Feeding Your Wanderlust Before Travel

wanderlust

I am a third culture kid who just loves moving and traveling to new countries and cultures. With raising our expat family abroad, it does not allow me to just jet off every time wanderlust strikes hard.  However there are many ways I help feed that wanderlust before we book our next trip.  For me the exploration, dreaming, and planning before you pack your bags can be just as satisfying.  With raising a family I love to have our life focused around travel and cultures around the world even when we are at home.  Travel is life!

Here are my top five tips for feeding your wanderlust before travel:

1. Escape reality and dive into a great book!  There are so many great travel journals and memoirs to discover at your local library or that you can download on your phone/tablet/kindle.  It is a great way to reminisce from places you have traveled to in your past and get an personal look into places to which you want to travel.  I love to recommend the book I read before my trip to Australia, Bill Bryson’s A Sunburnt Country.  I also love reading novels that take place in other areas of the world. My favourite book by Earnest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, always transports me right to Paris.

2. Plan Dream Trips. Whether you go through travel books you can hold in your hand or look for information online, it can be so much fun to plan out a dream trip.  Spin a globe, and see where your finger lands.  Then look at how you would get there, where you would stay, places you would like to visit.  This is a great time to research other travel blogs that have shared their experiences from their time in those destinations.  It takes a step up from just enjoying your love of reading about travel stories, to creating one you could possible create in the future!

3. Create a Vision board for Travel.  They say vision boards are amazing for getting what you want out of life.  So why not get on Pinterest and create your very own travel board.  Pin locations you would like to visit, landmarks you would like to see, and travel tips other pinners have shared.

4. Watch Travel Shows. There are so many good ones out there and everyone has their favourites. I am certain that next week there will be another one I will just find out about that will not get mentioned in this blog post.  My family loves to watch these over dinner and my sons get so excited about trying the food in all the different destinations.  Our favourites that we have been watching recently are Travel with Kids, Two Hairy Bikers in Asia, and Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown.  I have to mention that An Idiot Abroad has been a favourite when it originally aired. Again there are so many to mention and let me know what your favourites are in the comments.

5. Learn a Language.  What better way to fuel your wanderlust than to learn a new language, or work on a current one, for a place you can travel to in the near future!  The boys and I are trying to catch up with my husband who already knows Mandarin. Our daily lessons really transport me from expat life in England to dreams of moving again abroad.

 

Q: Do you currently do any of these now?
I would love to hear your feedback and favourite tips as well!

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traveltuesdayspotlight_bath

Every week with my travel co hosts, Tina and Melanie, we pick out different posts that spoke to us from the previous link up.  We really encourage you all to hop around and visit other people who link up with us and hope that these weekly features motivate that spirit!  This week I wanted to share a blogger who has visited the city I am currently living in, Bath!  Brittany Ruth from the Rococo Roamer visited the Roman Baths here and posted about it last week. Check it out and then see who Tina and Melanie chose from last week.

 Plus share your travel stories and wanderlust addictions with us all in the link up below!

Travel Tuesday

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:

1. SHARE a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!
2. GRAB the lovely button above. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie, Melanie, and Tina in a link!
3. LINKUP goes live every Tuesday at 0800 GMT. Make sure to comment here, on the cohosts blogs, and visit around!
TIPS: 
1. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!
2. The last Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!
3. HOP around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!



* Photography custom to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2014 All rights reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk
  • http://www.thewanderblogger.com/ Sarah Shumate

    Ooh, how’s the Mandarin coming? That would be a very helpful language to know. I have at least a dozen languages I wish I knew, but considering how slowly my Spanish is coming along, I doubt it’s going to happen. ;o)

  • http://unlockingkiki.com/ Kaelene Spence

    Reading a new book always helps me feed my wanderlust! Great tips:)

  • http://talesofawannabevagabond-jackie.blogspot.tw/ Jackie

    I have a board on Pinterest going for my New Zealand trip, which is almost a whole year away! It certainly helps to build excitement to create a vision of what the trip could be. Although I’m not gonna lie, a lot of the things I have pinned are more like outfits I would like to be wearing when I travel through NZ.

  • Phoebe Thomas

    First time linking up with you, from one TCK to another, happy to be here! I so agree with you that planning is a huge part of the fun and reading travel books is a great way to get insight into a new place. I’m also addicted to travel shows and am forever dreaming about that next destination!

  • http://lulug1975.blogspot.co.uk/ Louisa @ My Family & Abruzzo

    My boys have got a map of the world on the wall, plus a globe. We have language books in the house and, like you, we also watch travel programmes on tv. I think it’s good for them to grow up knowing what’s out there and be confident in going to see it for themselves, if they want. x

  • http://therococoroamer.blogspot.com/ Brittany Ruth

    Thanks for sharing my post about Bath, Bonnie! I only had a short time in Bath but I kept thinking how funny it would be if I ran into you! Also I love Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations!

