My 2015 Travel Goals & How to Make and Stick to Your 2015 Travel Goals

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I looked back on my 2014 travels on New Year’s Eve, and I want to share my 2015 travel goals today. More importantly, I want to explain how you can turn your 2015 travel goals into reality by taking the first baby steps toward your dream trip today.

My Plan

I have a general idea that I am in the middle of about a nine month trip that will follow summer from South America to Europe.

Right now I am in Chile, trekking Torres del Paine. In a few days, I’ll move on to El Calafate and El Chalten, Argentina before ending my Patagonia trip with a flight back to Buenos Aires.

I expect to stay in Buenos Aires until mid-March when I will head to the United States to follow the University of Virginia’s basketball team through the ACC and NCAA tournaments. I did this last year, and it was so much fun that I couldn’t pass up the chance to do it again. In between games, I like to visit friends and family around the east coast.

In early April, I want to head to Sevilla, Spain for one month (possibly with some A380 First Class flying and a stop in the Middle East along the way.)

I don’t have this next part totally worked out, but I think I want to live one month in a city in the Balkans and then one month in a city in the Baltics, possibly with some travel in those regions in between. I will need to be mindful of spending less than three months in the Schengen Area, though that shouldn’t be too hard since most of the Balkans are outside the Schengen Area. It is nice that the euro is down to $1.22, which is the lowest it has been in years.

This plan puts me in Europe until July or so, at which point I will probably return to the United States, but that’s so many months and countries away that my foresight is getting very blurry.

Here’s my best guess for countries I will hit in 2015. It’s fewer than in years past with nothing east of the United Arab Emirates in mind.

How You Can Reach Your Travel Goals in 2015

1. Pick a place you’d like to travel to in July 2015 or later (so you have time to amass miles), who you want to go with, what cabin you want to fly, and what lodging you want.
2. Fill out my Free Credit Card Consultation Form, so I can help you collect the right miles for your goal or let you know the goal is unattainable. If instead you collect miles at random, you will probably collect the wrong miles for the job.
3. While you are collecting miles, read MileValue posts on how to use the miles you’re collecting. Start with the posts on the basics of all the major programs in the Free First Class Next Month beginners series.
4. Once the miles post, book your dream trip.
5. Or skip steps 3 and 4, and hire the MileValue Award Booking Service when your miles post.

Your Turn

In the comments, share your travel goals for 2015 to put yourself on record (just stating a goal makes you more likely to accomplish it) and to inspire us. I’m not above stealing good ideas, so if your plans sound better than mine, I just might change my plans.