Andy Richardson: Live a little and enjoy travel treasures

Turtles don't like swimming with humans. But I swam with one somewhere off the Galapagos and again in the Maldives.

First class flights to New Zealand where the cabin crew serve champers and scallops don't happen every day – but when they do, you just have to lie back, think of England and enjoy the ride. Hell. It's never been more enjoyable to go around the world in 80 days. Or, in today's case, 800 words.

Travel is life's way of reminding us that we can be our better selves. It's the cue to be bigger, brighter, happier and more alive.

It's the indication that we live our lives to their full potential; rather than cower timidly in a half life, never being brave enough or bold enough to do the things we want to do. Travel rocks. Travel makes us happy. It's as simple as that.

When it comes to travel, I'm from the school of Let's Just Do It. If Iceland is top of your to-do list, book a flight now to Reykjavik. They only cost 26 quid and if you don't go you'll never see the Northern Lights, the rotating Perlan glass dome that offers sweeping views of the sea and hills or the magical geology that creates a dramatic landscape of geothermal Blue Lagoon spas and volcanoes. So go online and book a flight. Do it. Be happy. Live a little. That's what travel's all about.

I've got a bunch of go-to memories when I consider my favourite holidays. A road trip at the age of 22 was booked as a pick-me-up after a disastrous relationship. I walked past the British Airways shop in Birmingham, saw the adverts for cheap flights to San Francisco and within 10 minutes my seat was booked. It was heaven.

I hired a car, drove along Route One and marvelled at the beauty of one of the world's best coastlines. I slept in the back of the car when I was too tired to drive anymore – you can do that at 22, without cricking your neck – and on other nights I stayed in motels or with people I met along the way.

It was a Hey Jack Kerouac trip in which I marvelled at the insanely beautiful Death Valley – my favourite place on earth – and saw first hand some of the geological features I'd learnt about at school. Who knew alluvial fans could be so spectacular?

I drove out to the Grand Canyon and realised what people meant when they'd told me: "Nothing will ever prepare you for it. . ." They were right. Photographs can't capture the majesty or enormity of one of the world's truly wondrous sights.

On another occasion, I flew to Bangkok and got a train to Malaysia. I ended up on beaches with people from around the world, roomed with a couple of German girls, who in an instant, felt like lifelong friends. Thrown together by circumstances, my new-found companions became family-on-the-road.

And so it goes. On other trips, I've met people who've fascinated me and with whom I've kept in touch with long after memories of the Brandenburg Gate or Niagara Falls have faded. Travel is one of life's most enriching and captivating experiences.

Seeing new sights is always pleasurable, but an even greater joy is learning how other people live. And, in doing so, we realise more than ever that we have more similarities than differences, that we are alike beneath it all, that the way we speak or the colour of our skin really doesn't make a difference.

I reckon I've visited about a quarter of the world's countries, which means there's still three quarters to get around to. There are volcanoes to see in Iceland, Antoni Gaudi's fantastical Sagrada Família church in Barcelona. There's a barbecue to be had on Bondi Beach and photographs to take of the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio.

There are tacos to eat in Tijuana, a beach to lie on in Mauritius and red kites to admire off the coast of mid west Wales. And before I forget them, there's the Borobudur at sunrise in Java, a murmaration of starlings to enjoy off Brighton Pier and a star-filled sky to marvel at in New Zealand.

Travel makes the world more vibrant and colourful than we imagine it can be. Travel gives us the chance to live out our dreams. And, if we're homebirds at heart, travel provides us with life's simple pleasures, like feasting on fish and chips at Rick Stein's café in Padstow.

So as the calendar clicks round to June, it's time to stop waffling and start travelling. Itteirasshai, as they say in Japan.