Next Time You Travel, Think Beyond Where

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By Kind Traveler • Posted on Jul 30, 2025

If you’re like most travelers, the first – and most significant – question you ask yourself when planning a trip is where.

Where will you go? Where will you stay? Where will you spend your days?

While these logistical questions need to be answered eventually, it's best to start by focusing strictly on a place without giving any attention to your purpose for traveling in the first place. If you’re interested in slowing down and savoring your travel experiences on a deeper level and with more intention, the better question to ask is why.

Vincie Ho, founder and executive director of RISE Travel Institute, a non-profit organization that promotes a more just and equitable world through travel education. “This reflection helps us determine whether our desires are influenced by social media trends (such as those on TikTok or Instagram) or travel magazine lists (like “the top 10 must-go places in 2025” or “the 50 places to see before you die”) that stoke our consumer cravings, or whether we genuinely seek to connect with the people, culture, and/or nature of a particular location.”

Reframing the way you approach this fundamental part of travel planning may be a bit jarring. It goes against the popular idea that you should be ticking off a bucket list or that you have to journey to distant places to have meaningful experiences. It even calls into question whether you should book a trip just because you have the means to do so.

What does it look like to approach trip planning by asking why? Start with these three ideas.

(1) Let wonder and curiosity lead the way.

Is your reason for traveling – your why –to meet interesting people, have novel experiences, learn new skills, and see the world from a different perspective? With a shift in how you approach what is around you, you might be surprised to find those things sitting right outside your door.

“Sometimes, ‘travel’ could simply mean visiting a new neighborhood just ten miles away, where we can meet new people and encounter unique experiences that differ from our daily routines,” Ho said. “In this context, the where becomes less important when our motivations stem from curiosity and a desire to connect with the unfamiliar.”

(2) Approach trip planning based on activities focused on a theme or topic that interests you.

Is there a particular cultural element like music, food, or the evolution of fashion that appeals to you? Is there a physical activity like hiking or kayaking that you enjoy doing? If so, consider how participating in this specific activity in a specific place might surface something unique or interesting about your chosen destination.

So many trips combine unrelated activities—a museum visit here, a bird-watching tour there, inconsequential meals that just fill the void—and nothing holds the trip together except for the destination itself. If you build a trip around a specific theme or activity of interest, the intention of the trip shifts away from the destination and instead hones in on a certain feature of the destination.

For example, if you enjoy food, use this as your guiding intention for moving through and connecting more intimately with a place: Before leaving home, consider reading up on the history of food in the area so you understand its origins. While traveling, perhaps you can book a culinary tour with a local guide, take a cooking class, visit a community garden, and intentionally eat meals at businesses sourcing local ingredients. When you return home, try out some recipes you’ve learned and host a dinner so you can share this story with others. In other words, build your trip around food in a way that provides deeper, specific context about your vacation destination. The why provides a reason for choosing the where.

(3) Seek out stories from other people to learn about their why.

Every place is unique for a reason. The people who are often best equipped to share that reason are local residents, but other travelers might have compelling reasons for visiting a specific place, too. Search for those place-based stories for ideas on what motivates others’ interest, passion for, and connection to a particular place.

For example, you might talk with someone who visited a place to learn more about their family heritage or a person interested in a specific kind of wine grape grown only in a certain region of the world. It’s becoming more popular for local businesses to share the backstories of their ownership and purpose on their websites; this information offers place-based context, too.

It’s okay not to know your why right away. Learning about how others define their why might spark something that sets off your own inspirational pathway, either in the same destination or somewhere else. Regardless of where this pathway leads you, the journey could very well change the way you approach travel planning for this trip and into the future.

Author Bio:

JoAnna Haugen is an award-winning writer, speaker, consultant, and solutions advocate.

She is also founder of Rooted, a solutions platform at the intersection of sustainable and regenerative tourism practices, social impact, and storytelling. Through Rooted, JoAnna works with destinations, travel brands, tour operators, media and travel writers, and tourism professionals from around the world to unlock the power of strategic storytelling and tourism communications that shine a light on responsible tourism and destination stewardship.

JoAnna’s work has been published in more than 60 print and online publications, including AFAR, Adventure.com, Fast Company, USA Today, BBC Travel, TravelAge West, and Mongabay. In 2021, Newsweek named JoAnna a winner in the storytelling category of its Future of Tourism awards. She’s also been nominated for three Bessie Awards: Collaboration of the Year in 2021 and Most Impactful Piece of Writing in 2021 and 2022, and has been recognized by the Inspire Global Media Awards as well.

Next Time You Travel, Think Beyond Where

(1) Let wonder and curiosity lead the way.

(2) Approach trip planning based on activities focused on a theme or topic that interests you.

(3) Seek out stories from other people to learn about their why.

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(1) Let wonder and curiosity lead the way.

(2) Approach trip planning based on activities focused on a theme or topic that interests you.

(3) Seek out stories from other people to learn about their why.

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