The number of destinations on last year’s travel bucket list got out of hand within the first few months of 2018, so I’m expecting the same to happen in 2019.
I didn’t share a travel bucket list 2018, however, I’ll provide the places that showed up on my list throughout the year.
Domestic Travel
For domestic travel, here’s the travel bucket list for 2018:
- Scottsdale, Phoenix / Arizona
- Los Angeles, Monterey, Pebble Beach, Yosemite / California
- Key West, Miami / Florida
- Augusta / Georgia
- Chicago / Illinois
- Louisville / Kentucky
- Portland / Maine
- Big Sky / Montana
- Santa Fe, Albuquerque / New Mexico
- Asheville / North Carolina
- Nashville / Tennessee
International Travel
Moving over to the international front, here’s the travel bucket list for 2018:
- Buenos Aires, Patagonia / Argentina
- Vienna / Austria
- Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal, Banff / Canada
- Santiago, Patagonia / Chile
- Medellin, Cartagena / Colombia
- Havana / Cuba
- Prague / Czech Republic
- Marseille, Lyon, Brittany, Provence, Burgundy / France
- Tbilisi / Georgia
- Santorini, Athens / Greece
- Budapest / Hungary
- Reykjavik / Iceland
- Dublin, Belfast / Ireland
- Sicily, Tuscany, Sardinia, Naples / Italy
- Tokyo, Hokkaido, Osaka, Okinawa / Japan
- Mexico City, Tulum / Mexico
- Casablanca, Fez, Tangier / Morocco
- Queenstown, Christchurch / New Zealand
- Muscat / Oman
- Lisbon, Porto / Portugal
- Edinburgh / Scotland
- Johannesburg, Cape Town / South Africa
- San Sebastian, Granada, Seville, Madrid / Spain
- Hanoi / Vietnam
Travel Bucket List 2019
With the 2018 travel bucket list laid out, let’s dive in to what I have in mind for this year.
Travel Booked
Nassau, Bahamas / Where the big wedding day is taking place! We’ll have a week to spend with family and friends.
Los Angeles / We have a 24-hour layover in LA on our way to Kauai so our plan is to check out Venice and Santa Monica.
Kauai, Hawaii / The honeymoon spot after we get back from the Bahamas. I couldn’t be more pumped to explore this island!
Dallas / We have a family wedding in the Dallas area this Spring, and as a result, will have limited time to explore the city.
Shreveport / Another family wedding this Spring but this time it’s one state east in Louisiana.
Cleveland / DC friends of ours get married in late Spring for yet another wedding in the first 6 months of 2019.
Austin / I went to LSU for undergrad so Ashlee and I are heading to Austin in September to watch LSU play at Texas.
Travel We’re Planning
Arizona / We went on an incredible family trip last year so this year my dad has proposed an Arizona trip in November that sounds up my alley.
California Coast / I’m being broad here but we’d love to see Pebble Beach, Monterey, as well as mix in Yosemite National Park.
South Florida / Miami and Key West are back on the list for a second straight year.
Montana / This is the most far-fetched US destination on the list that I picked up after watching a Parts Unknown episode.
Morocco / After several friends visited and reading countless blog posts, we’re looking to make the trip in the second half of the year.
Portugal / We’ll likely combine Portugal with Morocco being that the countries are so close to one another.
Japan / I still haven’t come across anyone who doesn’t recommend visiting Japan ASAP, so I’m hoping we can squeeze it in this year.
Canada / Some of our DC friends visited last summer and from their pictures alone, we can’t see why we shouldn’t go. It looks incredible!
Mexico / We have two beach options in Tulum and Cabo, and want to also see Mexico City.
Travel Credit Cards
When you book this amount of travel, it’s important to use credit cards that maximize earnings on your spend.
With that said, consider using the Chase Sapphire Reserve for your general travel expenses. The card earns 3x in travel and dining, and is the personal credit card I use the most.
If you’ve got an expensive flight to book, the American Express Platinum (Learn More Here) is the card to use. It earns 5x points on flights booked directly airlines so your points rack up in a hurry.
Business credit cards also can be leveraged as well.
The Chase Ink Business Preferred is ideal for general travel expenses, similar to the Sapphire Reserve. I receive a ton of value from its bonus categories where you’ll earn 3x points.
For non-bonus category expenses, check out the American Express Blue Business Plus (Learn More Here). It’s the business card that I use the most because it earns 2x points on every transaction.
Conclusion
So there’s the travel bucket list 2019 with every place that we hope to visit. Obviously traveling to 10 destinations, in addition to the 7 already on the books, is unrealistic. But hopefully we can see half of them.
What’s on your travel bucket list 2019? What places are you looking to visit? Please let me know in the comments or by sending me an email pointswithq@gmail.com.
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