When planning your trip you’ll be deciding where you want to spend the time of your life. It’s important to make decisions about where you want to go based on your own personal choices, what you want to do.

When you’re planning you’ll probably get a list of suggestions from everyone you know about places to go in the world, because either someone told them or they had a great time when they were there. Or else you’ll read travel blogs with top 10 destinations for the modern traveler. But there’s the rub. That’s them, and you are, after all, you.

If you’ve wanted see the Pyramids of Giza since you were little, go to Cairo. If you’ve seen pictures of the Great Barrier Reef and daydreamed about it since then, go to Cairns. There’s no question you’ll have a more gratifying experience in a place of your dreams than some out of the way spot where one of your friends once saw a nice sunset 10 years ago.

Tick off the destinations on your bucket list first, then move to places someone else told you about after. Who cares if people call them touristy. Who cares if they’re on the so-called beaten path. Living out a longstanding dream will be more of a payoff than challenging someone else’s opinion about what is an what isn’t amazing.

After you’ve exhausted your must-sees, move on to your like-to-go’s.