As we ring in the new year, resolutions may be on your mind. Since travel is a huge part of living a fulfilling life, we discuss travel resolutions you want to adopt in the new year.
Travel Resolutions for 2023
- Use all your vacation days (getting better post-2020 but not great)
- Start a vacation savings account
- Go to a new place on vacation (local or far away)
- Do one thing that is uncomfortable
- Learn words/phrases (or more) in a language
- Try new food based on a location (whether there or not)
- Take THAT trip (getting out of Covid/post-covid mode..)
- Try a different form of travel
- Travel solo
- Start a travel journal/photo album/blog/podcast
- Less social media during travel
Question: Which of these travel resolutions will you prioritize in 2023?
Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!
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Ryan and Shayne are both Travel Advisers with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Feel free to reach out to us for a free quote and to start making magical memories.
- Contact Ryan at DisneyTravelDad.Com.
- Contact Shayne at Shayne.fun.
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Episode 142 Transcripts
Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence, so some highly amusing translations are likely!
Shayne: Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. As we ring in the new year. Resolutions may be on your mind. Today, Ryan and I are talking about some travel resolutions that you will want to adopt for the new year.
Ryan: So Shayne, we discussed a, a version of this list last year. But I think it’s worth revisiting because I, I always kind of like, I’m not a big resolution guy. But I always kind of like resetting at the beginning of the year. So whether it’s, you know, thinking about what I may want to do different, I, maybe this sounds like a resolution now, right?
But, you know, thinking about what I want may wanna do differently and all that kind of stuff. But I, I, I like this list and I, I think wi with a podcast all about travel. I think it’s good to, to talk about it again,
Shayne: For many reasons. I think a lot of topics bear repeating, and this is certainly one of those, and I’m the same. I’m not a resolutions person. If I see a change that I want to adapt, I go ahead and do it. I don’t wait around for.
Ryan: Right,
Shayne: You know, I might start on a Monday or on the first of a month, but I’m not gonna wait around for the first of the year.
Ryan: Correct. Diets never start on Friday.
Shayne: No , right? Yeah. Start ’em after Saturday. Well, Ryan, you’ve had many fascinating new experiences this year between your adventures by Disney trip to Italy and your volcanoes tour in Hawaii, what has been your favorite new experience of
2022?
Ryan: You’re right. This, this has been a, a weird year as far as travel in that we were still kind to squeeze some stuff in that had been planned pre pandemic and new things popped up. So we, we were just traveling a lot this year and I, I think for me, two things rise to the top with this.
The first is this summer. Taking my kids to Europe for the first time was an unbelievable experie. , you know, just seeing it through their eyes and, and tra you know, that type of travel, you know, that’s, they not only had they not been to Europe, but they just hadn’t done that kind of intense traveling before.
So that was really fun to experience. And then also, The same, the same thing. We went out to Colorado at the end of the summer and my wife and daughter went to a conference at Colorado State, and during that week, my son and I bebo around the state by ourselves. We spent some time with Tom and, and Laura Sic, who are are good friends of the show.
We spent some time with relatives, but we also spent some time just being by ourselves and, and traveling and, you know, driving hours and hours and hours and that was just, it was a lot of fun to just spend that dedicated time with him and us.
Shayne: But he enjoyed that too. And as we, another topic that bears repeating is spending enough, spending plenty of time with your family now, because at some point our kids are gonna go away to college, move out.
Ryan: That’s absolutely true. Absolutely true. So I’m excited to talk about these resolutions, not only what our friends who are listening should think about, but what you and I should think about when it comes to 2023.
Shayne: Yeah, me too. I’m excited about this.
Ryan: Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your interests, saving you time, money, and stress.
Shayne: We would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation.
Ryan: You can reach out to me at Ryan@creatingmagicvacations.com. That’s R Y A n, at Creating Magic Vacations.com. All right, Shayne, so we have a, a pretty good list here. Why don’t you go ahead and get us started.
Shayne: The first one is use all of your vacation days.
Ryan: Absolutely. And you know, it’s actually getting better this year. There was an uptick in people using their vacation days, but it’s still not great compared to the rest of the world.
