This is a fun thread, another for a travel subtopic?
@momtogkc , did you guys get the Disney wake up call? I also have spreadsheets for vacation. But you know, we wouldn’t have known so much on how to do Disney without the planning. Like you, I didn’t do them on subsequent visits, other than restaurant reservations as I knew what to do. I’ll never forget one morning we were up and at Magic Kingdom during EMH and it was still a little dark. DH and I drank coffee while the boys rode Space Mountsin with no line 10 times. I recall after 4 hours st the parks, at about 11 to 12, the place was then packed, we were tired from all the morning activities, had lunch, went back to the hotel to relax at the pool in the afternoon while the night owls were waiting 1 to 2 hours in line for a ride. Well worth getting up in my opinion, for the amount of money it costs. Plus, I like the fresh morning air!
That first time to WDW was my favorite vacation with my young family. First time for everyone and my kids were in grade school. I thought it was going to be an upscale Kings Island! I had not idea as to the magic of the place.
We arrived in the afternoon that first day and went to the park with Mickeys magician hat (can’t recall the park). The first ride we did was The Great Movie Ride. I think I was as excited as the kids after months of planning. I got a little teary-eyed in the Wizard of Oz area. Silly I know.
@conmama We did the wake up call on our first trip I think but after that just used me phone alarm. I loved EMH but hated all the grumpy complaints I got not he way there. To this day my kids and my best friend (we did a few trips with there family) tease me about yelling at them to hurry up so we could make it on time fro rope drop- whenever I tell them we need to be somewhere on time they all just say, " rope drop!" I loved that rope drop show at Magic Kingdom, I still wake up S23 with the “good morning” song and he hates it. :))
The park with the hat is Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM) and the hat and the Great Movie Ride are both now gone. I scared my kids with that ride -hadn’t been on for years and had forgotten how scary it was when the person jumps on your car and then there was the Aliens room. Wizard of Oz was the best room for sure.
We live about 3 hours from Disney and used to go a lot when the kids were little but we haven;t taken them for years. I still go once a year with two girl friends - we go for one night and do the Food & Wine Festival and usually don’t even make it on any rides.
@kjofkw I used to do Disney plans for friends and family members all the time. I probably still have some on my computer somewhere. My Tetons/Yellowstone plan is definitely on here and I could probably dig up our Italy plans although that my brother did.
I am, as we speak on a group trip. Just woke up in the hotel ready to embark on a 6 day charity bike ride in Utah. The scenery will be gorgeous! But I must admit I am dreading the group aspect. I guess it’s a bit of social anxiety, plus anxiety I won’t be able to keep up with the rest. My husband promises to stay with me.
We do a bit of both. With kids in HS planning is often necessary. Always one bigger trip that’s well planned, and usually a couple of smaller trips where we just do whatever is available. We most often stay in timeshares, so the bigger trips are planned far enough ahead to reserve where we want, but last minute deals are great, when available. Went on our first big non-timeshare trip in a long time this summer - Australia. Accommodations were planned ahead, and some activities, and it was a good thing they were, because we were there during the local schools’ winter break (early July). Late August was a trip to New Hampshire, where the only thing planned was the condo (booked for a week, 10 days in advance).
As my avatar would suggest, we’re wanderers whenever we can be.
We’re also smart enough to know when we need reservations and that flights are often less expensive when purchased at least 3 weeks in advance. We do some research so we know what’s in an area, but mostly decide what to actually do once there. We’re also not opposed to adding or dropping something last minute. The only things “planned” are those with time restraints or crowds that require it.
When H and I were newly together in college a sailing trip he had planned got cancelled due to chicken pox among the others going. We decided last minute to go to FL instead. He came to my room with a detailed itinerary that even had which rest areas we’d be stopping at to use the bathroom and what time we’d be there. I took one look, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the nearby trash can telling him there’s no way in Hades I’d travel with him. He was so in love at the time that he agreed to just go along with me anyway, more or less begging to keep the trip on. Now he absolutely loves the way we travel. He even suggests some very last minute, on the spot, things we do. We can wake up one morning and decide to head out (from home) at times. It helps that he works for himself (no boss to ask for time off) and his job is mostly portable (needs a computer and occasional internet). I usually only work part time to keep my time free. Obviously when I’m full time (at school) we can’t do it, but I don’t choose that often specifically for our travel whims.
