2026 Travel Goals

I’ve always loved planning and back in 2015 and 2016, I had a lot of fun setting annual travel goals, breaking down big lifetime travel and adventure dreams into achievable milestones, and mapping out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to experience each year. It was motivating and exciting.

But sadly, I haven’t done much of that kind of travel planning in the past few years and I’m not really sure why.

While we’ve still been travelling, sometimes even more than 2016, I just haven’t sat down in ages to think intentionally about the travel year ahead and what I hope to see and do. And I’ve missed that.

So, this year, I’m bringing it back!

Lifetime Travel Goals

First up on my list are the Lifetime Travel Goals I set back in 2015 and continue to strive toward achieving. Along with each goal, I had also set a milestone I need to reach each year, if I’m going to be able to complete each goal in my remaining travel years. These milestones generally seem to be working so I’m going to stick with them. If it isn’t broke and all that…

So, for 2026, my goals in this category are:

Visit three new countries towards my ‘Visit 100 Countries’ goal.

Depending on which list of “countries” you follow, I have visited anywhere from 40 to 50 countries and at my age, at the 3 countries/year pace I set in 2015, I should* have reached 45 countries visited by the end of 2025. Since I’m in the ballpark, I’m pleased with my progress and 2026 will be about keeping the momentum going.

I’m also going to decide once and for all exactly which list of “countries” I’m going to follow!

 * I say “should” but travelling isn’t just about “collecting countries” to meet some arbitrary goal. That said, I do like a target and checking things off a list. It gives me a sense of achievement, and this goal helps me to get out of my comfort zone and find new places to visit and things to experience, or I’d be tempted to return again and again and again to Paris and eat pain au chocolat at cafés all day (much to Lee’s dismay).

Visit 16 UNESCO sites towards my ‘Visit 500 UNESCO Sites’ goal.

Perhaps it’s crazy, but I’m still determined to visit 500 UNESCO sites so I’m going to keep this goal on my list, at least for another year.

According to my original plan from 2015, I should have visited 193 sites by now, but I’ve only visited about 90 UNESCO sites so far. But hey, goals are meant to challenge you, and I’m not giving up! Every new site we visit is amazing – ok, maybe they aren’t all amazing (like housing estates in Berlin that yes, we did go out of our way to visit) – but most of them are pretty darn cool and we always look to add them to our itinerary.

Visit three landmarks towards my ‘100 Landmarks of the World’ goal.

This goal has been pretty slow going and I’ve currently visited just 29 of the 100 landmarks on this list.

We have one of the landmarks, Prague’s Astronomical Clock, on the agenda for 2026 but to make any real progress on this list we need to get to Asia, Africa, and South America. Perhaps in 2027?

Read ten books towards my ‘Read Around the World’ goal.

Way back in 2014 at the beginning of my blogging days, my blog was actually called ‘Have Books, Will Travel’ and it included bookish content alongside travel. I had set a goal to read a book set in every country of the world, but once the blog became ‘One Trip at a Time’ and shifted to focus entirely on travel this goal slowly fell by the wayside.

I’d still like to take on this challenge though so in 2026 I’m going to bring it back! Again though, I need to sort out that list of “countries” I’m going to follow and then I’ll match my reading selections to the countries on that list.

Visit three castles towards my ‘Castles in England’ goal.

I originally set this goal back in 2014, but I don’t have it listed on the website so I haven’t been very good about tracking it like I’d like to.

Last autumn when we were visiting Warwick Castle, I purchased a little book called English Castles, and it reignited this goal for me. This book is going to be the perfect guide for this project and I’m going to set up a page on the site to track the goal going forward.

Lifetime Travel Goals 2.0

As we have continued to travel over the years, I have added even more “lifetime travel goals” to the mix (because one can never have too many lists to keep track of) – hence the “2.0” distinction.

These goals have us digging deeper into the places that we once called home, or still do – England and Nova Scotia, Canada. However, unlike my original goals, I haven’t fully organized these yet so one of my tasks for 2026 is to set up pages on the website to properly track each of these new adventures too.

For 2026, my goals in this category are:

Visit at least one county towards my ‘Visit All Counties in England’ goal.

This goal is all about exploring England thoroughly. It’s a country with SO much history, which absolutely excites me, and of course, is where Lee is from and lived for most of his life.

We started exploring each county in depth on our trip to Cornwall in 2017, and decided we really like basing ourselves in one or two accommodations (converted barns are a favourite) and finding all the neat sights and experiences a county has to offer. A particular highlight that we tell people about quite frequently was sheep trekking in Somerset in 2023. It was such a fun afternoon, and we still think of Ernie and Kevin (our sweet sheep friends) often.

I can’t wait to see what other adventures we find!

Visit three lighthouses towards my ‘Lighthouses of Nova Scotia’ goal.

I’ve always loved lighthouses – their history, structure, stories, and just being near the sea. And although Nova Scotia is the second smallest province in Canada, it is BIG on lighthouses, many of which are famous around the world (maybe you’ve heard of Peggy’s Cove?). They are such a defining part of the province’s history and now that we call Nova Scotia home, I’m on a mission to see them all.

All told there are about 150 lighthouses scattered along our rugged coastline; however, some can’t be visited because they are inaccessible for one reason or another. This leaves, perhaps, about 100 that can be visited which I have slowly been chipping away at visiting since we moved here. In 2026, I’d like to continue exploring our coastal scenery and visit at least three more lighthouses.

So, there we have it – my travel goals for 2026!

Some are practical, some are (too?) ambitious, and all sound like great fun. A mix of making progress on long-term travel goals, digging deeper into the places that matter the most to us, and making sure we have lots of fun and adventures along the way.

Here’s to another year of exploring the world … One Trip at a Time!