As I mentioned a month ago, I have a list of 12 areas that I want to brainstorm about in the next year to help me figure out a more detailed retirement plan, and be ready to pull the trigger on it in August 2027.

I have my list of 12 topics, and I created a natural order to them. This month was supposed to be about health and kickstarting a health regime. Except I started thinking about travel in the last month, and I fell down a rabbit hole for part of it. So much so that I became somewhat obsessed in the last few weeks with what I might do for travel in my retirement.

Way back in my distant goal-setting past, I had a bucket list of everywhere I wanted to go. Pretty much a list of 50% of the countries in the world, broken down by continent. I had almost no filter, it was just a wishlist of places to go if I had unlimited funds. But that is NOT the world I live in, alas.

So, I’m starting to see my plans for travel in a different light. Rather than breaking it down by random countries, I see it more as a group of seven categories of trips:

1. Bundles — These trips would include a group of several countries together that would make for a longer trip, perhaps a month-long visit. These options will be tricky because they are longer and generally are trips that Jacob would LIKE to join us for, but by the time we get around to doing them, he might be tied up with his own school, work or family and not able to, but Andrea and I would still do most of them, I think.
2. Bonanza — These would be any trip that is likely to be a single destination for a week or so, which could be done at any time, there’s no real additional planning required. They would include Andrea and I, and possibly Jacob, or possibly not if we go after he’s moved out and on his own.
3. Cruise — Andrea has no interest in an ocean cruise (she’s open to river cruises though). She thinks it’s a complete waste as you don’t visit any country long enough to see anything, etc. I have some ideas of what might be doable alone for me without having to pay the single supplement and pricing myself out of options;
4. Walkabout — a specific trip that I want to do, kind of like “To (destination) or bust!”. Almost all of this long trip would be by myself, as Andrea isn’t particularly interested. She and Jacob would likely join for part of it, which is also tricky for timing, but this is the trip option that has sent me down the rabbit hole in the last month.
5. Walkabout Part 2 — Again, this is likely a single trip by me alone, similar to #4, just with different destinations and a shorter duration.
6. Echo — I don’t quite know what this looks like, probably just me going, but I’m not even sure I want to do all of it. I’ve been to most of it already, it is really ONLY two segments that I haven’t done at all, and two others that I didn’t do much in. Is it worth repeating? It could theoretically be merged with #5.
7. Residency — this is an interesting combo of #1 and #4/5 where we might move somewhere for a set period of time to really experience it. Not as wild and crazy as what most people would do, this is a much tamer option, but quite interesting.

And so I’m going to write about those seven areas this month.