As you’ve probably guessed, I love to travel. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that my whole family loves to travel. My daughter has traveled the world with us as we explore as much of the world as we can. Our family put together Our Family Bucket List of all the travel-related things we want to accomplish together.
Our family has six bucket list travel goals. I’ve created a series of posts that will go over those goals in more detail, which will also share with you our progress, why it’s one of our goals, our biggest challenges and our favorite things.
- Visit All Fifty States (of the United States of America)
- Visit All Ten Geographical Regions of the World
- Dip Our Toes in All Five Oceans of the World
- Visit All Seven New World Wonders
Goal 2: Visit All Seven Continents
Progress and Status Report:
Want to know how we’re all doing on this bucket list goal? See below.
- Geek Girl: I have visited 6 continents. I’m only missing Antarctica. As of March 2023, I will have visited all 7 thanks to our planned trip to Antarctica.
- Geek Husband: He has visited 5 continents. He is missing Asia and Antarctica. As of March 2023, he will have visited 6 thanks to our planned trip to Antarctica.
- Geek Daughter: She has visited 5 continents. She is missing Asia and Antarctica. As of March 2023, she will have visited 6 thanks to our planned trip to Antarctica.
Why Did We Pick This Bucket List Goal?
There are a number of reasons we included visiting the seven continents on our bucket lists.
- To explore. Our planet is vast and filled with so many amazing people, places, cultures, experiences, sights. It is our desire to experience as much as we can and really take advantage of what this world has to offer. Also, I mean, this is first and foremost a travel website. So, yeah, we want to travel!
- Expand our horizons. It’s been so amazing getting to travel the world with my daughter and letting her see first hand that we all have so much more in common than anything else. Traveling can be really transformative because it challenges the way you see things and pushes you outside of your comfort zone. That is very important to us.
- So many options. Adding a goal like visiting all seven continents means we get to pick from so many amazing countries to accomplish such a goal. It also makes us really think about important “firsts”, like our first trip to Africa. Additionally, it’s important to us that we continue to explore new places and appreciate cultures we’re not as familiar with, as well.
- Be a global citizen. We love our home and we’re proud of where we’re from, but we all have this calling to be a more global citizen. We want to be citizens of the world. That means traveling in a way that never harms the people, the land, the culture. Making sure you try to be a beacon of positivity throughout your travels so you can make connections with other global citizens.
Hear From the Family:
We all have different reasons for this being on our bucket list. Hear what we all have to say.
- Geek Girl: “As a child growing up in extreme poverty, the thought of visiting all seven continents was something that only existed within books. Truly books are how I thought I’d travel the world. As I got older and my wanderlust grew, I knew I wanted to set foot on every continent.”
- Geek Husband: “I want to go to all seven continents because it’s not something a lot of people get to do. Also, because it means we’ve gone to Antarctica which is a really unique experience.”
- Geek Daughter: “I want to visit all seven continents because it sounds like a lot of fun and I love doing something with Mama and Dada. I’m especially excited about visiting Asia because my family is Asian and we get to go to Indonesia. I’m also excited about Antarctica but it’s going to be cold there!”
What Are Our Biggest Challenges or Concerns About This Bucket List Goal?
As with anything, there can always be potential complications.
- Linguistic limitations. While I speak a number of languages and learning languages comes really easy to me, it can be challenging when visiting a country where you don’t share a common language. Thankfully there are so many translation tools that allow you to at least piece together phrases that can make communicating easier. And, as a native English speaker, the frequency of stumbling upon someone who understands some English is fairly frequent nowadays.
- Funds. We have limited funds so it’s so important to really make sure we’re prioritizing the experiences we want to have in a way that also fits into our budget.
- Vacation time. Similar to funds, we also have more limited vacation time. While I have the most flexible schedule of the bunch, my daughter is in school, which means we’re often limited to winter holiday, Spring Break, summer holiday, and 3 and 4-day weekends here and there.
What Are Some of Our Favorite Things About This Bucket List Goal?
There is a lot to love about setting foot on every continent. Here’s what we love.
- The bigness of it all. Having a dream of visiting all seven continents just feels so big. Setting foot on all of these important landmasses is something that feels a lot bigger than planning a trip here and there.
- Antarctica. Truly, the most exciting part about this goal is the idea of traveling to Antarctica. Spectacular scenery, amazing wildlife, beautiful sights. Antarctica is this significant reminder of just how important it is to be a better global citizen.
- Culinary exploration. We are a family filled with foodies. We are all fairly adventurous eaters. Travel to a diverse list of places allows us to connect with cultures via their food and that’s something we truly love about travel. You can learn so much about people through their food.
- The challenge. This might be a weird thing to say that we love about a goal, but this probably speaks to the people we are. It’s exciting to take on a goal that is as big as this. Most people will likely never make it to 3 or more continents, let alone visit all 7. It’s a huge privilege to be able to do so, and it is also a huge challenge for all the obvious reasons: logistics, timing, funding.
