Travel Tag: Turn Every Trip Into an Adventure

Most travelers spend their vacations checking attractions off a list, rushing from one sight to the next to ensure they’ve “seen it all.”

My dad taught me to turn travel into a game.

Whether it’s searching for the best slice of key lime pie, riding every form of transportation at Disney, or hunting down a historical treasure everyone else walks right past without noticing, I love giving every trip a simple mission.

My family calls this “Travel Tag,” and it has completely changed how we plan, experience, and remember every trip.

I’m excited to share our story and show you why Travel Tag works so well. It’s a simple idea but I think it has the potential to turn your next family vacation into a trip you’ll be talking about for years.

The Travel Game that Changed How I See The World

When I was in my early 20s, my dad sent my sister and I on a 4-week backpacking trip through Europe.

We had nothing but our bags, a stack of paper guide books, and a printed list of treasures we had to find hiding in every destination on our itinerary.

Dad made the list himself and dubbed it our “Travel Tag” list.

He recommended an itinerary based on a trip my parents took together a few years earlier. The Travel Tag list was filled with his favorite quirky finds gathered from his own stack of guidebooks. He and my mom hunted down those items together and had so much fun on their trip, he wanted to share that experience with us.

A sampling of items from his original list includes:

1. Stock-im-Eisen: An ancient nail tree hiding in plain sight in Vienna near St. Stephan’s cathedral.
2. Galileo’s Middle Finger: Yes, his finger is on display in the Galileo Museum in Florence.
3. White Sausages (Weißwurst): Lily white sausages served in Germany.

My sister and I accepted the challenge and took it one step farther. We hand-drew a sign that said “TAG” and had our pictures taken at each spot along the way.

This was pre-cell phone, pre-internet, pre-Instagram. My daughters today cannot even imagine the effort it took to wait until we got home to have our physical camera film developed before we could share the fun joke with our dad.

Looking back, I realize now that my dad wasn’t just giving us a scavenger hunt. He was teaching us how to travel.

Finding something is more memorable than simply seeing it.

What is Travel Tag?

Travel Tag is choosing something specific to look for, collect, compare, or discover during a trip.

Instead of simply seeing a destination, you’re giving yourself a mission.

Travel Tag is a willful act of whimsy that brings a whole new layer of joy to your vacation.

Travel Tag Examples

If you’re thinking, “This sounds like a lot of work. I don’t want to research historical oddities to find on my trip,” let me show you some of the various iterations we have played as a family:

• Island Hopping: Instead of a single-beach visit, we drove to every island in the area during a visit to Charleston.
• Key Lime Pie Contest: We ordered key lime pie at every dinner on Hilton Head Island over the course of a week in a search for the ultimate slice thanks to our travel food rule.
• Dolphin Counting: We spent an afternoon at the end of the Folly Beach Pier counting dolphins one year.
• Disney Transportation: We rode every form of transportation offered at Walt Disney World including the monorail, boat rides, and buses.
• Daytrip to Paris: We squeezed in a day trip from London to Paris via the chunnel because my husband revealed he’d dreamed of riding that specific train since he was a little boy.
• Stood on Opposite Sides of the Prime Meridian: We took an epic journey to visit Greenwich during our London trip just so we could stand on opposite hemispheres.

These aren’t all scavenger hunts but they are all versions of the same travel discovery game that my dad instilled in me so many years ago.

Why Travel Tag Works So Well

If you’ve ever wondered how to make your family vacations more memorable, let me tell you why Travel Tag is so effective.

It Makes You Pay Attention

When you treat travel as a scavenger hunt, you are inspired to notice details that most people just stroll past.

You stop to read the historic signs, you look closer at the restaurant menu, you share your observations with your travel companions.

It Creates Better Memories

You may forget the fifth cathedral you see during a European vacation, but you won’t forget the ancient nail tree.

Will you remember what you had for dinner on night 3 of your beach trip? I’m guessing not. But you will remember who ordered the winning slice of key lime pie.

It Gets Everyone Involved

Kids, teens, adults, grandparents: EVERYONE can play.

It was my dad’s idea to do the key lime pie challenge and my kids jumped right in.

My husband didn’t hesitate with his suggestion for the Paris chunnel knowing we’d all get on board because we’ve cultivated a family spirit of adventure.

It Gives the Trip a Story

When people ask what you did on your vacation, you’ll have something so much better to share than:
“We went to Baltimore.”

You’ll be able to say:
“We dressed the kids up as pirates and went on a ride on Blackbeard’s ship. Then we ate blue crab for the first time.”

Everyone sees the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace during a trip to London. But how many people can say they toured Jane Austen’s house?

I can because my dad got up early to drive the hour and half outside of the city to visit just because I was taking a Jane Austen class in college at the time.
FUN FACT: My professor gave me “extra credit” when he heard what happened.

How to Create Your Own Travel Tag Challenge

Your imagination is the limit but to help get you started, you can organize most of our Travel Tag games into these four categories:

1. Hidden Details: This can include historic markers, hidden Mickey’s at Disney, unusual architecture, or even unique door numbers in quaint European villages.
2. Food Challenges: Find the best pizza in Chicago, make a bucket list of all the Southern classics you want to try, drive the BBQ Trail, rate the Jewish delis in New York, find the best cup of tea in London.
3. Transportation Challenges: Ride a historic trolley, take the train, choose the ferry, explore the underground, ride a pirate ship.
4. Collection Challenges: Visit every lighthouse along the coast, photograph every mural and make a collage, visit independent bookstores, stop at every historical fort you pass and take a tour.

For Solo Travelers

1. Find the Independent Bookstores
2. Taste Test All the Local Bakeries
3. Stop at Every Historical Plaque
4. Take a Photo Walk and Collect Your Own “Postcards”

Final Thoughts

All these years later, I don’t remember all the museums and cathedrals we visited during those four weeks in Europe. I couldn’t even accurately list the cities we visited.

But I still remember laughing with my sister when we found the hidden nails and marveling that mom and dad had been in that same spot a few years before.

The trips I remember most aren’t the ones where I saw the most things, they’re the ones where we had something fun to chase after together.

A destination gives you a place to go. A Travel Tag challenge gives you something to look for once you get there.

This is the magic of my dad’s Travel Tag game and it is at the heart of every vacation I’ve ever taken with my family. It turns a trip into a story you’ll still be telling years later and creates core memories you’ll cherish your whole life through.

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