The Ultimate Bucket List Ideas: 250+ Things To Do Before You Die
Someone wise once said, “Life doesn’t need to be long; it just needs to be lived fully.” And that’s exactly what these bucket list ideas are for— creating a life worth living.
Now, imagine this: If today were the last day of your life, what would you wish you had done? What moments would you regret not experiencing?
The Bucket list is more than just a collection of things we want to do— It’s a reminder that life isn’t endless and that we should grab hold of moments that truly matter.
Ask yourself: “What matters to you? What moments would make your heart race, your spirit sour, and your soul feel complete?”
Grab your pen and write them all down! Remember, your bucket list doesn’t need to be picture-perfect; it just needs to hold your heart’s content. It doesn’t need to match anyone else’s ideal bucket list, NO!
Your bucket list is a reflection of you—It’s YOUR list, your passion, your dreams, your experiences. For example: It’s not necessary to have “Paris” on your travel bucket list just because everybody talks about it.
That’s why we have got you 250+ unique bucket list ideas—to inspire you with experiences that are as one-of-a-kind as you are. Life is too short for “someday.” Pick a goal, make it happen, and start turning “someday” into today!
What is A Bucket List?
Bucket lists are simple—they are your roadmaps to the moments, adventures, and goals.
What’s great about bucket lists is that it doesn’t have to be just one list. You can break it down into categories that reflect different aspects of your life. For example:
– Self-Reflection Bucket List: It’s about finding yourself, and doing things that touch your very core of existence. It can be as small as starting meditation or as big as adopting Daoism. Self-reflection bucket lists are a journey to the self.
– Travel Bucket lists: Places you want to explore. It can be with your friends, your partner, your family, or solo travel.
– Couple Bucket Lists: Experiences you’d love to share with your partner.
– Career: Milestones you want to hit in your professional life.
Related Articles: How To Set Goals And Achieve Them?
Unique Bucket List Ideas For Adults
1. Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
2. Celebrate Dia de los Muertos in Mexico.
3. Join the tomato-throwing madness at La Tomatin in Spain.
4. Dive into the Blue Hole in Belize.
5. Get drenched at Thailand’s Songkran Festival— where an entire country erupts into the biggest water fight on Earth.
6. Party all night at the Full Moon Party in Thailand
7. Watch thousands of lanterns float into the sky at Yi Peng Festival in Thailand.
8. Ride a motorbike across Vietnam’s Hai Han Pass.
9. Experience the midnight Sun in Norway.
10. Race across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
11. Scream your lungs out at a Red Rocks Amphitheater, Colorado rock concert.
12. Plunge into the devil’s pool at Victoria Falls.
13. Stargaze at the Atacama Desert in Chile
14. Stand in a field of endless tulips in the Netherlands— where waves of red, yellow, and purple stretch as far as the eye can see.
15. Sail through Antarctica’s iceberg-covered waters: Witness silence, the deep blue of the sea, and stretched beauty.
16. Swim alongside giant manta rays in the Maldives.
17. Hike a volcano: The heat, the danger, the raw power of Earth itself.
18. Go white-water rafting down the Zambezi River.
19. Scream your lungs out at a rock concert.
20. Trek through Patagonia’s Torres del Paine.
21. Write a letter to yourself and open it in 10 years
22. Float in the world’s only pink lake: Visit Lake Hillier in Australia where the water is naturally barbie-pink.
23. Stay in a real-life hobbit house in New Zealand.
24. Swim in the Devil’s bathtub in Virginia: It’s a natural waterslide that looks straight out of a fairy tale.
25. Go on a random flight to anywhere: Just show up at the airport, buy the cheapest ticket, and go.
26. Go to an upside-down house: There are houses literally built upside-down in Poland, Germany, and Malaysia.
27. Jump into a freezing lake on New Year’s Day because nothing screams “fresh start” like near-hypothermia.
28. Deep dive in Dubai: It’s a huge underwater pool designed to look like a sunken city with actual rooms, and passageways 50+ underwater.
29. Stand in the world’s ONLY place where you can see four countries at once: The corder of Argentina, Brazil Paraguay, and Bolivia.
30. Watch lava drip into the ocean in Hawaii.
Becoming Your Best Self | Self-Improvement Bucket List Ideas
1. Read 50 books in a year: Not just any books, but ones that challenge your thinking, teach you something new or make you feel deeply understood.
2. Make it a point to journal every day: It’s not just about writing, it’s about checking in with yourself.
3. Conquer a fear: Fear holds you hostage. Pick one that scares you and do it. Not to prove anyone anything, but to defeat the fear that limits you.
