I love travelling... it makes me feel alive. Its not just the thrill of visiting new places, seeing new sights, watching people... I even love the planning part of it. At home, I'm the chief planner. Once a decision has been taken on where we're going, I get to work.
For example, we've just returned from a family holiday to Paris, Venice and Rome. The cities were picked last summer. From then on, I began my research. First I borrowed travel guides from library and read them from cover to cover. When you're visiting a place for the first time, it is actually easy to decide what to see -- all the top sites automatically go on the list. The problem is which ones should be the priority.
With the main sites on the list, I then make a day-to-day travel itinerary. And then I go to my travel bible -- Trip Advisor. I could never plan a trip without consulting the site, which is a mine of information, advice and tips you can't get anywhere else. I post my rough itinerary on the forum, and then I get an idea if what I have planned is doable or completely unworkable, whether I'm missing out on any hidden gems or I have included something that can be safely dropped. Then it's a matter of reworking, leaving this out, adding that in. Advice includes which hotel is good, which area to stay in, how to get from airport to hotel -- ask and you shall get (advice) is the motto of the site, or should be!
This is exactly what I did -- once again -- for our recent trip. And all the months of research and planning paid off as the trip went off smoothly and exactly as planned. The secret is to keep the itinerary flexible and the mind open. But to do the planning, you have to actually enjoy every bit of it. If you treat it like a chore, or dread the thought of endless trawling the Internet (God bless the Web!), then you're lucky. You're probably the one who's going to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labour.
Next post: Paris
For example, we've just returned from a family holiday to Paris, Venice and Rome. The cities were picked last summer. From then on, I began my research. First I borrowed travel guides from library and read them from cover to cover. When you're visiting a place for the first time, it is actually easy to decide what to see -- all the top sites automatically go on the list. The problem is which ones should be the priority.
With the main sites on the list, I then make a day-to-day travel itinerary. And then I go to my travel bible -- Trip Advisor. I could never plan a trip without consulting the site, which is a mine of information, advice and tips you can't get anywhere else. I post my rough itinerary on the forum, and then I get an idea if what I have planned is doable or completely unworkable, whether I'm missing out on any hidden gems or I have included something that can be safely dropped. Then it's a matter of reworking, leaving this out, adding that in. Advice includes which hotel is good, which area to stay in, how to get from airport to hotel -- ask and you shall get (advice) is the motto of the site, or should be!
This is exactly what I did -- once again -- for our recent trip. And all the months of research and planning paid off as the trip went off smoothly and exactly as planned. The secret is to keep the itinerary flexible and the mind open. But to do the planning, you have to actually enjoy every bit of it. If you treat it like a chore, or dread the thought of endless trawling the Internet (God bless the Web!), then you're lucky. You're probably the one who's going to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labour.
Next post: Paris
2 comments:
lovely blog
Feel really nice to visit ur blog Uma and read ur amazing tales of travel ....cheerz to all that's goin to follow !!
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