“Oh, the places you’ll  go.” (Doctor Seuss)

Today’s post is more a question than an essay and that question is – when you are planning to travel, how do you select the destination? Secondly, has that process for selecting the destination changed over time?

This question comes to mind based on the destination we selected for a recent vacation. We chose Nova Scotia as our destination, and several friends later ask me how we arrived at that destination. It is not a destination you hear often, and I know only one person who has been there. It got me thinking about how we select the places where we travel.

There may be a multitude of a factors for choosing a destination. Some of which may include:

–              Popular destinations at that point in time (i.e., a Google search on top beach destinations).

–              Driven by a specific event (i.e., concert, festival, sporting event).

–              Weather (not too hot or cold, seasonality).

–              A particular type of scenery (i.e., mountains, beaches).

–              Absence of crowds.

–              A desire to learn about a particular location (culture, history, literature, architecture) that you many know little about.

There are many other reasons or drivers for selecting a location. There are no right or wrong reasons. One is not better than the other, but rather what works for you at that point in time.

The order of the above list IS in a particular order for me. It is the general evolution of my thought process over time. Which explains how we selected New Scotland, also known as Nova Scotia. It was a destination I was curious about and which I knew little about. I did not even know it meant New Scotland for starters. I expected the scenery, and topography would be diverse, and I expected that there would not be crowds. Which there was not.

Which brings me back to my original question – how do you select your travel destination and has it changed over time?

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