6 ways to keep your NYE travel resolutions

Quebec-based online travel agencies FlightHub and Justfly have created a quick and helpful guide for travellers to stay on track of their New Year’s resolutions.

Buy a travel book

Travel books are an amazing tool for planning and inspiring trips. They have a wealth of information from budget accommodations, to gourmet restaurants, to secluded beaches. Even if travellers forget to read it, seeing it on their bookshelf or table every day will give them that little reminder to get the ball rolling and plan that dream vacation. Plus, spending money on an actual book will likely force them to put it to good use!

Make a digital vision board

Websites like Pinterest are great for planning a dream vacation and seeing many ideas in one place. Travellers can do this on Instagram as well by saving pictures from their favourite travel bugs to a collection.

Now is the time to think big, if they see a destination, restaurant, activity that interests them, they should save it. It’ll be fun to check back in and see all the beautiful photos from around the world and once they have a clear destination in mind they can sort through what’s no longer relevant.

Set a budget

Setting a realistic travel budget early on in their planning is very important. A great way to stay motivated and save money is to start a travel fund. They should keep a jar where they add the spare change they’ve collected over the week or agree with their travel partners to contribute a certain amount each week.

Any contribution they make will be helpful in the long run and seeing the fund increase slowly will get them excited for when they actually get to spend it.

Be realistic

If this is the first trip they plan, they should set realistic goals and expectations for themselves. Maybe a trip to Japan isn’t a great idea if they’ve never been on a plane before.

Travelling doesn’t have to mean jetting off to faraway countries for weeks at a time. They should try exploring their home country or going to an all-inclusive resort. There’s an adventure in every destination and they shouldn’t judge themselves if they’re not ready to trek across the world.

Choose a specific time

Once they’ve figured out where they want to go they’ll need to choose when they want to go. Travel dates can depend on a lot of things like time off from work, their budget and how far away their destination is.

It’s important to factor in travel times and to give themselves a few days where they can rest if necessary. Travelling in low seasons will save them quite a bit of money but may not give them optimal weather conditions (they shouldn’t travel during hurricane season for example, no matter how tempting prices are).

Find a time that works for you and your travel partners. It doesn’t need to be narrowed down to the exact day but knowing what time of the month works best for everyone is ideal.

Learn a language

Whether or not they take the trip, learning a language is an incredibly valuable skill. There are a number of smartphone applications such as Duliongo that are user-friendly and help track learning progress. Travellers should set aside a few minutes a day to practice or start listening to audiobooks or watching TV shows in another language.