Shayne: and here’s a related tip. use your floating holidays too. I was talking to someone the other day and they brought up floating holidays and. Being December . I said, what, why didn’t you use those first? And they said, well, when are you supposed to use them?
a floating holiday is a, a holiday that you can use anytime because companies can’t accommodate every culture. So here in the United States, they’ll have Thanksgiving off and Christmas day off, but your culture may not celebrate that. So they’ll give you floating holidays that you can use.
And in every company I’ve worked for, Your vacation days, your PTO days, paid time off days, you can roll over. Or if you part ways with a company, you’ll get paid for those. Likewise, your floating holidays don’t roll over to the next year. And if you part ways with a company, you don’t get those floating holidays or use it or lose it.
So in, in case you didn’t know, Use your floating holidays first, and then fill in your P T O on vacation days for the rest of the year so that you can make sure you get to use all of them, and then take advantage of everything that your company’s offering you.
Ryan: Yeah, a absolutely, you know, there, there’s just, there’s no reason not to, it just travel is so important for you, for your family, for your, your sense of wellness. A and not even just travel, just time away. And it just, it just makes perfect sense. Absolutely. So the second on the list, and we’ve talked about this before, Shayne is start a vacation savings account.
So put money aside over the long term so that you know when it’s time to pay for that vacation. You’ve gotta end the bank, and I think this is really, really important.
Shayne: Then you can set aside what you feel comfortable setting aside and have that money in the account and know that that’s what it’s You can feel comfortable knowing This is our travel budget. We’re setting aside this. We have money for travel, so we do get to go. And then also when you talk with your travel advisor and they give, hopefully your travel advisor is asking you pretty early in the conversation so that they can decide the best trip for you.
When they ask you what is your budget, you know exactly what to tell them, and that helps them come up with a great trip for you.
Ryan: Yeah, Absolutely.
Shayne: Number three, whether it’s local, or far away, go to a new place for your vacation.
Ryan: I’m gonna be doing this this next year. Shayne,, we haven’t talked about this yet on the show but we’re gonna be talking a little bit more about short-term vacation rentals because my wife and I are actually in the process The week after this comes out, we’re gonna actually be closing on a house that we are purchasing up in south Haven, Michigan, which is right along Lake Michigan.
And we’re gonna be using that as a short term vacation rental and, and being hosts up there and, and going through kind of that whole project. And so I’m excited about becoming a, tourist local if you.
Shayne: Well, Ryan, since you asked yes, I will use my background and quality assurance to come test out your processes in your new rental
Ryan: You are invited. You know, Hey, fly into Grand Rapids. We’ve talked about flying into Grand Rapids before. You’re an hour away from the house.
Shayne: to go to Traverse.
Ryan: we, we can make that work. But, but seriously, I’m excited about learning of a new place that’s not too far from home that I can really you know, spend some time this coming year and beyond.
Shayne: You don’t have to go far to find a new.
Ryan: So number four, and this is harder for me, but do something in travel that’s uncomfortable. I like to be a creature of habit, although, I’m willing to try new things. Does that contradiction make sense?
Shayne: it makes perfect sense. I understand it.
Ryan: Alright. Alright. So what would be an example of something that I should do that would be uncomfortable in travel?
Shayne? Like, like sleep on a plane. That sounds uncomfortable. Oh, wait, no, maybe that’s not what I mean.
Shayne: I think you need to sleep in a tent is what I think you need to
Ryan: That. Well, you know, that would, I used to, many moons ago, I used to backpack. I used to camp and. Actually on our first date, my wife, I, I brought that up. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but, but my wife talked about how, you know, oh yeah, that, that’d be fun to, to try, you know, that’d be a lot of fun.
Like I, I, I’d really like to, to go camping and all this kind of stuff. And lo and behold, she was just trying to impress me that this woman, you know, a, a three star hotel is camping for her. So you.
Shayne: Well, there is the happy compromise. If you can find a, I’m sure you can find a place to go glamping
Ryan: This is true. This is true.
Shayne: Number five, learn some words or phrases in a new language of a place that you’re gonna visit.
Ryan: I know this is important for you, Shayne. I know you take this one pretty serious.
Shayne: It just makes it more fun. That’s the way that you can have a conversation with the locals, you know? And the fun thing is, here’s the thing, is you can sit down and have a conversation with the locals and have a great time and pretty much not have any idea what each other are saying.
