New years are a liminal time. Calendars empty out, vacations start to pile up, and our collective internal wheels start to turn: what do I want this year to feel like?
For travelers, it’s an especially powerful time for setting intentions and making plans. New Year travel resolutions aren’t just about seeing a new place or two. They’re also about how you travel, where travel fits in your life, and the memories you want to create.
Why Set New Year Travel Resolutions?
New Year travel resolutions can help you:
Plan and budget better
Connect more deeply with culture and people
Travel more mindfully and restfully
Prioritize sustainable and responsible choices
Expand your comfort zones
Travel more intentionally
See more places (or spend more time at a place you love)
Travel more often (or less)
Travel new ways (virtual, local, slow, off-season)
Challenge, teach, or learn from yourself
Grow and change through travel
Your New Year travel resolutions could be about big-picture goals and themes, specific trip types, changes to travel style or process, or even ways you want to change through travel.
The point is that your travel resolutions, like all good resolutions, should be intentional ways to create the year you want. Whether you travel frequently or only once or twice per year, small shifts in how you approach your trips can help you reap the benefits and avoid common pitfalls. So without further ado, here are 14 New Year travel resolutions you can make this year.
14 New Year Travel Resolutions You Can Make This Year
Travel resolutions work best when they’re flexible, simple, and relevant to your budget and lifestyle. Unlike hard and fast rules, intentions allow you to adapt to your changing circumstances and desires throughout the year.
Travel Resolution #1: Travel With Intention, Not Just Impulse
Vacations that happen on a whim are fun. However, for most of us, the most meaningful travel is intentional. The key question this year is: why do I want to go here?
Ask yourself: how does this destination or trip type help me explore my interests? Check in on yourself: are you choosing a destination because you’re excited to explore, rest, or recharge? Prioritize planning trips around the travel style that best suits you.
Travel Resolution #2: Create a Realistic Travel Budget and Stick to It
Travel budgeting is often the biggest culprit in travel plans coming to nothing. One of the best New Year travel resolutions is promising to set (and stick to) a travel budget you can actually afford.
To do this, first decide on a total travel budget for the year, then break that into a monthly savings goal. Track flights, accommodation, activities, and daily costs, and make sure to prioritize and budget for the types of experiences you care about most. Budgeting makes travel sustainable, not restricting.
Travel Resolution #3: Travel More Slowly
Slow travel is a trend, but it’s also a simple way to dive deeper and get more out of travel. Commit to spending more time in fewer places this year.
Slow travel allows you to get to know local culture on a deeper level, rest more and burn out less, connect with locals more authentically, save on transportation costs, and build more lasting memories. Whether it’s a week in one city or multiple trips to the same destination, slow travel takes time but gives back so much more.
Travel Resolution #4: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Travel is one of the most accessible forms of change. A little anxiety in the air is healthy and normal. Step outside your comfort zone this year.
Challenge yourself to try things that are new, unfamiliar, or mildly intimidating. Traveling solo, visiting a country where you don’t speak the language, trying new food or local customs, and participating in new activities like hiking or diving are all easy ways to flex your growth muscle.
Travel Resolution #5: Focus on Experiences, Not Just Photos
Phones are an amazing tool for documenting trips, but they can also be a distraction. For this year’s resolution, put down the camera and be present.
Capture your travels by limiting phone use during key moments, journaling instead of only taking photos, talking to locals, and observing everyday life. Memories that are rooted in emotion, conversation, and presence last longer than digital photos.
Travel Resolution #6: Travel More Sustainably and Responsibly
Travel used to be a great way to visit a destination and return home to your routines without really considering your impact. Now, more than ever, it’s important to travel in a way that supports places we love and local people.
A New Year resolution for better travel this year: commit to being a more responsible traveler. This could be supporting local businesses and artisans, choosing eco-friendly accommodations and activities, reducing plastic use on the road, or simply making a point to respect local cultures and wildlife.
Travel Resolution #7: Learn Something New on Every Trip
Travel can be an amazing classroom. Use it. A New Year travel resolution for lifelong learners: resolve to learn one thing on every trip, no matter how short.
