Travel has been such a big part of our lives these past couple of years. We’ve learned so much about how to make travel smoother and more fun. We decided to put together a series of posts focused on sharing some of the things we learned along the way. The way we see it, from beginning to end, there are a few common phases of every trip. These are: Inspiration, Planning, Booking, Packing, Travel Days and Once You Are There. We will focus each post on one of these phases. Today’s post will focus on the first stage which is the inspiration gathering phase.

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Inspiration sources can be endless. Maybe it’s finding somewhere amazing on Instagram or a recommendation from a friend, the inspiration phase is all about that spark. The spark that makes you want to travel in the first place.

Personally, we find the spark from all over- a destination we see in a magazine, a picture from Pinterest, a story from a friend or just a place that’s been on our dream list for forever. Most of the time we know the exact spot of where we want to go and sometimes we only know the general idea of the surrounding area or location. If we need a bit of help narrowing down exactly what we’re looking for, we’ll start reading articles or searching for hotels. We love sites like Tablet that have actually helped us find incredible hotels and locations, that we wouldn’t have found otherwise.

There are always going to be those locations that catch your attention and make you feel the urge to travel. Anytime you get that feeling, save that location. If you love daydreaming about travel, after a while you’ll start to build up a solid Travel Bucket List.

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As you start to develop your list, it’s important to think about organization from the very beginning. When you save a spot, don’t just screenshot or pin, but write notes too. Even make separate folders organized by how you decide on travel, such as seasonal (winter, spring, summer or fall) or by type of travel (adventure, relaxation, education, etc). We like to organize by ideal time to travel to the spots on our list. For example, Cherry Blossoms in Japan or similar to our trip to Iceland, when we wanted to experience snow, ice caves and the Northern Lights.

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The sheer amount of travel inspiration out there can be overwhelming. Nowadays with Pinterest, IG and thousands of travel websites and blogs there are too many directions to be pulled in. It’s easy to understand why lots of people don’t really know where they want to go on their next big trip. How many times have you ignored a bucket list item in favor of sticking to a destination you know or somewhere your friends have been to?

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The next time you’re feeling the itch to book a trip, use this tip in order to narrow down where you want to go: Start with asking yourself why you are traveling in the first place? Then continue to ask yourself questions until you fully understand your emotional connection to your inspiration. Who should you travel with? When should you go? What’s your budget? How much time do you have to travel? You can keep asking question after question.

Without too much effort your choice will become clear and then it will be time to start planning your itinerary for your trip.

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Stay tuned for the next part of our Travel Series, which will cover our process of planning a trip.