Are you dreaming of taking a bucket-list travel experience during the holidays, but are held back due to expectations on how you should spend your holiday season? Here I share mindset tips that will allow you to spend the holiday season on that dream trip you’ve always wanted and create memories that will last a lifetime.
By Alyssa Ramdeen
With the holidays just around the corner, we all get filled with excitement over twinkling lights, pine scents and that childlike magic that this season tends to bring, but that joy may be fleeting when reality hits that your time off will be spent cooking, preparing for family parties and attending obligatory annual events.
Working in corporate America full-time, I, like many others, dream about when and where I can use my vacation days (15 days to be exact) and swipe endlessly through Pinterest to tag bucket-list locations and create my perfectly curated travel board. Salivating over travel guides to the best wineries in Mendoza or exploring the mosques in Turkey, those dreams often have to get put to the side to use my precious time for a bachelorette party, a Friday wedding, or for an appointment that can only be booked midweek, and I watch as my 15 days dwindle down to just enough for me to take a week off once a year.
That week typically gets allocated to days right around the holidays so I can decorate, prepare for the seemingly endless parties that arise, and spend some time at home with family. While I love bonding with family this time of year, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the trips I’ve been dreaming about will remain just that – dreams – and I will continue to put my obligations to the forefront so as to not disappoint my loved ones.
I’m no stranger to the exhaustion that bringing the entire extended family together can bring, and when the winter of 2022 came, I was in dire need of a truly relaxing holiday season. So I decided to ditch the expectations that twenty years of tradition set in and booked a trip to Italy where I planned to spend Thanksgiving in a Tuscan villa with a group of people that would make the holiday that much more special. Here are a few mindset tips that will allow you to feel less guilty, book the trip, and create holiday memories that will last a lifetime.
Overcoming Family Expectations
After abandoning my family plans that I’ve attended every year, it was natural for me to feel some guilt that I chose to do something different, but after that subsided and the excitement of the trip started bubbling to the surface, I wanted to share the news that I would be going to a dream location in a few short weeks. As I started nervously telling my family, I realized that most of the pressure to show up was the pressure I was putting on myself, and to my surprise, most people shared their excitement for me – even my mom wanted to join in on the trip.
When it comes to making choices, it may feel like you will disappoint everyone if you choose something for yourself, when in reality, it’s just a personal mindset that needs to adjust. Putting yourself first can feel totally unnatural, and you can start to project this sense of judgment that can feel paralyzing and prevent you from creating the memories that you want, instead of what your loved ones expect of you. When you decide to put those feelings aside and prioritize all the things you want out of life – like travel – these experiences can allow you to tap into your independence which starts to trickle down into all aspects of your life. So always continue to ask yourself, “Am I making this decision because it would truly make me happy, or am I trying to satisfy my loved ones?”
Choosing Who To Travel With
When traveling, it’s always difficult to choose a person, or group, that will not only all get along together, but have the same interests that will make the trip worthwhile. We all have been on a group trip that has a dramatic end because personalities clash and jetlag gets the best of us. When choosing a guest list for my trip, I was lucky enough that my mom and two best friends decided to come along for the ride. We have all traveled together before and it felt natural to plan another trip, but not everyone gets that lucky.
If solo traveling isn’t for you and you don’t have adventurous friends willing to join, you can opt for a retreat that will allow you to travel with like-minded women all looking for the same experience. Whether that be a spiritual retreat, cooking your way through Italy, or simply looking to join a group of travelers who want to see the world, there is a retreat for everyone who wants that curated experience.
The Power of Learning Something New
When traveling, finding an activity where you can truly immerse yourself in the culture should always be on your radar. When we landed in Florence, we had a slew of activities booked, like wine tasting, shopping at Ponte Vecchio and overlooking the views of the Arno River, and most importantly, consuming as much pasta as we possibly could, but the most exciting thing on the agenda was the day-long cooking class in a private farmhouse in Tuscany.
When our guide met up with our group, she explained that we would be part of the entire experience, including buying all the necessary ingredients. As we entered the market, we were right in the mix of the hustle and bustle of locals, surrounded by the aroma of regional cheeses and the camaraderie between patron and butcher that naturally occurs when one is shopping for the perfect cut of meat for their family dinner. Our guide also gave us a deep dive on what makes this market a historical staple of Florence and how to properly shop for the best seasonal products. After exploring the market, we made our drive into Tuscany for our long-awaited cooking class with a seasoned chef.
When we finally pulled up to the farmhouse with grocery bags in tow, we stepped onto the vast estate where we would spend the next six hours bonding in the kitchen that overlooked the vineyards, sipping smooth regional Chianti wine, and pinching ourselves that this was how we got to spend our day in Italy. When we finished our day sharing our meal as a group, we were able to admire the fresh-roasted pork and homemade pasta that looked just as beautiful as it tasted, and we left feeling a sense of accomplishment that we were able to collect a few new skills to use just a couple days later.
With our newfound expertise of pasta-making, we made our way to our own private villa in the heart of Tuscany where we would spend our Thanksgiving. We decided to bring a little bit of our home tradition to our trip by making our holiday dinner from scratch. So we recreated the dish we made a few days prior, using ingredients from a local Tuscan market, and enjoyed our meal overlooking the perfect autumn backdrop – the red and orange rolling hills of Tuscany littered with cypress trees.
Traveling during the holidays doesn’t have to mean totally abandoning your traditions, but if you can mix the culture of the local environment with a little bit of home, you can create memories that will stay with you forever and, possibly, begin to create new traditions with all of the knowledge you’ve learned along the way.
About The Writer
Alyssa Ramdeen is a writer whose mission is to bring a community of women together to inspire them to travel more, embrace change, take chances, and most importantly, take charge of their own lives. You can find more if you go to her website and subscribe to her newsletter at alyssaramdeen.com and follow her on Instagram at @alyssaram7.
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December 2023 | Life Lovers Magazine.
Life Lovers Magazine® 