I have been travelling the world since my early 20’s and fast forward years later I decided to become a travel blogger and started documenting my travels. As a frequent traveller I am always asked how do I choose my travel destinations. I decided to do this blog to answer that question and also give my top 5 tips on how I decide on destinations. TIP 1 – BUCKET LIST First thing to do is to create your bucket list of destinations or countries you want to visit. Every year I revisit my bucket list I created few years ago and this list changes every year in order of travels. More countries get added and some get push back as I tend to visit some destinations more than once. There is no wrong or right way in putting your bucket list together and the number of places you want to visit but be also realistic about it. There is a lot of factors that goes into choosing the travel destination of your choice and the most important one is knowing your WHY you want to travel to that destination. Knowing your why will give you the final decision if you really want to visit that destination plus it make it easy to do or save up for anything when you know why you doing or want it. Most of my travel destinations choices are determined by a blend of culture, architecture, art, food and beaches. The purpose is always and mostly to meet and mingle with the locals and see their way of life and learn something new. TIPS 2- BE SELFISH Do not go there if it’s not for your own benefit. A common mistake made by people who are new to travelling they choose their destination because they have seen a certain blogger travel there ( this is risky as bloggers get paid or make content in the hope of using it to get something out of it) their experiences may be altered to make you see things a certain way. So bear in mind that your experience there may differ to yours because of so many reasons. And travelling cost money that no one want to waste on things they will not be happy about after. So choose and be influenced wisely.

TIP 3- RESEARCH YOUR DESTINATION . Now you have chosen your destination and possibly know your why (eg you travelling for a festival or beautiful architecture) the next thing to do is your research and do that with open mind. This will set your tone in what type of holiday you want to have ( backpacking, budget or luxury) It is also the bigger and important part as it will include your essentials and budgets (flights, accommodation and food), the weather, currency, vaccinations, extras (like your spending on activities) and other factors. TIP 4 – TIME FACTOR The time you have (whether it’s few days, a week or two weeks ) for your trip will be the determining factor if to go local or long haul destinations you should go for. You must always bear in mind that with long haul destinations a week of travel is actual 4 or 5 days once you have taken into account the flying , airport chaos which may result in flight delays and being jet leg alone can make you lose a day or two while you are trying to recover. On this time factor you must also consider the time of the year (season) to your travel destination. This will either make or break your destination. To give you a good example, my sister and I went to New York in February (their winter time) The trip was luxurious and cheap which was what drew us in and was our deciding factor along with the fact we thought we are used to cold weather in the U.K. In our heads it was a perfect winter gateway. But we got it wrong it was the coldest weather we ever experienced in our lives and spent most of our time in the hotel room with hot water bottles and full on blast heating (I kid you not). Resulting in the worst holiday we’ve ever been too even though we were in New York City!

TIP 5 SOURCING INSPIRATION This is your final stage on your planning. (Even though some people start with it) Now you know the budget you working with and your essentials are booked like your accommodation and flight etc. This will help you stick to your budget ( A mistake new travellers do is to go over budget) Sourcing inspiration at this stage will guide you to look into what activities you will need to pay for, what you can do for free , looking into dining options whether you will be trying street food or dining in Michelin star places. The list is endless. You source inspiration by looking into what’s out there and best places to get all this is using Google, Pinterest, Instagram, Travel blogs, Magazines, Travel Agencies and speaking to people you know that have visited the destination you want to go to.

OUTFIT DETAILS: SWIMWEAR – ASOS SUNGLASSES – LE SPECS