How to Plan Your Travel Dreams: Mapping Out Trips for the Next 5 Years (and beyond)

Are you ready to take control of your travel plans and make your dream trips a reality?

🌍 In this episode of All Things Travel, Ryan and Julie share their top tips for mapping out your vacations over the next 5–10 years. From setting travel priorities to creating a realistic budget, we’ll guide you step-by-step to ensure you make the most of your time, budget, and experiences.

Key Topics Covered:

🗺️ Why Plan Long-Term?

• How to align your trips with milestones like birthdays, anniversaries, or graduations
• Why planning ahead creates excitement and makes budgeting easier

🎯 5 Steps to Map Out Your Travel Goals:
1️⃣ Set your travel priorities: Adventure, relaxation, cultural experiences, and more
2️⃣ Build your family’s travel wish list: Dream big, then narrow it down
3️⃣ Budget realistically: Tips for saving over time and planning affordable trips
4️⃣ Create a year-by-year plan: Balance adventure and relaxation trips
5️⃣ Adjust and prepare: Research, passports, and keeping the excitement alive

🌟 Real-Life Example:
Follow a family of four as they plan bucket-list trips to Yellowstone, Europe, Disney, Hawaii, and more!

📖 Engage Your Family:
Learn how to build excitement with pre-trip activities like documentaries, books, and themed family nights.

Call to Action:
Ready to start mapping out your travel dreams? Ryan and Julie can help you craft the perfect long-term travel plan. Contact us today to turn your wish list into reality!

#TravelPlanning #FamilyTravel #DreamVacations #AllThingsTravelPodcast #TravelGoals

Want to cruise with Ryan and Julie in July 2025? Join our cruise with friends of the podcast (yes, that's you as a listener)!
Check out the details: https://forms.gle/Jpikq82XPQS63v5N8

Visit our website, allthingstravelpodcast.com, for freebies and more podcast info!



Ready to plan your vacation? Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your family. Saving you time, money, and stress!

Visit our website www.allthingstravelpodcast.com and click on "Plan Your Next Vacation"

Join the travel conversations and the fun in our Facebook Page and Instagram Page!

• Please share the show with your travel buddies!! Click this link and share the show!
• Never miss an episode and help us take you to the top with us by following and leaving a 5-Star review on your favorite podcasting app!

Transcript

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 0:00

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. Julie and I often tell you to book early and really think about what trips you want to take long term. we have some really good tips today if you want to take it even further and map out your travel plans or plan ahead. Over time, so that your family knows how much they need to save, what they're going to be doing, and most importantly, what to be excited about. Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts, Ryan and Julie. I'm your travel professor, teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation. And she's a Disney loving, Maryland mom of three, and a specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel. All right, Julie. we've talked about this topic offline, quite a bit. So I'm excited to have an episode dedicated to it today. Long term travel planning. thinking about, as a family, as a friend group, as a couple, or even a solo traveler, what are the trips we want to take over time to really get us in that travel mindset of always having something to look forward to for that next trip? What are some of the benefits of doing that?

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 1:21

So, for me, it gets it out of my head if I can get that down on paper and I actually just did this. We just bought a five year monthly pocket planner

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 1:35

Mm hmm.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 1:36

to map out our trips. We said, okay, these are the ages the kids are going to be on these years. What trip is on our list. could be appropriate for that age, it was a really fun thing for us to do together and it also got us really excited to think about what's coming and I mean there's so many places we want to travel but needing to be realistic with kids ages and, and the budget It was a really fun activity but it also helps me to look at it more realistically.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 2:10

So kind of two things came out. First is having that roadmap helps you to align that with what's happening with your family, right? When your son turns this age, or when you and Steven have this anniversary, or when, so and so graduates from high school, we're looking at doing this. And then what does that mean financially and logistically as we look towards those years? I think that's a great thing to think about as a family or as people that travel together in general.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 2:44