4. Try meditation for 30 days straight: You don’t have to strictly do it for a given period (like 10 minutes or 30 minutes). You can start as small as 2 minutes.
5. Redecor your space: Instead of having a white-washed house, decorate your house with your personality and colors.
6. Do a 30-day “no procrastination” challenge: Every time you put something off, the “future you” suffers.
7. Try a 30-second cold shower.
8. Practice adopting a growth mindset to overpower the fixed mindset upbringing you are raised in.
9. Create a weekly spa or relaxation ritual.
10. Learn a musical instrument.
Related Article: How To Rediscover Yourself When You Feel Lost?
The Best Bucket List Ideas: 30 Experiences You Cannot Miss
1. Witness the Northern Lights: You must witness the Northern Lights at least once. Watching the sky come to life with green and purple waves is one of the most surreal experiences.
2. Celebrate Holi in India
3. Take a solo trip: Nothing compares to the freedom of exploring a new place completely on your own. Of course, you discover a new culture and earth, but you will also rediscover yourself along the process.
4. Experience a Broadway show in New York City: There’s something magical about the lights, the energy, and the thrill of live theatre.
5. Set foot on all seven continents.
6. Go on an African Safari.
7. Feel the rush of skydiving.
8. Hike to Machu Picchu
9. Scuba dive into an underwater world.
10. Dance through the streets of Carnival in Brazil.
11. Drink from a stein at Oktoberfest in Germany.
12. Drive Route 66.
13. Swim in glowing bioluminescent water.
14. Sleep in an ice hotel.
15. Watch a solar eclipse from the project spot.
16. Glide through the canals of Venice on a gondola.
17. Stand before the great pyramids of Egypt.
18. Learn to surf.
19. Experience cherry blossom season in Japan.
20. Sleep under the stars in the desert.
21. Drift in a hot air balloon.
22. Ride a camel through the Moroccan desert.
23. Jump in Blue Lagoon in Iceland.
24. Go storm chasing in Tornado Alley.
25. Windsurf in Maui, Hawaii.
26. Hang glide over Rio De Janeiro.
27. Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge at sunset.
28. Spend a night in a Japanese ryokan with an onsen bath.
29. Swim in Devil’s Pool at Victoria Falls.
Adventure Bucket List
1. Skydive over Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah.
2. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania: Standing on Africa’s highest peak is the definition of achievement.
3. Race a supercar on a professional track.
4. Scuba dive with hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos.
5. Go volcano boarding in Nicaragua.
6. Swim with wild dolphins in Hawaii.
7. Cage dive with great white sharks in South Africa.
8. Trek to Everest base Camp in Nepal.
9. Fly a fighter jet.
10. Hike through the Amazon rainforest.
11. Sandboard down the dunes of the Sahara Desert.
12. Go spelunking in Vietnam’s Son Soong Cave: The largest cave in the world, complete with its own weather system.
13. Run the Marathon des Sables in Morocco: It’s a 6-dat, 155-mile ultra-marathon through the desert.
14. Hike in Haiku Stairs (Stairway to Heaven) in Hawaii.
15. Paraglide over the Swiss Alps.
16. Go on an unplanned solo wilderness survival trip.
17. Try ice climbing on a frozen waterfall.
18. Scuba dive between two tectonic plates in Iceland.
19. Zipline over an active volcano in Costa Rica.
20. Bike the Death Road in Bolivia.
21. Ride a wingsuit down the side of a mountain.
22. Race a Formula 1 car at top speed.
23. Hike a glacier in Iceland and drink the purest water on Earth.
24. Sleep in a hanging cliff tent 1000 feet up because normal camping is for the weak.
25. Do the “deadliest hike” at Mount Hua, China— Wooden planks nailed into a vertical cliff with nothing but air beneath you.
26. Kayak through Antarctica Icebergs.
27. Explore the catacombs of Paris with a local guide.
28. Trek across the Artic Circle on foot.
29. Base jump off a Norwegian Fjord.
30. Skateboard down a winding mountain road at full speed.
31. Walk through the Amazon jungle at night.
32. Camp on a tiny raft in the middle of the ocean.
33. Abseil down the side of Table Mountain in South Africa because walking back down is boring.
34. Get pushed out of a plane by a professional skydiver (No warning!): because true adventure starts with zero prep time.
35. Jump from a moving train into a river.
36. Swim inside a cenote in Mexico.
37. Jump a motorcycle over a flaming obstacle.
38. Swim in a glow-in-the-draw cave in New Zealand.
39. Hitchhike across an entire country
40. Do a handstand on the edge of a skyscraper (with a harness, of course)
Crazy Bucket List Ideas: 30 Ideas That Are Pure Madness
1. Swim in a pool full of Jell-O: Gather your friends, and get the experiment in action. Once it’s successful, do a crazy and slippery dare competition.