This could be picking up a few key phrases in the local language, taking a cooking or craft class, learning about local history beyond the guidebook, or learning about a regional custom or festival. The more you know, the more you enjoy.
Travel Resolution #8: Revisit Places You Love
Travel goals and resolutions are often about seeing a new place. However, there is also great value in revisiting a place you love.
Return trips allow you to see a place with new eyes, get to know neighborhoods you may have missed before, reconnect with people you met on previous visits, or see a destination in a different season. Places often reveal more the more time and attention you give them.
Travel Resolution #9: Prioritize Rest and Well-Being on the Road
Travel doesn’t have to be exhausting. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Make a resolution to take better care of yourself on the road this year.
Schedule rest days between sightseeing, stay in accommodations that support well-being, eat nourishing food and restful, prioritize sleep over overpacked itineraries. Rested and present travelers are more patient and receptive to new experiences.
Travel Resolution #10: Document Your Travel Story Beyond Social Media
Social media is fun and easy, but it often captures only the highlights of travel, while missing the texture and lived experience. Take some time this year to document your travel in a more personal way.
You could keep a travel journal or log, write more in-depth blog posts or essays about your trips, create photo books, or even record voice memos or videos for your future self. These can serve as keepsakes of your travels and records of your growth over the years.
Travel doesn’t always mean international or big-budget trips. Travel closer to home more often.
Traveling within your region or country allows you to uncover hidden gems near home, travel more often, reduce costs and environmental impact, and develop a deeper sense of place. Weekend trips and day excursions can be just as satisfying as international getaways.
Travel Resolution #11: Plan Trips Earlier and Smarter
Last-minute trips are often more expensive and have fewer options than early planning. Make a resolution to plan some of your trips earlier in the year.
Planning in advance lets you snag better prices, secure preferred accommodations, research experiences, and simply relax rather than stress and make rushed decisions. As little as setting an annual travel planning session in January can make a big difference in your travel year.
Travel Resolution #12: Travel With Purpose, Not Comparison
Traveler envy is real, especially when scrolling through social media. A healthy New Year travel resolution is to travel for your own purpose, not to compare or compete with others.
Your travel purpose or intention might be to rest and reflect, learn about another culture, seek adventure or challenge, or connect with people. There is no right or wrong way to travel, so travel the way that is right for you and your life.
Travel Resolution #13: Be Open to Change
Plans are great, but they often change. Last-minute cancellations, flight delays, weather, and unexpected events are part of travel. One of the healthiest travel resolutions is to cultivate adaptability.
If things don’t go according to plan, remember to stay calm and flexible, search for alternative experiences, and look at the bright side: some of the most memorable travel memories are unplanned and spontaneous. If you can roll with the punches, travel problems won’t stress you out.
Sticking to New Year Travel Resolutions
Sticking to New Year travel resolutions is all about being gentle with yourself. Instead of a strict regime of rules, make travel resolutions you can adapt to your life.
Write down your resolutions or put them on a vision board and keep them somewhere you’ll see them. Set reminders and check in on yourself, if needed, with monthly or seasonal milestones. Celebrate small successes.
If you find yourself struggling with a resolution or your life has changed, adapt. Change is a constant in travel, so get used to it. The best resolutions make you look at your travel life more closely and gently.
Final Thoughts on New Year Travel Resolutions
New Year travel resolutions are a process, not a destination. They’re not about seeing more, packing more activities into every trip, or striving for some mythic travel life you’ll never achieve. Good travel resolutions are about traveling better.
Travel resolutions help you make your travel life support you rather than take up space. This can mean growing in your comfort zone, changing your relationship with travel or money, or learning new ways to move in the world.
As you get set to welcome 2024, take some time to consider what travel means to you, and use this list to choose the best New Year travel resolutions for you. Whether your goal is to finally travel to new countries, spend more time at home, travel more sustainably, challenge yourself, or simply take a break and rest, travel resolutions can support you.
Remember, though, that travel is not a numbers game. Travel isn’t measured by miles logged or countries visited. It’s measured by how you look at the world and yourself as you go along. This year, make your travel life one that reflects who you are becoming rather than where you’re going.
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