I always love to travel. Ever since I was a little girl and I took my first trip to Trinidad and Tobago to see my family, I knew that traveling would play a major part of my life. I knew I wanted to travel the world and see different places, explore the culture, and check out a whole new atmosphere. If you are the type of person who never traveled, but you knew that once you graduated college, that’s what you wanted to do, here are some guidelines you can use for your first (or third) trip after college:
1. Ask yourself where you want to go
What country or state you always wanted to visit? Make a list of your top 20 places you want to visit. Then cut down to your top five favorite places and work from there.
2. Start searching for tickets on travel sites
They say the best time to look for good deals are usually Tuesday night or Thursday night. Sites like Kayak, Travelocity, etc. are the best places to look for good deals on flights. If you have notifications coming to your phone or email, they will always message you when they find a deal to your liking.
3. Location! Location! Location!
When you are traveling, you have to know where to stay. When I go on vacation with the family, we always look for places that are in the city, but we also look for places close to the cruise deck that wouldn’t be so expensive. The hottest hotels are either outside of the city or in the city itself, but it's good to check for nice hotel with great recommendations. Hotel sites like Trivago, Hotels.com, and Tripadvisor are some of the best places to check out hotels and look at recommendations.
4. Bring a friend.
It's best to travel with friends. I never understand why anyone would want to travel alone. I think it’s a scary experience, but if you’re the type of person who would travel alone, more power to you. If you are the type who wants to travel with your BFFs, share this amazing experience, make everyone wish they was on the trip with you.
5. Choose a good date to travel.
You don't want to travel on months where it’s high season, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, or New Year's. Pick a month that is not too hectic, but also beneficial to you and your traveling buddies.
6. Wherever you go, make sure you know the language or have a friend who knows the language.
You don’t want to go somewhere and your completely oblivious to their language. That’s how they cheat non-native speaking tourists. Make sure that you act like a world-class traveler who is very well-rounded within the language.
7. Enjoy yourself and make the best of your traveling adventure.
Whether it’s with your friends or your by yourself, make the most of it. You've been trapped in a classroom for four to five years, and you just want to be free and have a good time. Do just that.
8. Be safe.
No matter what, have fun, enjoy yourself, but also be safe, because you never know what will happen. Have a system if something goes down, and also make sure to never leave drinks or food unattended, because you never know.
Make this traveling experience the best one you'll ever have. If this is your first trip, trust me, you will have that need to travel again and see the world, and if this is your third or fourth trip, you will have such a good time traveling and loving the experience. What a great graduation gift to get or to give to yourself! You will enjoy it for as an accomplishment from graduating college and going into the real world. Carpe Diem!