2. Run through the streets of Spain with actual bulls chasing you.
3. Hang from a skyscraper (with a harness, of course).
4. Spend a night in a haunted insane asylum: If you don’t leave with a ghostly roommate, did you even go?
5. Get tattooed by a stranger on the spot.
6. Eat the world’s hottest pepper, or even better, let all your friends compete.
7. Say “Yes” to everything for an entire day. Get ready for the weirdest, most unpredictable 24 hours of your life.
8. Go ghost hunting in one of the most haunted places in the world: Your bravery will either skyrocket or disappear completely.
9. Spend the night in an igloo in the Arctic— because sometimes, freezing your face cold is part of the fun.
10. Shave your head just for the sake of it, and donate it to someone fighting cancer.
11. Walk over a glass-bottom bridge over a canyon.
12. Fly zero gravity in a NASA-style simulation.
13. Go to Antarctica just to say you did. (Bonus points if you high-five a penguin.
14. Sneak into a VIP event like you belong there.
15. Climb a frozen waterfall with ice axes— because normal waterfalls are too mainstream.
16. Spend 24 hours in total darkness.
17. Stand in a wind tunnel during hurricane simulation. Trust me, feeling like a flying squirrel is an experience.
18. Take a ride on the fastest roller coaster on earth.
19. Get inside a giant inflatable Zorb ball and roll down a hill. Why walk when you can tumble like a human hamster?
20. Ride a mechanical bull at full speed.
21. Spend a week completely off the grid: No phone, no internet, just you and life.
22. Go on a blindfolded mystery road trip.
23. Hitchhike across a country.
24. Order the weirdest thing on the menu in a foreign country
25. Walk on hot coal.
26. Go to a no-gravity flight simulation: Float like an astronaut with ZERO effort.
27. Get launched into the air by a big human slingshot.
28. Take a shower under a real waterfall.
29. Compete in the world’s dirtiest mud race.
30. Survive a night alone in the jungle.
31. Enter a real-life game show where you could win or lose everything!
32. Camp out in Dracula’s castle in Romania.
33. Stand in the middle of a desert and just scream into the void— because honestly? Same!
34. Ride a roller coaster with VR goggles that show something different than reality.
35. Sleep in a glass-bottomed hotel room over the ocean.
36. Try to break a Guinness world record.
37. Tie yourself to your best friend for 24 hours— your friendship may not survive, but the story will. Haha!
38. Go night swimming in the ocean, no lights allowed.
39. Get chased by a zombie horde in a live-action apocalypse simulation.
40. Drive a monster truck over actual cars.
Funny Bucket List Ideas: Life’s Too Short To Be Serious!
1. Do the pillow challenge in public. Hold two pillows in your hand, and offer strangers one pillow. If someone accepts, let the battle begin!
2. Wear a wedding dress or tuxedo to do basic errands.
3. Go through a haunted house and aggressively compliment the monster: “OMG! Love your blood splatter technique!”
4. Walk into an elevator, face the wall, and hum ominously.
5. Pretend to recognize someone you have never met and act heartbroken when they don’t remember you.
6. Go to IKEA, hide inside a wardrobe, and dramatically step out saying, “I HAVE RETURNED FROM NARNIA.” The timing should be correct. Wait for people to accumulate before you barge out.
7. Casually hand someone a potato and say, “You will know what to do.”
8. Stand in an elevator, hold a banana like a phone, and say, “Yes, the eagle has landed.” Nod seriously.
9. Go to a drive-thru, order water, and ask them to “hold the ice, but add extra love, please.”
10. Go to a park, set up a chessboard, and challenge strangers like it’s a world championship.
11. Go to McDonald’s and ask for a whopper.
12. Sit in a restaurant and celebrate your “invisible friend’s birthday.” Bring a cake, sing, and clap.
13. Go through airport security and scream “Not the diamonds” as they check your bags.
14. Go into a dressing room, then yell, “THERE’S NO TOILET PAPER IN HERE!” and wait for their reaction. LOL!
15. Go to a pet store and ask the employee if they have “real Pokemon” available.
16. Wear sunglasses indoors and dramatically take them off every time someone speaks to you.
17. Get into a stranger’s car at a valet and act like it’s yours— watch their faces as you dramatically try to drive off.
