Finding joy: Travel planning

Hot hot HOT Saturday in Tokyo, 2012

 Yes, I love to travel.  But, perhaps the step before the traveling is one that I love almost as much -- travel planning.

If you think about it, it makes sense.  Research shows that simply committing to and planning a vacation will lover your stress level, and this upcoming 12 weeks off is proof of it.  I felt like as soon as it was confirmed in January that I was breathing a little deeper.  And once I had more time to dedicate to the actual planning of it?  OH BOY!  It's brain candy!

No trip can start without looking into a bunch of options.  For example, for the three-week trip to Europe, there was a lot of "pre-planning" research to do first.  This is a critical part for me because I want to visit far more places than I have time for at this point, so the countries were just swimming in my head.  Would I finally make it to Italy?  Would it be better to spend a summer trip to Europe in Scandinavia   Did I want to get a bit more adventurous in Eastern Europe?  Between travel blogs and watching a range of Rick Steves DVDs, we narrowed it down enough to do some more in-depth research.

The same goes for trips in the US.  For example, in a few weeks we're off to Yellowstone, and then at the end of July I'm taking my mom to the NE.  But Yellowstone wasn't the initial thought -- instead, it was, "Okay, what's a good July 4th trip that would be outside and not more than a few hours away by plane?"  Once I realized the airfare to Bozeman, MT was reasonable (and it was a mere two hours to the park), I knew there was a good chance that it would be a winner.

[Confession: I'm so in love with travel that I'm planning way, WAY ahead -- just booked tickets for my 30th birthday in November and am tossing around good Southern Hemisphere trips for next winter.  I have a travel obsession, obviously.]

Once I have a good sense of where to go I want to look at flights.  If you've read any of my travel blog entries before, I love playing the airline game to get more miles!  Some people wait to book or watch the airfares obsessively.  I don't. If I can find a set of flights with good connections, I take it. Call me crazy, but I want those exit-row seats before they disappear!  And then there's plenty of time to start researching everything else -- hotels and sights.  I create calendar entries for all of my travel bookings and then start working on my travel document.

Speaking of fun times with locals, I went on
a night-walk tour with my hosts in Steyr,
Austria a few years ago.

But it's certainly not prescriptive -- it's DESCRIPTIVE, listing all of the things I might want to do and try.  If you limit yourself to what is in your document, you're doing it wrong -- but if you arrive without any knowledge of what's going on, what if you miss something amazing that you wanted to see? Some of my favorite travel experiences have been doing fun things with locals -- going on a dog walk in Sydney, going to a cidery in Austria, trekking to little-known monuments in Normandy, or sitting down at a homey cafe in Dublin.  I don't have a ton of time to connect with random folks in other countries, but a big benefit of my job is that I get to meet people from different parts of the world (and I am TOTALLY cashing in on the chance to go sari-shopping once I make it to India!).

If anything, locals can be that filtering process for travel.  I reached out to a bunch of Europeans as we were firming up the Europe agenda, and in doing so eliminated the side-trip to Morocco, added Sintra to the Portuguese itinerary, and picked Antibes as the French destination on the Cote d'Azur.  Of course, it's possible that locals have different ideas of what I should do, but when you temper it with your own priorities, it works out in the end.

Of course, no amount of planning is complete without spending some time thinking about packing.  But my favorite part of packing is thinking about the activities I'll do, the time I'll have to read (what books to download and pack) or what dress I can wear at that great tapas bar/noodle house/night on the pier.

So, as I've told my friends and my clients alike, it doesn't matter when that vacation is -- it could be a year away! -- start planning it now!  Just thinking about it will make your heart sing as it does for me.  With only eight more work days until sabbatical, the excitement is building!

More on travel soon -- both a recap of Sedona (almost done) and my last trip to Mountain View for awhile.

xo
Sarah

P.S.  Can't wait to take another photo here in September.  Paris is one of my favorite cities and I can't stop going back!

Paris 2008