When planning a trip, is it easy to get overwhelmed. After all, there is so much to figure out– where to go, when to go, how to get there, and who to go with are only a few of the questions you have to answer before you actually get into the more tedious details of planning. And unfortunately, most trip plans never make it to the tedious details phase (booking hotels, flights, and itineraries), instead, they are stalled at the initial “where do I go” and “what do I do” phase.
To help you get over this trip planning hurdle, in this blog post I will outline five trips that you should definitely plan to take in your twenties, as well as ideal destinations for each trip. The types of trips proposed below are quite diverse which is ideal because you can tweak them to your circumstances– regardless of distance limitations, or budget and time constraints, I guarantee that you can make at least one of these trips happen in your foreseeable future.
Taking these five different types of trips has enabled me to have insanely diverse travel experiences across the globe. From exhausting yet restorative outdoor treks in tropical forests, days spent lounging on pristine beaches and swimming in blue waters, nights out in some of the world’s biggest cities, and trips where both fine dining and street food were regular features of my culinary experience (for cheap!)… diversifying the kinds of trips I take guarantees that I have a novel experience every single time I travel AND it enables me to travel more frequently because I craft trips that work best for my circumstances at a particular moment.
5 Trips You Must Take In Your 20s!
1. Big City trip
2. Off-The-Grid trip
3. Multi-Location trip
4. Staycation With Friends trip
5. Home Away From Home trip
Big City Trip
Cities are where different parts of the world meet. They offer the perfect backdrop for incredibly memorable trips because, in every big city, there is no shortage of things to see, people to meet, and experiences to have. For this trip, your goal should be to enjoy as many things as the city offers. Fill your itinerary with events ranging from concerts, museum exhibitions, big dinners, and tourist attraction visits. Tap into your sense of adventure by staying out all night, trying street food, and doing things that are out of your ordinary.
The best thing about the city trip is that it is accessible. Because there is no one city that you must do this trip in, you can choose to go wherever is most convenient for you. However, if distance is not a barrier and you want to have the quintessential big city experience, I suggest going to a large city known globally for its vibrance, nightlife, culture– think New York, Barcelona, Paris, Nairobi, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Tokyo and more!
Off The Grid Trip
This trip is all about wellness and spending time with yourself. Examples of off the grid trips are camping trips, backpacking trips, trips to the countryside, or stays in small towns. I have had a variety of such experiences, but my most “off the grid” trips were during my time in Colombia. From Cartgena, I would take the most lovely weekend trips to remote locations with nothing on me but a backpack packed full of shorts and casual t-shirts, swimsuits, and sunscreen.
I spent one weekend in a small mountain town called Minca. During this trip, I stayed in an eco-hostel which had outdoor showers and tent-like rooms which were situated on a river bank. I would fall asleep to the sound of flowing water outside my tent and upon waking up the next morning, I would drink coffee that was literally grown meters from my breakfast table. During the days, I went on long hikes, visited local farms where I saw coffee and chocolate cultivated from beans to delicious final products, rode motorcycles up mountains and gasped at the breathtaking views I would encounter upon reaching the peak.
I also took a weekend trip to the Tayrona National park and a separate weekend trip to Colombia’s desert beach in La Guajira. On these trips, I spent my nights sleeping on a hammock– the first time at a campsite in the middle of the jungle, the second time at a campsite on the beach. Meanwhile, the days were spent swimming, hiking, and admiring Colombia’s biodiversity. When I think back to these moments, I am mentally transported back to my summer in Colombia. I will always remember the experience so potently because I was truly off the grid and, therefore, completely in the moment.
Because these experiences are a bit off the beaten path, I understand that it can feel a bit intimidating to plan– especially if you want to visit a place that is completely unfamiliar to you. In order to ease into this experience, I suggest embarking on a Worldpackers adventure. Worldpackers offers a number of off-the-grid experiences in 140 countries, including Colombia where I had one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.
Multi-Location Trip
The multi-location trip includes multiple locations in one itinerary. This trip is so much fun because it enables you to combine the best parts of some of the other trips I have suggested, such as the big city trip or the off the grid trip, into one very diverse vacation. The best way to do a multi-location trip is to visit a region where it is easy to travel between neighboring countries. Travel between neighboring countries by car, public transportation, and even by plane can be quite cheap, so multi-city traveling is an ideal way for young budget travelers to visit multiple locations. For this reason, multi-city travel is a very common and popular way to travel ESPECIALLY in the summer.
The most common iteration of such a trip is the legendary “Euro Summer.” The Euro Summer trip channels the big city trip energy by allowing you to visit several legendary European cities at a time of the year when these cities are full of young people from all around the world. The summer after I turned 20, I went on a euro trip to nine cities across France, Portugal, Italy, Monaco, and Greece. Over the course of three weeks, I visited the monuments I had grown up seeing in movies or learning about in school (the Colosseum, the Acropolis, the Eiffel Tower), and had experiences ranging from boating off the coast of Santorini to dancing in the streets of Rome after dark. Of course, this trip required many long train rides, bus rides, and the occasional plane ride. However, part of what makes multi-city trips so special is the process of journeying from place to place. It is typical to encounter hitches along the way (a missed bus, a delayed train etc); however, these hitches may make for fun stories in the long run!