Organized tours would never work for us. We spend far more time than they allot at any museum or trail and could never handle having such an agenda. Cruises don’t interest us in the least either. We have crowd allergies and prefer off the beaten path. We’re the ones who were pulled over by a cop in Oklahoma because he didn’t recognize our license plate (PA) and wondered what we were doing on a back road - “most folks take the interstate.” After checking my license he apologized profusely and welcomed us to his area. We’ve also been in restaurants and post offices where they never get tourists. It’s pretty cool to be welcomed when you’re the one no one knows.
Charles Kuralt said it best, ‘Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.’
We’re with him. We use interstates to get to the start of our trip, but love getting off. We prefer seeing the land and the people and, well, wandering.
I’ve done both extremes and also in between. When H and I were dating and young we would go places without reservations or itineraries. One of my first memories of a trip to Europe with H was arriving in San Sebastián Spain on the eve of the running with bulls in Pamplona. Of course not a bed to be found and we ended up sleeping in the train station. This method worked well till we had kids. I remember one trip driving back from Sun Valley and we decided to just drive till we were tired. Not a room to be found for miles once we were ready to stop in Carson City… I remember being in a diner in Lee Vining at a pay phone calling every motel in Mammoth Lakes. I finally found a newer place with one room. After that trip I decided I don’t need to know what we are doing each day but I do need to know where we are sleeping.
I also used to pride myself on not taking organized tours. In the last five years I’ve learned that we miss a lot if we don’t sometimes take a tour. I’m talking day tours not a 10 days on a bus tour.
H and I also do charter sailing trips. I used to plan our itinerary but the last few trips I’ve done my research but go in with the mindset that the local chart briefer knows the area best.
I think with the internet it is easy to do research. I still check tourbooks out of the library but I rarely buy them anymore. With an iPad and smartphone it’s easy to do research and such on the go and much lighter. I remember traveling with multiple heavy guidebooks and sometimes ripping out sections as we went along.
Where I’m spontaneous in what we do each day I’m not one to find a last minute deal and go. I have a friend whose H searches out deals and they will decide to go on a trip with just a few days notice.
My sister and her family will also go camping with no reservations. I need to know I have a campsite.
I agree that getting off the interstate can be a Back in 1979 I drove across the country photographing firehouses. When we were in Seattle a friend took a look at our road atlas and put his finger on some tiny spot in Kansas and asked us to report back what we saw. (He was getting a Phd in geography I think.) What we saw was a town with a handful of houses, a decrepit looking silo, a gas station that no longer served gas and a part time post office. We had a very interesting conversation with the woman who ran the post office about what had happened to the town and where business, schools etc had gone.
We are going to China, and it turns out that guidebooks can be downloaded to your Kindle or parts of them as pdfs to your computer.
We are planners. WDW is, IMO, a must plan for vacation. We’ve been there 10 times and have stayed at same Disney property the last 5 times and still plan. One of the best examples of planning was a trip to DC. W got a hold of one of those Washington DC for Dummies books. One recommendation was to write your congressmen far in advance as they sometimes send stuff. W wrote expecting no reply. We got replies from all 3 congressmen. Both Democratic Senators Boxer and Feinstein sent all sorts of stuff (eg passes to things not typically available to public)… Feinstein had us show up at her office where we met another family. One of her aides then took us and the other family on a personal tour of Capital that included, in a part, riding on underground train system that takes Senators from their offices to Capital. We also got to stand on Senate floor where aide talked about history of Senate Chamber and S got to sit at VP’s desk in his office across from Senate floor (This was in pre 9/11 days). Our Republican Representative sent us a request for a $75 donation to his campaign.
I’m part planner, part free spirit.
I love to read up on a place before I go. It doesn’t make sense to go someplace with a rich history, culture and art and not know anything about it before hand. You miss out on the significance of it.
Pre-booking depends on how busy it is. Some places require a reservation or you won’t get in. The Alhambra in Granada, for example. To go to Spain and then miss the Alhambra because you don’t have a reservation would be terrible.
