5 Easy Tips to Brainstorm Your Next Vacation Destination

Brainstorming trip ideas is fun because you get to dream!  Where will you go?  What will you do?  How will you get there?  What do you want to get out of the trip?  Now that you have set aside time from your busy schedule to take time off, let’s spend some time brainstorming ideas and getting some clarity about what type of vacation you will be planning.

Tip #1: Take Some Time To Visualize

Take a few minutes to dream!  Close your eyes, and imagine yourself taking your dream vacation.   What are you doing in your dream?

• Are you sipping fruit smoothies while soaking up the sun on the beach?
• How about strolling down the streets of an historic town?
• Are you in an underwater cage hoping to have an encounter with a Great White shark (like Jason)?
• What about hiking to the summit of a mountain, taking in the views that only few will ever experience in their lifetimes?

The results of your visualization will be uniquely yours!  Consider jotting down a few notes.  If you have a creative streak, maybe consider creating a vacation vision board.  Whether your dream is to relax in a tranquil environment or enjoy an action-packed adventure, knowing the direction you want to go in will give you a point to start to research and explore.

Tip #2: Roam the Interwebs 🙂

There is an abundance of information available online!  That means that it is highly likely that you will be able to find someone, somewhere that has written or recorded (audio or video) something related to your ideal vacation.  Here are a few places that you might consider starting to brainstorm trip ideas on the web.

Pinterest is my #1 tool to use for brainstorming trip ideas!

Because Pinterest is a visual platform, it is easy to see attractive places that might appeal to you.  You can then click on the pin (that’s what the picture is called) to read a little more about the place and what there is to do there.

Throughout the year, I collect ideas and pin them to boards (for example, see our National Parks Units board here).  If you have a destination in mind, search for it in the Pinterest search bar to get ideas and to find content on that specific location.

One of the main reasons that I like Pinterest for looking up travel destinations is that you can get a lot of results from bloggers and smaller websites that might not rank super high in a search engine.  These folks will often give you some “behind the scenes” information that isn’t published on major websites that tend to cater to the topically interested reader.  We want to go deep into our brainstorming – right?

Broad Google Searches Can Provide Good Ideas When Brainstorming Too

Google is now a verb (I’ll use it as a synonym for search).  I Google in two ways when looking for vacation destinations:

1. Search a topic. For example, you may want to google the following:
   • “best vacation destinations for (fill in the blank)” i.e. “best vacation destinations for history lovers”
   • or “(fill in the duration) vacation ideas in (fill in the location)” (i.e. “weekend vacation ideas in Ohio”)
   • or something broad like “cross country road trip ideas” or “bucket list vacation destinations in the US”
2. Search for information on a specific destination that you have decided you may want to explore further. For example, when considering a trip to Badlands National Park, you may want to search something like “things to do near Badlands National Park” to get more ideas about the realm of possibilities available there

Tip #3: Grab a Guide Book

Guide books rock!  Even though we have travel quests that keep a great queue of destinations for us to complete, and even with all of the reading from great blogs out there, we enjoy a guide book because they compile A LOT of information into a few short pages, giving you a sampling of complete trips that you might enjoy.

Check out a couple of our personal favorites (some of these are affiliate links which means that if you make a purchase, will earn a commission at no additional cost to you).

Road Trip USA: Cross Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways: We love this book because it explores destinations along a number of famous road trips that run both north and south as well as east and west across the United States.  We  have driven portions of some of these routes while on the road, and have gotten ideas for stops from this book that we otherwise would have missed out on.  Click here to purchase.

National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States: This book specifically covers the parks that are managed by the National Park Service that carry a “National Park” designation (not the monuments, battlefields, etc).  We love it because it provides some great content on each park and what makes it unique.  You will find information about how to visit each park, what to do in each park, and some information on the area in which the park is located.  Other nearby public lands are mentioned as well to suggest excursions that you might explore when you make your visit.  Click here to purchase.

Tip #4: Phone a Friend

Talk with a friend or family member that took an adventure that you’re interested in. People are great resources when looking for ideas for vacations.  Often, their experiences can spark ideas about things that you might like to try as well.  Your friends and family might also know you well, and be able to point out things that they know you will like or suggest other excursions that you might want to avoid.

Take a friend out for coffee and ask them about their adventure.  Chances are, they will enjoy having the opportunity to share about their travels, and will share resources that they used which will streamline your research and save you time and energy when it comes to planning.

Tip #5: Consider a Travel Quest

Travel quests can be a great way to keep the trip “idea well” full and flowing!  When you set out to create a travel quest, you basically are selecting a series of places that you want to visit or a set of things that you want to do.  Check out this great post on Why You Should Adopt a Personal Travel Quest.

Two types of travel quests are outlined in that article as follows:

A count up quest:

With this type of quest, you count the number of “things” that you want to do as you do them.  For example, making a declaration like “I want to visit 40 countries by the time I turn 40” is an example of a count up quest.  There are more than 40 countries, but in this example, you want to visit a fixed number of them.

A count down quest:

With this type of quest, you have a clearly defined set of “things” that you want to explore.  For example, our National Park Units quest is an example of a count down quest.  There are currently 418 National Park Units, and we are able to tell you which of them we have and have not visited.

A travel secondary quest:

There may be another type of travel quest as well where you are in pursuit of something that requires travel (a “travel secondary quest” if you will).  In this sense, travel is a byproduct of the pursuit of the quest, not its primary focus.  For example, I met a gentleman on a cruise ship that told me that the cruise that we were on was his 100th cruise.  He wore this as a point of pride, and I was in awe because that’s A LOT of time on a cruise ship!  That being said, if you set your sights on cruising the world or completing the triple crown of hiking or fishing for River Monsters in the path of Jeremy Wade, this might give you some fuel to hit the road and explore as well.

Get to It!

Give one or more of these ideas a go!  There is a lot to discover out there… happy exploring!

Let us know if you give these tips a try or if you have any other ideas in the comments below.