<span>Ever since I turned 24 – the year the first of my school friends got married – my choice of holiday destinations has </span><span>been dictated largely by weddings. Also in the mix are hen dos, milestone birthdays and landmark anniversaries. Oh, and let's not forget Christmas. </span> <span>I've come to realise that far too much of my annual leave has been spent in the UK, where I'm </span><span>from originally, and not enough has gone towards exploring the rest of this planet. Wh</span><span>ile other UAE residents find living in this international travel hub a good enough reason to head off to far-flung lands at the drop of a hat, I spend most of the year planning my trips home to England with military precision, so that </span><span>my fiance and I can </span><span>try to squeeze a European jaunt in between visits to relatives and old friends (</span><span>he would scoff at this last part, because he actually does all the planning). </span> <span>At the very least, I settle </span><span>for a trip to an English town or city I've never been to before. This summer I'm counting on Bristol to fulfil my traveller's itch; straight after a wedding in the Yorkshire Dales, and just before my aunt's birthday in Hampshire.</span> <span>While it might sound like I'm complaining about this (I am, but only a little bit), it's actually made choosing my next destination extremely easy. My friends don't all get married in Britain, after all. Nuptials have also taken me to </span><span>Cyprus and </span><span>Thailand. </span> <span>But it's also made me </span><span>complacent when it comes to travelling outside of special-occasion-season. While there are so many places I want to go – and precious little time in which to visit them – when I know I've already got two weddings, one birthday and plans for Christmas on the agenda</span><span>, I end up simply staying put for the rest of the year.</span> <br/> <span>The thing is, when left to my own devices, I'm crippled with indecision. This was a very real concern recently, when I realised there was nothing on the schedule between September and June. I've still not gone anywhere – and there are only a few weeks left until the next wedding (it is in Sweden...</span><span>). Perhaps that's what happens when you already live in a tourist hotspot.</span> <span>I Googled advice, of course</span><span>, but made little progress. Then I </span><span>asked myself: how have I chosen where to go in the past? Mostly at random, it seems. I went to Morocco in 2008 because someone said it </span><span>"sounds cool</span><span>"</span><span>; I went to Dublin once because a friend was going and I decided to gate-crash her trip</span><span>; and I went to New Orleans for my 30th birthday because I love jazz and blues music. </span><span>More often than not, there's no sophistication to my methods of choosing my next holiday spot.</span> <span>One website I came across said: "It's easier to figure out where you're going when you know why you're going there." I'm now on a mission to broaden that vision</span><span> beyond "fear of missing out" when it comes to loved ones' big events</span><span>. I've heard Rwanda's pretty up-and-coming as a travel spot. Kurashiki in Japan looks awesome, too. Also, Emirates </span><span>has </span><span>increased its frequency of flights to Cairo</span><span>.</span> <span>I’ll take any other ideas you have on a postcard, please.</span>