Guided by Whale · 253+ ideas
Curated from real bucket lists of presidents, athletes, and icons.
Bucket list ideas worth doing before you die
Curated from the verified bucket lists of presidents, athletes, billionaires, and icons — then expanded to cover every kind of life well-lived.
Travel
25 ideas
See the Northern Lights in Iceland or Norway
Walk the Camino de Santiago (800km across Spain)
Safari in the Serengeti at sunrise
Visit all seven wonders of the world
See the cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan
Drive Route 66 end to end across America
Spend a week in Antarctica
Swim in the Dead Sea
Watch the sunrise from Machu Picchu, Peru
Take the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia
Sail the Greek Islands for a week
See the Great Barrier Reef
Visit the Taj Mahal at dawn
Explore the Amazon rainforest
See the midnight sun in Scandinavia
Visit every continent
Road trip across New Zealand
See the Pyramids of Giza
Trek to Everest Base Camp
Visit the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Ride the Orient Express
Visit all 50 US states
See the tulip fields in the Netherlands
Hike through Patagonia
Experience Carnival in Rio de Janeiro
Famous people who checked travel off their list
Adventure
25 ideas
Skydive from 15,000 feet
Bungee jump off a bridge
Climb a mountain over 4,000 metres
Surf a wave over 10 feet
Swim with humpback whales
Run with the bulls in Pamplona
White water raft a Class V river
Hike the Appalachian Trail end to end
Dive the Blue Hole in Belize
Sleep under the stars in the Sahara
Paraglide over the Swiss Alps
Cage dive with great white sharks
Climb El Capitan in Yosemite
Ride a motorcycle across a country
Hike the Pacific Crest Trail
Go on a polar expedition
Zipline through a rainforest canopy
Learn to free solo climb
Drive a racecar at full speed
Go canyoneering
Trek across Iceland
Kayak the Grand Canyon
Dog sled in Alaska
Free dive to 20 metres
Summit a volcano
Famous people who checked adventure off their list
Creative
24 ideas
Write and finish a novel
Learn to play a musical instrument
Paint something you're proud to hang on a wall
Record a song and release it
Perform on a stage in front of a crowd
Learn a new language to conversational fluency
Design and build something with your hands
Take a photograph that stops people in their tracks
Write your memoir
Learn calligraphy
Create a short film
Take a pottery class and make a finished piece
Learn watercolour painting
Design and make your own clothes
Build a piece of furniture from scratch
Start a podcast
Perform stand-up comedy
Choreograph and perform a dance
Compose an original piece of music
Illustrate a children's book
Throw a kiln-fired ceramic pot
Learn to draw portraits
Write and perform spoken word poetry
Publish an article in a magazine
Famous people who checked creative off their list
Achievement
25 ideas
Learn to fly a plane
Start and grow a business
Earn a black belt in a martial art
Become fluent in a second language
Read 52 books in a year
Become completely debt-free
Learn to code and ship an app
Climb the corporate ladder to a role you dreamed of
Compete in a national championship
Earn a postgraduate degree
Master a complex card trick
Memorise a long poem or speech
Build an investment portfolio
Complete a Tough Mudder
Become a certified scuba diver
Get a pilot's licence
Compete in an obstacle course race
Solve a Rubik's cube in under a minute
Give a TED talk
Build something that reaches a million people
Become a recognised expert in your field
Learn a second discipline deeply
Patent an invention
Win a competition you genuinely trained for
Get featured in a major publication
Famous people who checked achievement off their list
Relationships
30 ideas
Volunteer abroad for at least a month
Reconnect with someone you've lost touch with
Host a dinner party for 20+ people
Make a close friend in another country
Mentor someone just starting out in your field
Attend a world-class sporting event live
Tell the most important people in your life why they matter
Throw a surprise party that genuinely surprises someone
Join a community choir or theatre group
Take a road trip with your best friends
Write heartfelt letters to 10 people who changed your life
Spend a week with your grandparents or elders
Host a family reunion
Learn someone's language to have a conversation with them
Attend a multi-day music festival
Do a group charity challenge with friends
Organise a neighbourhood event
Get married or celebrate a long-term partnership
Spend a month living with a foreign family
Teach a skill you're good at to a group of strangers
Have a meaningful conversation with a complete stranger every week for a year
Co-write something with a friend
Show up for someone in a crisis without being asked
Celebrate someone else's milestone as if it were your own
Ask forgiveness from someone you hurt
Forgive someone who hurt you
Have one real conversation with a grandparent before it is too late
Repair a relationship you damaged
Write a letter to someone who changed your life and send it
Spend a week with each of your parents while they are well enough to travel
Famous people who checked relationships off their list
Contribution
