No Summer Travel Plans? Create a Memorable Summer With Adventures Close to Home

The summer countdown has begun. School's out, temperatures are rising, and social media feeds are bursting with vacation photos and travel plans—but what if you don't have anything planned? Whether due to procrastination, budget constraints, or simply preferring to avoid peak travel season, a summer without definitive plans doesn't have to leave you feeling left out or bored.

Today's episode offers a refreshingly practical approach to creating memorable summer experiences without the need for expensive flights or extensive planning. Drawing from personal experience and creative travel solutions, there are three accessible options that can transform your seemingly ordinary summer into something worth talking about.

First, consider the classic road trip—a flexible adventure that can be tailored to any timeframe or budget. Cheryl provides a strategic approach to mapping potential destinations within driving distance, encouraging listeners to seek out places they've always wanted to visit but never prioritized. Next, she reimagines the staycation not as a compromise but as an opportunity to experience your own region with fresh eyes through local festivals, events, and activities you've never tried before. From rodeos to trapeze classes, she demonstrates how the extraordinary often exists right in our own backyard. Finally, she celebrates the power of spontaneity—keeping an open mind to last-minute deals, fill-in opportunities, and unexpected adventures that often become our most cherished memories.

Whether you're working with limited vacation time, a tight budget, or simply missed the window for summer planning, this episode provides actionable strategies to ensure your summer is filled with new experiences and stories worth sharing. Plus, don't miss details about an upcoming virtual travel summit featuring Cheryl among 35+ speakers covering global travel topics. Ready to transform your empty summer calendar into something extraordinary? Your adventure starts here.

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Chapters

• 0:00 No Summer Plans? No Problem!
• 2:59 Option One: Road Trip Adventures
• 6:09 Option Two: Exciting Staycation Ideas
• 9:14 Option Three: Embrace Spontaneity
• 11:34 Virtual Travel Summit Announcement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The temperatures are rising, school is done for the year, or at least almost, and you're hearing about all your friends' summer vacation plans with envy. And we don't have any summer plans. Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures. I'm Sheryl Esch, your personal travel coach.

Speaker 1: 0:29

So, whatever your reason is for not having anything planned this summer, maybe you just got off a trip that you did in the spring and so summer is just not wasn't in your plan to do any travel. Maybe you don't like to travel in the summer, like myself. I don't plan any large trips in the summer, but I have been known, as I did last year, I took two spontaneous trips in July last year and there may be other reasons. You've chosen not to plan anything for summer. You could be like my father, who always procrastinated and finally you know it gets to be school time is out and we as a family didn't have plans. So my father would scurry to try to figure something out for his family to do for summer vacation. But whatever your excuse may be, maybe it's you just don't have the funds, you have limited time off, so it's just not available for you to go. You maybe don't have anybody to go with and you'd rather go with somebody, or right now you waited so long and everything is really expensive and so you are not going because of that, or you just don't feel comfortable traveling right now, for whatever reason. Well, your summer doesn't have to be boring, and I am, of course, mostly speaking to all of us in the Northern Hemisphere, where our summer months get really warm. You know, europe has their holiday sometime in summer as well. Europe has their holiday sometime in summer as well, and other places like the US have summer vacations typically planned, and it doesn't have to be that way, and it also doesn't have to be a boring summer. Even if you currently don't have any plans Now, there are several ways to have adventures, as what I like to call them near and far, and I want you to consider these three possibilities to incorporate some fun into your summer.

Speaker 1: 2:35

So, if you have not done planning for your summer and are not going anywhere, you could consider a road trip. Going anywhere, you could consider a road trip, and this could be a one day or even a weekend or even a week long or more road trip. I know that in the US, particularly because we are so large, I mean just to stay in my country. You know, we could spend a whole summer which I've, which I have done just driving across the US and seeing different things. But I would actually like to challenge you, and maybe you can't again get that time off. Maybe your country's really small and a road trip gets you to another country actually, which is possible over in Europe. So what I'd like you to do when, if you're considering a road trip, first of all, in episode 41, I want you to go and listen to some key things that you need to pack If you are doing a road trip. Um, these will be very important items to have um in your vehicle if you're going on a road trip.

Speaker 1: 3:45

So, first of all, I'd like you, if you're considering a road trip this summer, I'd like you to make a list of places. Now, make two lists, two columns, if you'd like. Your first column, or list, is going to be places that are one to three hour drive. These are going to be places that you can get to within a day. Then you're going to look at places that are four plus hour drive from you, and these could be places you know, maybe it goes across another border and you get into whether it's another state, another country, another province? Um, consider places like that. But you could have a third column and you can think really big, especially if you have lots of time. But see if, in this list of places, as you look at a map I like to. I'm a very visual person, so I need to look at a map to see what is nearby, what's our Google, what's you know, making sure that place is maybe within that one to three hour distance. Um, see if in that list there are places you've always wanted to see, that could be an option for you as a road trip.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Now, road trips are great because you can easily do them last minute. You can do them alone or you could do them with a friend, and there's many options. As far as if you want to save money, you could camp as one option, but you know hotels are just as well. So, make a list, consider a road trip. Where do you want to go this summer? Do you want to try to get away from the heat? Maybe get yourself near some water. Right, being near a body of water can always be nice if the air temperature is warm. Number two have a staycation, and there's nothing wrong with that Right now. That's what I'm looking at at the moment.

