Stop Waiting For Perfect Timing And Start Planning The Trip You’ll Remember

Deadlines are comforting until you realize they’re imaginary. After a week of health scares in our circle, we talk candidly about why travel plans so often stall—and how to turn intention into action before time makes the choice for you. If you’ve been waiting for the perfect companion, perfect price, or perfect timing, this conversation hands you permission and a plan to go anyway.

We start by naming the big dream—the destination that keeps tugging at you—and reframing it as a Masogi-style challenge: a bold, defining trip that stretches your limits and resets your sense of what’s possible. From there, we break the process into practical tracks: money, time, knowledge, and logistics.

Then we get tactical. We share how to build a mock itinerary in Wanderlog so ideas become maps, not just wishes. We outline a saving plan you can stick to, and the exact tools we use to catch deals—Google Flights, Skyscanner, Booking, and Going—plus how to set fare alerts that quietly do the work while you live your life. You’ll learn to pick dates, star neighborhoods, and make quick decisions when prices dip, all while staying out of debt and in control.

By the end, you’ll have a clear first step, a destination to claim, and the confidence to travel solo if that’s what gets you moving. Put your goal on the wall, start the alerts, and take one small action today. If this sparked your next trip, subscribe, share the show with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review to help more travelers find us. Where will you go first?

Chapters

• 0:00 Travel Plans And Reality Check
• 1:10 Urgency From Life’s Wake-Up Calls
• 2:54 Masogi And Big Stretch Goals
• 3:44 Setting 2026 Travel Targets
• 5:25 Save, Plan, And Track Ideas
• 8:08 Tools For Deals And Alerts
• 10:12 Commit, Act, And Avoid Regret

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

Was twenty twenty five all you envisioned or planned in regards to travel? Is that the bucket list of the location still on your list? Well, in today's episode, we're gonna talk about how to conquer that and reach your travel goals. Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures. I'm Cheryl Ashe, your host and advocate for solo travel for women. Well, last episode I did share a little bit about, kind of reviewed my year of travel and all that I did. And I will have to say I am really proud and happy with how my plans turned out. I did set goals in the beginning of the year as to what did I want to accomplish in my travels. But you know, as I always say, travel never ends up turning out the way you planned. So when you're on your trip, do expect that. And even trips that you have planned, you may not be able to follow through on them for whatever reason. But I really felt a need to come and really encourage you. If you are putting some sort of trip off, you have that bucket list dream idea, and it's been years. It has come to the forefront that now is the time. Just this week alone, I've just been reflecting, have a couple family members that have fallen ill. For example, an uncle being rushed to the hospital last night, my aunt being diagnosed with cancer, a dear friend of mine my age, actually a little younger, having cancer, and just hearing also even from my young niece how she has been putting off some travels that she would like to do, even at her young age. And it just makes me sad that we do put those things off, and then we get to a place in our life where it might become too difficult to do, or we regret not doing because suddenly we're faced with a diagnosis or a terminal illness that might prevent us from even accomplishing those goals and those travel plans, and life is too short, as I always like to say, and we also never know. And so I encourage to have an urgency to really take a moment and reflect and look at really what your dreams are for places that you would like to go, things that are gonna fill your heart and really bring just more joy to your life, basically. And there's a Japanese art, and we've kind of changed the culturally what it means to us, but it's called Masogi, and it's actually a Japanese ritual of purification. It's traditionally involving immersion in cold water or under a waterfall to cleanse the body and spirit. However, in modern day Masogis, we have used that to personally challenge ourselves. So it's basically challenging us to do something extremely difficult that might be redefining our limits and build some inner strength. So maybe some of those things on your list, places you want to go, seem so far-fetched. I want to encourage you to look at this year, 2026, put that Masogee place on your list and start working your way to make it happen. And as I told my niece yesterday, as she was expressing, because her brother did a summer trip to see many national parks, and how she hasn't seen any, and she would love to, and so I was encouraging her to make it happen for herself and not be waiting on whomever that it was okay to plan this on your own, or if she wants to take somebody to get planning on it. So as you look at your 2026 goals and dreams and plans, and you look at how travel can fit into that, I want to encourage you to look at your list and just make it happen. And you know, my part of my yearly goals are as far as travel, is I like to get to at least two to three new countries. I'm not some people say I'm gonna get to all 193 or 96 countries, depending on who you talk to, right? Or I want to get to this many by age 60 or whatever. I'm not that is not how I look at it. I just do want to experience about two to three different countries a year. I actually exceeded that in 2025, which is exciting, and I got to let's see, six different countries this year, and that was way past the three that I would kind of like to get, and then I also set a goal because I love national parks. I'm also trying to get to all 50 states, in which I have gotten really close, so I try to knock off a state or so each year, and national parks. I try to get to two or three new ones per year, which I did do last year, have plans to do in 2026. So, write down what you'd like to accomplish, where you'd like to go. Is there a specific place that you have been putting on your list and it's been years you haven't been able to accomplish that? I want to encourage you, you you got a clean slate coming up. Carve out that time, start saving that money, and get to that huge bucket list place. I'm even planning, I have a big bucket list place I'd like to go to, and I know that I'm gonna need to be saving starting this year if I have plans to maybe go next year or even in 2027 or 28. That I need to start saving for it now, a little bit at a time, right? So set those goals, start dreaming about that place, start even planning a mock itinerary, start saving, and I do that in my one of the apps that I use for travel planning. In my wonder log, I start logging places that say I have a itinerary, but I pick a place and then I start adding little places I'd like to see at that in that country or in that area so that when the time does come, I have ideas already and I know where I might actually be going and what I might be doing on that trip. So let's make 2026 a year where our travel dreams are fulfilled, even if it's a small idea. Maybe you just want to have the time and space to go visit family, which to me was very important this time of year, and maybe that's you're feeling the same way, or maybe you have this bucket list of this solo trip that you want to do. Start to make plans and get it accomplished, folks. Put it on a wall, let you know, create a vision board if that's something that inspires you, or just have it written. For me, I just have it written on a wall so that I can see it daily and be reminded that unless I take the steps to get there, that is not gonna happen. All right, so make it happen, and I want to hear all about it, and even if it's you want to share that on my podcast, I would love to hear about it. As I've had many listeners even come to me and turn into guests and share their remarkable, courageous story of maybe their first solo trip or a dream or bucket list trip that they've been planning and actually made happen. So I encourage you to get out there, start writing those goals down and keep them in the forefront of your vision and see them daily. To write down the steps you need to take to get there. If it's the money issue, start saving your money. Decide how much you need to put aside per month or paycheck and be able to go there without going into debt and start planning. Look, start putting some notices. For example, maybe you're looking for a good airfare, you can do that on Google Flights and Booking.com or Skyscanner, some of those other apps where you can watch, you can watch a trip like a flight that you're interested in, and then you can see, oh, this is a good time. And if you're not a member of Going, which offers cheap flights, you can also, if you join there, you can also do the same thing where they watch a certain flight, certain country that you're wanting to travel to, and that's a good way to get notifications. That maybe now's the time to buy, maybe it says to wait. Those are all great tools to use to help you be able to get to that place and accomplish that dream trip that you have. Just don't sit on the sidelines, don't be one of those that regrets not taking that trip. There's there is time and make it happen for yourself.