We are dreaming (maybe daily?) of that post-pandemic world where we get to travel again. Although travel will be different, we are hopeful we can all still visit those dream destinations still on our bucket list. In this spirit, here’s how we are re-prioritizing our travel bucket list.

Image of airport where you see 2 suitcases, a bench and an airplane in the background.

Visit friends and family

Yep, probably you didn’t expect this but we are going to first be visiting friends and family, that we haven’t been able to see, once we are able to travel again. For sure, we took for granted the time we were able to spend with them and they are now at the top of our travel list.

Local travel

We are planning to be a tourist in our own town. Often times we forget that our own backyard can be amazing. Not only does local travel support the local economy but it’s also more environmentally friendly. Specifically for us, we want to take a road trip of the western United States & Canada and that’s a pretty big geographic chunk (maybe we’ll #vanlife for a bit). I’m not sure we would have prioritized this before, but it feels right to be seeing sites at home first.

Quality over quantity

We are going to be going to fewer places and staying longer. So, for example, if we were to go back to Europe again, we’d probably only stay in 1 country. Slow travel started to appeal to us even before Covid - you can read all about it in our Slow Travel blog post. We are planning to give ourselves enough time to visit famous sites when they are not super crowded over many days. It may feel you’ll be seeing less this way, but actually you’ll be seeing more of all the little details that make that destination unique. Don’t miss the forest for the trees.

Adventure travel

Since adventure travel is naturally socially distanced, we are planning to prioritize this over other options. We definitely want to go back to Nepal to finish the trek we weren’t able to finish and although getting to Nepal might be tricky in a post-covid world, we think the trouble of trying is definitely worth it. Likewise, if you’ve been dreaming of an adventure like a Safari, that’s a good option to bump up on the travel list.

Destinations were being socially distanced is easy (w/out missing out on the culture too much)

There are many places in the world where you can interact with the locals but we will avoiding events that are especially crowded - for example, in 2019 we were fortunate to attend mass Palm Sunday at the Vatican, it was packed! and rightfully so, it’s a very important religious event. That said, we are going to avoid incredibly crowded place like Vatican square on Palm Sunday, or the festival of lights in Thailand, or maybe a cool club in Ibiza. Not that we never want to do that again, just not right away.

Lastly, we are going to avoid being in confined spaces for long.

Long flights will probably be something we risk but experiences like multi-day cruises or luxury multi-day train rides will definitely get bumped to the bottom. It’s not that we wouldn’t love to take the Siberian express and cross all of Russia, and we might some day, but in our immediate post-covid world travel wish list, that doesn’t rank as high anymore.

Other advice we are considering

Booking with Travel agents

We heard that those travelers who used a travel agent to book their travel when Covid hit had an easier time getting back home. Travel agents have never been our jam, nothing against them, we are just too OCD in our travel planning. However, we are now definitely considering the value a travel agent brings when booking complicated itineraries.

We hope this was useful in helping re-prioritize your travel bucket list. Leave a comment below if you have any insights you’d like to share. As always, happy travel (dreams)!