Speaker 1: 5:48

So Google search activities, events or festivals that are happening in your city, town or surrounding area. There's tons of. You know it's summertime and tons of festivals. Every town, big and small, is going to have some type of festival. It could be a music type festival, it could be a strawberry festival, it could be some festival that pertains to some ethnic. I always recall going to the Greek festival where I grew up, and there was many others as well.

Speaker 1: 6:19

And so do a search and make a list. Make a list of these items. There's activities, maybe just some fun things, that are happening. Maybe it's a movie in the park kind of weekend somewhere nearby, things like that that are going to keep you active, so that you are not sitting at home and you're not having a boring summer but you're doing something. Maybe take some dance lessons there's always some free introduction lessons, things like that that are going to get you out of your rut, out of your comfort zone. Maybe even sign up for a class, go try pickleball or something like that.

Speaker 1: 7:01

So if you're going to do a staycation, make a list of 10 activities to do with the dates written down. And I say 10 activities it could be more, but in general I look at, summer is roughly 10 weeks long. It could be more or less, and so that gives you about one activity to do per week. And just get your calendar out, look at your list of activities, see what the dates are that they're happening, and then write them on your calendar or put them in your digital calendar and think about could I invite somebody to join me? And I'll give you a few more examples. I'm doing some of these sort of activities and I'm calling them my adventures for 2025. And one example of something that's happening around me is a rodeo, and so I've never been to a rodeo, so I'm going to go to a rodeo. So things like that. I'm signing up for a crafting class, which I go to next week. I'm doing I want to do a trapeze circus class.

Speaker 1: 8:10

So do some searches for yourself and make it fun so that your staycation is something to talk about. So when people get back to work or you meet up with some friends, you have something to share about what you did over the summer. So make that list and the important part is that you actually put it on your calendar. Don't let time get by, because you can look at the list, but then you won't see what date it is and it won't actually be on your calendar. And we know that when we put things on our calendars they usually get done. So that's number two.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Third thing you could do is, if you have no summer plans is just to be spontaneous. Keep an eye out for any last minute deals or if someone is canceled or needing a fill-in at the last minute. I've seen many of those where someone says, oh, a friend was supposed to join me on this cruise. They've backed out last minute and they need someone to go with. Who knows, maybe you can negotiate, um, since their friend probably already paid, or whatever. You're can negotiate the price. But be open to those kinds of things, and I am thinking of being spontaneous and something I'm trying to plan. It's a little challenging, but I will let you know if it's happened. Um, I'll let you know if it's happened. I'm trying to get to.

Speaker 1: 9:39

I am a soccer fan and so are my kids, of course. My kids were huge soccer players and if you follow any kind of soccer, which is a world sport, you do know that the FIFA World Cup is happening next year, in 2026. However, this year they are hosting what we call FIFA Club World uh games, and they are being played actually all over the U? S, and so I am working on and then probably have to be spontaneous with this one, seeing if I can get some tickets to get to one of those games. But that's what I'm talking about. Be spontaneous, keep your eyes open for opportunities to make your summer fun. It doesn't have to be an extravagant trip to Italy or somewhere else that you long to be at, or some beach vacation, and it can just be a road trip, be staycation or or? C just be spontaneous and be open to maybe going somewhere fun for the summer. Well, I'd be anxious to hear what you are planning to do this summer, and so hop into our facebook community group and I will post a question, or you can just share where you are going this summer and comment.

Speaker 1: 11:10

So how would you like to attend a virtual travel summit? I'm actually going to be a speaker in a travel summit coming up in June June 7th and 8th and June 14th and 15th. It is Infinity Land Presents Freedom Finders. It's a virtual travel summit. It is pay what you can, but it is four days of an online conference covering all things travel, moving abroad, wellness, tourism and influencing for global impact, and there are talks, panels, workshops, q and A's and there are numerous uh. There's 35 plus speakers over the four days and I encourage you to join. I'm going to include the link in the show notes. It is a pay, what you can uh type of summit and I will be actually on a panel of speakers on June 15th. So I hope you will actually sign up and join and I would love to have many of you and just glean from many of these other wonderful travel speakers that you will experience in the summit. So, sister travelers, get out there and have that adventure.