20 travel goals as a couple

What does it even mean to have travel goals? Is that some sort of bucket list with all the destinations you want to see? All the experiences you need to try once in this lifetime? Do we create an actual list of travel goals? We are a travelling couple, which means that in a way, our travel goals are double the size. Whilst I want to hike Everest, my husband wants to live in Taipei. So we came up with this great idea, of picking our top 10 travel goals and combining them together to create our ultimate couple travel goals. You might think we are after romance, luxury hotels and intimate beaches, but that's far from it. We are both outdoorsy and super interested in everything soft adventure travel. Whilst we won't bungee jump anytime soon, we will definitely hike that volcano.

Ok, so why am I telling you about our travel goals? Because I want to inspire you to create that bucket list for yourself. Even if it sounds cliché, having your travel goals are written down will actually help understand what the real plan. Travelling, like anything else in life, is a business investment. You invest money into travelling the world, in return for knowledge, inspiration and wisdom. So why not prioritise the things you really want? Why not make sure you achieve your goals, before making new ones?

We put together over 100 places we both wanted to see and experience in this lifetime. We will eventually tick them all off our travel goal list, but for now, we wanted to focus on our immediate future. So out of all those incredible options, we selected 10 things to do each. Our couple travel goals became a manageable best 20 things to do as soon as possible. Since as soon as possible is too broad, we put a deadline to our goals too: 2 years. Here we are, at the beginning of 2018, faced with our insane travel goals we need to complete in 24 months. Is it possible? Anything is possible if you are prepared to work on it. Without further ado, here are our ultimate travel goals.

See the Dominican Republic

We work so hard, sometimes it's nice to imagine having a special holiday in a luxury resort like the Lopesan Costa Bávaro in the Dominican Republic. We are dreaming of being on the beach, sunglasses on, chill mode activated and a cocktail in our hands. Seems like a holiday next to some of the world's best beaches is needed more than ever.

Dive in the Great Barrier Reef

Did you know my actual name is Coralia (even tho everyone calls me Cory for short)? I love corals and I most certainly enjoyed diving in Seychelles. But nothing quite compares to the remarkable Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We really want to dive there and see the true nature of our world's underwater spectacles. Ok, fine, I'm also going to admit that we are terrified of spiders, which keeps on delaying our visit to Australia. Every single time we want to buy those tickets, we remember there are massive huntsman spiders all around. But hey, for the Great Barrier Reef, I'll do it!

See the Northern Lights

You would think this is such a simple task, but it's actually more difficult than anticipated. We are planning on trying Iceland or Norway, or maybe even Northern Finland. This is one of those incredible natural phenomena we must see at least once in this lifetime!

See Lapland

We are not trying to find Santa, but we do want to enjoy a quiet, serene, winter wonderland. This is more my wish than G's but I think he put Lapland on the list know how much I truly want to freeze my but off in northern Europe. I want to hug raindeers and play with huskies and photograph those incredible quiet forests all covered in snow. Sounds too good to be true. Lapland, I am coming for you.

Say Hi to Canada

Canada has long been on our travel goals list. Partly because we have friends from Canada who kept on telling us how incredible the country is for outdoors lovers, and partly because we sometimes toy with the idea of moving there. We would love to rent a car and explore Canada for a month or so. We would probably start in Vancouver, go towards Banff, of course, see New England (ideally in the Autumn) and make our way further North.

Visit Papua New Guinea

We love a country with immense cultural and biological diversity, and Papua New Guinea definitely fits the bill. We want to visit its beaches and dive to its coral reefs. Of course, we are all about the rainforest and hiking routes. We would love to visit the tribal villages but in a non-intrusive way. I can't imagine how incredible it must be to visit such beautiful place, with such varied array of islands and biodiversity.

See The Amazon Rainforest

Does it need any further explanation? If you've been following us for a while. you probably know we are obsessed with everything David Attenborough and it was through his documentaries that we started truly loving the natural world. There is nothing more impressive than being able to see the Amazon Rainforest, as it is, full of its incredible flora and fauna. We would love to stay there and film it for a while. This is a true travel goal!

See The Congo Rainforest

The Congo rainforest in central Africa contains one of the longest rivers in the world, the Congo River. The tropical rainforest covers most of the eastern part of the Congo. Again, we would love to visit purely for its biodiversity. We simply love rainforests. Imagine photographing and filming all those incredible misty forests. Ah, such a dream!

