You know that you want to get away for a week or two for an exotic, fascinating, and relaxing holiday, but with the whole world at your feet, it can be difficult to narrow down exactly where you want to go. You may think that you want to go for a quick getaway to nearby France, but do you go to Paris, to Lille in the north, to the mountains, or perhaps down south to the Azure Coast?
Or maybe you’ve always wanted to try Chinese food in the country itself. Again, what areas do you go to, where’s the best place for authentic Chinese dishes, and what else would you want to do in these destinations? So, let’s get a bit creative with finding inspiration in entertaining ways. With these ways of getting inspired for your next trip, you’ll home in on a more exact location and won’t need to spend hours doom-scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest!
Finding holiday inspiration in entertainment media
Entertainment media spans a huge range of mediums, genres, and themes these days, but here, we’re narrowing the search down to two. First up is the classic: movies, but not just the American, British or Australian titles which mostly dominate our box office. Instead, look much further afield, still using the big screen as inspiration.
One of the surprise hits of 2023 was Japan’s latest rendition of its famed kaiju in Godzilla Minus One. A superb film, it turns out that the UK was one of the biggest contributors to its worldwide box office haul of $104 million outside of Japan and the US. Godzilla Minus One sees the great monster make landfall in Ginza, which is now a stunning shopping and entertainment district in Chūō, Tokyo that closes traffic on the main street during the day on weekends.
The second way to explore ideas for places quickly is in the much more recent addition to entertainment. With thousands of games ranging across themes from all over the world, you could take inspiration for your next holiday from a betting site. A game like Sword of Khans might have you wanting to explore the origins of the Mongol Empire in the Khentii Province of Mongolia. Or, maybe, Razor Returns will have you itching to go see the great white sharks breach to catch the seals off of the coast of Cape Town in South Africa. Inspiration can come from anywhere in entertainment!
Inspired by the ancient cultures underlying the modern nation
A great way to learn about an ancient culture and how it viewed the world is through mythology. Myths and folk tales can be incredibly creative and enticing. You could read up on the tales of great warriors from little villages or spooky beings in the forest and then go to those places yourself. Right now, there isn’t a better mythology book series than Thames & Hudson’s Myths.
The series now encompasses Japanese, Chinese, Norse, Greek and Roman, Celtic, and Egyptian stories. Soon, the Aztec Myths book will be released, which might just inspire you to Mexico City, which was built atop the old Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, to enjoy the Night of the Radish annual festival. Regardless of which one you pick up, you’re bound to find a fantastic place, deity, or artefact in the book to want to find in the real world. You can then base your holiday around that location.
Let your throw decide where you go
The final entertaining way to get inspired for a trip around the world is with a classic British game. Simply, you let your arm decide by throwing darts at a special world map dart board. There are loads of them at Zazzle, and there are many different games that you can play to ultimately decide where to go. You could just throw three darts and pick from the three places on the map where the darts land. That’s the easiest way.
Alternatively, to try to mix in a bit more randomness, you could play a game of 301 or 501 with someone else. Whichever double the winner finishes on decides the slice of the board that you can shoot for. You then get three darts at the board, and whichever ones hit land in that slice, you then pick from and go to. This method could even see you ticking off some of the more niche activities on the 100 Things to Do Before You Die list.
Add some fun and a dose of mystery to surprise to where you’ll be off to next by exploring modern entertainment, reading up on fascinating mythologies, or just throwing some darts at a map!