25 ideas
Plant 1,000 trees
Fund a child's education for a year
Build something that outlasts you
Raise money for a cause you deeply believe in
Donate anonymously and tell no one
Start a scholarship fund
Build a school or library in an underserved community
Volunteer at a hospital for a year
Teach English in a developing country
Adopt or foster a child
Donate a kidney or be a living donor
Leave a legacy gift to a charity in your will
Start a foundation
Clean up a beach or river in your community
Create a free resource that helps thousands of people
Advocate for a policy change you believe in
Feed a hundred families
Sponsor a refugee family
Run for local office
Start a community garden
Write a book that changes someone's life
Give blood 50 times in your life
Reduce your carbon footprint to near zero
Build homes with Habitat for Humanity
Leave a place cleaner and more hopeful than you found it
Famous people who checked contribution off their list
Food & Culinary
24 ideas
Eat street food in Bangkok
Bake sourdough weekly for a year
Forage for wild mushrooms
Make cheese from scratch
Eat at a 3-star Michelin restaurant
Brew your own beer or wine
Grow something you can eat from seed to plate
Create a family cookbook with old recipes
Eat a meal cooked by a grandmother in her home
Master one dish so well you could teach it
Roast your own coffee beans
Preserve a season: jam, pickle, ferment
Eat at the source: coffee in Ethiopia, tea in Japan, chocolate in Ecuador
Cook a whole animal from nose to tail
Make pasta from scratch
Eat something you foraged or caught yourself
Take a cooking class in the country the cuisine is from
Bake a wedding cake for someone you love
Learn to butcher a whole fish
Ferment something for the first time
Eat a 12-course tasting menu
Make your own condiments from scratch
Cook a meal over an open fire
Eat your way through a country one market at a time
Health & Vitality
25 ideas
Run a marathon
Complete a triathlon
Complete a 100-mile ultramarathon
Qualify for the Boston Marathon
Complete an Ironman triathlon
Break a personal athletic record
Do 100 push-ups in a row
Do a polar bear plunge
Walk 10,000 steps a day for a month
Hike weekly for a year
Sleep 8 hours a night for 30 days
Cycle coast to coast
Take a cold plunge every morning for a month
Get a full health checkup including bloodwork
Do a 30-day yoga challenge
Learn to cook 10 healthy meals from scratch
Swim a mile without stopping
Walk a long-distance trail over 100km
Do your first pull-up
Run your first 5K
Climb your first mountain
Spend a year strength training
Learn to meditate for 20 minutes straight
Fast for 24 hours at least once
Get your hearing and vision checked
Mindfulness
25 ideas
Do a 10-day silent meditation retreat
Spend a week fully off-grid
Watch a sunrise and a sunset in the same day
Meditate every day for 365 days
Do a solo camping trip with no phone
Take a tea ceremony class
Spend a day in complete silence
Watch a meteor shower from a dark sky location
Sit with a dying person and just be present
Do a digital detox for a full week
Practice ichigo ichie: treat one ordinary day as unrepeatable
Walk a labyrinth or pilgrimage slowly
Spend a night alone in the wilderness
Learn to identify 10 bird species by song
Spend an hour watching a single tree
Take a slow travel trip: one town, one week, no plan
Spend a week in a monastery or retreat centre
Learn to sit with discomfort without reaching for your phone
Watch a storm roll in from start to finish
Spend a full day with no screens
Take a forest bathing walk
Create a morning ritual you keep for a year
Spend a night stargazing with no agenda
Do a walking meditation every morning for a month
Spend an afternoon doing one thing at a time
Reflection
25 ideas
Record your parents life stories
Write your ethical will: values, lessons, what you want passed down
Keep a journal for a full year
Keep a journal for a decade
Write a letter to your younger self
Write a letter to your future self and read it in 10 years
Change your mind publicly on something important
Do a structured life review: decade by decade
Create a photo book of one year of your life
Write the story of how you became who you are
Record a conversation with an elder and preserve it
Write down everything you know about your family history
Spend a day reviewing every job, relationship, and home you have had
Write your obituary the way you would want it read
Make a list of 100 things you are grateful for
Re-read a book that changed your life and see what you notice now
Write a letter to someone you have not forgiven and then decide whether to send it
Write a manifesto for how you want to live
Spend a birthday alone reflecting on the past year
Write down your core values and check them against how you actually spend your time
Create a personal annual report
Write a forgiveness letter to yourself
Spend a day visiting places that shaped you
Write the speech you would give at your own retirement
Make a timeline of the five most important moments of your life
Found something that speaks to you?
Whale tracks your bucket list, shows your personality archetype, and matches you to the famous person whose ambitions look most like yours.