When it comes to planning an extended round-the-world (RTW) trip, you have an awful lot of tough choices facing you. If you decide to blog about the entire venture, your decisions quadruple. Some people fret about where to go, how much money to budget, or whether you really need quick drying underwear. Tony and I… well, I’m not gonna lie, we worry about those things too. But the one thing that has plagued us more than it should is what we would name our blog. Everyone always says that the most important thing to worry about when backpacking RTW is your backpack since you’ll be carrying it with you everywhere and it, more than anything else, can really cause you pain. I say that the name of your travel blog is just as important, if not more, since not only will you likely be putting a lot more of your energies into nurturing it, but it also has the potential to stay with you long after the actual traveling is done and your trusty bag is packed away at the back of your closet awaiting your next adventure. At the rate that technology is changing, it might be foolish to say that a travel blog is forever, but I’m approaching this like I would a tattoo: don’t pick something you’re going to regret when you sober up.
As such, Tony and I tried on a lot of different titles before we settled on Twenty Years Hence, including:
- Sifting Sand
- Global Gadabouts
- Life Unplanned
- Naught Lost
- Just the Trip (this one was mostly a joke, but if that URL hadn’t been taken, we may have gone with it, completely ignoring the aforementioned “tattoo sobriety” rule)
Seriously, we’ve been agonizing about this for months now! Some of you may be thinking that several of those options make a lot more sense for a travel blog than our final choice, but while we liked all of those options in some capacity, none of them felt right. I decided to seek out some quotes about travel to see if we could get inspired and stumbled across this quote by Mark Twain:
“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Suddenly all the pieces fell into place. The myriad reasons why Tony and I have decided to take this trip (in general, as well as why now, specifically) will likely feature in a future post, but the underlying spirit to it is that when we ask ourselves, “In 20 years, what will we regret NOT doing?” the answer to that question is: this trip.
And so, a new way of life, and a blog was finally born.
Though a few of the other names piqued my interest, after reading your quote, I think you picked the perfect one. I can’t wait to follow along with your travels through the blog!
I’m so glad you’ll be along for the ride! And while all the other blog names were solid choices, they didn’t feel quite right. I think the quote really makes the name.
It’s perfect. I love to travel and being able to take a trip like this? Phenomenal. Can’t wait to see all the details.
This trip has been many years in the making so it’s hard to believe it’s nearly to time to go! Suffice it to say that neither of us has traveled for such a long time, so I hope we like the vagabond lifestyle!
That’s perfect! And I can’t wait to read about the adventures!
Sometimes I think how nice it would be to unplug from the world and just travel, but I know that we’ll be happy to report back in the end. I’d miss hearing from all of you far too much to leave you all behind!
I think it’s a great choice Steph! Looking forward to seeing what else comes up here. I’m very excited for you!
You know I had to get a literary quote in there somewhere! Even though I’m excited about our next big adventure, I’m not forgetting my book blogging roots… 😉
I love the name! If I was going to start a new blog I think I’d spend far too long worrying about the name. I didn’t realise how important the name was when I started out and so didn’t give it any thought. Your new blog is off to a very promising start. I look forward to following your travels.
I never thought too much about the name of S&TI!, I just went with a name that put a smile on my face. I guess that’s a good enough reason to pick a name, but now that I know how big blogs can get, I thought something that wasn’t overly whimsical might be more appropriate here. The gift of experience, I suppose.
This is a perfect name for your new blog; with such a powerful quote behind it, it is nothing less than inspiring! I am looking forward to following you two around the world.
I’ve loved viewing your own travel snapshots when you post them so I hope we can return the favor! 🙂
It’s a great name, a great quote. Looking forward to virtually accompany you guys on this trip!
And hopefully we’ll get to meet up in Brussels too, right?!? 😉 I need you to play tourguide since my last trip there was rather traumatic (one word, one horror: bedbugs!).
Great minds think alike? 😀 I just set up a new blog so I can write more about my travels (I’m not sure yet if it’ll just be about travels, still looking for a definite shape), and I even have that 20 years quote on my blog header!
I did not spend that much time on title and design as you (as I’m sure you can see!) and would like to concentrate to just keep writing more content (I wish I could spend more time on the design, as yours is so pretty!). I don’t know yet how far it’s gonna go, so we’ll see.
Definitely look forward to following your adventures! 🙂
That Mark Twain sure had a way with words, didn’t he?
All credit for the design goes to Tony. Ah, the benefits of having a graphic designer for a husband! 😀
Funny! I did the same thing when I was thinking of my blog title… but I wish I had kept on thinking! Oh well.
I think you made a great choice.
Looking forward to following you on your adventure!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! At least “Battered Suitcases” is a very direct name that lets everyone know what you’re all about… Sometimes I worry I’m going to have to put that Mark Twain quote on everything lest people have no idea what we’re all about!
I like your name a lot – sometimes you just have to pick something and run with it. I don’t love ours for a variety of reasons, but we’ve built up the brand now and there’s no turning back…
Yeah, you get to certain point where rebranding just isn’t possible. I suppose so long as you picked the best name you could at the time (and truly, there’s nothing wrong with Inspiring Travelers!), then that’s all you can do!
I like it! Original, poignant (I love that quote), mysterious even (insert twilight zone music here). You won’t regret it, but you already know that… 🙂
We definitely were drawn to the fact that 20 Years Hence had a bit of an abstract, esoteric quality to it. Hopefully it’ll have timeless appeal!
A perfect quote for such the thing that you’re doing! Your blog name is pretty in itself but the meaning gives it that perfection. I’m so excited for you and Tony, Steph! What an amazing experience this is going to be for you. J and I are planning to do this when the children are older, and maybe in bursts, not all at once. I’m excited to follow your exploits! My brother visited Japan a couple years ago and they were able to visit the golden temple from Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. I do hope you get to see it, too. When are you dropping by Toronto?
Now that my brother and I are older, my parents have been doing a lot more traveling, so I am sure you and J will have many wonderful adventures! For Tony and I, this was the perfect time to take this plunge: I’m finishing school and we needed to relocate to a new city anyhow, so instead of settling down immediately and looking for jobs, this was a natural break for us.
I saw the Golden Pavilion many moons ago when I visited Japan and it was awesome. I am excited to see it again now that I will have a professional photographer husband in tow who will be able to really do it justice in photos! 😉
If all goes according to plan, we’ll be up in Toronto for the month of July, perhaps even the tail-end of June! Would be great if we could meet up!
I love the name of your blog, it really resonates with me and has so much depth to it. I had several options for my own blog, but in the end the name came from a conversation with my partner, where he described us as being “Forever further bound”. I am really impressed by your blog so far and am excited to watch it develop. Good luck with everything 🙂
Sometimes a certain combination of words just gets stuck in your head and feels right. I think Further Bound is a great name for your site, and it also has a nice poetry about it. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sounds like you hit on the perfect name. I look forward to hearing all about your upcoming adventures!
Thanks for stopping by, Kathleen. It’s been almost a month now and still now namer’s remorse, so I think we picked a good one! 😉
I am late commenting here, but this is such an inspiring title for your blog and I love the thinking behind it.
Looking forward to vicariously living through your travels.
Btw, love the look of this blog. It looks super professional 🙂
Tony gets all the design credit! He’s very talented, isn’t he? 😉
I’m glad to see our blog name is resonating with so many people. I can’t wait to share our travels with all of you!