The Six Kinds of Trips Everyone Should Experience

Last Updated on: 15th September 2021, 11:02 pm

Different people are drawn to different kinds of travel.  Some like the carefree Caribbean weekend, lapping up sunshine and playing in the waves with their significant other.  Some prefer the cozy snowy cottage surrounded by family.  Still others like to go off and explore a new place on their own.  While everyone has their personal preferences, here are the six kinds of trips that everyone should set out to experience at least once.

The Family Roadtrip 

The families that travel together, stay together…or something like that.  Many adults who love travel can think back to long-haul minivan rides with a cooler full of Shasta and a plastic bag of salty goldfish.  If you were lucky enough to check this one off as a child, you can thank your family for showing you a little bit of the wider world as a youngster.  Some of the most intense moments of joy and stress can come when squishing a typical family into a car, add in fatigue, a tight budget, and a screaming baby, and who knows what can happen.  The family road trip is a great way to grow as a traveler and as a family. And oh, the packing logistics fun that ensues!

The Girlfriends’ Getaway/The Guys Weekend 

The opposite of the family road trip, the friends vacation holds a sacred space, especially in early adulthood before coupledom can eat up the whole travel budget. Instead of diapers and fast-food, these trips are usually booze-fueled flirt-fests with amazing brunches.  Some of the best times in my life have been sitting beach-side with my girlfriends while scrolling through Tinder looking for dinner companions and laughing about what happened at the club the night before.

The Couple’s Escape

For this trip, the hotel accommodations usually are the most important piece–a cozy bed, a scenic view, and some time to just relax and be together.  Really together, without all the pressures of real life.  If done right, time can stop altogether for a bit while you just soak in each other.  This can be pool-side, beach-side, camping, hiking, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s somewhere that the world can’t interrupt you.

The Solo Adventure

As great as all of these trips so far are, there’s something really special that happens when you travel by yourself.  Your mind quiets, you become really confident and happy with yourself, and you grow.  When you spend a few days making all the decisions, living for yourself in the moment, and testing your limits, you give yourself time to heal from whatever has been bothering you and learn more about yourself.  This trip can be anything and anywhere, the important piece is that it’s something you need to do for yourself.

The Workcation

Not every job includes travel, but hopefully at some point you’ll get to go on a work trip.  These can be very unglamorous, long days spent in a monotonous conference room, but they can also include just enough downtime to figure out how to get in one good adventure.  I’ve been on trips that included fun local activities, and ones where you literally never left the hotel.  But with the right attitude,  the chance to get away and tuck in some room service can still beat a day in the cubicle.  And if you’re lucky, you’ll meet some awesome people that you don’t see all the time that remind you that everyone at your company is a person first and a job second.

The Group Tour

If there’s something you’re really interested in, you can go it alone.  Or, you can find a tour  where people can all geek out together!  This is great for places where you want to be surrounded by fellow enthusiasts and where having a full-time guide will come in handy.  If done right, these can be like camp for grown-ups, complete with camp friends!

Each of these offers different benefits and styles.  Have you been on one of these kinds of trips?  What was your experience?