Do you ever get "planning" overload???
 

Hi,
I'm sitting at my computer gasping for a cup of tea....but I keep on planning my trip!
We leave in about 8 weeks, 3 days and 22 hours for Italy (2 weeks), Cotswolds (1 week) and Paris (1 week).
I have collected so much information, written down so many gems, printed out so many comments...that I am now in overload.
The really funny thing is that although I plan each trip to the nth degree and book way in advance, I actually take each day as it comes whilst on these trips..go figure.

In fact, I'm getting that overload feeling right now!

I'm also on overload. I've had flights and rooms booked for months and have been checking this site daily. Now I'm at the point of printing out train and ferry schedules and trying to figure out how to get from place to place. Just this week I had to make a pile for area we were visiting. Hope to condense it down to a few pages in the next 2 weeks. Last time I did this, I couldn't fine my file once I reached our destination and then had to wing it!

I did very little planning before discovering this site. Now I really enjoy the research here and reading others trip reports.

kimerley -

Information is POWER!

Don't look at is as planning overload, look at it as information gathering.

I'm planning now for a trip to Germany that we probably won't take for another two years. Until then, I will continue to absorb as much information as I can find (thank you Fodors/Fodorites for the wealth of material).

Have a wonderful and safe four weeks touring Italy and France (I'm jealous). Peace.

Robyn

I'm doing the same thing. But it is really helpful on the logistical end =especially in foreign countries. I do however wing much of the restaurants. I like to find my own. I usually book one recommended one and then just explore.

I've found myself doing a lot of research on a destination. I read comments, make copies, etc. I find that it helps just getting in the mode of a trip and being aware of what you might encounter. I've taken piles of paper with notes, but in reality, the pace of a trip, once you have arrived, kind of takes over, and you are just trying to keep up with getting to see the sites you planned for. You don't always have time to read your notes. Also, I have found that as many recommendations you read about for restaurants thinking you will find one and eat at it, well, that mostly doesn't happen. You may not be in the area where it is located at whatever time,--- lunch, or dinner. And so we find that we'll just eat at a place near where we are at the moment. Ha! I've also forgotten my papers once, in the rush of getting ready.

I start about six months beforehand and it seems that I literally live, eat and breathe the trip planning. Overload....yes. But, fun....definitely.

One does have to wonder how we did it before the Internet when all we had was a massive pile of guidebooks.
I planned the details of our last trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest and as stated before, "the trip took over." I was glad of the planning though, we never would have gotten into the Perle De Prague Restaurant without a reservation and it's the only way to get to the top of the Dancing Building.
So the over-planners get the rewards, as long as we don't get too attached to the plans.

Yes, sometimes I need to just "push away" and just say no. It can be an obsession at times IMO.

Don't worry about it. Once there, you'll find all that research really pays off - enhances your trip enormously.

For sure, you'll never get around to all of it, but you'll be making much better use of your time than those who haven't spent much time, if any, planning.

Absolutely kimerley! Piles of info just tossed into a file folder. I go through the mass of paper periodically and try to categorize it: public transportation, sightseeing, restaurants, shopping, etc. Then gradually I pare it all down until I have a reasonable amount of info to take with us.

Also make up an itinerary incorporating some of the "stuff," listing all the reservation material, including reservation #s, websites, e-mail addresses, etc. I slim this down and leave a copy with people at home, so they know how to reach us in case of emergency.

Sometimes my head aches with trip planning, but eventually I find it is useful and worth the time spent.

All things pass. Have fun. :-d

.........We're not leaving for France/
Spain until September - my backpack
has been packed and zipped since Feb.

Yesterday I came to my senses and
unpacked the darn thing and started
to wear the clothes! Besides, I've
got so many print-outs I have no
room for clothing let alone shoes.

The planning is just as much fun as
the actual trip (at least to an O/C
traveller!

I am there now! I think I had a mini break down yesterday and blew up at my boyfriend because he wasn't helping me with anything. We are flying stand by so that throws a wrench into the equation. We were originally going to fly into Vienna and out of Venice for our Croatia trip coming up in less than 2 weeks. Now the flights are all full so we are flying into Munich and out of Rome! Totally changed our trip plans except for the middle 10 days or so out of a 19 day trip! Still loving it!

Like Statia, I prefer a 6 month cycle for planning. Yes, it is a major part of the fun and the more you plan the more power you can exercise to deviate from the plan on the spot.

"the more you plan the more power you can exercise to deviate from the plan"

Well said, Bob the Navigator!