Ryan: Yeah, , you know, and it’s just, it’s just the common courtesy, you know, going to Greece for example. I’ve talked about going to Greece on this show before. Almost every single person that I encountered in Greece spoke some sort of passable English. However, knowing some words, knowing some phrases, being open to asking about vocabulary, it just added a whole other layer of connection with those people that I interacted while I was.
Shayne: And to be more serious, I, we have this thing where we don’t want to be wrong or look foolish or embarrass ourselves. So we have a tendency to not wanna try to talk to someone in a different language. But this is different from school. They’re not gonna correct you. They’re not gonna get, they’re not gonna get out their red pens.
They’re gonna appreciate that you’re trying, and you might, even if you’re in a restaurant or a, a bar in this, in a foreign country, you might even get a little better service just because you tried
Ryan: Absolutely. Well, hey, we’ve got some more cool items on this list, Shayne, but first I wanna know where in the world is All Things Travel?
Shayne: San Leandro, California.
Ryan: All right. Well, you know what? It is cold and yicky and snowing here in Indiana, so anytime I can talk about California today, I am excited.
Shayne: It’s right there on the San Francisco Bay, so there’s a good chance it might be a little cold there too, but you know what? It’s California, so that’s okay. We’ll take
Ryan: That’s all right. I like it. I, I like the vibe in San Francisco. I, I like the, the kind of that, that Bay Lifestyle. Welcome so much San Leandro. We are so glad you’re here listening to All Things Travel.
Shayne: And sometimes I might pick a place just based on the name I might have. You might have known me to do that once or twice, and that’s what I’ve done this time. And when we get to go visit our friend out in San Leandro, California, we’re going to go to Ryan’s.
Ryan: Ooh, I like the name of this place. It’s gotta be.
Shayne: I thought you might to make sure that you hear where in the world is All Things Travel next week, be sure to subscribe or follow the show so that you never miss any of our travel tips, travel ideas, or travel stories.
Ryan: And hey Santa Leandro, do me a favor, reach out to me via Facebook or email cuz I’ve got a nice little gift for being featured on today’s show. All right, so the next one, you know, this one’s gonna be hard for me. Shayne. Try a new food based on a location, whether you’re there or not. Try some new food.
Shayne: You did say to do something uncom.
Ryan: Well, you know, sometimes that can happen if you find too much of good food you know, you can get outta your comfort zone very quickly. But, you know, I, I, I wa I, you know me, I love to do this. I mean, I, I can make a trip based around something that I’ve read something. TV and I, I’m definitely a foodie yeah, so, so, you know, I I, I look back at some of the recipes and things like that that I haven’t tried yet.
A lot of them are food from around the world, so I’m definitely gonna be doing this one this year.
Shayne: And that’s almost a bragging point for me to brag about some weird food that I’ve tried that is different from what we might have here in the States.
Number seven. Take that trip. Get out of the post covid mode and get out there and create some travel stories. See the world, gain these new experiences, expose your family to these cultures enjoy that kind of life.
Ryan: Yeah. You know, it’s time, right? I certainly know what the last couple years have been like, and I understand everybody’s in a different place as far as that, a different mindset, and, but it’s time to travel again and, and places are ready to welcome you. You know, tourists are ready to welcome you if you’ve been dreaming about that trip.
It, it’s available to.
eight is try a different form of travel. So I actually did this I’ve ridden on trains in Europe before. It was really cool during our Italian trip to ride on a Ferrari train
Shayne: Nice.
Ryan: through the countryside pretty dang fast.
Shayne: Yeah, we do like our trains. That would be high on the list of new kinds of travel to try.
number nine, travel solo.
Ryan: Talking about traveling solo. There, there can be a lot of benefits. I mean, there are certainly things that you have to think about and ways to plan specifically for like any type of travel.
But, you know, there’s just something about being, having to rely on yourself but also the tradeoff is you’re doing exactly what you want to do. You’re eating when you want to eat, you’re staying where. Seeing what you want to see. There’s very little compromise and that can be rather liberating.
Shayne: Yeah, and it might be a little uncomfortable, but solitude can be nice. It can be a great way to grow a little more, gain a little more confidence, and you’re gonna enjoy the time and it’s not gonna be nearly as scary as it might seem beforehand.
Ryan: Absolutely. Number 10, start a. Journal or maybe a photo album that’s specific to travel, maybe a blog or keeping track of, of kind of your writing as you travel or maybe even a travel podcast, but do something this year to organize kind of your thoughts and your pictures having to do with travel. You really appreciate being able to, to come back and look at that over time.