Another popular way to do the multi-location trip is backpacking through Latin America. The “Gringo Trail” is a commonly followed multi-country route across Central and South America. You can go either on the the Central America Gringo Trail (which goes through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica), the South America Gringo Trail (which goes through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina), or both trails if you have the time and resources! These are not literal hiking trails– people drive, fly, and take public transportation– however, you can walk a lot of the way if you desire. The Latin American trip can be whatever vibe you want it to be— big city, off the grid, or the most popular choice: a mix of both. Like Euro Summer, a summer spent backpacking in Latin America will also allow you to meet many other young people and form close friendships– this trail is so commonly traveled that you are guaranteed to meet other travelers, often more than once. When I was in Colombia, I hit a few cities that are frequent stops on the Colombian portion of the Gringo trail. I made friends with a guy from Portugal on a walking tour in Cartagena and then, a few days later, I ran into him hours away from Cartagena in the Park Tayrona! The world tends to feel small when you do multi-city travel, but when you look back retroactively at your trip, you’ll probably be amazed at all the ground you covered.
Staycation with Friends Trip
The point of the staycation trip is to spend time with your friends. This trip does not have to be super exotic. In fact, it is quite simple to plan. First, choose a remote place and, second, find a house that your friend group can fit in. You can find nice properties on Trusted Housesitters. I recommend this website because it will also help you cut costs. Just make sure the house is nice enough for you and your friends to be happy spending a lot of your time within it… after all, this is a staycation.
During my junior year of college, my friends and I did a glamping staycation in the woods of Quebec. We drove 6 hours from New Haven, Connecticut to a town called Sutton. The road trip was one of the best parts of the trip, and it really contributed to the staycation bonding. I highly recommend incorporating a road trip into your staycation. In Sutton, we stayed in a little log cabin all weekend. One of my favorite memories from that trip was watching a horror movie about teenagers who got lost in the woods. Watching from within our own little cabin in the woods, the movie was obviously five times scarier, but also somehow five times funnier. With good friends, even mundane experiences such as watching a movie felt so elevated.
Similarly, after graduation, my friends and I did a staycation at a cabin in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg may be as random as destinations go, but picking an obscure location for the plot made the trip all the more memorable. To spice up the staycation, you and your friends should also spend a day or so outside the house doing something you typically wouldn’t do together. For example, my friends and I went to see a civil war battle reenactment. I never would have imagined that historical reenactments would be my friend group’s activity of choice, but that’s why choosing a random, yet quirky location is fun!
That same summer after graduation, my friends and I also did a staycation to a small island off the coast of Canada. Unlike previous staycations where I had just traveled with a few of my closest friends, for this trip I traveled with a huge group of 20 or so people. As one may expect with a group of 20 people, not everybody in the group really knew one another beforehand. However, thanks to the trip, we all bonded a ton. So, I would encourage you not to limit yourself to only going on staycations with your closest friends. With a fun group of people that you trust, a staycation will always be enjoyable.
Home Away From Home Trip
The best way to have a “home away from home” experience is to stay in one place for a while, ideally a few months. In order to justify a months-long stay, I suggest finding a reason beyond vacation to travel.
The most common way to do the home away from home trip is through study abroad. Studying in a foreign place facilitates the process of making friends and developing a local network. If you are still in school, I highly suggest taking the opportunity to study abroad during a summer or a semester. That way, it is easy to spend months or even a year abroad since study abroad fits naturally into your progression as a student. The first time I studied abroad, I did a program in Paris through my university. However, the second time around, I self-organized my study-abroad by enrolling in a Spanish school in Colombia. Independently organized study abroad experiences are great because they are not time-bound or bound to your status as a college student– you can do them at any time in your life. You can read all about my experience in Colombia here.
If you want to live abroad without necessarily having to study or enroll in classes, you can take advantage of work-exchange opportunities. For example, Worldpackers offers you a number of opportunities with local partners all around the world. You can do a Worldpackers adventure whereby you are paired with a host in a specific place for a duration of your choice. You get free room and board as well as a stipend, so it is much easier to stay abroad for an extended period of time since your stay would essentially be free. To make further savings, you can use my Worldpackers discount code TRAVELINOURTWENTIES.
Finally, if you want something less long-term but still want the full immersion that comes with a home away from home experience, prioritize traveling somewhere where you can stay with local friends or family. Doing this helps you get to know your destination more authentically. For example, Hong Kong is the furthest place from home that I have ever traveled. I do not speak Cantonese, nor had I had much exposure to any East Asian cultures prior to my trip. However, because I was hosted for two weeks by a close friend who was born and raised in Hong Kong, I know Hong Kong better than most other cities I have traveled to, including cities where I know the language and can visibly blend in with locals.
Even if staying with a local is not feasible, if you know someone from the place you are traveling, definitely consult them as you plan your trip. I solo-traveled to Zanzibar when I was 21, and my trip only went as smoothly as it did due to my Tanzanian friends who helped me craft the perfect itinerary.
So, when you begin planning your next trip…
remember to first consider the type of trip you want to have before you concern yourself with other details. This is my method for planning trips, and it’s the reason why I have been able to travel so widely (40 countries!) despite only being in my early twenties. When you begin planning trips that are feasible in your current circumstances rather than delaying all travel indefinitely because it seems impossible in the abstract, you will travel so much more!
