If you have set your mind on traveling around the world, you might run into the difficult task of having to make a hard choice: where do you want to go? The multitude of destinations and travel options is great, but it is also something that you might deal with for days or even weeks before you make a decision.

The best thing to do is to create a top ten list of the places that you always wanted to visit. The list may include different countries or even cities in the same country. No matter what you will place as number one in your list you shouldn’t worry about getting there, as the travel industry is huge today and able to send you to your destination. Try to find out as much as possible about the most attractive destinations. Travel literature offers a wide variety of sources for good information. You can either go at a local bookstore or search online for facts about your destination(s).

Try to have a good idea about what you want to do there. Are you going to go white water rafting, hiking, biking, roller skating, scuba diving? Make sure you have the adequate equipment and physical condition to embark on an adventure. Remind yourself that you will, most likely, find yourself on the tourist trail. This may be enough for some, but if you wish to capture hidden aspects of the place you will be visiting you might want to get off the beaten trail. There are good reasons why some places become tourist attractions: there are convenient ways of getting there and interesting things to see. For aspects of your trip that are less touristy you might want to try asking some locals about places known mostly by them and ignored by the visitors. Going around the travel industry offers might get you greater satisfactions than if you had just followed the standards.

Big cities might sound like a good place to visit, but the truth is that most of them are very much alike. Of course, there are exceptions, and you will find cities with a very distinct personality, like Paris, Prague or Istanbul. You might also want to travel without using cabs and go for the means of transportation the locals use: buses, trams and bikes. Walking around, stopping at small, hidden shops or wandering on small, neglected streets should prove a unique experience as well, very different from the loud and flashy city tours.