It’s December 17th, and today is my birthday.
A few years ago I decided I would always travel on my birthday. Partly because my birthday is the week before Christmas, a time when everyone is already busy and in the final run through the most expensive month of the year. Partly because your birthday is the day that you reset the clock for your personal new year ahead. So why not reset it somewhere fabulous?
I take some time out on my birthday to give thanks for the fantastic year I just had, or sometimes just for the fact that I survived the prior year unbroken. Then I map out some goals for the new birth year. What do I want to achieve? Where do I want to travel, what direction do I want my life to move forward in?
Most of us don’t really use our birthday as a celebration of self. (Going to a bar and spending a bunch of money to get hammered isn’t really a celebration of self.) I know I never used to, but now I do. I don’t ask friends to come hang out in some bar, instead I get on a plane and go somewhere.
This time I chose Barcelona, and instead of traveling alone one of my friends asked to join me. The birthday trip is different from other travel that I do. It’s not about running around the sites and the monuments, it’s very low key. I will be visiting art museums, eating paella and wandering through shopping streets, just soaking up life somewhere different.
7 reasons why you should travel on your birthday.
It takes away birthday stress.
Birthdays can be stressful when you are having to plan a celebration or when you are hoping someone plans one for you. Instead you plan a trip earlier in the year, save for it and go experience something new.
Caye Caulker, Belize
It Lets You Create Incredible Memories
Whether you are creating memories lying on a beach somewhere beautiful, wandering the streets of an ancient town or hiking the hills of some exotic location you are building a set of super memories that are forever attached to your birthday.
It Makes You Look Forward To Your Birthday
When you are a child the countdown to your birthday is so exciting, you can hardly wait for it to arrive. As you get older there is a certain dread of each approaching birthday as it merely signifies getting even older.
When you attach a trip to your birthday you become that excited child again and your birthday becomes something exciting that you look forward to, whether you are flying somewhere exciting or driving to a B&B in the mountains with a stack of books and a bag full of snacks.
You Can Take Advantage Of Birthday Discounts
There are so many fantastic birthday discounts and surprises that you can take advantage of when you travel, from free hotel nights to airline upgrades to complimentary bottles of champagne. (and many, many more!) So why not take advantage of them??
Florence Italy, December 17 2015
You Can Have Amazing Adventures
You can attach incredible adventures to your birthday. Maybe you go parasailing in the Greek Islands on your birthday, or ride camels in the desert in Dubai, go scuba diving or hot air ballooning – why not do something truly amazing on your birthday?
You Can Take Something Off Your Bucket List
Most of us have a bucket list of some sort. Why not use the year ahead to plan out doing something from that list on your birthday? What better excuse could you have to actually do something on the list, and what better time to do it?
Morocco has been on my bucket list for ages. I am already thinking about going there for my birthday next year. Why not?
Travel Birthdays Last Longer
Sure there is only one actual day, but you have built this entire trip around your birthday so your celebration starts on the way to the airport and ends when you land back home again. If you take all that time to celebrate yourself, to celebrate what makes you unique, to celebrate your hopes and dreams, to celebrate your accomplishments and failures (the celebration of which turns them into accomplishments) just think how fantastic the year ahead will be! Just imagine how great this is for your personal sense of positive self awareness…
We travel to meet new people. We travel to learn about different customs and cultures. We travel for the experience. Why not make your next birthday a traveling experience?
