General Travel Advice group posting on GLOBOsapiens

Self-planning - but how much?

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davidx Premium account Joined: Dec 04 Points: 34719 Posts: 440 Posted: 2006-04-06 12:37:00    This is the third of a series. Please give your own views. In my book terms like under-planning and over-planning are meaningless since there is no accepted norm. It is purely a matter of preference. However it’s not an area without potential problems and clashes. The minimalist planner accuses the person at the other extreme of spoiling the whole thing. Pam’s accusation against me is that she is hardly allowed to see a lamp post unless I have ascertained its position in advance. Of course I dispute this and say that we should miss all sorts of must-sees, if I hadn’t prepared thoroughly. Problems arise, then, when people of opposite views travel together but they can also if both people travelling together are Tour Leaders Manqués. [I accept that I am such a one.] The second problem is easier to solve. Rigid sharing between holidays or between days of a holiday was the answer a friend and I adopted and it worked well. Pam and I have worked out a rough modus vivendi, which leads to my doing the planning, which I like, but not talking about it much – which I find a bit difficult. In return I have to produce the method for seeing something when she suddenly decides she wants to see it – from a picture or a tourist office leaflet. Any better ideas? Of course, however much time you spend planning, you will find yourself having to make fast decisions on the spot. How was I to know that on what I thought was ONE day that all the saints rest from there labours [more honestly, I’d forgotten them altogether!] they would cause massive reductions in rail and bus services for 4 days in Spain and Portugal? Who would expect bus services on the Lofoten Islands to stop completely on Labour Day? --- Grieve not for that which you cannot do but rejoice in that which you can. Reply    Reply with quote    Contact davidx   eirekay Premium account Joined: Aug 03 Points: 19539 Posts: 214 Posted: 2006-04-08 03:37:00    David, I acknowledge over planning (I have 6 books on India at the side of my bed right now). I view it this way - I am a great person to travel with - my companion doesn't have to lift a finger in planning, once we arrive, everything will flow relatively smoothly and they can just relax and enjoy! My issue is that while my children are game for just about anything, and I have a life long friend, Mary, who will go anywhere w/me, my husband is not a comfortable traveler. It is just not his thing - neither is back packing. I learned long ago to let go of the idea that as husband and wife, we had to do this together. In 1993 I talked 3 girlfriends into going back packing - we called ourselves "Babes in the Woods". The 2nd year the 4 of us grew to 11. We have gone every year since, and we now have at least 20 per trip. My husband is wonderful - whether it is with Mary or with one of my children, he takes me to the airport, watches which ever children I have left behind, feeds the dog, and sends me loving e-mail about what is going on at home. He is just relieved that I no longer expect him to come along for my ride! Eire --- Life is not measured by the breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away. Profile Pic: Tikal, Guatemala Reply    Reply with quote    Contact eirekay   mistybleu Premium account Joined: Aug 04 Points: 53340 Posts: 245 Posted: 2006-04-08 15:17:00    Firstly I’d like to say I want to travel with you Eire, as one of my complaints about my travel partners is that they don’t lift a finger, just once I would like not to shoulder the responsibility. I never used to do any planning, I would just purchase at ticket and turn up at the airport; with the attitude ‘whatever sight see - I see’, or whatever sight I missed I’ll just catch the next time. However now that I travel further afield, I want to see everything so planning is essential. But it’s a delicate balance of imparting knowledge and not coming off as a know-it-all to my friends. --- "So many places, so little time" ((*_*)) Reply    Reply with quote    Contact mistybleu   bootlegga Premium account Joined: Jul 04 Points: 15194 Posts: 124 Posted: 2006-04-08 17:58:00    David, I'm of the opinion that you can research a place to death and when you get there, it may or may not be what you expect. I tend to do a lot of research on a place I'm am heading to and will list the top 20 places I want to see, but if I only get to see 10 of them, that's fine as long as those 10 were interesting and kept me fascinated. I avoid tours because in the past, it always seems that I just get interested at a place (museum, landmark, etc) and then its time to go to the next place. I prefer the flexibility to spend as much time as I want at a certain place. When I went to NW Europe last year, instead of going on a D-Day beaches tour for 70 Euros each, my buddy and I rented a car for 100 Euros and saw what we wanted and stayed as long at each beach as we felt like. I also know that we got burned at a couple of locations because the place we went to was closed. In Paris, we almost didn't get to see the Hotel Invalides because it was closed Mondays (which none of our research told us). Fortunately, we got up really early the day we left and got to spend a couple hours there before heading off to Caen. We also got burned in St. Malo when the Tour Solidor was closed. C'est la vie I guess. It just means there will still be something to see the next time I go. --- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." – Mark Twain Reply    Reply with quote    Contact bootlegga   rangutan Premium account Joined: Aug 04 Points: 34752 Posts: 1044 Posted: 2006-04-08 18:40:00    I like the idea of discussing travel planning but can't understand the 5 different threads and the last in capital letters is annoying. :- ( David perhaps give us a brief structure of your 'series', we are confused. I love planning for traveling, sometimes do months in advance, specially when a group is involved. When I travel alone I plan 'on-the-road' and enjoy a very flexible itinery. Planning for a group is different and much more must be fixtured in advance. I have done a few of these and will describe them in my blog 'travelogue soon'. RR --- Rudolf "Rangutan" Graspointner Reply    Reply with quote    Contact rangutan   eirekay Premium account Joined: Aug 03 Points: 19539 Posts: 214 Posted: 2006-04-08 22:22:00    If nothing else, sometimes taking a couple of minutes at the end (or in the middle) of a really stressful or hectic day allows me to take my mind some places else and reminds me that there is more to the world. There are days I need that! Misty - you can come with me any time! Eire --- Life is not measured by the breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away. Profile Pic: Tikal, Guatemala Reply    Reply with quote    Contact eirekay   ronellevan Joined: Jun 06 Points: 476 Posts: 18 Posted: 2006-11-06 22:48:00    I've done it both ways, overplanning a trip because I had too much time on my hands and leaving it all up to someone else because I had no time to do it. I enjoyed both. The trip I planned gave me a great sense of control over my holiday, I got to see all the things I wnated to see. Sometimes the plan had to be thrown out the window, but that was always good too. The trip I didn't plan was exciting in the fact that I didn't know what was coming next. I still got to see plenty of interesting things and never had to worry about sticking to "the plan". Reply    Reply with quote    Contact ronellevan