Bucket List Ideas
Big trips, bold days outside, new skills and good deeds, one idea per card, to save now and tick off over the years.
- Time
- 10–30 min
- Players
- One or more people
- Best for
- New Year plans, birthdays and picnics with friends
- Deck
- 150 ideas in 6 categories
How to use these bucket list ideas
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the idea on the top card. If it is something you want to do someday, add it to your list.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next idea”, for another. Ideas do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save an idea on this device, or tap “Make a 10-idea list” to copy your bucket list and keep it somewhere you will see it.
When to make a bucket list
A bucket list turns “someday” into a short list of things you chose on purpose. Drawing one card at a time keeps it light, so the list grows over a picnic or a slow evening instead of a planning session.
Your birthday
Heart one idea from each category and pick the one to finish before the next birthday, whether it is a flying lesson, a quilt or a lobster roll in Maine.
A picnic with friends
Pass the phone around the blanket and see who hearts the tandem skydive and who hearts the tower of cream puffs. Plan the first shared idea before the food runs out.
The first week of January
Travel, Learn something and Giving back give the year a shape: one trip to save for, one skill to practice and one volunteer morning on the calendar.
Ways to build your bucket list
Three for this year
At the start of a year, draw from every category and heart whatever pulls at you. Then choose three: one you can do this month, one that needs a season of saving or practice, and one big trip. Put a date on the first before you close the page.
A shared list with friends
Pass the phone around the table and let each friend heart two ideas they would actually do with the rest of you. Tap “Make a 10-idea list”, paste it into the group chat, and plan the first one together before anyone goes home.
One near, one far
Big trips can take years to happen, so balance them. For every Travel card you save, save one from Learn something or Giving back that you could start close to home next weekend, like a blacksmithing class or a Saturday on a trail crew.
Tips for a bucket list you actually work through
- Write the first small step next to each idea: book the lesson, look up the best month, ask a friend to come. An idea with a first step is much easier to start.
- Check the season before you plan. Cherry blossoms, sea turtle nesting and bears fishing for salmon in Alaska each happen in a short window, so the date matters as much as the place.
- For a tandem skydive, a bungee jump or a via ferrata, choose a licensed, well-reviewed operator and follow every instruction the crew gives you.
All 150 bucket list ideas by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
Travel
Famous sights, far-off cities and long drives, from the Grand Canyon to the canals of Venice.
- Set foot in all fifty states and color each one in on a paper map as you go.
- Watch the sun come up over the Grand Canyon from the South Rim.
- Stand at the Four Corners Monument, touching Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah at once.
- Stay a month in one city abroad and live like a local, with a favorite bakery by week two.
- Take a trip completely on your own and choose every meal and every turn yourself.
- Ride a boat into the roaring mist at the foot of Niagara Falls.
- Dip your toes in the Atlantic and the Pacific in the same year.
- See cherry blossoms in full bloom, in Kyoto or around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.
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- Drive old Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica and stop for every neon sign.
- Stand in front of the pyramids of Giza and feel how small you are.
- Spend a whole day inside one of the great art museums, like the Louvre in Paris.
- See elephants in the wild on a guided safari in Africa.
- Drive the full Ring Road around Iceland, stopping at every waterfall that catches your eye.
- Stand with one foot on each side of the equator.
- Watch Old Faithful erupt in Yellowstone, then walk the boardwalks past the steaming hot springs.
- Walk a quiet stretch of the Great Wall of China, away from the busiest gates.
- Explore the ruins of Machu Picchu, high in the mountains of Peru.
- Walk across a border from one country into the next.
- Hop between Greek islands by ferry and pick the next island each morning.
- Spin a globe, stop it with one finger and plan a trip to the nearest country.
- Ride a gondola along the canals of Venice.
- Spend New Year’s Eve in another country and see how they count down there.
- Ride a double-decker bus around London from the front row of the top deck.
- Drive the coast highway through Big Sur in California with every window down.
- Ride the cable car up Table Mountain in Cape Town and look down over the whole city.
Outdoor adventures
Big days outside with a guide or a good map: glaciers, tall ships, slot canyons and a tandem skydive.
- Do a tandem skydive, strapped to a licensed instructor who does the hard part while you take in the view.
- Try a bungee jump at a professionally run site, and buy the video afterward.
- Fly a tandem paraglider off a green hillside with a pilot steering behind you.
- Get scuba certified and make your first dive in open water.