Yeah, and it just helps you be more realistic. there's so many places I want to go, but let's be realistic about we can't do all those things back to back. We will be broke.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 2:57

before we talk about these steps or tips, I want to remind folks, if you have not listened to last week's episode, go back and take a listen because we discuss all the fun and exciting things that are coming to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, and Universal Orlando Resort in 2025, Also, If you have not seen our new website, check it out. We are super excited to have allthingstravelpodcast. com where Julie and I have information about the podcast, we have some freebies that we want to give you to make you a better traveler, and that's also a great way to reach out to us and suggest a show topic. Alright Julie, so when I started to think about the show today. I came up with five steps that you want to do when you're thinking about travel long term. for me, the first step is set your travel priorities. you can do this as a solo traveler, as a friend group, as a couple, or as a family. I have a family today that I'm gonna help illustrate these ideas. But really, whoever you're gonna be traveling with, the steps are the same. So first, set travel priorities. Discuss what you want to get out of travel. Is it relaxation? Is it adventure? what are the things that are most important to you? And, like you said, are there specific life events that we need to plan around? for instance, I have a family of four, two parents and two children, ages 12 and 8, and their goals are a mix of outdoor adventure, cultural education, and relaxing vacations. Aligning their trips with those types of things when the kids are younger, they may think about going to Disney and finding that Disney magic, to have that sense of adventure and also relaxing vacation. What's step number two?

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 4:55

Building a travel wish list. And this is probably the most fun part of this exercise get together and write down all the places you want to travel and then maybe narrow that down to, okay, what places do we realistically want to go to in the next five to ten years? Thinking about budget wise and just your family, your current life situation, what makes sense for the next ten years, or five years if you want to do it that way. But just that brainstorming is really a fun thing to do and a fun thing to dream about.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 5:39

my family, when the kids were younger, we were planning on going on an ABD river cruise. when 2020 came, it was canceled. And then when 2021 came, it was actually canceled again. we put the ABD website up on the TV. the kids could point. We want to know about that trip or we want to know about that trip. And we pulled it up and we started to talk about, would you like to go on this trip? What are the things you like about this one? that was a fun way to do it. So with this family, let's say their wishlist includes Yellowstone. Disney, Europe, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. That's a pretty good wish list, isn't it, Julie?

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 6:19

That's amazing.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 6:21

So, they may put a priority on experiences that they want to enjoy while the kids are still young. that may help them to say, we know we want to take these two trips before those two trips. And then the third step, obviously the realistic part is we need to budget. what are some ways that we can budget for these long term trips? estimate the cost for each trip. This could include things like transportation, lodging, activities, food, obviously some of these you're gonna guesstimate if they're down the road a bit. But as you and I know, we can get pretty close to the cost, even several years away by looking at flight data, looking at resort data, stuff like that.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 7:05

I think something that can go into this too is just knowing that, if Europe is a bigger trip, you're not going to do that back to back. to couple you know, put it in between years of less expensive trips.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 7:17

you're not going to do Hawaii and Europe in the same trip, but you might do Disney and then get on a Caribbean cruise. So, you're taking those two trips that maybe are less expensive than those first two. And then obviously you need to act on this. start a savings plan and break down goals into manageable amounts based on what your group can accomplish, plan affordable trips in years with tighter budgets. So you think about, we want to have a graduation trip. That's great. But maybe in that year, you're also planning for college or putting on a graduation party. Maybe that's not the time for the big trip. Maybe that's time for another type of trip. So, for instance, with this family of four that I've been using, year one is a national parks road trip. It focuses on affordability with camping and road travel. Year three, They have two years to plan for this is Europe plan for higher costs and early savings because they're going to book early because they listen to all things travel, and they know that's going to help them save money and choose exactly what they want, and then maybe they'll use tools like saving apps or a dedicated travel fund in order to do this.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 8:30

And I love that idea because that really pulls in things we've talked about in the past that help make flights more affordable and that's something that is really eating at budgets these days. having a travel fund or, a credit card that you can build up points on, anything like that. I use the Fetch app a lot and get Southwest credit cards or gift cards from there. you have plenty of time to build up.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 8:55

before we go on to the next two steps, Julie, I want to talk about where in the world is all things travel. And it's kind of cold right now in Indiana. and I can see snow outside. So I'm going to take us to a new location, which I hope is a little warmer. And that is Corona, California. Corona, California is in the Riverside area of California, about 45 minutes away from LA. what I'm excited about seeing in Corona is it was once known as the Lemon Capital of the World. And so there's actually a museum there that talks about the lemon's role in the local economy. I want to see it. And I bet there's some cool lemon flavored treats at that museum.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 9:44

That is so cool.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 9:46

hey, listener, I want to talk all things lemon with you and meet you at the lemon museum all the way from Corona, California. We are so excited that you're listening to all things travel. Do me a favor, reach out to Julie and I, you can do that on allthingstravelpodcast. com because I would love to send you a little thank you gift for being featured on the show. All right, Julie, what is the fourth step here? So we've talked about prioritizing. We've talked about building a travel wishlist. We've talked about budgeting. What should we think about next?