Thank you, thank you - I just told my husband I am not the only obsessed travel planner. I can relate to each post here. Before the Internet, I would read every out-dated travel book they had in our local library and make many photocopies. The Internet has made the details very accessible. And when I have an "overload", I put the files (yes, one for each city or town) away until the planning is fun again. Here's a question for everyone: how do you carry all of your information? Folders, notebooks? Any suggestions, so that my travel information doesn't take up more space than my clothes?

I am a frequent reader and sometimes poster on travel BBs. But when it comes to planning an actual trip *all* I ever do is pick a city or two, book air ticket and hotels. Maybe if it's my first time in a new place I buy one guidebook for an overview. So to answer the original question~ I can't get planning overload since I don't plan. I get a good map and pick up local papers or free guides after I arrive... besides that am of the take it as it comes school of thought which has served me well so far.

Now ask me about figuring out what to pack and that's another story!! Maybe we all show our obsessions and excitement in different ways?

Marsha, you edit, then you distill, then you edit again until you can get it all into one zippered 3 ring binder along with your travel documents. I call it my " Trip Tik", and it is sacred.

glad I'm not the only one overloaded...I think I can also be boring re trips before I leave so I'm working heavily on that problem!!
Marsha, I file the info on A4 and carry the info in those folders with clear plastic sleeves.
I don't actually walk around with them though! I review them in the privacy of my room!
The packing issue is hysterical...I plan to take very little as will my 15 year old son.
My husband is currently in Europe on a business/pleasure trip. He does not pack light. When I suggested he wash his underwear out each night/or buy 21 pairs of undies for each day and throw them out..he was mortified. He was going to use the hotel laundry service. Well. he has just rung and amongst other interesting news he mentioned that it costs 3 euro for the hotel to wash one pair of undies!!!!He's going out to buy some cheap ones to throw away.
The upside to planning overload is it is the best sort of "problem"
cheers

"Yes, it is a major part of the fun and the more you plan the more power you can exercise to deviate from the plan on the spot."

bobthenavigator, you are soooo right!!

I went to Scotland several years ago and wasted so much time just trying to figure things out (and it was all in English!) I vowed to never let that happen again. We are leaving for Italy in 3 days and I have been researching for 6 months. My plan won't control me but at least I will have a good idea what is going on. And much of the great information I have gotten has been here on this website. I added Montepulciano to my itinerary simply because bobthenavigator made it sound so enchanting....thanks a million

imagine how hard it would be to plan a trip without this site...a big thank you to everyone who write up their wonderful trips and give great advice.

Another added bonus to planning over a long period of time is that most of the information is embedded in your brain by that point...should you happen to accidentally lose your "trip tik" while abroad. Believe me...been there, done that. Now I email it to myself as a back up.

I'm past overload and now into meltdown!! 11 days until we leave for England and I have been planning since January. I know those B&B owners thought I was O/C when I peppered them with emails for reservations back in January. Now I am condensing all the notes I gathered for the last 5 month so I will have room for my clothing. Frustration is setting in because I remember reading a post here about a woman who bought her husband a hat in London at a store on or near Jermyn Street and I really really really wanted to go there and get my husband a hat and after doing searches for every word I thought I remembered in the post including that the hat was like the one worn by Indiana Jones or was it Harrison Ford I cannot find the post. I enjoy so many things about the Fodor forum but now it's really frustrating me because I know I read about the hat shop here and I am disappointed that I can't find it. Yes, I am definitely beyond overload. Deborah

Kimerley:

Yup! I definately have trip planning overload...TODAY. Until now I have not been able to lay my hands on one travel note or anything like that...Mother's Day is a very busy day on my planet.

Lots of what was posted before me rings true but this time(May 2004) I have really out done myself.

I did not put closure and final details on a few journeys so I am overloaded as follows:

1) My May Winemaker Dinner weekend. No wineries selected for two of the days, no calls made...I think our son's senior year activities this month and next are where my head is.

2)Memorial Day (4 day weekend) camping trip, menu's and details not done...reservations had to be made a year ahead so, were in!

3)10 day trip to Oregon...needs final touches. I do have my Shakespeare plays and other plays picked out though...

4) Wild and wonderful 5 day trip to Southern California with darling son...needs details completed. Hubby is flying down one night...he is set.

5)10 days in the California Gold Country and Sacramento for The Olympic Track and Field Trails...paid for months ago...need to do the details.

6)4 day International Competition in Italy...details not done...

