Now that the new year has arrived it’s time to talk about all the potential trips that can happen this year! I got started drafting my travel wish list in the fall of last year as things were winding down. Last year I only went to 4 out of the 12 destinations mentioned on my travel wish list. Not so proud of that, but I did end up exploring many other places that weren’t originally on the list. This year I’m hoping I can at least get to do two international trips and one domestic one from this list! My heart is ready for some international travels.
Table of Contents
Quebec City
The main reason I wish to go to Quebec city is for the fall foliage. I’m a fall baby so by definition I love the fall. Unfortunately, in Texas fall foliage is non-existent, for the most part. I also want to go, because the city looks like a small town in Europe. I’ve been to Canada once, Niagara Falls, but I want to explore as many of the provinces as I can.
Banff National Park
Banff has been on my travel wish list for years!! I wanted to do a backpacking trip for my 30th, but due to the pandemic that didn’t happen. I hope I can go up in the summer and finally hike through this beautiful park.
Vancouver
Alex and I had every intention of exploring Vancouver last fall. We had our flights, AirBnbs booked and were ready to go, but one look at the forecast changed everything. The main reason we were flying up there was to hike places like Joffre Lakes and Vancouver Island. When we looked at the forecast and noticed it was going to be thunder storming while we were there we decided to change our plans. So a redo is a must! This time I hope we can stay in a tiny cabin out in the middle of the mountains and maybe go up to Whistler.
Mexico
Growing up, I would visit Mexico quite often, but would only visit my grandmother’s house in the rural side of the country. I never ventured out anywhere else, so for the longest time I grew up thinking Mexico didn’t have beautiful sites to see. As I got older I realized I was completely wrong.
Mexico has so many beautiful places I have on my travel wish list like Oaxaca, Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo just to name a few. My goal is to go on a massive road trip and check out all these beautiful destinations.
Italian Dolomites
I hadn’t heard about the Italian Dolomites until recently. Once I looked them up, I knew I had to go and check them out for myself. If you hadn’t noticed by now I love being around the mountains, and I love Europe, so obviously it’s the perfect combination for me. I’m hoping international travel gets easier, because I’m dying to go back to Europe. And what better way to explore a place I love than with a backpacking trip through the Italian Dolomites?
Alaska
Back in October of 2020, Alex and I went to Alaska for the first time. I fell in love with it not much longer after we landed. It holds a special place in my heart since that’s where we got engaged. However, the only problem with going during this time is that we visited during the off-season, more of which you can read more about it here.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of things we wanted to do, but couldn’t due to everything being closed for the season. We also wanted to hike through Denali National Park, but a snow storm prevented us from getting to do that. It’s safe to say there’s a lot of unfinished business with Alaska.
Hawaii
If you couldn’t tell, I love visiting cold places. This is unfortunate for my fiancé because he hates the cold. Back when we moved from New York City, I was sad we had left without actually experiencing a blizzard(ha). What can I say? I wanted the full New York experience.
I’ve seen the movies and heard, the stories from loved ones about how beautiful Hawaii is. From what we’ve heard, Hawaii sounds like the perfect blend of everything we love to do; a happy medium for Alex and I to explore next. Alex loves to sit back and lounge by the pool under the warm sun while I love to see as much as I can by getting my hands dirty while hiking a mountain or exploring a waterfall.
Arizona
I don’t like the heat, never have, never will. So for me to say I want to explore Arizona must mean it’s something worth exploring. I’ve only seen beautiful pictures of places like Havasu falls and Sedona and can’t believe they’re real. I’ve been to other places in Arizona like Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe bend and the Grand Canyon, but Alex hasn’t. So I’d love to do a massive Arizona road trip with him and see all the beautiful sites Arizona has to offer.
The 2022 game plan
As someone who works a 9 to 5 I know how valuable Paid Time Off (PTO) is. In order to help you get a better sense of how you can maximize your time out of the office, I created this table as a tool to help you with your travel wish list! Of course, this is merely a suggestion. You can use this as a guide or even a starting point to help you get the ball rolling.
| Holidays | Date | PTO Needed | Notes |
| MLK | 1/17 | 1 | 4-Day Weekend |
| President’s Day | 2/21 | 1 | 4-Day Weekend |
| Memorial Day | 5/30 | 1 | 4-Day Weekend |
| Juneteenth | 6/20 | 1 | 4-Day Weekend |
| Independence Day | 7/4 | 1 | 4-Day Weekend |
| Labor Day | 9/5 | 1 | 4-Day Weekend |
| Thanksgiving | 11/24 | 1/4 | 4-Day Weekend/ Week long vacation |
| Christmas | 12/26 | 4 | Week long vacation |
| Total | 11/14 |
In order to get the most out of your vacation days add on one extra day to the Holiday weekends and make them into 4-Day weekends! This alone creates 6 opportunities, not including Thanksgiving and Christmas (since these Holidays can be tricky), for you to set off on vacation. You might think I may be getting way ahead of myself since it’s only the second day of the year when I’ve created this, but I know we can all look forward to something especially when the days get long at work.
At the very least I hope you leave this page feeling inspired and excited to see where your future adventures may lead you this year.
If you’re still in search for some more travel inspiration, make sure to check out my travel wish list from last year.
