So you’re thinking of going on a trip but you don’t know where to? Well, this is my thought process. Hopefully it will be of some help to you!
Step 1. Close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere.
Where were you?
Were you relaxing on the beach with sand between your toes? Could you hear to the waves crash and feel the sun warming your skin? If so, then we know you want to go to the beach.
Were you blown away by a view? Was the earth below you and the white clouds just out of reach? Were trees surrounding you growing thicker as the woods carried on? Maybe you should go to the mountains.
What was that language? You couldn’t make out what the people were saying, but it didn’t scare you. You were lost in a new culture taking in the interesting lives around you. Maybe a new country is calling you.
Were you dwarfed by giants? Buildings shot into the air soaring higher than the last one. Did cars zoom and people bustle? If that’s what you saw, then maybe you should go to a big city.
I always close my eyes and let my mind wander to some far off place. Sometimes my brain wanders to the crashing waves of the beach while other times my brain goes to the hustle and bustle of a metropolis. Once my brain has wandered somewhere, I begin to look for places like that in the real world.
For the sake of the post, let’s say my brain wandered to big trees and mountains.
Step 2. Google “big trees and mountains.”
Sometimes the most random Google searches can be the best Google searches. When I typed in exactly what I wanted to see, “big trees and mountains,” Google provided a wide variety of responses. “Big trees and mountains” is vague enough to allow Google to give you the “best response” as well as others that may not be perfect matches in words, but lead to somewhere great. From here, you have the freedom to click on different websites from places that have big trees and mountains.
Step 3. Image search “big trees and mountains”
I ALWAYS image search! Image searching is a GREAT way to see a lot of information at one time. Say you like this one tree or that one mountain view. If you click the image, it will blow it up and give you a link to the website they got it from. From there, you can see where the tree is that you have clicked on. That will help narrow your choices of location.
Some of the trees shown in this particular Google search are from rather far away. One tree was from Switzerland while others were located in California. Some of the trees were pretty close to me in the Smoky Mountains! But, in my wandering brain, the beach wasn’t too terribly far away…. So where would some big trees be that are close to both mountains AND the beach?
Step 4. Google again. This time Google, “big trees near mountains and beaches.”
Bingo! What did I get here?! More links specifically on big trees that are near the mountains and beaches. And guess where they are!? CALIFORNIA!!!! How perfect is that?! Down a little bit on the page (you can’t see it in the screenshot) was a link about the Avenue of the Giants in the Redwood Forest. In the northwest corner of the state sits a national park full of giant trees. It’s got mountains and isn’t too far from the beach. What a wonderful combination!?
I now know where I want to go! The Redwood National Park in California. 😀
I know that seems like a really simple way to find where you want to go next, but when you have NO idea, I think this is the best option. It allows you to follow your heart as well as do some good research. Once I know where I want to go, the hard part begins. Planning the trip to the new place can be extremely stressful. There are ways to defuse of that stress though! Be looking for a post on that soon!
Hope this helped those of you who want to travel somewhere but can’t seem to pin point exactly where you want to go! 🙂
My family and I took a road trip from Seattle, Washington to San Francisco, California summer 2013. These are some of the pictures from the Redwood National Forest. I love my big trees!! 😉
Ok so this picture is AMAZING! It’s me leaning against a fallen Redwood. The rangers have marked the lines in the tree with FREAKING HISTORICAL EVENTS!!! THAT’S JUST HOW OLD THE THING IS!!! Ha!! I’m such a nerd. The markers of course begin at the middle ring of the tree and go out. This is what they say. Be prepared to be AMAZED.
1000 Vikings discover North America
1096 Oxford University Founded
1160 University of Paris Founded
1218 Genhis Kahn conquers Persia
1368 Ming dynasty begins
1453 Renaissance begins
1486 Printing press invented
1521 Cortex conquers Aztecs
1620 Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1773 Boston Tea Party
1850 Humboldt Bay discovered
1928 California State Park system established
THAT TREE WAS 1,000 YEARS OLD Y’ALL AND IT’S NOT EVEN THE OLDEST OR THE BIGGEST IN THE PARK. WTF?!
I’m quite glad Turkey is a big enough of a country for this sort of pick and choose a destination 😛
Exactly!! It’s a great form to choose where to go when you have no idea
Great post! My next trip is already planned (Alaska!) but I’ve been contemplating a small road trip for the month after I graduate.
Alaska?! AHH!!! I’m super jealous!! I want to go there twice in my life. Once soonish so I can go hiking and do all kinds of activity stuff and then I wanna go again later when I’m old. I wanna chill on one of those cruises and look for whales hahaha
Both of those sound like a great time to me!! We’re still on planning so we’re not 100% sure what all were going to do!