Bucket List Ideas: 211 Fun, Unique, & Travel Ideas
What is a bucket list and how do you make one for yourself? Explore these bucket list ideas for couples, for travel, and for other fun adventures that can help you get the most out of life.
|
We have such a short time on this earth yet few of us pause to think about how we want to spend that time. That’s why a bucket list—or a list of things you want to do before you die—can really help you live life to the fullest. In this article, we’ll offer lots of different types of bucket lists and ideas. This way, you can discover the activities that best suit you. *This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products. |
- Before getting started, we thought you might be interested in our free well-being quiz.
- And if you’re a well-being entrepreneur, coach, or consultant, check out our free Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips, tools, and resources to grow your wellness business fast.
What Is a Bucket List? (A Definition)
Often, a bucket list includes big dreams, aspirations, travel, and fun things we’d like to experience in our lives. Given that engaging in positive activities is good for our well-being (Catalino, Algoe, & Fredrickson, 2014), checking off things on our bucket list may also be good for our well-being.
Perhaps less often, a bucket list also includes simpler pleasures or less extravagant things we want to do. Both of these types of activities can be helpful for improving our quality of life, creating a routine that we enjoy, and living life to the fullest.
In fact, simple pleasures may be especially beneficial to our well-being since contentment, more than happiness, may be central to what it means to live a fulfilling life (Cordaro, Brackett, Glass, & Anderson, 2016). Plus, many of us may not be able to afford the big-ticket items that show up on many bucket lists. That’s okay, because many of the things that make us truly happy in life—in the longer term—can be done close to home with the people we love.
So, let’s get started exploring bucket list items that can hopefully help you create a more enjoyable, satisfying life.
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?
Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!
✓ Save hundreds of hours of time ✓ Earn more $ faster
✓ Boost your credibility ✓ Deliver high-impact content
Simple Bucket List Ideas
- Graduate high school
- Go to college
- Fall in love
- Get married
- Find a job you love
- Have a fulfilling career
- Have kids
- Buy a house
- Become a grandparent
- Retire
The Travel Bucket List
Probably the next most common thing for people to include on their bucket list is travel. There may be specific things we want to do and travel is required to do them. Or, there may be specific places we want to see or explore. Most of us can think of at least a few places we want to go and things we want to do. But just so you have a bunch more ideas, here are a bunch of travel-related bucket list ideas.
Bucket List Ideas for Travel
- Go on a cruise
- Go on safari
- Celebrate another country’s holiday
- Hike in a rainforest
- See penguins in their natural habitat
- Go to an aquarium
- Swim with jellyfish
- Pan for gold
- Attend a luau
- Sleep on a houseboat
- Sleep in a teepee or yurt
- Stay at a bed and breakfast
- Stay in a resort hotel
- Stay in an underwater hotel
- Stay the night in a treehouse home
- Stay in an ice hotel
- Travel in a train
- See all 7 continents
- Go wine tasting at a vineyard
- Visit a butterfly sanctuary
- See the monarch butterfly migration
- Visit a castle
- Visit all 50 US states
- Walk on a glacier
- See a glass beach
- Swim in a hot spring
- See the northern lights
- See redwood trees
- See an alligator in the wild
- Swim with the dolphins
- Learn how to hula
- Go snorkeling
- Swim with sharks
- Ride horses on the beach
- Attend the Olympics
- Visit an elephant sanctuary
- Take a hot air balloon ride
- Live in a foreign country
- Go scuba diving
Travel Bucket List Ideas for Specific Locations
- See ancient Mayan ruins
- Drive route 66
- Visit all the national parks in the US
- See New York City
- See the lights of Las Vegas
- Visit the Alamo in Texas
- Visit the 7 wonders of the world
- See the four corners (an intersection of 4 states)
- Drive Highway 1 in California
- Hike the pacific crest trail
- Hike the Appalachian trail
- Shop on Rodeo drive
- Ride an elephant
- Swim under a waterfall
- See the Hollywood walk of fame
- See the pyramids
- See the geysers in New Zealand
- Visit Stonehenge
- See a Broadway musical
- Stand in Times Square
- Go to the playboy mansion
- Go to Disney World
- Visit the white house
- Hike the 58 14ers (mountains exceeding 14,000 feet) in Colorado
- Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans
- See the view from the top of the Empire State Building
- See the Statue of Liberty
- See Mount Rushmore
- See Old Faithful in Yellowstone
- See ice castles in Colorado
- See the Grand Canyon
The Fun Bucket List
The truth is that many of us are restricted by the money in our wallets. Luckily, there are lots of fun bucket list ideas that we can do without traveling across the world. Some of them we might even be able to do from home. Here are some of these bucket list ideas:
Fun Bucket List Ideas
- Learn to play chess
- Run a marathon
- Finish a classic novel
- Set a Guinness world record
- Join a bike rave
- Ride a roller coaster
- Go sky diving
- Go bungee jumping
- Go parasailing
- Take a friendcation (a trip with friends)
- See an episode of a TV show live
- Be in a parade
- Ride a mechanical bull
- Go skinny dipping at night
- See your favorite band in concert
- Go kayaking
- Go white water rafting
- Go ziplining
- Go hang gliding
- Ride an ATV
- Ride a motorcycle
- Learn how to skateboard
The Career-Related Bucket List
In addition to doing fun things, we probably also have some things we want to accomplish before we die. Maybe we want to get to a certain level in our career or make a certain amount of money. Check out these career bucket list ideas to see if any of these seem like a good fit for you.
