One of my favorite joys in life is traveling. I supposed I contracted the travel bug when I lived overseas in Brussels, Belgium in my preteen years and spent my spare time driving and flying over Europe with my family. It sounds impressive, but just from a practical standpoint, it’s a whole lot easier to visit a new country on the weekend when Belgium is a 50-minute drive straight across versus the eight hours it takes in some cases to get out the state of Texas alone. Because of my previous life circumstances, I’ve had the opportunity to see a good chunk of Western Europe, so this blog will focus on my future travel goals and places I want to see other places around the world.
1. New Zealand
I feel like Australia gets all the attention when it comes to the Southern/Eastern hemisphere, but to me, New Zealand seems like the safer, prettier version of Australia. I should clarify that I have never actually been to either so take it with a grain of salt! However, I’ve done my research, and the world’s ten deadliest animals can all be found in Australia, so I feel compared to that, the breathtaking mountains and rivers sound like the perfect, non-deadly location.
2. Iceland
All thirteen transatlantic flights I took from the U.S. to Belgium over the course of four years all flew over Iceland, and each time I’d watch the blue little dot that represented our plane inch over the landmass on the plane screen and wished we could take a little pitstop (a planned one, not a sudden, unexpected one). I am a huge nature lover and lover of natural beauty, so in my eyes, with its geysers, volcanoes, hot springs, and lava fields, Iceland is a must see before I die destination. Seeing the Northern Lights has been on my bucket list as well.
3. Israel
Some of my best family friends are from Israel, and I have met so many wonderful Israeli people over the course of my life I would be honored to see their home. From a historical and religious standpoint, Jerusalem would be the trip of a lifetime, seeing the influences of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism intermixed in that holy city. My friends are all from Tel Aviv and so exploring that city would be part of my ideal trip too.
4. Brazil
I feel like I’ve been lucky enough in my life to do a lot of traveling but it’s mostly been in the northern hemisphere, and I’ve never really gone down past the equator. I know just seeing one South American country wouldn’t be able to capture the full continent, but I would love to see Brazil and specifically Rio de Janeiro. Experiencing that culture and food would be an incredible opportunity and though I feel it would be easy to fall into certain tourist traps, seeing the Christ the Redeemer statue is a must.
5. Singapore
I have not yet been to any Asian country, and I feel my status as world traveler is severely taking a hit because of it. Singapore is the Eastern hub of design, innovation, and shipping, full of cities of architectural awe and natural beauty as well. The movie “Crazy Rich Asians” was filmed in Singapore and most of the incredible scenes from that movie are easily recognizable landmarks in the city. I included it at the end because if everything goes well, this summer I will be doing a maymester in Singapore with my engineering design class! I’m so excited!
I hope you enjoyed my list of travel destinations I would love to explore in the future. I would encourage you to make your own and try and manifest them into a reality. You never know what the future holds, and maintaining travel dreams can be a great way to keep an open-mind and remain optimistic about the future.