1. Commit to eating more healthfully
More than a quarter of those who make New Year’s resolutions intend to improve their diet in some way. Although it appears to be a fantastic idea at first, putting it into action may not be as inspiring. The solution is to travel to a place where eating well is ingrained in the locals’ traditional culture and way of life.
Custom travel planners Chica Travel offers a tour package called “Venture Through Vietnam” that focuses on taking travelers through the country’s culinary landscape, which happens to be mostly plant-based, heart-healthy, and delicious. Take a cooking class, go on a guided street food tour, and learn about the various unique and interesting flavors available at each regional destination.
Staying at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate and Garden in Santa Rosa, California, puts you in the company of some of the country’s most prestigious fruit growers. This estate is a little closer to home. Experience a behind-the-scenes tour of the estate’s extraordinary greenhouse, which has a waiting list of Michelin-starred chefs for microgreens and other specialty crops supervised by Master Culinary Gardner Tucker Taylor (formerly of The French Laundry). Naturally, you will also be able to sample these one-of-a-kind flavors during a four-course meal. Taylor will be on hand, along with Kendall Jackson’s executive chef and head sommelier, to guide you through flawless farm-to-table pairings.
The second goal is to break a bad habit
There is no better way to overcome a no longer beneficial behavior or mindset than to go out into the wilderness and take on a task that makes you feel a little anxious. This is true whether you’re trying to quit smoking, declutter your home, or do any of the other things listed above.
Patagonia, in our opinion, is the best location for achieving this goal. The expansive views of snow-capped mountains in the Andes, as well as direct interaction with nature, are sure to inspire you and energize your sense of agency. This self-guided hiking itinerary through Torres del Paine National Park, located on the Chilean side of Patagonia, is suitable for inexperienced explorers. Experienced adventurers can test their mettle by rafting down the Futaleufu River, which is famous for its Class IV section known as “The Wild Mile,” or hiking to the summit of Monte Fitz Roy.
3. Increase Your Physical Activity
The majority of people set the goal of improving their physical fitness for the new year, similar to the resolution to improve one’s diet. (To be precise, 27%.) Your resolution will serve you far better if you begin a new fitness routine by going on an adventure rather than dragging yourself to the gym every day.
Bicycling is widely recognized as one of the most efficient forms of physical activity in terms of “bang for your buck.” It’s not only a full-body workout that combines strength, flexibility, and cardio, but it’s also gentle on your joints, highly adaptable to your skill level, and far less prone to injury than other forms of exercise.
Cycling has an inherent distraction factor that helps to take your mind off the repetitive motion and physical work that you are doing. This is accomplished through the ever-changing scenery and terrain encountered. As a result, we strongly advise supplementing your fitness resolution with a bicycle ride. Our friends at Intrepid Travel offer a variety of cycling trips throughout India, Croatia, and New Zealand, but we can’t resist a classic: this 8-day trip through Southern France. Some of the highlights of this trip include coasting through Van Gogh’s painted countryside, pit stops at Avignon’s vineyard, inhaling the scent of hillside lavender farms, and racing the white horses of Camargue to the Mediterranean Sea.
Cycling through Marin County in California provides a similar experience in the United States. Begin your journey in Fairfax, a hippie enclave where you can get your bike tuned up at Fairfax Cyclery and stock up on healthy snacks at Good Earth Natural Foods. If your legs are in good shape, you can attempt the 17-mile climb to Mount Tamalpais’ summit, where you will be rewarded with breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.
Then you can coast back down the mountain. If you want a more difficult challenge, head west on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and follow it as it winds through an eerie grove of redwoods until you reach the old lighthouse at Point Reyes. After refueling on freshly plucked oysters from the bay and a bottle of Napa white wine, ride your bike back to the quaint village of Olema, where you will find a farming cottage that will welcome you with open arms.
The fourth New Year resolves to Recharge Your Career
If you want to earn a raise or promotion, make a career change, or even start your own business, you should consider traveling to an area where such opportunities are plentiful. This does not imply that you must relocate, though you may find that doing so is desirable; rather, it is a way to rub shoulders with other upwardly mobile professionals, broaden your network of contacts, and be inspired by ideas you may not have considered previously.
With an ongoing tech boom and a focus on up-and-coming projects in sustainability and green technology, Fortune recently named Stockholm, Sweden as one of the best cities for startups. The city’s impressive combination of factors resulted in this ranking. Similarly, Toronto is well-known for the prosperous distribution and financial businesses that it fosters. Both cities have an excellent reputation for their quality of life due to their abundance of public parks, cultural institutions, and residents who enjoy spending time outside.
Going to either of these cities will provide you with an up-close and personal look at what true universal health care looks like. (From what we’ve heard, it’s a lot of fun.) Organize your trip to coincide with a conference or another type of professional event, or simply do some research on companies in your industry, call them, and introduce yourself as a colleague from the United States interested in conducting an informational interview with someone. It’s impossible to say where it will take you.
No. 5. Promote Spiritual Development and Increase Mindfulness
Megan Hardesty, the owner of Chica Travel, told us how she walked the Camino de Santiago exactly one year after her mother died. Pilgrims and spiritual seekers from all over the world travel this 500-mile road through Spain’s countryside, which ends at Cape Finisterre (“the end of the world”) in Galicia. These people are willing to endure the road’s lonely stretches and difficult terrain to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
The fact that this journey is difficult on both a physical and mental level is precisely what makes it such a powerful tool for spiritual development. “I expected to feel melancholy while traveling,” Megan said, “but traveling on my own and by foot left me feeling empowered.” It was clear that it had an impact on Ryan and me because a year later we were both jobless and backpacking around the world.
If cultivating mindfulness is your goal, there is no better way than to retreat to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Because everyone’s idea of a solitary paradise is different, we recommend checking out Cabin Escapes, a curated directory of rustic hideaways created by Lindsey Bro, who also runs the Instagram account Cabinlove. The database is divided into regions of the world, and its listings range from Airstream trailers in the middle of the desert to quaint cottages nestled in the middle of the forest to vacation spots on the world’s most remote shores.
We’re fantasizing about spending a week quietly enjoying simple pleasures in this seaside bungalow on a private island off the coast of Maine. Simple pleasures include waking up early to watch the sea smoke drift across the horizon, going on a morning hike to watch the tide roll out, choosing one of six different beaches for an afternoon of reading (and snoozing), preparing a freshly caught lobster for dinner, and so on. Should we go on?
The sixth New Year resolves to find love
If the thought of renewing your Match.com subscription makes you want to rip out your eyeballs, ditch the apps and take a more proactive approach to your love life. You could, for example, travel abroad to a destination that will captivate all of your senses.
We recommend that you book a flight to Greece like the people who lived in Laurel Canyon in the 1970s. Some of David Bowie’s, Joni Mitchell’s, and Leonard Cohen’s most famous songs are about love affairs that blossomed during their visits to Greece. Long have the ancient sun-bleached cliffs and saturated tones of water and sky served as a backdrop for talented romantics to indulge their passion. Dwayne Russell and Gabrielle Union dominated Instagram with photos of themselves flying over the Aegean Sea. More recently, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell were spotted canoodling on the Greek island of Skiathos last year.
If you’re an outgoing person, you’ll feel right at home in the country’s warm and inviting atmosphere, as well as the exciting nightlife. However, if you are having difficulty getting out there, you should take advantage of the Greece trip package that Chica is offering. This package will take you to open-air theaters, microbreweries, cooking classes, wine tastings, and other activities where you will interact with other explorers. You’ll undoubtedly return home with some fantastic anecdotes, treasured memories, and who knows what else. Maybe even something more.