To Plan or not to plan? That is the question.
“That’s not a vacation, that’s an expedition!” is what a former co-worker would exclaim to me as I explained the planning Naomi and I were doing for a pending vacation. “The root word for vacation is vacate.” To my co-worker, that meant hopping into the car with no plans, except perhaps suitcases with clothes (which clothes, I’m not sure) and toiletries. And off he went. Totally spontaneous (well, perhaps). My comeback was this. Suppose I had just got back from my trip to ______ and as I am talking about it, someone says to me, “Did you see _____”? And I say no. “Oh, well it’s the most unbelievable, fantastic, incredible ______ you’ll ever see and you were only 20 miles from it.” It’s enough to make you scream in the middle of the night.
Planning Needs
- Passports – this may state the obvious, but if you plan on traveling internationally, I would get passports at least 6 months in advance. Not having your passport ready is very stressful. Note: Some countries will not accept a passport that will expire in 6 months. Do your research!
- Trip insurance – if you are committing a lot of money to this trip, then trip insurance is a good thing. Start researching as soon as you know you are taking a trip.
- Trip destinations – before you can do much planning, you need to know where you are going. Trips with only one destination, e.g. a cruise (the line chooses the destinations, you choose the cruise), there’s not as much planning involved.
- Work – Being retired, it’s easy to forget about those who work. For some folks, time off must be requested as much as a year in advance. This should be locked down before any money is spent.
- Airline tickets – I would suggest purchasing airline tickets at least 3 months in advance. The longer the trip, the sooner you need to get them. With passports, you are preparing for any future trip. Buying the airline tickets is committing you to the trip.
- Accommodations – hotels, bed and breakfast, AirBnB, campgrounds, etc. You would hate to get to your destination and not have a place to stay or one less than your ideal.
- Tickets – if you fear that a concert, show, play, boat trip, etc. will be sold out or seats that you want will not be available, then you need to start looking online or contact via phone to check availability. The more in demand the tickets the sooner you need make the reservations. For example, a must see Broadway show may sell out months in advance.
- Back at home planning – This could include house sitting, pet care, dealing with bills, absentee voting, etc. It’s hard to have a relaxing time away if you have to worry about home. With a previous dog that we had, we checked my mother-in-law’s availability for keeping her before we made any plans.
Planning resources
- Trip planning software/apps – there are several “start to stop” trip planning applications/websites to aid you. Here’s two that we’ve used: 1) Trip Advisor and 2) Trip It. Both have app versions and websites. I’m still searching for the best.
- State Tourism Sites – here’s an example from the state of Missouri: State of Missouri Tourism
- YouTube – or other video sites. The most widely used is YouTube. There are professionally done posts by state tourism departments, publicity postings by private organizations ( e.g., Silver Dollar City, Disney, etc.) , travel video bloggers, and just folks putting out their vacation video clips. Sometimes you have to weed through a lot of video of someone who just loves having their face/voice on camera.
- Movies – this one is a more indirect resource. For instance, prior to visiting San Francisco, we watched “Escape from Alcatraz” and “The Birdman of Alcatraz”. Knowing we were going to visit the Hearst Castle in California, owned/built by William Randolph Hearst, we watched “Citizen Kane”. Documentaries would provide more information, but fictional movies give a feel to a place not to mention providing some excitement.
The lists above may fill you with dread and just seem like work, but think of it as a way to be prepared as well as to anticipate all the wonderful sights and fun adventures you will have on this vacation. Dig deeper, learn about the area, the history, the culture and begin to enjoy your trip months before you leave home.