Wish list trips are available for 2022.

Instead of thinking of travel dreams as bucket-list items (lofty goals to finish before you die), people are making living lists to fulfill while they are very much alive. It’s the carpe diem approach to trip planning (although we may still have to wait for more vaccinations and border openings before we can fully seize the day).  For many travelers, creating those living lists has become much more personal than pre-pandemic trip planning.

Linda Jelencovich, a Travel Leaders Network adviser with Super Travel of Palm Beach Inc., says people are coming to her with a sense of urgency to book trips with friends and family after a year of being apart.

“They feel that their time might be shorter because a lot of people have friends that passed away,” Jelencovich says. “It’s an interesting thing, you become a little bit of a psychologist.” 

Bonnie Lee, president and founder of Travel Quest Network, says travel advisers serving as de facto therapists is not a new phenomenon. However the pandemic has made their counseling role more significant.

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Paulette Darensburg, Protravel International Luxury Travel Consultant, has been organizing trips for people who recently lost loved ones and hopes that spending time with family in a peaceful setting can help bring some peace.

One of those trips is for her 25-year-old client whose husband recently died. Darensburg has been working with her client's daughter to organize a family trip to Turks and Caicos.

“During this planning process, I have been discovering more details about my client and her wonderful husband and her beautiful life as a married couple,” she said in an email Darensburg.

Jelencovich says that beach trips have been a popular request, as have nature-focused destinations like Hawaii, the Galapagos, the Caribbean, Croatia, and national parks. People are also interested in learning more about their heritage and taking tours of their ancestors. As trips pick up, those meaningful life list trips may finally be possible. Airport traffic is increasing, vacation rentals are filling up, and industry experts predict that summer travel prices will continue to climb.

But if you're not ready to travel yet, you can start planning for 2022. Blount McCormick says many of his once-in-a-lifetime travel requests, including cruises around the world, trips to Egypt and African safaris, are for the next year.