Visit Peru

Hey Machu Picchu, we are looking at you! But really, it's not just the Machu Picchu which attracts us to Peru, it's a culture which has long fascinated us. We want to hike in the Andes and get to know the locals like no other travellers. We don't just want to photograph them, but live with them, learn from them and know their real story. We want to visit the Sacred Valley, Inca Trail and colonial city of Cusco.

Visit Madagascar

You would think our Madagascar travel goal is about seeing the super cute lemurs. Whilst this is part of it, our dream is to actually visit the Avenue of the Baobabs. They just look like they are from a different planet. We would especially love to see them during the morning sunrise. Of course, a hike in the Amber Mountain National Park would be a must!

Love The Cook Islands

We did say that our list doesn't contain just luxurious beaches but it would be rude not to add the amazing Cook Islands to the list. We really wanted to visit when we were in New Zealand but we didn't have time to add the Cook Islands to the itinerary and decided to focus on hiking in New Zealand as opposed to having a rushed holiday. We did swear we will come back to New Zealand, as well as visit Fiji and the Cook Islands. It just looks too good to miss.

Visit Taiwan

There are so many reasons why we want to visit Taiwan. We want to go there because of all the hiking opportunities, the oolong tea, the busy shopping streets and the crazy street food scene. Do I need any more reasons? Taiwan seems to be one of those perfect places which really fits all our needs. We are a little terrified of their spiders, but a chance we are willing to take in order to see this incredible place. The thing is, we would even love to live in Taiwan actually.

Visit Patagonia

There is so much to do and see in Patagonia. It's on our list because of all the amazing hiking opportunities and the varied terrain. We want to see those incredible ice fields and again, photograph and film the impact of climate change where it can be properly seen. We want to hike the Andes, yet again and we want to see the amazing Torres del Paine National Park. I think you figured that we really love natural spectacles!

See Antartica

Antarctica, the southernmost continent and site of the South Pole, is a virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass. This is where we want to see those incredible penguins, earless seals and of course, whales. We would love to be able to dive here but we understand it's not that easy. At least not for us. It might not sound like much: just blue and white all around, but for us, enjoying the silence, seeing such remote place, would mean the world. Definitely an incredible travel goal!

See the Arctic

Since we would want to see Antartica, we would, of course, love to see the Arctic too. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska, Northern Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. It seems a little bit more reachable. The Inuit and the Eveny are just two of the dozens of indigenous peoples of the Arctic, and we want to meet them and learn a lot from them.

Drive on the American West Coast

This one is a milder adventure in comparison to the Arctic, but one which was a travel goal for both of us nonetheless. We would hire a car and drive on the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego. Of course, we would love to also see Utah, and Colorado, so maybe on the way back we would take the inner drive. This drive is only 1300 miles or so, which is nothing compared to our cross Europe drive. Totally on the list, definitely a travel goal!

Mountain Bike from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea

We love cycling and what could be better than cycling from The Dead Sea to the Red Sea? It would take a bit of time because we would want to stop along the way and visit Petra for example. The total distance is 280 miles and we would do it over the course of 10 days or so, to really see this side of the world. What a dream, can you imagine? The landscape looks lunar and incredible.

Visit Alaska

Just another magnificent natural spectacle, Alaska looks incredible. We would probably aim for the summer months, so we can enjoy the landscape without freezing cold. There is just so much to see here, I wouldn't even know where to start. The Kenai Fjords, the Denali, The Tracy Arm...the list can continue forever and ever.

The Namib Desert

Namib is a desert in Namibia, a coastal desert in Southern Africa. It looks so spectacular, this place is unimaginable. We would love to see it right on the coast when it meets the ocean. It looks quiet, hot, vast and serene. One of the best travel goals for sure!

Chill in the Maldives

And hey, since we finished our bucket list, it kinda makes sense to allow ourselves to just chill in the Maldives for a bit. We would take one of those ridiculous ocean bungalows and have an extra honeymoon, just because. We loved our honeymoon in Seychelles so much, we can't imagine how great it would be to just find more things to do in the Indian Ocean, one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

These are our upcoming travel goals. We are really excited about making it happen. In the meantime, we will continue to travel to various destinations and share the cultural aspects of travel, as always. You know we like to bring you information packed articles to make sure you are well prepared for your trip. What is your dream destination and what would be top of your travel goals list? Leave a comment and let us know.

P.S. Since these destinations are our travel goals, we haven't taken any of these pictures. All of them are freely available on Unsplash and Pixabay.