  • http://stylishimoto.blogspot.jp/ Anna

    Good tips for feeding wanderlust! I also love to read travel books, especially before traveling somewhere to get me in the mood. Then I like to re-read them again in the future, through a different perspective once I have visited the place.

  • http://www.chicadeedee.com/ Dannielle @ Chic-a-DeeDee

    I definitely make lists of places I’d like to go and research cities, so if we do decide to go I’ve got a couple things I’d like to see! I also check for cheap tickets quite often just on the off chance one of the places I want to go is on sale :)

  • Sarah Beth

    I have a (very large) and ever growing board on Pinterest and the Travel Channel is on my tv almost every time the tv is even on. It both helps to feed the fire and make it worse…haha
    xx

  • http://www.wanderlyn.com/ Eternally WanderLyn

    I definitely research and plan dream trips! :) My Pinterest is covered in places I want to go and traveling ideas.

  • http://letuswanderlust.blogspot.com/ Carly @ Let Us Wanderlust

    As an eternal wanderluster, I couldn’t agree more with your tips! My travel wish list seems to grow by the minute. We have a vintage globe in our house and I love to just sit there, spinning it, and wondering “where to next?”! Love this travel link up too :)

  • http://www.travel-vanberry.blogspot.com/ Van Berry

    I’m just constantly reading travel books….don’t even know when was the last time I read a novel voluntarily, not just for Uni…..and Bill Bryson is my favourite author!! I’ve read almost all of his books and just love them! And when I was in Edinburgh I bought 6 new travel books just because the travel section at Waterstones was soooo amazing, I couldn’t resist!! I bought “The Further Adventures of an Idiot Abroad” (I guess that’s the title) but haven’t read it yet and didn’t even know there was a tv show, so thanks for mentioning that! I hope I can find the show somewhere on youtube 😉

  • http://theannabelleblog.com/ Anna Belle

    Yes to all of these! Wasn’t there an article a few years ago that proposed that the most fun of a vacation was the planning? I think it had more to do with how we look forward to things, rather than a commentary on travel, but the conclusion definitely fits your suggestions, Bonnie, of dreaming, planning, and learning!

  • http://themovetoamerica.wordpress.com/ Molly @ The Move to America

    I love all the advice/tips and one I always tried to do was learn enough phrases in the langauage to get by. I think it made me feel more relaxed.

  • Daisy L

    Great post!!! Travel shows are my faves :)

  • http://www.amyandthegreatworld.com/ AmyMacWorld

    Thank you for this link-up! I’m so excited to join for the first time, and to be following your lovely blog. These tips are great–I’ve used all of them multiple times when I don’t have a trip on the horizon!

  • http://www.curiositiesandtales.blogspot.com/ Dulce

    great recommendations, i love to imagine the places that books mention, and then i found myself searching more info about them. I also enjoy travel shows, they give the best tips too!.

  • Food Booze & Baggage

    I love the idea of a vision board! We love Anthony Bourdain and have been to several restaurants that he has suggested on “No Reservation”. I use Pinterest quite a bit to remember and tag places from shows or personal recommendations.

  • http://montgomeryfest.com/ Annie Montgomery

    yes! great list. pinterest is my number one travel-inspirererer. i can’t log on without picturing us laying on thaaaat beach or looking over thaaaat mountain!

  • http://www.ch-ashley.com/ Ashley

    These are such wonderful tips. Thanks for sharing! 😀

  • http://independenttravelcats.com/ Jessica – Independent Travel C

    These are all good ideas. We also do the travel shows and planning/talking about trips/places. We were taking French lessons for a while but currently not doing any language lessons.

  • http://www.melaniefontaine.com/ Melanie Fontaine

    Great tips, Bonnie! I think it’s so important to feed wanderlust, even if you can’t travel right at the moment. I’m fortunate enough to do a whole lot of travel at the moment, but that wasn’t always the case and probably won’t be in the future either, so in those times, I spent a lot, a lot of time just dreaming about travel. I read tons of blogs and just let myself be inspired by the world – there were times when I was envious of people that got to travel around so much, but most of the time it just inspired me to make the most of my life at home as well! :) Great list!

  • Gaby

    thanks for the recommendations! I’m already doing a few, like planning dreams trips :) Love travel Tuesday, so cool

  • http://mypassionjourney.com/ Lauren

    I like the idea of watching travel shows- we watched some Rick Steve’s shows before our last trip to Europe and it was totally fed our wanderlust and made our trip so much more fun to actually be the same places we saw on tv.

  • Holly Nelson

    All stuff I do!! I can’t leave Canada at the moment, owing to visa stuff, so I am feeding my wanderlust with various ‘Rough Guide’ books about Canada, planning day trips and a week or two travelling Ontario – bliss!