With summer quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to do a newsletter on the best times to travel according to your chart, and it just so happens that the moon is in Sagittarius today to support this topic. The transits for when you take a vacation are actually very significant, and can determine if you will have more of a relaxing time away, or if you may end up anxious about flight delays or fighting with the people you’re traveling with. I’ve seen some of these transits play out quite literally during past trips, so I’ve put together a list of supporting transits to look for when planning your next vacation, as well as transits you may want to avoid.
Also, there are naturally times of the year when travel is more likely to come up, without you necessarily having the control over planning it. It might be that someone has a destination wedding, so their decision on that date leads you to build a vacation around the wedding. In addition, there might be specific times of the year when it’s easier to take time off of work, so you are only able to go during those few windows of time. Even though these dates may seem out of your control, the astrological transits pointing to travel will still be present in your chart at these times, which is fascinating.
Travel Houses
Let’s now go over the houses that are often activated by transits when travel comes up. You may want to take a few moments here to pull up your own transit chart. Click forwards and backwards in time and note when you see transits move through the houses I mention below. Maybe go back to the dates for when you last took a vacation, and see if any transits to the below houses were taking place.
The houses most obviously linked to travel are the 3rd and 9th houses. The 3rd house speaks to short term travel, like think going somewhere for a quick three to five day trip, or doing a bunch of smaller day trips or weekend trips away over a period of time. To contrast, the 9th is typically about foreign travel or visiting somewhere that’s further away and you’ve never been to before. The 9th can also be about having an extended stay in a different place, rather than just visiting as a tourist.
The 1st and 5th houses relate back to personal enjoyment, and finding interests and activities outside of work that light you up. Transits to these houses may indicate times when your career is less busy and there are moments to take time off and enjoy yourself. Therefore, I frequently see people take vacations when transits move through the 1st or 5th houses of their chart. During these transits, travel may bring up new interests you never knew you had, and a trip will also leave you feeling creatively inspired.
The 4th and 12th houses also randomly speak to travel too. With transits to the 4th, you might be physically leaving your home to go somewhere else. I see this frequently happen when Mars transits the 4th house. Transits to the 4th may also indicate traveling to see family or going on a family vacation. Meanwhile, transits to the 12th house are associated with faraway places - it bears a similarity to the 9th house in that way. 12th house transits are great for solo travel too, because you’re typically not feeling your most social at these times. However, you may end up being a bit emotional when you’re traveling under 12th house transits.
Taking things one step further, let’s now look to what planetary transits through these houses would be relevant to note. Some transits speak to how there might be one particular month of the year where travel is a bigger focus, where other transits may explain why you go through a multiple year period of traveling way more than you usually would.
Transits for taking quick trips:
Having a new moon or a full moon take place in the houses mentioned above indicates a month long period where you may have travel come up, or even multiple little trips take place within that time. The actual dates for when you’re getting on the plane or going in the car to reach your travel destination may fall right at the date of the new moon or full moon. For example, if you’re a Pisces rising, you would want to pay attention to the full moon in Scorpio every year, which always takes place in your 9th house, as well as the new moon in Taurus which takes place that same month in your 3rd house. Travel will always be on your mind more around these times, whether that’s planning for future trips, visiting another country, or taking a quick trip away.
The diagram above shows a full moon taking place in the 9th house of someone’s chart. A new moon in the 3rd house would have taken place two weeks prior.
In addition to tracking new and full moons through the above houses, it’s important to look at when the other inner planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, move through these parts of your chart. Mars drives you to take action, so Mars transiting through these houses may have you either making a firm travel decision or actually leaving home to go somewhere. With a Mars transit, you might also be busier on the trip. Mars moving through the 5th house will have you putting energy towards relaxation and exploring hobbies and interests outside of work for about a six week period, so this is a super common Mars transit when vacation plans may naturally pop up.
The transits of Mercury and Venus help support travel too when they meet up with the Sun and/or Mars through these houses. For example, if you have a new moon taking place in a travel oriented house, like the 9th house, and then simultaneously Venus is also in that same sign and house of your chart, that would boost travel plans and make it an overall more pleasant experience for you. Remember, the more planets that are clustered in one house and sign of the chart at the same time, the more likely something will actually happen there. Venus may also make the travel more relationship focused, whether you’re either traveling with someone or making friends while at your destination.
In the diagram above, a new moon is taking place in the 9th house at the same time Venus is also transiting the 9th house.
A seriously underrated time to travel is during Mercury retrograde. Work is naturally slower or possibly even delayed during Mercury’s three week retrograde periods, so rather than getting frustrated with slow moving plans, maybe try to schedule some time off when this cycle comes around. The next Mercury retrograde is taking place primarily in the sign of Leo from August 5 - 28, so if you have the choice to travel in the summer, I would aim for August, because you’re naturally going to be less productive during that time this year. Mercury retrograde also allows for necessary reflection on what your next steps need to be, which you can do while traveling. And having this specific Mercury retrograde in August in the sign of Leo means that there will be a bigger focus on pleasure, creativity, and leisure activities.