I also like booking accomodations sometimes. When I walked the Camino de Santiago last spring, I booked reservations in big cities, but in the smaller towns I just picked a place I was walking by. That worked out well. In the US on a road trip, I generally don’t make reservations. You never know how far you’ll feel like driving and something is usually available.
There are times when I’ve arrived someplace only to find out the town is sold out for the college football game or because the state fair is taking place, but that’s pretty rare.
But I don’t like to overplan. It’s nice to just do what you feel like doing at the moment and not have every minute scheduled.
Combination now. H more of a spontaneous and I would have plans in advance. Decades of experiences have taught us a lot. The internet and cell phones are wonderful for travel.
We did the package vacations years ago when it was harder to make various reservations. Now Expedia is our friend. We did one group trip (Costa Rica) but do better solo. One cruise- the best way to see Alaska but would rather spend a week at one tropical place than visit multiple islands. For road trips we often do not reserve hotels for travel days since we don’t know how far we’ll get. For a recent London trip (our second- last one was with a nine year old) we booked a hotel and researched day trips, choosing what to see/do when we got there. Flexibility. We like to know what we can do and decide at the time. The weather can change our plans.
We do miss out on some things by not planning ahead enough, but that’s okay. More enjoyable to decide to skip something because although on the list we just don’t feel like doing it. I am finally learning to pack a bit less, but still insist H have enough clothes so I am not spending my time doing laundry.
Years ago, all my travel was winging it. Now, never. Age, your ability to pay, want for more comfort dictates your choices.
I try to pick boutique hotels or BnB’s to make it interesting. So far, it has had great results.
Work and a dog keep me from traveling spontaneously. I have to plan.
I like trips with rough outlines. So, I’ll know it’s going to be 2 days there, then 3 days there, I’ll have the lodging set up in advance, but not much else. I’ll research some options ahead of time, then wing it.
Some people are planners; some people are improvisers. It’s a spectrum, of course, rather than a binary, but that’s a basic metric.
I’m an improviser through and through. That means that when unexpected things happen, I’m really good at rolling with it and adjusting on the fly. The bad side is that lots of unexpected things happen! My brother, though, is a very extreme planner. That means he avoids lots of unexpected things. On the other hand, when unexpected things do happen (and at least some of them are inevitable), he gets pretty bent out of shape. Pros/cons either way, and no way is “right.”
Planner here! Thankfully, both of us are that way. We’ll do one-day tours (Chernobyl, a local guide for the geneology in DH’s ancestral shtetl in Western Ukraine, an overnight ferry, 2.5 day minibus tourthriugh the Scottish Highlands), but strongly prefer 10-15 person bus tours vs the 40 people thing or big cruises. Also are big fans of the free walking tours to get an overview of the city.
We book all flights, hotels and transportation in advance and come up with a list of restaurants (though we often go off-grid for food once we arrive). That tends to be DH’s contribution. My job is to find things to visit. I come up with a list of more things than we could possibly cover, get all the details, and create a day-to-day document.
I have a spreadsheet for travel logistics and reservations, and a 10-15 page Word doc of things to do.
We won’t get through the entire list, but that’s intentional. Weather, energy, interest on a given day, or advice from locals can affect what we decide to do. I am VERY guilty of “we traveled all the way here, we’ve GOT to see everything!” DH in recent years likes to take an afternoon off to nap from time to time. I use that time to see the things I want to do that I know he doesn’t care to visit (a couple of Jewish Riga sites, Machane Yehuda market on Friday afternoon in Jerusalem, Mauritshuis in The Hague, ancestral towns in Co. Tipperary, etc.).
We got a guide for four days in the hinterlands of Western Ukraine (separate from the shtetl guide), and while he was a great guy and he made things much easier, I hated not being able to pull over the car and take pictures at will. (Photos are why I travel.)
I’m sitting in a restaurant in Monterey right now and have 2.5 days solo before DH gets here. Am driving down Hwy 1 tomorrow to Pismo Beach, spending Yom Kippur sitting on a beach contemplating my life, and then will head back to Mountain View, where I’ll see a CC friend, pick up DH at the airport, and then spend four days with S1. This is relatively spontaneous for me – I have places marked on Google Maps and hotels reserved. Am winging the rest. It is KILLING me not to reserve Hearst Castle! I checked last week and there were many tours available, so I will restrain myself from having to be at X by Y time, other than being off the cliff roads before dark.