7)Our 35th year of our 10 Day camping trip in Northern California with 40 awesome families...I'll just get in the car...

8) Three weeks to the Southwest USA with hubby...loads more to do...

That takes us through the end of AUGUST.

Come September me and 4 of my girlfriends are off to South America for 35 to 40 days(!)...I am working daily on that journey...

We will not discuss the travel stuff that comes after that journey like my FIRST(Freshman) Parent Weekend at our son's college in late October...

While certainly overloaded, excited, exhusted and blessed to be so overloaded..it is that Freshman Parent Weekend that puts an instant smile on my face!

I have aproximately 25 travel books and I will not tell you how many files and websites I have...My brain is 100% dedicated to the senior son and hubby...

I am strange... if you ask me anything big or small about any of the above I could tell you without hesitation what you wanted to know.

Time for that Mother's Day Cocktail!

Don't ask me after that...smile.


Great Question.
Oaktown Traveler

I got into intense planning for an upcoming trip to Ireland -- leaving in less than 2 weeks. After collecting all kinds of data and asking my wife what about this, what about that, she finally looked at me and said: "I thought we were going to wing it."

I'm just taking all the stuff with me and "playing it by ear." We're on vacation and don't want to keep to a regimented schedule.

kimerley, looking forward to hearing how things went. It's all in the attitude -- you'll have a great time!! ((b))

Have been working on 7 week trip to Europe for 2 weeks that starts in July and I thought I was overdoing. But really i just enjoy the research. The search. This site and forum has helped alot and I thank all of you for your patience and help. I like to plan so I can get the itinerary in my head and enjoy day by day when I arrive.

Oaktown Traveler, a clone of yourself is in the post! Boy do you have a lot to deal with.
I've just been looking at my last trip planned itinerary...and we did hardly any of it!
We stayed on the CT for 7 days, I'm embarrassed to say, we did not do one walk or even see the 5 villages!!! We did go to Pisa and another day went to Portofino...the rest of the time we swam, sunned and ate. Loved that Limoncello at night!
In Perugia for 7 nights with car...we visited Assisi and Deruta and Perugia.
The rest of the time, we swam, sunned and ate...we also went walking and picked wild flowers for our villa.
Looking at how little we did, I can't believe we did not make more effort..but the flip side is we really had a great time in Italy (all up 4 weeks) and I can return and see the places I missed.

It's funny, but in the past year I've done a lot of domestic travel, which I don't normally do, and I absolutely OBSESS over the details for it, while for travel to Europe I am totally serene.
I have come to the conclusion that I don't know my own country as well as I know Europe, and that's a kind of enlightening conclusion, even though I spent most of my young life traveling the USA and I have done countless trips to visit relatives in Colorado and Sioux Falls and California and New York and New England.
I just don't know the USA the way I know Europe. Hit me!

One magnificent way to cut down on the paper you drag along is to invest in a PDA and a few desktop/PDA programs. Especially "Documents to Go".

I can't imagine traveling without a PDA any more.

Not only is it fabulous for lists, web pages, pda documents - I've got all my accounts in PocketMoney (also great for a Customs list), a currency converter (also temps, measurements, sizes, etc.), language translators, maps, calendar/itinerary, address book.

You can copy and paste all your hotel, etc., confirmations, etc.

Fodor's has entire tour guides, maps, etc., for PDA.

Even Zagat's has their guides for PDA.

Well there is planning and there is research. I read somewhere a quote I really like - "Without prior preparation your experience is diminished because you miss the significance of what you are seeing and doing". And also " as with most things in life, what you get out of a trip is equal only to what you put into it. Learning about a place is part of the excitement of travel".

I don't "plan" in the sense of lists of restaurants to eat in, but I do a lot of research - what sites to see (and information about those sites), history of the area, little things that aren't in the major guidebooks, best times to see things to miss the worst crowds, ect. Things like knowing about the alternate entrances to the Louvre so as to avoid the long lines. That type of thing. This information and these tips makes my trips so much more enjoyable.

I spend so much time reading guidebooks and searching on the net. When I start to know everything I read, then I know I'm done. Plus as someone said, then it's in your brain and you don't have to keep referring to your notes. And it really is half the fun. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I didn't have planning to take up all those months when I can't travel. But I definitly believe in bogthenavigator's theory that the more you know the more free you are to be spontaneous.

It takes me a long time to overload, so it only happens on trips that I plan at least 6 months out.

On those, I overload after a couple of months and then mostly stop researching until about 6 weeks out, when I can pick up from what I did at the beginning.

