I came across this article today that had some interesting thoughts on doing away with the idea of the travel bucket list. They bring up some really good points about over-tourism, influencers, and how people have lost sight of real travel.

I totally get it. I have made my thoughts well-known on here about IG and influencers. I refuse to look at anything posted by influencers because it is not genuine – just staged bullshit for financial gain and to make themselves think they are popular and important.

I am not an influencer – I merely post about the places I have been mainly because of interest of family and friends, and if someone who reads my blog posts gets something out of it that is cool. I travel for ME and not for my ego, likes or follows. The pictures I take are for me, and if I find a few good ones on my camera roll I will share them. I travel to learn about the places I visit, and along the way I always learn about myself. I do not promote places to make money; if that were the case I sure wouldn’t be towing my trailer with a 22-year-old truck with 300,00 miles on it (new truck donations gladly accepted!). I also don’t promote places to respect the locals; my readers can make their own judgement and plans.

I also freely post about the crowds and over-tourism and have mentioned places I will not go back to as often or not at all out of respect to the locals. I hope others reading this blog would take that into consideration when they travel and possibly alter their plans. Even though I try to travel as low-impact as possible, it is still affecting a place and its residents.

Yeah tourism brings in a lot of money, but the quality of life for locals goes to hell fast. I know from living in tourist areas how frustrating it can be and I sympathize with the problems that any amount of money just cannot fix. I have not lived in tourist areas like Amsterdam, Dublin, or London so I can only imagine how badly their lives have been affected. I do understand the “tourist tax” being imposed in many cities, but places with that tax like Venice I was not really interested in visiting anyway due to the crowds. The difference between crowds in Amsterdam in 2018 and 2025 was absolutely mind boggling.

Starting out on my first trip to Europe in 2018 we really did not know what to expect. We never really thought “We need to go here and see this touristy thing.”; we just picked some cities we wanted to see and went. We saw what we saw and if something was interesting we might think about seeing or doing it. We had planned the first half of the trip, picking some cities to see but that was mostly the extent of our trip planning. The last half of the trip we winged it and just went someplace new each day – my favorite way to travel.

My last two trips I had chosen a few places to see as stopovers for a few hours and we went on. I was with different people those trips and there were a few places we went to that I had been previously that I thought they needed to see but we saw other places I had not been. The trip this year really was different with the amount of tourists, specifically in Amsterdam. Insane amount of tourists – to the point of ridiculousness. It is an awesome city, but my future visits there will now be drastically reduced and I will stay mostly outside of the city.

I guess it really comes down to how I have always liked – and STILL like – to travel. I do not want crowds like Amsterdam everywhere I go, but I really do love walking in cities in Europe and don’t mind the people when I do – it is part of the adventure and experience. I also love walking in the villages and small towns as well, but basically I want to see places for what they really are and not what they have become. It was one of the things I really liked about Killarney (actually, Ireland in general), Prague and Denmark – you could really “feel” most of the authenticity of these places was still intact even though they are becoming more popular.

I have often mentioned my years-long, constantly-added-to “bucket list” items, but my list is really not so much a checklist as it is a “life list” of places or experiences I would like to see or have in my life. I actually started calling it my “life list” some years back but kinda forgot about that terminology until I was putting this post down to paper after reading the article. If I remember correctly why I changed it, “bucket list” always has connotations with doing something before you die…why make it something grim? That’s nothing to celebrate – it’s a checklist.

Nothing on my life list is a failure if it’s not seen or done and I look at travel that way since it IS a part of that list. I started it many years ago in my mind and had things like “Ride a motorcycle in Canada” (done it), “Backpack in Europe” (three times so far!), “Live in the mountains in Colorado” (17 years!). I do add on to it whenever I think of some new place or experience so it is a living thing. Not everything on my list is travel-related, but most of it is. So far…

Going forward I do plan to get to several more international places on my list that are off the beaten path when I travel abroad. I already have a few ideas I hope to get serious about in the next year or maybe two. You’ll know when that happens. I also hope to get Meghan over to see some family history in Ireland and see more of the island.

In the above-linked article are a couple of links to check out for things like mystery travel – something I would absolutely love to do. How exciting would it be to show up at an airport with no clue about where you are going to end up or what you will see or do? Granted, that is not for just anyone but it is certainly great for me. I will certainly be looking into that more as another option for the future.

I suggest giving it a try and create your own life list. It is YOUR list so you do not need to be shy; dream big or go small. Maybe you want to run a marathon, or stay in a local haunted hotel, or even take cooking classes.

It’s a list that you have created and it gives you something to look forward to. Nobody can take away from you.

See ya next time. Happy listing!

Shawn