My “spontaneity” got me a parking ticket yesterday (stopped to take pics), but the officer was nice and gave me recs for excellent (cheap) seafood and a less touristy beach. Went to the restaurant last night. Not quite cheap, but more reasonable than in Monterey, but the cioppino was incredible! Off to the beach now – fog is lifting!
I’m surprised the added cost last minute arrangements can be hasn’t been mentioned. Or, maybe I don’t know the secrets to avoiding that - I’m all ears!
Seriously, the hotels I tend to book are generally cheaper a month or more farther out (holiday times/ special pricing periods excluded) and same with airfares for the destinations and carriers I use. I often have to travel last minute and have several regular destinations, so notice large differences. I do have certain carriers and hotel chains I frequent, maybe if I looked more widely I wouldn’t notice the difference. Anyone???
Like many people here I am a combination of planner/spontaneous traveler. I enjoy the research part and you need to do research in advance for many things. DH and I just did 10 day trip to Portugal in June. We decided to go in early spring for mid-June so I immediately looked for best airfare I could find to firm up dates, then he did car rental as we decided on our driving plan and then figured out the itinerary and then I did intense hotel research based on how many nights needed in each of the places. After booking hotels, I made some lists of what we wanted to see but didn’t make any dinner or tour reservations in advance although I noted some restaurants and we did bring several guide books with us. We did have some info from several people we knew who had gone on similar trips and so we had their information but we didn’t necessarily follow what any of those people did. We used the concierge or front desk in each of the hotels for restaurant suggestions and enjoyed great meals. We also made some adjustments in places that we stopped to tour based on conversations with people we met as well as hotel front desk either adding or subtracting places. Weather also plays a part in what you plan to do. We let hotel front desk recommend and book a tour for us to go to Sintra from Lisbon on our last full day and that worked very well. Didn’t reserve any tickets in advance for any of the monasteries or palaces we toured but we got to many places early to avoid crowds. Glad that I hadn’t pre-booked a boat ride in Porto for example as when we were there the weather was overcast and moisture in the air because it takes some time for fog to burn off and water looked choppy. Did add a refreshing gondola boat ride in Avierno which we weren’t 100% decided on stopping in at all and we really enjoyed both that boat ride and the entire experience of seeing that town.
We are going to a wedding in Big Sur in June for friend of younger d and so I did book those accommodations already but haven’t yet decided on how many nights overall we are going to go for and whether we will do wedding first and then some additional touring or tour first and end with the wedding. Plenty of time for that.
Planner. We’ve done Disney about 10 times and planning is a must but it’s fun and easy for me. And for other kinds of trips I like to have enough ideas to pick from and not just be discussing what do we want to do and what even is there to do around here. And we don’t go on vacations to lay around the hotel. DH used to romanticize the idea of showing up at a hotel and perusing the brochures in the lobby to decide what to do but now he appreciates how fun and smooth our trips are. And we can still browse the brochures and modify plans but I at least want to have enough ideas in advance to fill the trip if we don’t come up with anything else.
Interesting thought from Marvin100. How much does this correlate (question to all)? I love improvising and also have always scored super high on problem solving skills. It was my best asset back in my AF days according to their “scoresheet” and I got the highest score among my group. I get bored with routine. No surprise that my worst score was in day to day routine stuff. Even now I work part time to be able to switch my life around as needed and not get into ruts. I love traveling, but traveling somewhere new and unexpected easily surpasses places we’ve been to before -even if we enjoy those places.
I hadn’t really put those two things together before and I’m not 100% sure they’re linked because my H is an engineer - about as “routine” and “planner” as one gets in his everyday life and he’s also really good at problem solving on the fly hardly ever phased by needing to go to Plan B when necessary - plus he loves impulsive travel as much as I do (now). He didn’t before he met me though.
General correlation or not based upon other folk’s experiences?
We book hotels 2-3 months in advance and prefer locally-owned accommodation vs big US chains. Because we use FF miles for travel, we book flights well in advance. DH arranges his work travel, so he is REALLY good at these logistics. It’s a win-win since he likes that kind of stuff and it frees me up to work on itineraries, which is my specialty.