Shayne: Writing is a very sooth. Habit or hobby, however you wanna look at it. A lot of people, a lot of therapists will recommend writing in a journal for mental health reasons, and to me, it’s a good way to just listen to yourself, if that makes any sense.
Whenever, whenever I write, I put something on the paper or on the screen, type it out. It’s as though it clears some space for something new to come in a new idea or looking at the experience a little more deeply. and it’s, it’s a great way to have that memory written down. So in a few years when you go look at it, you may have not thought about it in a few years, and it brings back things that you haven’t thought about that you can remember a little better since you wrote it down.
But it also takes you deeper into those experiences as you get those ideas out of your head. Kinda like the pen sip for Mary Potter. Get those ideas outta your head to make room for something.
Ryan: and I think, you know, no matter what you do, whether it’s it’s writing personally for you, whether it’s, you know, developing a, a blog or, or writing to others about your trip or organizing your photos, or even a, something like a podcast or, I mean, The good thing is there, there’s free applications, there’s free software.
There’s free systems to be able to do that, it’s not, you know, it used to be, there was an expense associated with a lot of this stuff, and that’s just not the case anymore.
So Shayne, this last one, I know you’re a, you’re a big proponent of.
Shayne: Number 11.
Ryan: to my chagrin when I want you to post on the Facebook page,
Shayne: Number 11, less social media during travel. Yeah, that’s one thing that I don’t have a problem with. I’m pretty good at not posting on social media and I do apologize for that.
Ryan: Well, and I, you know, because of my job as, as a travel advisor and, and also the enjoyment that I get from traveling, it’s just, it’s become part of my traveling and sometimes it gets in the way and sometimes I’m able to plan it out. And so it’s just kind of a, a natural part of it. And I, I certainly understand why you say to do less of it.
I just say you have to be intentional about,
Shayne: Be intentional about it. And I think what we’re getting at here is I don’t think there’s an issue with the way that Ryan does it. I should probably do it more. The point that we’re making with this suggestion, number 11, is not to let it overtake your trip.
Don’t spend the whole time responding to comments and post your experience, maybe answer a couple of questions if anybody has any. Sometimes someone might offer you a suggestion if they’re familiar, where you’re traveling, and just don’t let it take over your trip.
Ryan: right, because I will remind you that it was me posting while traveling in Madrid. That led to us meeting each other.
Shayne: That’s true. That’s right. Ryan posted a picture of some churros that he had eaten and I commented something about whether or not they were churros or porras and look what it led to
Ryan: Look, wear Workwear life led us with a surprise. Surprise. It was me posting about traveling and eating altogether. Well, hey, as we wrap up Shayne, which of these kind of. Catch your attention that you want to be more focused on or intentional about during 2023.
Shayne: All of them. I’m gonna say number seven. I
Ryan: Okay.
Shayne: I’ve had uh, a challenging few years and I think things are finally, let’s say, caught up. And so in 2023, I can finally. Take that trip. Take those trips. Yeah. How about you
Ryan: I said this last year and I didn’t do it, and I’ll say it again. For many years traveling, I did not have the right settings set up to organize my photos. I work much better in my brain. when I have folders and I have things organized, and my photos are one place where I don’t have that, and so I need to take some time, go through the thousands of photos that I have while I’m traveling and organize it into places and things and experiences.
I think that’ll, that’ll make, make finding and remembering travel a lot easier and more fun.
Shayne: Let me guess. Do you have a few duplicate photos or maybe some that are a little too similar to keep all those extra copies
Ryan: I am sure that I do. How many pictures of the Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom does one guy need? Right.
Shayne: Yeah, I heard that. don’t, I I think number nine’s pretty important. We should uh, we should plan a solo. Trip sometime
Ryan: a solo trip together?
Shayne: Yeah, we should take a solo trip
Ryan: Okay. Let’s take a solo trip together.
Shayne: Well, we would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation.
Ryan: , You can reach out to me atRyan@creatingmagicvacations.com. That’s R Y A n, at Creating Magic Vacations.com.
Shayne: Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your interests, saving you time, money, and stress.
I really have revolutions in my head.
Ryan: Revolutions travel Revolut.