Bucket List Travel Destinations

You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy plane tickets, and that’s kind of the same thing

Travel isn’t something WE DO, it’s WHO WE ARE.

We LOVE to travel! It doesn’t matter if we’re driving an hour away or flying halfway around the world, travel is travel when you have vacation time booked, a suitcase packed and a detailed itinerary ready to go — because as much as we’d like to be spontaneous, we’re both type A and that means planning is part of our DNA.

While we haven’t visited 37 countries (yet) or spent six months on the road with our kids, we’ve done some exploring near and far and made incredible memories along the way. Each trip makes us want to travel even more and we’ve definitely been known to plan the next trip while still on a trip.

With so many amazing places to visit around the world, we know our travel bucket list will continue to grow as we check the destinations below off our lists below. We’ve divided our bucket list into categories (based on who we intend to travel with), yet we know some destinations will require multiple trips to fully explore everything the country, region or city has to offer. After all, a trip with kids is much different than a trip with girlfriends or a trip with a partner.

Canadian Travel Bucket List

For some, exploring your own country doesn’t have the same cachet as an international destination, but when you call Canada home you have everything from beaches to mountains and wide open spaces to bustling cities to discover. MILLIONS of international visitors flock to Canada each year to take it all in, yet we know we take Canada for granted.

We’ve been coast to coast on family road trips in the 80’s and 90’s, and travelled to various cities across the country for work, but it’s time to spend more time soaking up Canada’s geography, history and culture in the coming years. There’s always so much more to see, do and learn! Where do we want to visit next?

• Quebec City, Quebec
• Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick
• Prince Edward Island
• Banff and Lake Louise, Alberta
• Vancouver Island, British Columbia

European Travel Bucket List

Have you ever felt so connected to a place that you dream of moving there? Us, too! To be honest, we’ve done Google searches for “moving to XX” on MORE than one occasion while on vacation or while planning a vacation. It’s not to say we don’t love where we live, but deep down, we know we belong in Europe. It could be Italy, Portugal, south coast of France, Croatia… the cobblestone streets, slower pace of life, delicious food and spectacular beaches are calling our names and we can’t find a reason not to move there when our kids are out of the house. By no means do we want these last few years with our teenagers to fly by, but we are not-so-secretly counting down to our early retirement plans.

So until we can retire and savour dolce far niente in Europe, we plan to travel there at least once a year. We’ve hopped over the Atlantic Ocean a few times already and can’t wait to go back again and again.

Our European Travel Bucket List includes:

• Italy (Positano and Sicily)
• Greece
• Portugal
• Spain
• Scotland
• Switzerland
• France

Ultimate Travel Bucket List

We squeeze in as many long weekend getaways, beach vacations (to escape the harsh Canadian winters), and bucket list destinations as we can each year. Our bucket list gets longer the more we travel, but sitting there on our lists are a handful of ultimate trips we know we’ll need more time to save up for and accumulate vacation time so we don’t feel rushed with only a one- or two-week trip. These are the BIG trips we dream about and look forward to planning in a lot more detail in the next 10 years.

• Peru – Lima and Machu Picchu
• Kenya – Giraffe Manor and Elephant Sanctuary
• Jordan – Petra (and into Israel)

What’s on our travel bucket list? Share your must-visit destinations with us on social media and/or in the comments below!