My Intentional Adventure: A Successful Bucket-List Vacation

I recently accomplished a dream I’ve had for several years. Ever since I became interested in ancient Roman history, I have dreamt of visiting Italy and seeing some of those old structures for myself. Last month I finally had the chance to do so.

The trip would not have happened without a lot of intentionality.

Dreaming about a bucket-list vacation is one thing, actually investing the time and effort to make it happen is another. While I often mention the benefits of trying new things and stepping outside our comfort zones, I must admit I am sometimes reluctant to take my own advice. I like the idea of being in new places, but I don’t enjoy the process of physically getting there.

But I did it anyway.

And the trip was a big success.

Here are some of the intentional choices that made the vacation work for me.

• Doing my homework. I pored over travel guides before we left, so I had an idea of what to expect. This pre-work was valuable because it lessened the emotional energy I expended dealing with culture shock. I function better when I have a reasonable idea of what I am getting into and how the system works.
• Making tradeoffs. Such as opting to miss some famous sights in order to skip the crowds. Yes it’s true—I was in Rome for a week and did not visit the Vatican. (And every time I heard other tourists complain about how crowded it was in there I congratulated myself for choosing to skip it!) I saw plenty of other art and other grand church buildings. So what if they weren’t the most famous. Art wasn’t the main purpose of the trip, anyway.

We saw famous and not-so-famous art.

• Striking a balance between guided tour and on-our-own exploration. My husband and I prefer the freedom of touring on our own, but in this case there were certain places we wanted to visit where joining a tour group made things easier. We sacrificed autonomy for the lower-stress option of letting someone else arrange the details.
• Going deep instead of broad. You can see several places for a few hours each or explore one place more fully. We chose the latter, even though it meant not seeing some of the places we would have liked. We didn’t get to everything on our list, but in return we were more relaxed while we explored the places we did visit.

What fun discovering streets like this–without another tourist in sight.

• Remembering to stay in the moment and enjoy whatever came our way. We wandered streets just so see what was there. We selected most of our restaurants by strolling past and perusing the posted menus. We didn’t pack every day full so we had time to relax and soak things in.
• Embracing the new. Instead of seeking out the familiar (McD’s, Oreos) we intentionally sought out local food and tried to follow local customs. We ordered regional food specialties and bought various food items by pointing at something in the counter that looked good. (Most turned out to be delicious.)

We had fun picking yummy treats from shops like this.

All-in-all it was a great adventure. Sometimes bewildering. Sometimes exhausting. But with a little planning and intentionality our big vacation mostly went smoothly.

What adventure is waiting for you to work up the courage to face? I hope you go for it.