Is your New Year’s resolution to travel more this year? Maybe you resolved to really start planning and organising a trip of a lifetime, maybe a gap year, or some longer-term travel beyond the scope of a normal 2 or 3 week vacation.

Maybe your resolution is to travel overseas or internationally for the first time, putting aside any anxiety you may have and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.

Are you single or a mom or dad who just needs a break?

Did you resolve to travel solo for the first time?

Or maybe, like us, you resolved to travel the world with a family?

If so, I have some good news for you, and, I can tell you everything you need to know. Just stick around, make a cup of tea, and read our post.

How To Travel More!

New Year, new beginnings. Isn’t New Year an exciting time? It’s my favourite time a year and my New Year’s Day ritual is to clean, tidy, sweep and start over.

I’ve done so much travel in my life that I don’t need to put a lot of thought into travel. It’s just something I do.

Here’s how to become well travelled, to be a person who doesn’t think twice about throwing a few things into a bag and jumping on a plane, ship, or train to adventure.

It all starts with a change in attitude.

To be a traveller, or a person who travels more than the average person, travel has to be your priority.

For travel to be your priority, you have to love travel, the idea of travel, and all of the wonderful experiences that come with travel.

You may have to make sacrifices in terms of time, comfort, or possessions to make travel possible.

Some people really don’t enjoy travel and there’s no law to say you should find it fun. Read our post on why people travel, there can be many reasons, but if travel brings you joy it can never be self-indulgent or a waste of money.

There will be a period of figuring things out before you can set out on your travel lifestyle. Here are some things to think about while you plan and start to book.

The steps towards travelling more this year are as follows, but the first thing to know is that you do not, at all, ever, need to use a travel agent. We haven’t used a travel agent in the last 20 years and won’t ever again.

• Think about what style of travel you really enjoy, and to which destinations. Consider which destinations you can afford. Southeast Asia is mostly cheap, Singapore, Australia, the UK, Dubai etc. are more expensive. Get some information on typical costs in the countries you’d like to visit. Our website is a very good source of information on subjects like this! You might find our average gap year costs comparison useful. Some people think “vacation” is synonymous with “travel” and also synonymous with beaches and relaxing. This is simply not true! My perfect vacation would be hiking in Nepal, exploring remote places, for instance. Yours may be swimming with manta rays or visiting the 4 Disney theme parks in Florida. Any of these options are great travel ideas, if they are what make you happiest and healthiest.
• Figure out a way to fund your travels. Do you need to save up, sell possessions, use existing savings, or create a location-independent income? The latter was my choice, but our first year of travel was funded on savings, the next 6 years were funded by website creation, AKA blogging. I’ll warn you that making an income from travel blogging is much harder today than it was over a decade ago, when I began. But if you need help, I’m here for you, visit our blogging section.
• If you have a job now, can you take leave or will you resign? Could you find a job that gives you more annual leave or allow you to work remotely? Do you have skills or a trade that will make it easy to find a job when you return (if you return)? Read our post titled “Have we thrown it all away?” for inspiration on that!
• Decide what to do with your possessions/house/car. Will you keep them or sell them? Maybe put some in storage. We have a post on selling everything to travel, detailing how you can raise thousands by selling possessions.
• Decide what to do with your pets. Do you have family who would look after pets while you’re away? Will you need to rehome them? This is hard. We now have a lot of animals and there’s no way we could just abandon them, but that was the choice we made when we got pets, we knew we were unlikely to travel full-time again. It is possible to travel with pets, pet-friendly travel is something we’re exploring right now. The same goes for your house plants, but they’re much easier to rehome!
• Consider costs of travel insurance and pre-departure vaccinations. This can be very expensive, factor these costs into your travel costs.
• Link your destinations into a rough route that makes sense and is cost-efficient. Then open our tips for using Skyscanner and use them to plan your best, cheapest route. Direct flights are not always the best option. You may be able to break up a long journey in another country and have the benefit of a few days to explore that country. With flights being cancelled so frequently at the moment, this is a very sensible thing to do and it’s what we’re doing this year.
• Set a date for your planned departure and start aiming everything in your life towards being ready to go on that day.
• Check visa and health requirements for your planned destinations.
• Get all necessary travel vaccinations, a few are required, most are optional. This can take months, so do your research well and consult with a trusted medical professional if necessary.
• Buy travel insurance.
• Invest in suitable luggage.
• Pack your clothes and travel gear. Do a test pack, see what will fit and figure out if you need to buy any items. Pack as little as possible.
• Buy the flight to your first destination, a few clicks, enter your payment details, and you’re done!
• Book 2-3 nights in a hotel, guest house, or apartment on arrival, or, plan out your whole trip, if it’s short. For a long-term travel experience it doesn’t make sense to have everything booked in advance.
• From there, just continue to travel wherever you please, booking all accommodation, tours and transport online, checking visa and entry requirement closely. I give you the links you need for this further down the page.

How Can I Travel More? Any Questions?

We hope you found our thoughts on sticking to your New Year’s resolution to travel more useful. Bookmark this page (maybe to Pinterest) or in your browser to refer to as you plan your travels. Does this post fully answer your questions? If we’ve missed anything, or you have any more questions, please do drop them in the comments or send me an email. I love helping people plan their travels and mostly I do it for free. We aim to be the most comprehensive travel guide on the internet because we’ve done it ourselves, we found the best ways and we know what we’re talking about when it comes to travel and life changes. Happy to help you travel beyond your comfort zone! Don’t forget, “travel more worry less” is more than just a shirt slogan, it’s a life choice.