Longer trips + frequent travel over an extended period of time:
Then there are years when it seems like you’re traveling super often, way more than you usually would. It could also be that opportunities to go abroad for a longer period of time pop up, or you may be temporarily relocating to another country for a few months. This type of extensive travel has to do with the longer transits of Jupiter, Saturn and the Nodes.
Jupiter moving through one of the houses we went over above will bring up a year long period where travel is overall a bigger focus. Jupiter moving through the 9th house will open your mind up to different cultures, and opportunities for foreign travel may come your way easily. I had this transit happen in 2022, and that summer I stayed in Italy for a month, part of which was vacation, but the other half I was just alone and working in Rome. To give another example, when Jupiter moves through your 1st house it can signify that traveling may be how you are discovering new interests and sides to your identity. Travel will help to promote important personal development.
The biggest nodal transits to pay attention to when it comes to travel are when the North and South Nodes are moving through the 3rd and 9th houses, as well as when they transit the 6th and 12th houses, each pair of houses for 18 months. Again, bigger opportunities to go abroad and visit somewhere new may come up, or you could have a series of bigger trips occur, one after the other. The periods for when you’re actually traveling might get intensified right around the time of the eclipses.
A solar eclipse taking place in the 3rd house. The sun and moon are paired with the transit of the North Node.
Saturn will spend 2-3 years in each of these houses too. Saturn moving through the 3rd or 9th may be when you have more significant experiences traveling. Saturn transits always show where you’re extending the most effort and finding greater structure, so with Saturn transiting the 9th house, you may be putting a lot of energy into learning about a different country and culture, and longer trips may help you to do that. I moved to Italy for my senior year of high school when Saturn was transiting my 3rd, Jupiter was transiting my 9th, and the Nodes were moving through my 12th and 6th. That was the first time in my life I had spent an extended amount of time in another country, so that year opened my eyes to learning another language and a different culture, while I lived with an Italian family for nine months.
If you’re someone who hasn’t had a lot of experience traveling, when Uranus specifically moves through the 3rd or 9th houses, it may awaken you to the joy of going to new places, and you may have exciting experiences while traveling over an 8 year long period that shake up the way you view the world. This would be Virgo and Pisces risings at the moment, but Libra and Aries risings you have this to look forward to over the next several years when Uranus moves into Gemini.
Trickier Times to Travel
Then there are specific times when I would avoid travel if possible. A big one that I try to steer clear of is when other transiting planets connect with transit Saturn on the days that you are traveling. Note that this is different than the Saturn through the travel houses we just went over above.
Saturn tends to slow things down and it often brings up frustration, delays, or bigger responsibilities, not things you want to encounter while on vacation. I once was traveling when the moon was in Pisces conjunct Saturn in Pisces all day. A connecting flight got cancelled, the new flight got delayed, and then someone on the flight vomited two rows behind me just as we were taking off. That’s an extreme example, but for the one day period when the moon is either conjunct, square or opposite to Saturn, I would try to avoid traveling on that exact day. You’re more likely to run into delays or minor frustrations.
Transit Mars and the moon are meeting up with transit Saturn in the diagram above, not making for the easiest travel day.
Other inner planets, like the sun or Mars, will have like a 2-3 day period where they’re in a close aspect with Saturn every few months or so. If a trip happens to fall during a time when the sun or Mars is conjunct Saturn, for example, you may find that that trip isn’t the most relaxing, and you may have to wake up early every day or follow a very set itinerary. However, if that’s your vibe and you are wanting a trip that has more of a definitive structure, then a Saturn transit could be very supportive of that. I recently traveled during a Mars-Saturn conjunction, but it was a trip to finalize wedding details, so it felt more like a work trip than a vacation.
Finally, there are specific times of the year when the sun moves through certain houses of your chart that aren’t as conducive to relaxation and pleasure. The 8th house is one of these. If you’re traveling with other people during 8th house season, it’s more likely that conflict will come up, or relationships among people on the trip won’t be flowing as easily. You may get emotionally worked up about a situation with someone too. In addition, when the sun transits the 2nd, 6th or 10th houses, these are work oriented times of the year. So unless you’re literally traveling for your job, you may feel like you need to be checking your email on vacation, and it may be harder to fully relax.
I hope this travel explainer helped! And if you want information on astrocartography & relocation charts, I did a newsletter on that topic last year.
Crazy how accurate this is! I am currently in a 9th house protection year and just went on a trip to Puerto Rico to visit my family just after the Aries eclipse, on the day of the Mars-Saturn conjunction. My uncle had me getting up at 5:30 every morning so we could go to the gym before it got too hot. I’ll keep that in mind for next time I want a relaxing trip 😅