Travel Vision Board: A Creative Tool to Organize Your Travel Goals

Sometimes also called a travel dream board, a vision board is a collection of various sources of inspiration (pictures, postcards, cutouts from magazines, inspiring quotes, or affirmations) that helps you visualize and manifest your intentions and desires.

It is based on the Law of Attraction or Manifestation, a belief that positive or negative thoughts that you put out into the universe can bring positive or negative outcomes into a person’s life.

Do Travel Vision Boards Really Work?

There are lots of discussions if vision boards actually help you achieve your goals. What you need to understand is that a travel vision board is an excellent source of inspiration and motivation, but don’t expect everything to come easy just because you put it on the board.

A crucial part of making your dreams come true is visualizing not only the outcomes but also the actual steps you’re going to take to reach them. For example, you should think if your travel goals are realistic, how much time you’ll need to prepare for certain trips, how much money you’ll need to save, etc.

Vision boards also need constant updating and rearranging to work. Don’t be hard on yourself if not all the goals are reached the way you imagined. Adapt to the situation and remember that even though a vision board can definitely help, you are in charge of your own destiny!

Travel Vision Board: How to Create It?

A travel vision board can be either an actual physical board or a digital version that you keep online or on your computer. Whatever it is, you’ll need to take some similar steps to create it.

1. Make a bucket list of your dream destinations and/or experiences.

If you’re a travel-lover, you probably already have a lot of various travel ideas swirling in your head. The first thing you need to do is arrange them by making an actual list of things you’d like to do or experiences you’d like to have. This list can involve your travel goals of, let’s say, the next year, or become an actual plan for your next trip. You can write down your thoughts on a piece of paper, a notebook, or simply on a computer screen.

There are no rules for making a bucket list, but the more specific you get, the easier it will be in the future when you’re out there making your dreams come true. You can list broad or specific locations you want to visit (for example, “Paris”, or “An island in the Caribbean”), and/or various experiences (for example, “see the Northern lights”, “swim with the dolphins” or “have a relaxing SPA day”).

2. Search for inspiring visuals.

Once you’ve created your dream bucket list, the second step is looking for travel imagines for your vision board: this will help you visualize what it is that you want to achieve. There are lots of different resources you can get your visuals from, including online picture galleries such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Burst by Shopify, social media such as Instagram or Pinterest, and other resources such as travel magazines, newspapers, postcards, brochures, etc.

Depending on whether you want to create a digital or an actual physical travel vision board, you can either store your visuals online, on your computer, or print them out.

3. Look for quotes, affirmations, and other sources of inspiration.

Apart from images, there are plenty of other sources to draw some inspiration from. You can look for motivational travel quotes, affirmations, maybe some short poems, or a line from a beautiful song to add to your travel vision board.

The good idea is to try to imagine specific emotions you’d like to feel during your travels or the mood of the trip you’re planning to take. Is it going to be adventurous or, maybe, romantic? You can add some specific notes to imagine better the mood, like “breathtaking nature views”, “paradise beach” or “challenging hikes”.

Compile all of the quotes by writing them down, printing, or cutting them out. If you need some ideas, here’s a list of inspiring travel quotes you can use: 40 Inspiring Quotes to Personalize Your Push Pin Travel Map.

4. Choose the Format of Your Travel Vision Board and Create It!

If you haven’t already decided on the format of the actual vision board, now it’s the time to do it. There are a few different ways how you can organize your imagines, quotes, and create a beautiful vacation vision board. Below I’ll dive deeper into the various options and explain their pros and cons.

Digital Travel Vision Boards

If you’re looking for something simple, fast, and easy, a digital vision board is a great option because it doesn’t require a lot of physical tools or resources. All you need is some online platform or even just a simple computer program to arrange everything into a digital collage.

Pinterest is like a social platform for vision boards where you can save inspiring travel imagines, upload your own, and even link them to various travel resources. You can either organize the imagines according to different travel destinations you’d like to visit or create a general vision board to inspire you to travel more.

Canva is another great free tool that helps you create a collage of imagines that you can later use as your laptop background or a screensaver. They have various templates to choose from and a ton of free images.

If you’re looking for something super simple, Instagram has an option to save images that you like and arrange them into different folders. You can also just create a folder with travel images on your phone and go through it whenever you need inspiration.

Physical Travel Vision Boards

A physical vision board might be a great choice for those who want to put more thought into their travel goals and make a nice art project out of it. The possibilities here are endless and depend entirely on your creativity.

The most classic option is a poster or a canvas board, where you tape or glue various cuts outs from magazines, newspapers, or brochures, add postcards or various other imagines printed from online sources. The text (quotes, affirmations, etc.) on the vision board can be either written (you can also choose various types of paper for it), printed, or cut out. Similarly, you can use a corkboard and pin all of the imagines on it.

Another interesting travel vision board idea is a magnetic board (or you can simply use your fridge). You can either add magnets representing different travel destinations onto the board or use magnets to attach other inspirational content.

Physical travel vision boards are great because they can be hung in a visible place in your home (above your bed, your work desk, in the living room, etc.), and always remind you of your dreams and desires.

A Push Pin Travel Map with Pictures as a Vision Board

A push pin map can also be a great alternative idea for a travel vision board. You can either pin various images onto the map next to the places you plan to visit, or hang the images around the map and then add strings that connect them to specific locations. To help your dreams come true, you can also add the preliminary dates of when you wish your travel goals to be achieved.

By using different colors of pins, you can create your own pinning logic and distinguish between the places that you’d like to visit alone, with your partner or your family, the trips that you wish to take in certain years/months, etc.

To make your push pin travel map even more personal and turn it into a real vision board, take an opportunity to personalize it. You can add an inspiring quote onto your map, names of travelers, or a personalized legend. More about various personalization options here: 7 Ideas for Personalized World Traveler Map.

A push-pin map with pictures works well as a travel vision board because it also gives you a sense of the world and might even inspire you to look for new travel destinations. You can display your travel goals in a visible place at home and also discuss them with your family members or your guests.