Let me ask you something: how many trips have you planned in your head that never happened?
The summer you were going to hike in Glacier. The fall you were finally going to see the coast of Maine. The year you were going to pull your kids out of school for a week and go somewhere that mattered.
It didn’t happen. Not because you didn’t want it to, but because something always got in the way.
It’s always easier NOT to take the trip than to take the trip.
“The right time to travel is almost never the right time. It’s just the time you decide to go anyway.”
Here’s what I’ve found: the reasons not to travel are almost always legitimate. That’s what makes them so powerful.
It’s too expensive right now
The kids have games / recitals / exams
Work is busy: I can’t take the time off
What if something goes wrong at home?
They won’t even remember it
What if the flights get cancelled?
I just need a few more months to save
These aren’t made-up excuses. They’re real considerations and they are often true - you are probably going to miss something if you take a trip. And waiting for them all to resolve at once? That’s how years pass, and suddenly you never took the trip.
Quick note: travel is a privledge that I don’t want to overlook. Scott Stillman wrote an interesting article about this lately. But I strongly believe that most people don’t travel because they don’t make it a priority. Travel doesn’t need to be around the world - there are amazing places near home worthy of exploration.
We tend to think of postponing a trip as neutral as if not going costs nothing. But it does.
Your kids are a specific age right now, and they’ll never be this age again. Your parents are healthy and mobile today, but that window closes. That version of you, curious, restless, ready, doesn’t wait forever.
The trip you keep deferring isn’t just a vacation. It’s a set of memories that either get made this year or don’t get made at all. I firmly believe that creating core memories is done best through travel.
I was living on a outside of Schenectady, juggling three kids under four, and I had quietly stopped traveling. Every time Dave and I talked about it, I’d say: later. When the kids can walk. When we have more in savings (we had a lot of student debt). When someone can watch the animals.
The thing is: those weren’t lies. Those were real constraints. But they were also a slow-moving trap.
When our youngest Freja turned four, we finally pushed through and booked Sweden. It was our first big family trip in years. And I still remember the feeling coming home: not just gratitude, but relief. Relief that we hadn’t waited another year. That we hadn’t let one more season pass.
What we saw there wasn’t just beautiful country. We saw other families doing it, families with the same complications we had, and realized we had been the ones holding ourselves back.
“We let ourselves stop doing what we loved simply because it felt like too much work.”
If you’ve been circling a trip in your mind, here are a few worth moving from “someday” to the calendar:
Fall is the obvious window — peak foliage peaks in mid-October — but early June is when the crowds are low and the wildflowers are out. Cadillac Mountain at sunrise, the carriage roads on bike, the Jordan Pond House for popovers. This is one of the most accessible “wow” parks in the country. Read more: Visiting Acadia National Park →
A weekend here will do more for your nervous system than a month of planning trips that never happen. The Franconia Notch loop, the Kancamagus Highway, Mt. Washington on a clear day. Two hours from most of New England. Zero excuse not to go. Read more: White Mountains Guide →
This is the “big trip” that people put off for a decade. Book it. Late May and early September are ideal — wildlife is active, the crowds haven’t peaked, and the landscape shifts between those two parks in ways that will genuinely change how you see the country. Read more: Wildlife in Yellowstone →
After Sweden, I started approaching the excuses differently. For every obstacle, I forced myself to find a benefit and then a solution.
Obstacle → Benefit → Solution
Obstacle: My kid will miss a soccer game. Benefit: But she’ll snorkel for the first time. Solution: Tell the coach at the start of the season and accept this as part of the sacrifice of travel.
Obstacle: We don’t have enough money. Benefit: My kids leave for college in two years. Solution: Rent an apartment instead of a hotel. Use points. Start saving now for a specific date.
The method isn’t magic. There are times when something genuinely keeps you home. But most of the time, the obstacle is solvable if you decide the trip matters enough to solve it.
Stop Waiting. Start Planning.
Pull out your calendar. Pick a destination. Book something with a date. Your future self won’t remember the reason you waited but they’ll remember the trip.
Explore destinations at chasingadvntr.com →
Have fun out there,
Gretchen
Why Travel?
Budgeting for Adventure Travel: How to Save Money Everytime
·
July 22, 2025
We travel a lot as a family. But what if I told you that it’s not because we are independently wealthyor have high paying corporate jobs, but because we’ve mastered travel budgeting. As a travel agent, I spend hours a week looking at flights, hotels, and tours and have figured out a lot of things to help find deals and take advantage of creating a travel budget.
Paid Subscribers can get my budgeting adventure travel course for free where I share exactly how to save money on adventure travel. I covered everything from prioritizing travel to flights hotels and more. You can get the link and code at the
Not ready to jump into the course? You can also start with my article about how to save money when you travel.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.