To travel is to live. To live is to travel outside of my front door and explore the world. No matter what the weather, fashion choices or political twat that’s currently in charge.
It’s 2017 and this year I’m officially pledging to travel more. Now this isn’t just a random New Years resolution made over a glass of champagne, a secret snog in the trees and full of regret the next day. Not this year. This year we are publicly pledging a few things to help us Travel More – Explore More
Pledge 1- Travel More as a couple
In 2016 I travelled to a lot of amazing places. Other than New Zealand and Myanmar all my journeys were work related. So despite having epic adventures and a lot of fun it was solo Jean adventures. This year we’re going to actively travel more as a couple.
Pledge 2- Travel lighter
If all my travels in 2016 taught me anything it was how much stuff I just don’t need. Other then books. Books are a must for any adventure. This year I’ll be actively changing my behaviours to take less stuff on our adventures. There are two reasons for this. Firstly I recently got stung aboard a low cost airline when I was over the carry on limit. #travellerfail My trusty little case is too heavy. Secondly less stuff means less crap I’m carrying around little an overburdened turtle. Which ultimately equates to a better travel experience for me and James.
Thanks to Cabin Zero for helping me start to achieve packing godliness. I can’t wait to take my new Cabin Zero backpack on an adventure. Weighing a mere 760g my new bag will allow me to squeeze in one more book. It also has Okoban Lifetime Tracking, which I’m hoping that I’ll never need to use. The ‘Classic’ ultra-light cabin and travel bag in Original Purple features a large 44 litre capacity, side compression straps, top and side handles, a front zipped pocket with inside zipped and mesh pockets!
If you’d like to purchase a Cabin Zero bag use promo code : CZHONEYBIRDTRAVEL for a 10% discount!
Pledge 3- To Travel Slower
This may in fact be the hardest pledge for me to keep. I naturally tend to travel hard and fast. I want to see it all. Explore more. Do ALL THE THINGS. And then I come home with a thousand photos, a worn out body, sore feet and in desperate need of a vacation from my time away. This year I’m slowing down a little bit more. Our next adventures will see us using more local transport, having lazy days where I haven’t booked in a million activities and generally enjoying ourselves.
Pledge 4- Stop purchasing items of clothing with elephant print.
Why do I even do this? Why do I buy comfy pants and dresses that ultimately have elephant print on them. Why do I hide myself in the soft cotton cuddles of these tourist scam clothing? I actively try to avoid this but it’s so hard. I’m sure when I’m in South America I’ll be buying up llama print tees and pants. Ah well. We all have our burdens to bear.
These are just a few of the things that we are planning on doing in 2017. So far we have two trips confirmed – Tasmania in May for a romantic road trip and then a lazy three months exploring the areas of Peru-Bolivia-Argentina-Chile and the world famous Patagonia. We’ll have loads more information soon on our epic adventure plans (or lack of plans).
Over the month of January we’ll be discussing ways to help you travel and explore more in 2017. Is there any area of our travel lives that you’d like to know about? Nothing is off limits. Leave us a suggestion in the comments below and I’ll make sure we address this during our month of Travel More- Explore More.
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Just a little FYI– this article was written in partnership with me and me! Any and all views and opinions expressed are entirely my own based on personal experiences when traveling and are honest and factual without any bias. Any links to outsider websites are for your help only. Discount codes are provided because I love you all. I’m not getting any financial gain from sending these to y’all.
Jeanette
Founder, Principal Blogger & Coffee Drinker
Coffee Lover | Travel Blogger | Horse Rider | Adventure Racer | Donut Dame. Generally nice lady-enjoys wine, indie movies & random dance parties in my tent.
LOL! Love the elephant print clothing! 🙂 Kids love thinking about a vacation during the planning with items just like this! The most fun we had with it was before a trip to Peru (which was traded for a combo of cruise and Hawaii trip) when we bought stuffed animal llamas and started taking them everywhere!!
Those are great travel pledges. They have me thinking about my own pledges for the year…food for thought!
oh the clothes pledge! I can not resist it haha This year I learnt to pack lighter so this is not a pledge for me anymore.. my pledge now is to travel at least 300+ days a year haha Oh, and I will be in Peru, Bolivia…SA in June-September as well!!
These are some great pledges! My main pledge it to travel as much as possible!! and visit places more local too!
haha…..I’ve resisted buying anything with elephant prints while traveling in SEA! It’s so true that we don’t need much to travel and traveling lighter definitely makes for a better long-term travel experience. Those are some amazing trips you have planned (with your husband) – happy & safe travels!
Stop buying clothes with animal prints??? Hahaha!!! Even I’d like to travel more as a couple. And yes, after a bit of backpacking last year, the joy of travelling light is indeed awesome!
Totally agree to travel more, lighter, and buy less stuff. We can live a sustainable life even while on the road. It’s just not the most obvious way sometimes 🙂
I agree with Pledge #3! I’m always hurrying & by the end of the day, I’m dead! The hurry could be because I’m trying the cram up as much as I can in the days I’ve got. I need to take things slower & take a good look around me.
I agree with all of these things! I always travel fast and hard – the pitfalls of having a full time job and limited vacation days – but I really should learn to travel with less: I’m a terrible overpacker. And I’ve progressed from the harem pants with elephants on to just harem pants. Small steps, hey?!
Travel slower is definitely something I’m going to try to adhere to this year! I laughed out loud at the elephant print one – definitely sympathise with you there! It’s such a cliche thing to buy as a tourist but I just can’t help myself, no matter where I am. Even in countries which really don’t have anything to do with elephants I end up coming home with a backpack half full of the blasted stuff. They’re super comfy though and so cheap!
I cannot blame you for the Elephant print, super cute! I love Slow Travel, enjoy the sights and no need to rush.
I love reading other people’s resolutions. I laughed at the elephant print comment. I just bought an elephant print laptop case to go with my drawer full of elephant trousers, tops and scarves lol!
Excellent pledging! I haven’t seen any Llama printed pants in South America but I didn’t really go shopping much. I think your goals are very feasible and I can’t wait to read how it was at the end of 2017. Cheers to travel.
I love this! I just wrote a post about how to travel more this year, but I love your idea of travelling more as a couple. Last year most of my travel was alone so this year I think I’ll make the same pledge :).
I hope you get to travel more as a couple this year, it’s good to share memories with your partner. When I come back from a journey, I check what I haven’t used and don’t take it next time. I carried a pair of jeans around North Africa with me where it was too hot! It still winds me up that I took them!
You pledge to pack lighter completely resonates with me. This past year my husband challenged me to ditch my roller bag and go backpack only on our trip to New Zealand. I told him he was crazy but when it came down to it, it all fit in my backpack and now I can never go back to using a roller!
Isn’t it crazy. I’m so looking forward to not being a squished turtle with a huge bag!
I love clothes and other items like bags and pouches with elephant prints on them. They just look so cute! I agree with you on having less activities on a trip. It can be really exhausting and you will eat very unhealthy. I am not planning too much on my next travel destination so that I will enjoy better and just go with the flow.
They look cute and scream I’M A GULLIBLE TOURIST. Thankfully on adventures I still eat rather well. Preferring fresh local foods to take away food.