Keith

StCirq: Now I know you are a world traveler - you have been in Sioux Falls! The only thing missing in our little city is good transportation connections to the outside world.

Can I say - from personal experience - that bobthenavigator's comments are spot on. I found that printing out 5 pages of peoples restaurant recommendations or suggested daily itineries was pointless, because you ended up not using them because they were in a hotel and a bit unfocused.

The way to do it is find 50 recommendations (or how ever many is appropriate for your location) and condense them into 1/2 page sorted into 'region' or suburb (with just the name and address of restaurant) so, when you are wandering around (say) Trastevere (Rome) at lunch time you look up Trastevere in your list and find the place. And combine all the itineries into your own itinery, leaving many hours spare each day for unexpected delays/finds/weather/resting issues etc. Then chuck out every else's! Printed double sided and maybe small font the eating and restaurant stuff should be no more than 1 page per location.

Add to this any research you want on where you are going (including things like trains or how to buy museum tickets etc) - but keep in mind that a good guide book is usually more useful, since it will/may (should) have the stuff you walk past and say 'what is that'; and also that in most countries you can buy reasonable guides in English (and other European languages) on the spot. Budget for their purchase and throw them out if space is an issue - maybe tear out the pages of the sites you want to remember.

Also keep in mind that you may well end up ignoring your itinery when you get somewhere - dont worry about it. Identify the key sites you want to visit and go to them, as for the rest - its all fascinating, even if you miss something on your list.

In one of my other interests - photography - people get what is called 'analysis paralysis' - they research everything so much that they cant make a decision on what to purchase and then end up second guessing any decision they actually make. Travel, luckily, is much more flexible, but dont plan so much you get into paralysis mode

I don't recall suffering from planning overload (We typically do some Web research on lodging, and more and more, the attractiveness of the lodging shapes the destination, in places other than those we keep returning to.) But from lurking in these parts for the last few weeks I can see the possibility of planning overload. I have two objections to "overbriefing," one practical and one theoretical: You may spend way too much time on arrival comparing expectations/promises to reality, and supposing your reams of research turn out to be right on -- i.e., that you knew everything before you set out -- why did you bother to take the trip?

Overoad? My husband asked me last night what I was going to do when we got back and I have all the free time that I'm not planning our trip.

I don't call this overload, I call it fun. I,like many others wonder how I ever travelled before the internet and these types of sites. I can't even remember how I booked a hotel in Paris before. I think we just got off the train at the Gare du Nord, found an ugly hotel across the street for the first night and then got on the phone and moved on. I enjoy planning this way and look forward to finding new bits of info. Thanks to everyone for all the sharing. I keep finding great ideas here.(We're not going until May so keep on posting!)

my research involves around 6 mths of collecting info from the web/here on opening times/prices and how to reach each place that interests me.i also find a small map of each attraction/museum/ even of shops i want to visit.i prepare especially detailed plans and maps on how to navigate through the airport to the hotel. i keep these in a word doc.about 1 month before i write an initial itinary.i study the transport system and any intteruptions in service. i read trip reports and compare with my plans.the night before i print out my document using a small font into a small portable book and carry it with me.after i return i review my trip and see where i had not researched enough. this i would term as a research defficiency. you cant overload research, its always educational, even if you never visit the place in question.

I am looking at Fodor's every spare minute I get. We leave for Ireland in two months and two weeks. I think 1/2 the fun of a trip is looking forward to it.
I must admit though I am at this point obsessed with looking at posts, checking out places to see and things to do. We are watching videos and DVD's from the library and the video store. Travel ones and just films that were made there. It might be that I am sick of this winter weather and need something to look forward too. I am even planning to lose 20 lbs before going, using the trip as an incentive. I think I may be driving my husband crazy talking about Ireland so much.

Are you kidding? It's how I get through my day! I secretly read fodor's and frommer's and anything I can get my hands on while I'm supposed to be paying attention in class. And I have every day planned- I feel extremely anal. But it'll be fun to look back on my journal of planning down the road!

Rachel

I decided to go to Paris a month ago.

So, I went to the travel agent and started asking about flight and hotels. Then my friend who is going in May to Paris suggested to me to go to the fodors website. I've been enjoying all the threads. Thanks everyone.

Reading all this information has been overwhelming. I started printing this and that... I've just decided...what will be will be when I get there. Plus trying to make sure most of my work at the office is done prior to leaving has been sort of taxing.

A bit stressed. Packing and still reading the fodors site. LOL :)