18. Pretend to be a tour guide in a random city.
19. Do karaoke in the worst voice possible and scream your lungs out.
20. Walk up to a stranger and say, “The prophecy was true.” Then just walk away.
21. Break out of an argument with dance and added sass: Nothing confuses an opponent more than unexpected choreography.
22. Challenge a stranger to a staring contest in public.
23. Text a random number “I have the package. Do we proceed?”
24. Buy a blank greeting card, write “You know what you did,” and mail it to someone random.
25. Walk up to a stranger, hand them over a blank card, and say, “You will know what it means.” And disappear into the crowd. For the added character build-up, wear all black with black sunglasses to appear mysterious.
26. Hold a walkie-talkie in a public place, make eye contact, and whisper, “The pigeon has left the nest. Repeat. The pigeon has left the nest.” and then start following the stranger with a serious expression.
27. Walk into an expensive store and ask, “What’s the cheapest thing here?”
28. Wear an inflatable T-rex costume and casually go grocery shopping.
29. Pretend to be a food critic at a random diner— take notes, sniff the air, and nod wisely.
30. Find an open mic night and perform the WORST magic tricks ever.
Simple Bucket List Ideas
1. Watch the sunrise with a cold drink: Pure peace, pure magic.
2. Dance in the rain, no umbrella, no worries.
3. Write a heartfelt letter to your future self: Seal it and open it years later.
4. Sleep under the stars with no tent; just the open sky (nature’s best ceiling).
5. Go 24 hours without checking your phone.
6. Find a four-leaf clover.
7. Go for a walk with no destination in mind: Just wander and see where life takes you.
8. Write down 50 things you are grateful for: Happiness starts with appreciation.
9. Plant a tree and visit it every year.
10. Collect seashells at the beach and admire the universe’s insignificantly significant beauty.
11. Buy yourself flowers for no reason.
12. Watch fireflies on a warm night.
13. Pick flowers and make a bouquet for yourself.
14. Make a scrapbook of your best moments.
15. Leave a kind note in a public place.
16. Sing your heart out on an empty road.
17. Lay in an open floral field and let life touch you.
18. Dance in the rain without a care.
19. Give someone an anonymous gift.
20. Make a hug board and hold it out in public. Enjoy the warmth and embrace.
21. Have a slow morning.
22. Go on a tour to admire the patterns of the earth. Observe branches, flowers, and their intricate structure. Capture these in your camera if you’d like.
23. Sit in silence for a few hours. Let Earth talk to you.
24. Drink fresh coconut water straight from the coconut: Tropical, refreshing, and just fun.
25. Sit at the beach at night and admire the waves in silence.
26. Have a deep, late-night conversation with yourself under the stars.
27. Make Wine at home!
28. Sit by a river and listen to the water flow: Let the gentle sounds wash your thoughts.
29. Stand barefoot in a puddle during rainfall: This may seem small, but try it, and you will know the difference.
30. Write a letter to someone who changed your life and send it. Life’s too short to live life without appreciation, gratitude, and acknowledgment.
Summer Bucket List Ideas
1. Jump into the ocean from a tall cliff!
2. Find a hidden natural swimming hole: Google won’t help. You gotta ask locals and stumble upon it by chance.
3. Make fresh fruit popsicles from exotic summer fruits.
4. Try night kayaking in a bioluminescent bay.
5. Do a full moon swim.
6. Go skinny-dipping at night.
7. Take a train ride through a breathtaking summer landscape: Think Swiss Alps, Norwegian Fjords, or Canadian Rockies.
8. Snorkel in an underwater cave where the sunbeam cut through the water: You can try Dos Ojos Cenote, Mexico, or Blue Grotto, Italy.
9. Make it a ritual to play spray tag with your friends on hot days.
10. Join a massive water balloon fight.
11. Celebrate Holi in India and get drenched in color.
12. Go tubing down a lazy river while eating snacks.
13. Slide fown a natural rock waterslife
14. Run through a field of tall grass or flowers like you are in a movie
15. Go to a summer rooftop silent disco and dance like no one’s watching.
Bucket List Ideas for Couples
1. Get a map, close your eyes, and point. Wherever your finger lands, GO!
2. Start a fake argument in public, then suddenly break into dance and leave! Confuse everyone!
3. Dress like absolute weirdos and go to a super fancy restaurant.
4. Go to a trampoline park and challenge each other to ridiculous acrobatics.
5. Have a paint war in your backyard and ruin perfectly good clothes.
6. Go to the pottery class and try to recreate the “Ghost” movie scene!
7. Find the longest, wildest, fastest roller coaster and ride it together while screaming absurd things.
8. Go on a paint picnic date. Instead of painting scenery, you paint your partner in that scenery. You don’t have to be perfect!
9. Lay in the field of flowers and make flower crowns for each other.
10. Recreate the famous dance from the movie “Pulp Fiction.” Hey, the matching outfits are absolutely necessary. You can do it in your home, but nothing beats recreating a scene in a pub or a dance battle.
