I recently answered a question about which are the must-visit places to add to a bucket list, but before I answered the question I want to make it clear I am NOT a huge fan of bucket lists. The reason is simple – they aren’t SMART goals. How do you know when you are going to die, it’s easy to keep putting things off for years because you always have “next year”. I want to travel and explore the world while I am still young and fit enough to enjoy it, not when I am 80 and struggling to get around.
It’s not like we don’t cover great places to visit, we have covered them many times like, 12 best countries to visit or top 10 solo destinations or even the 5 underrated countries in Europe.
We are a huge fan of exploring new places, we just think you should have smarter goals around your travel plans.
I turned 30 in April of this year and for about 6 months before this I planned out where I want to visit by the time I am 35. Not a bucket list that I can keep putting off, but a 5 year time window when I must visit all 5 places.
The key is they also need to be realistic – New Zealand is probably the one country in the world I really want to visit and explore, but I have a very young family and it would be a very long flight for them all so not realistic in the next 5 years. Also another realistic element is the number of countries, 5 is realistic – it’s potentially 1 year if I plan it right.
I want to share with the 5 countries and why I picked them.