2020, the year of the dad joke. Ah yes, as early as 2017, dads in businesses everywhere started calling their 3-year plans ‘Vision 2020’. Dad jokes aside, January 1st marks the beginning of an entire decade, and it’s a perfect time to start living the vision we have for ourselves.

While I live in a travel mindset, living your goals could look a lot of different ways. It’s easy to dream about all the places you want to travel, but let’s talk about really planning how 2020 will be the year during which you travel.

Let’s talk do’s and don’ts when planning travel, especially as a professional:

Do:

• Leverage holidays – One of my favorite posts is an argument for traveling during Thanksgiving. What you need to know is that you can use holidays and your floating holidays and combine them with PTO to turn them into week-long vacations. For example, MLK day is on a Monday. You could fly out on a Friday, take 4 days of PTO and return the following Sunday and have taken 9 full days elsewhere.
• Say ‘no’ to other people – I’m 28, which means that I’m in 3 weddings next summer and am invited to more. As a nomad, I am choosing to come back to the US for those weddings, but I realize not everyone has that luxury. It is tough, but if you want your time off to be your own, decide early which events you will be saying ‘no’ to in 2020.
• Say ‘yes’ to other people – On the flip side of that coin, decide which events you will be saying ‘yes’ to this year. Is there a wedding in Punta Cana that you can go to, and extend for a vacation for a few days? A work conference in Florida could mean you have easy access to cruises.

Don’t:

• Travel during other people’s holidays – What I mean by this is, there are events during which people travel frequently and it causes flight and hotel prices to skyrocket. For example, spring break in Mexico. If you want to visit Mexico, you may want to save money and maximize your time there by going during the other months. Same thing with Central Europe; it can be crowded and pricey during the summer.
• Do it for the ‘gram – When was the last time that a photo made you joyful? The answer might be ‘never’. If that is the case, then do not travel to places just because they will be good for one Instagram shot, or because you’ll get lots of likes on Facebook. Additionally, these places are typically over touristed and have little else to offer than the ‘Instagram spot’. Instead, go to places that you love, and take great photos while there.
• Be rigid to your dreams – If your dream vacation to Rome isn’t in the cards this year, that’s okay! Keep saving money, and perhaps choose a destination that is more accessible for you. Taking steps toward your travel goals is more important than checking every place off your list!

Where do you want to jet off to in 2020?