Epic Travel List

Don’t you just hate it when you’re completely out of travel ideas? When you’re picking your brain about your next epic journey? Where to go, where to go..? What’s that? That never happens to you?! I know, I was just-KIDDING. Of course, here are always a million more places to go and a million more things to do. And a million more places to see, etcetera, etcetera. The very cliche is true: The more you see, the more things get added to your list.

In 2010 I made my first big trip and became a full-time dreamer of far-away places. It’s pretty funny to read back to what were once – and many still are! – my dreams. Today I’ll share my travel related bucket list (hmm.. that sounds a little like we’re almost at the end of our lives, let’s call it ‘Epic Travel List’!) with you. Feel free to pick my brain here if you feel like you lost yours one day! 🙂

 

I want to go..

Take the Trans Siberian Express from Moscow – Mongolia – Beijing

Spot some whales and penguins

Ride a horse across the plains – you should know I’m slightly afraid of horses

Visit Up’s Paradise Falls (also known as Angel Falls, Venezuela)

Visit Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam, the World’s largest cave!

Lock myself up in a remote cabin somewhere in Finland and see the Northern Lights

Take a husky sleigh ride somewhere in Scandinavia

Live abroad* (now living in Shanghai, China)

Skydiving and bungee jumping – I bet this is on every single bucket list 😉

Get my advanced PADI diving certificate and find the best places to dive (* Galapagos: Check!)

Give a party in my beach house on some tropical island

Run the New York – or Shanghai, or …. – marathon

Road tripping through the US and Canada

Pick grapes in Italy

Take the next random flight to anywhere

Bob sleighing

Kayaking in some beautiful tropical place

Rafting* (again; I love these things)

See Machu Picchu*, the Great Wall* and the Leaning Tower of Pisa* (Ever since I saw a picture of this tower in my dad’s encyclopedia when I was still a little girl, I was completely fascinated and stared at that picture over and over for years. A few years ago I finally visited: not thát impressive ;))

Join a Full Moon Party

Return to Patagonia and explore further (went there once, it’s amazingly beautiful..)

Finish my pilgrims journey from Tours in France to Santiago de Compostela in Portugal (I walked from my hometown Woerden in The Netherlands to Tours a few years ago)

Camping in US national parks (planned for this December, can’t wait!)

On safari

Follow Reese and walk the PCT, or (an) other trail(s) – You can wake me up any time for hiking (and wine)

Learn how to sail and sail from one continent to another

Dive with sharks* (check: Galapagos Islands)

Do a 10 day Vipassana retreat* (did this once, will do it again)

Have a working holiday Australia and/or New Zealand

Climb mount Kilimanjaro

See Iguazu falls in Argentina

Sleep on the beach* (Hong Kong: check)

Sleep in the desert, under the stars* (Merzouga dessert, Morocco: check!)

See the lava in an active volcano

Paragliding* (Ecuador: check)

Visit all continents (3 to go: Antartica, Africa and Australia)

Visit Berlin and Hamburg – It’s almost embarrassing I’ve never been to these apparently awesome cities in my neighbor country

Go zip lining

Ride a camel* (a few times – turns out I’m good at it)

Celebrate carnival in Rio de Janeiro

Dancing in the Cuban streets

Get a motorbike license – Not a moped, but like a real motorbike one

See icebergs in Antartica

Make a cruise – not because I love luxury so much, but working on it as a way to reach new sides of the world

Get a South American sweat lodge treatment

Sleep in a Japanese capsule hotel

Hike the Himalayas

Celebrate Christmas and New Years on a beach on an island

Have drinks in Unicorn Cafe Bangkok

Travel around the Mekong Delta for 2 weeks

To Sapa and Halong bay

Hiking in Pakistan and Nepal – Google pictures, it’s incredibly pretty!

Hike the Tiger Leaping Gorge, China

 

* means: Been there, done that!

How about visit all countries in general? Like Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Alaska, … I’ll just keep counting from 31.

 

So, what’s next?

One of my friends recently told me she’d read that it takes about 400 days to fulfill 10 Epic Travel List items. The thing is, whenever she starts her sentence with ‘I read that…’, ‘I heard that…’ or ‘Someone told me that…’ we all get cautious. Because she’s intelligent; and for the past years she’s been telling us many interesting facts which, we later found out, were often based on articles from the Viva (which, for the non-Dutch people here, is not the most reliable girls’ magazine). Nevertheless, we love her to death and her interesting (but sometimes not so true) facts are, well.., interesting. To get to the point, not sure if 400 days for 10 items is true. Since it seems to be just as good as a guideline as any other, I’ll go with it anyway.

For the next 402 days (from today until January 1^st, 2019) I’ll aim to stripe off 10 items. NAY! Those items WILL BE striped off by me! It’s time for me to go camping in the US, bungee jumping or sky diving, kayaking, join a Full Moon party, see lava, do two weeks of Mekong Delta, visit the Philippines, Taiwan, the Unicorn Cafe and a Japanese capsule.

 

What epic travels are on your list??