- Walk on a glacier with a guide, crampons strapped to your boots.
- Climb one of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks by one of its easier, well-marked routes.
- Ride a camel into the desert and stay to watch the stars come out over the dunes.
- Take a multi-day canoe trip, carrying the canoe between lakes on the portages.
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- See an active volcano up close from a marked viewing area in a national park.
- Sea kayak along a rocky coast with a guide and watch for seals on the rocks.
- Watch a rocket launch from a public viewing spot on Florida’s Space Coast.
- Watch a herd of bison graze across the prairie in Badlands National Park.
- Run a half marathon at whatever pace gets you across the finish line.
- Climb a via ferrata with a guide, clipped to steel cables along a cliff face.
- Float without even trying in the salty water of the Great Salt Lake.
- Hike between mountain huts in the Alps, sleeping in a different hut each night.
- Watch brown bears catch salmon from a viewing platform in Alaska.
- Hike through a narrow slot canyon on a guided tour, with orange walls glowing overhead.
- Sail on a tall ship and help the crew haul the lines.
- Spot a moose in the wild, from a safe distance, through binoculars.
- Stand at the foot of a giant sequoia and try to see all the way to its top.
- Swim in all five Great Lakes, one summer at a time if you need to.
- Visit ten national parks and take a photo at each entrance sign.
- Take a helicopter ride over a canyon or a glacier.
- Walk the trail that passes behind a waterfall and feel the spray from the other side.
Learn something
Skills worth the practice, like a flying lesson, blacksmithing, bridge and driving a stick shift.
- Master a manual gearbox until you can pull away on a steep hill without rolling back.
- Take an introductory flying lesson and hold the controls of a small plane.
- Build a simple website from scratch and put it online for anyone to visit.
- Enter a local chess tournament and play every round to the end.
- Take singing lessons and sing one song all the way through for friends.
- Learn five useful knots, like the bowline and the clove hitch, and tie each one without looking.
- Change a flat tire on your own car, from loosening the lug nuts to stowing the jack.
- Find Saturn in a telescope and see its rings with your own eyes.
Show all 25 in Learn somethingShow fewer
- Turn a wooden bowl on a lathe at a beginner woodworking class.
- Forge a simple iron hook at a beginner blacksmithing class.
- Learn to play tennis well enough to keep a rally going for ten shots.
- Learn to solve a twisty puzzle cube from any scramble.
- Learn three card tricks and perform them for friends after dinner.
- Learn to fly a camera drone and film your town from above, where the rules allow it.
- Audit a college course just for the joy of learning, with no grades involved.
- Learn to play bridge and join a weekly game.
- Give a five-minute talk about something you love at a library or a club night.
- Memorize a long poem and recite it from start to finish without a slip.
- Keep bees for a season and taste honey from your own hive.
- Learn to play the harmonica well enough to play a tune around a campfire.
- Learn to row a single scull at a rowing club and glide the length of the river.
- Hold a ten-minute conversation with a native speaker in a language you studied from scratch.
- Read every novel on one well-known list of great books, in any order you like.
- Learn to play a full round of golf and keep your own score.
- Take apart a small engine, like a lawn mower’s, and put it back together so it runs.
Food
Dishes to taste where they come from and big kitchen projects, from croissants to kimchi.
- Book a tasting menu with more courses than you can count on two hands.
- Eat a Neapolitan pizza in Naples, straight from a wood-fired oven.
- Eat a lobster roll at a seafood shack on the coast of Maine.
- Make croissants from scratch, folding the butter in layer after layer.
- Make fresh mozzarella at home and eat it while it is still warm.
- Try ten fruits you have never eaten, like rambutan, mangosteen and durian.
- Cook a whole holiday dinner for a crowd, with every dish made by you.
- Pick strawberries in a field in June and make jam the same afternoon.
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- Learn to roll sushi and make a big platter to share with friends.
- Eat tacos from a street stand in Mexico City.
- Have dim sum on a weekend morning, pointing at dishes as the carts roll past.
- Bake and decorate a three-tier cake for a friend’s celebration.
- Cook a whole meal over a campfire, from the main course to dessert.
- Churn ice cream in an old-fashioned hand-crank machine on a hot afternoon.
- Taste olive oil fresh from the press during an olive harvest.
- Cook your way through one cookbook, a recipe a week, until you reach the last page.
- Press and cook fresh corn tortillas from masa dough.