Career-Related Bucket List Ideas
- Make a video that goes viral
- Become an expert in your field
- Mentor someone
- Master a new work-related skill
- Speak at a conference or event
- Start a purpose-driven business
- Start a side hustle
- Pursue your passion
- Lead a major project
- Write a book
- Get certified as a life coach
- Teach a workshop
- Take a job in another country
- Write a screenplay
- Send your kids to college
- Pay off all your debt
- Become a philanthropist
- Buy your own home and pay off the mortgage
- Go back to school for your Master’s or PhD
- Start a scholarship fund in your name
- Become a millionaire
- Achieve financial independence
- Retire early
- Strive for ‘FIRE’ (Financial Independence & Retire Early)
- Quit your job and do something you love for a year
The Unique Bucket List
Unique Bucket List Ideas
- Support a cause that’s important to you through donations or volunteering
- Paint a painting
- Go green and reduce your footprint to 0
- Regenerate 1 acre of soil to help reduce climate change
- Host a natural disaster refugee
- Do a week-long digital detox
- Go vegetarian for one month
- Go vegan for one month
- Meditate every day
- Dye your hair a crazy color
- Get a tattoo
- Get a six-pack
- Become a black belt in karate
- Reach your goal weight
- Get good at a new type of exercise such as spelunking, tai chi, or barre classes
- Try reiki
- Try acupuncture
- Conquer a lifelong fear
- Read 10 classic novels
- Become fluent in a new language
- Learn how to code
- Ride an e-bike
- Become an expert ax thrower
- Get a job in a different field
- Knit a sweater
- Learn how to snowboard
- Learn how to ski
- Learn how to surf
- Go horseback riding
- Climb a mountain
- Grow a massive garden
- Learn how to play an instrument
- Learn how to drive a stick shift
- Go on a blind date
- Be on TV
- Eat at a Michelin star restaurant
- Go to a gala or ball
- Ride in a limo
- Volunteer at the local animal shelter
- Build your dream home
- Build a tiny house
- Eat strange foods (like edible bugs or tropical fruits)
Video: 100 People Tell Us What’s On Their Bucket List
The Couples’ Bucket List
Although we each have our own bucket list, we might also have a bucket list with our romantic partner. Or, we might have a list of bucket list ideas that we want to do with our romantic partner. This list may include things like travel and the activities that are listed above, but it might also include big life steps that are taken together. Here are some couples’ bucket list ideas to explore.
Bucket List Ideas for Couples
- Say, “I love you” and hear it back
- Do couples yoga
- Take your partner on their dream vacation
- Buy your partner something they’ve been wanting for a long time
- Get a couples massage for the two of you
- Buy a house together
- Have a kid together
- Adopt a kid
- Host a foreign exchange student
- Start a new tradition together
- Write a love letter to your partner
- Find a way to help your partner make their biggest dreams come true
- Go on a double date
- Visit each other’s hometowns
- Go on a picnic
- Go on cruise
- Join the mile high club
- Take up a new hobby together
- Learn each other’s love language
- Volunteer together
- Practice random acts of kindness together
- Dress up in a couples costume for Halloween
- Learn to dance together
- Take a class together
- Go skinny dipping together
- Do a tandem bike ride
- Watch a meteor shower together
- Retire together somewhere nice
- Strengthen your unconditional love
- Improve your communication skills together
More Bucket List Ideas
- Be content with the present moment
- Cultivate presence
- Regularly think of the things you’re thankful for
- Enjoy all your experiences
- Savor every moment
- Be thankful for the experiences you have
- Don’t worry so much about the future
- Accept yourself and your current circumstances
Bucket List Ideas PDF & Word Doc
Want to print these bucket list ideas? Grab the PDF or word doc below.
| bucket-list-ideas-pdf.pdf |
| bucket-list-ideas.docx |
My Bucket List
Here is the bucket list I created using this article:
- Get my PhD ✓
- Start my own business ✓
- Experience true love ✓
- Do as many fun activities with the people I love as I can (it doesn’t really matter what the activities are)
- Go with my husband to some of the best beaches in the world
- Take one friendcation every year
- Climb a 14er mountain
- Buy a house with my husband
- Live in a foreign country for a year
- Grow my business into a million-dollar business
- Achieve financial independence
- Retire early
- Enjoy all of my experiences, no matter how small (in progress 🙂 )
Video: How to Make a Bucket List
More Articles Related to Bucket List Ideas
Products & Books Related to Bucket List Ideas
Final Thoughts on Bucket Lists
Making a bucket list is a fun way to clarify which activities and experiences you think will bring you joy and life satisfaction. As long as you don’t get too caught up in feeling like you have to do them all, this list can help serve as a road map for creating a life you love.
Don’t Forget to Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!
References
- Catalino, L. I., Algoe, S. B., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2014). Prioritizing positivity: An effective approach to pursuing happiness?. Emotion, 14(6), 1155.
- Cordaro, D. T., Brackett, M., Glass, L., & Anderson, C. L. (2016). Contentment: Perceived completeness across cultures and traditions. Review of General Psychology, 20(3), 221-235.
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?
Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to Grow Your Wellness Business Fast!
