Happy Thursday Hidden Gem Travel community – and Happy New Year! What are your resolutions for 2023 if you made any? I’ve made two personal resolutions around improving my level of daily exercise and beginning a mindfulness habit. For the business, my resolution is to continue to inspire you to travel and live your best life!
Speaking of inspiring others, it’s serendipitous that I’ve hit a milestone with this first newsletter of the year. I’m celebrating the writing and publishing of 150 travel-themed newsletters! They are saved on the blog section of the website where you can search by destination. I write with this audience in mind, so if you have a topic you’d like to suggest please email me your idea.
January 2023’s newsletter theme is inspiration as we begin a New Year. Read on for the scoop…
Why We Travel
One of the best travel-related purchases I made this year was from an independent bookstore. The book, Why We Travel: 100 Reasons To See The World by Patricia Schultz is 185 pages of inspiring travel quotes, stories, and photographs. I’ll share the quotations and messages that meant the most to me in the next two newsletters. I hope one or more of these quotes will speak to you.
💎 Hidden Gem Tip: If you’re already intrigued, you can schedule a chat with me here.
Traveling Leaves You Speechless
Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. – Ibn Battuta
This quote spoke the most to me personally. I often feel speechless when I’m in a special place but always keep in mind that my travel experiences are important to record for my clients and this newsletter. For that reason, I keep a travel journal and write in it every night while on a trip. I also add notes to the photos I take in my phone.
Seeing the sunset behind the Sydney Opera House in Australia is an example of one of my speechless moments.
You may relate — when you get back from an incredible trip, you tell the story to your friends and family. Those stories inspire others to travel and tend to be passed on to others beyond your circle. Your experiences have a wide-ranging impact.
💎Hidden Gem Tip: Where do you want to travel next year? The time to plan is now for 2023, and some clients are booking for 2024. The travel rebound is still strong, and the best availability and rates are grabbed well in advance.
Travel Is the Ultimate Classroom
Travel is the ultimate classroom without walls. – Patricia Schultz
Travel teaches us so much – gratitude, empathy, patience, the value of sharing experiences, and the enjoyment of adventure. When we get home, home is still the same, but we are different. Our lifelong memories of the trip live on within us.
If you have children, you will have heard the saying that you only have 18 summers. While your kids are in school, you can enhance their education through travel, especially internationally, by teaching them about the world. I can speak to this from personal experience with my sons who both love to travel.
And having only 18 summers is only partially true – traveling with young adult children (and later their families) is an incredible pleasure and also allows you to travel outside of the busy, hot summer season once they are in the workforce.
Photo: It was fascinating to learn about glaciers while standing on one in Alaska – kids and adults alike.
Who We Are
So much of who we are is where we have been. – William Langewiesche
If you read this newsletter, you are likely a passionate traveler or hope to be one. Every trip you take leaves memories that will last your lifetime and inform your perspective on the world. What trip affected you the most?
My recent trip to Tanzania was life-changing on many levels. It wasn’t what I’d call a vacation (in fact it was a business trip that we in the industry call a FAM – familiarization trip – to help me better design safari vacations for my clients). Despite this lens, we were all similarly changed through experiencing somewhere that’s completely foreign to our lives in the US. Who we are is enhanced by what we’ve seen and where we’ve been.
Make your own Wanderlist for 2023! As a reminder, Wanderlist is an online portal where you can research, explore, and create shareable lists of destinations and experiences. Share your list with me so I can make it happen for you.
Inspired? Reach out to me now for 2023 and schedule a chat here.
Follow my Facebook and Instagram pages this week for more travel inspiration: or Instagram.
Wishing you and your family continued good health,
Susan