- Try barbecue in Texas, Kansas City, Memphis and the Carolinas, and crown a favorite.
- Make chocolate from roasted cacao beans at a bean-to-bar workshop.
- Have a full afternoon tea, with scones, clotted cream and tiny sandwiches.
- Make your own hot sauce and give bottles of it to friends.
- Ferment a jar of kimchi and taste it every few days as it changes.
- Bake a pie with a woven lattice crust, all from scratch.
- Build a tower of cream puffs held together with threads of spun sugar.
- Graze your way through a famous food market, like La Boqueria in Barcelona.
Creative projects
Things to make and share, like a novel draft, a quilt, a short film or a song of your own.
- Write a full draft of a novel in one month, messy parts and all.
- Knit a sweater that fits, sleeves and all.
- Write a song and record it, even if the studio is your closet.
- Print a small book of your own photos or stories and hold the finished copy.
- Audition for a community theater play and take whatever part you are offered.
- Sew a quilt from start to finish, cutting every square yourself.
- Make a short film with friends, from the script to a premiere night in the living room.
- Enter a photo in a local contest or at the county fair.
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- Fill a sketchbook from cover to cover in a single year.
- Record ten episodes of a podcast about something you could talk about for hours.
- Make a stained glass sun catcher at a beginner workshop.
- Build a ship in a bottle.
- Perform at an open mic night with a song, a poem or five minutes of stand-up.
- Whittle a wooden spoon and use it to stir your soup.
- Shape a bonsai tree and keep it thriving for a whole year.
- Cover an old tabletop in a mosaic of broken tiles.
- Screen-print a T-shirt with a design you drew yourself.
- Build a sealed terrarium in a glass jar that waters itself.
- Write down twenty stories from your own life in one notebook.
- Weave a scarf on a full-size floor loom.
- Paint a portrait of a friend and give it to them.
- Make a one-minute stop-motion film with clay figures.
- Design your own board game and play it with friends until the rules feel fair.
- Get one of your pieces hung in a local art show or café.
- Make a silver ring at a beginner jewelry workshop.
Giving back
Ways to help your town and the wild places nearby, from a trail crew to a repair café.
- Pay for the coffee of the person behind you in line, just because.
- Spend a season as a volunteer campground host in a state or national park.
- Spend a Saturday on a trail crew, clearing brush and fixing steps on a hiking path.
- Join a community bird count and send in your tally for the scientists.
- Volunteer as an usher at a community theater and watch the show for free.
- Hand out water at a marathon aid station and cheer for every runner.
- Adopt a public flower bed in your town and keep it blooming all summer.
- Organize a block party so the neighbors on your street finally meet.
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- Start a tool-lending shelf for your street, with a sign-out sheet on a clipboard.
- Sort and price books for a library’s used book sale.
- Volunteer at a repair café, fixing lamps and toasters for your neighbors.
- Train as a volunteer guide at a museum and lead your first tour.
- Fill a community fridge with homemade meals and fresh fruit.
- Spend a morning a month helping out at a farm animal sanctuary.
- Join a dawn sea turtle nest patrol on a beach where turtles lay their eggs.
- Foster dogs for a local rescue and send each one off to its new home with a goodbye bandana.
- Coach or referee an adult rec league for a whole season.
- Organize a bake sale for a local cause and sell out of everything.
- Become a pen pal with someone in another country and write for a full year.
- Help adults practice their English at a library conversation group.
- Build bluebird nest boxes and put them up along a park trail, with permission.
- Sew or knit blankets for the cats and dogs at a local animal shelter.
- Spend a weekend helping restore a historic building, like an old barn or a train depot.
- Record the stories of longtime residents for your town’s historical society.
- Volunteer one morning a week at a botanical garden.
Frequently asked questions
How many bucket list ideas are there?
There are 150 ideas, 25 in each of six categories: travel, outdoor adventures, learn something, food, creative projects and giving back. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Is there a bucket list for couples?
Yes. The couples bucket list is written for two people to plan and do together. The ideas on this page work for anyone, on your own or with friends, and they are different from the couples ideas.
Are there bucket lists for one season?
Yes. The fall bucket list and the winter bucket list hold smaller ideas tied to one time of year, things you can finish in a weekend before the weather turns. The ideas on this page are the bigger, someday kind.
What should we do after making a bucket list?
Try things to do when bored for something you can start today. Those ideas are small and nearly free, so they fill the time between the big items on this list.