11. Spend a day recreating all your favorite romantic movie scenes, like the pulp fiction dance, or rain-socked kiss from the movie “The Notebook,” and do a spontaneous waltz in an empty ballroom like in “Beauty and the Beast.
12. Run into each other’s arms at an airport like in every rom-com ever— because love should feel DRAMATIC!
13. Recreate a duet together like La La Land at a quiet scenic overlook.
14. Rent a Vespa and ride the city like you own it!
15. Recreate running after your partner when their train is slowly departing. Imagine a slow-motion scene where they offer you their hand and climb in on a moving train. Please have a speaker for the background music to intensify the scene.
16. If your partner is an avid romance reader, recreate her favorite scenes. Make a list and make sure you recreate all of them.
17. Find a random fountain and jump in like they did in “Friends”
18. Take inspiration from the movie “Before Sunrise” and plan a trip like strangers. Meet each other on a train like strangers and then let the ride unfold philosophy, intensity, and depth. Kiss on the ferry, that’s an absolute necessity.
19. Try to build a pillow fort and stay inside it all day.
20. If you are both book readers, plan a trip to an ancient or Victorian library with years of history. Some destinations: Strahov Monastery Library, Czech Republic, Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Brazil, The Great Hall at John Rylands Library, Manchester England, Chetham’s Library.
21. Get stranded on an unexplored or abandoned island: Build a cabin with your partner, hunt food together, gather fire, and just breathe that kind of freedom.
22. Find a place where two oceans meet and stand between them together: Cape Agulhas, South Africa/Skagen, Denmark/ Gulf of Alaska, USA.
23. Get lost in a new city together and find your way back without maps.
24. Dance in the rain like you are in a movie. It’s even better if you recreate a rainy dance scene from any/of your favorite movies.
25. Recreate your first date and see how much you have grown together.
26. Go on a “yes day” where you say yes to everything the other suggests. Make sure to come up with creative and crazy ideas.
27. Rent a cozy cabin and have a “no phones, just us” weekend: Disconnect and reconnect.
28. Write each other secret love letters and hide them around the houses.
29. Try a new ridiculous hobby together every month.
30. Crash a wedding and dance like you belong there.
31. Slow dance at home with no music, just the sound of your heart.
32. Leave each other surprise video messages to find later.
33. Sneak onto a rooftop and watch the city lights together. Choose a tall abandoned building.
34. Take a train ride through a country with no destination: Just hop on, sit back, and let fate decide.
35. Slow dance together in the middle of an empty street at 2 AM.
36. Sit on the edge of a cliff, feet dangling over the world, and just exist together.
37. Camp in the desert, make a fire and fall asleep under endless stars.
38. A date in the middle of a bioluminescent bay and watch the water glow around you.
39. Ride a motorcycle together with no destination: Just the road, the wind, and each other.
40. Run through a flower field together like absolute idiots.
Related Article: Things To Do With Your Boyfriend!
Bucket List Ideas For Women
1. Solo travel to a country where you don’t speak the native language.
2. Dye your hair a completely wild color. Don’t second guess it. DO IT, GIRL!
3. Go on a solo date and romanticize the hell out of it— bookstore + coffee + journaling + late night on a beach. PERFECTION.
4. Go crazy on the dance floor. Forget that there are people around, and just dance your heart out. Don’t worry about the moves, just immerse in the experience.
5. Write a letter to your younger self and actually read it to yourself. Trust me, it would be one of the most beautiful experiences of your life.
6. Throw yourself a party just for existing—because you are worth celebrating, babe!
7. Build a treehouse in your backyard.
8. Join a protest for a cause you truly believe in.
9. Explore a new country and culture without an itinerary. Go with the flow.
10. Go on a money-less trip where you hitchhike, make acquaintance with locals, help communities, and perform as an artist on the streets. The experience is surreal.
11. Host a “Bad decision night” where you and your best friends do something completely ridiculous.
12. Go to a live poetry or spoken word event, and perform. Forget about judgment, this is your art.
13. Make it a habit to buy yourself flowers every single week because romance isn’t just for relationships.
14. Get on a plane last minute, with no plan, and figure it out when you land. Spontaneity can unravel a new sentiment towards life.
15. Get that tattoo girl!
16. Get that short haircut. It’s not the end of the world!
17. Ride a motorcycle!
18. Write a list of non-negotiables for your life and NEVER compromise on them.
19. Join the motorcycle rally and enjoy a trip to the mountain.
20. Learn a new language fluently. It can be Mandarin, French, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, etc.
Pin For Later!
