can also take lessons in Japanese cooking and tofu-making from the locals themselves.
On the other side of the world, you can visit many vineyards and wineries if you’re a budding wine connoisseur. The Estate of Argyros in Santorini, Greece, for one, is worth visiting. It doesn’t get any better than seeing the picturesque island of Santorini, touring the vineyards of Argyros, and then sampling seven types of Assyrtiko white wines (and Greek cheeses!), does it?
Revel in festivities
Taking part in events and celebrations is another great reason to travel. It allows you to meet like-minded individuals and people from different cultures. If you’re a big fan of jazz music, for example, you can go to Montreux, Switzerland, for the Montreux Jazz Festival (12 July 2022) or to New Orleans, USA, for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (8-17 October 2021) to enjoy music and meet fellow jazz lovers.
To meet people with cultures different from yours, the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro or Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro is probably one of the best venues to do this. This is because people worldwide attend this grand spectacle, also known as The Greatest Show on Earth. Held just before the Lenten season, the Rio Carnival is highlighted by the Samba Parade, the Copacabana Palace Magic Ball, and street parties.
When Travel Goes Back to Normal
While no one knows when travel will fully return to normal, it wouldn’t hurt to start making your travel plans as early as now. So when the time that you’ll be able to travel again comes, all you’ll have to do is book your plane ticket and hotel room and pack your bags to be on your way to your chosen destination.