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 10:24

So next you want to take all the things from steps one, two, and three and create a year by year plan. this is where you look at Where your family is going to be over the next five to ten ish years. What milestones are going on at that time. Any big birthdays, anniversaries, or events you're celebrating. first, let's talk about how to generally sort of, you know, divvy up your trips based on those events that you might be celebrating, as well as balancing out the themes that you thought about in step 1. balancing out an adventure trip and a relaxation trip. So, those are not a back to back experience. in Ryan's family example, if in year one, you're going to do that national parks road trip, which is more affordable. And in year three, you're thinking about going to Europe. In between those do a Disney cruise or Walt Disney World trip. With both of those, there's a lot of options to make that trip as affordable as you need it to be. But it's not a relaxing trip at all.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 11:35

Yep.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 11:36

So, you want to put that in between that educational trip and that adventurous trip just to switch things up a little bit. You also think, the kids are coming, let's throw them a bone and take them to Disney. The year after that, maybe you think about Hawaii and the next year you're all Caribbean all inclusive resort when everyone finally needs a chance to relax.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 12:00

I love it. Yep. That's a great way to think about it. And then the fifth step is keeping track of all of this. research destinations and book key elements as early as you can. Ensure that anything you need as far as passports are up to date for when you need them. for instance, Even though your passport may be current for Europe in two years, when you're going to the Caribbean, you may need to make sure that you are updated and ready to go there, or you may decide, since we're going to Europe in year three, when everybody gets passports the year before, we're going to take the time to do Global entry or something like that, and then also build excitement. this is one of the things that when my kids were younger, I really like to do with books, movies, family discussions. I know you do this a lot, even with your young kiddos, Julie, to prime the pump of this is what we're going to see. This is what's exciting.

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 12:56

We actually just got a globe for Christmas for everyone to play with it's fun for them to see, well, we're here and we traveled all the way here. They're really into that right now. I love that the Disney kids movies are always based in different countries. And that's a very easy way to talk about different areas of the world with them.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 13:18

keeping an eye on these things helps with flexibility, so you can adjust plans as you need, if there's budgetary changes or life changes, reviewing the plan annually to stay on track, maybe you have a travel night with your family or, on the way home from your vacation, you start to talk about the next vacation. I've done that before. I've actually book to next vacation sitting in the airport waiting to leave my current vacation because I, I, I needed that little, booking and get excited. so in this family example, use, pre trip preparation to engage the kids such as watching nature documentaries before Yellowstone, Disney Plus have lots of those good things, obviously watching Harry Potter movies before a London trip. because in London, you can go to the Warner Brothers studios. You can go to platform nine and three quarters, it's a good way to tie in what the kids are interested in with your trip to Europe. So Julie, as we wrap up here, you have younger kids. What are the benefits of mapping this out for them as they get excited about travel?

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 14:25

I will say having the time to prep them for it because it is hard to do big trips with little kids. it gives us time to prep and it gives them time to prep. It gives us time to do practice vacations a little bit. now they're used to traveling, so we can start thinking about these bigger trips out of the country because they've practiced traveling, they know what they like to do on the plane They're excited to go see these new areas.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 14:56

now that I have a daughter in college and I have a son in high school, and I have a girlfriend with her family, and I have my parents, it's kind of like, figuring out how that puzzle is going to fit together, I'm traveling with both kids at this time, or I'm traveling with my girlfriend at this time, or I'm planning a trip with my parents at this time. where does that fit in the longterm plans? Because as you're going to find out, Julie, you get to that high school and you're like, I have four more spring breaks. I have four more Christmas breaks. I have four more summer breaks. And it's like you really start to think about, okay, how are we going to maximize this time?

j_1_01-05-2025_201303: 15:38

Yeah, and that's why we did sit down a couple weeks ago and write out the next five ish years of travel because we're like, We want to go these places and make sure that it happens, so let's find out when we can do that. You want to plan a trip to an amazing destination but don't know how to get started? As your travel advisors, we work with you to create a customized itinerary for your vacation and take the stress of planning away so you can focus on the fun and creating memories. You can reach out to us at allthingstravelpodcast. com and click on plan your next vacation.

ryan_2_01-05-2025_201303: 16:16

We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel when we start a how to series at Walt Disney World Parks.