Hahahahhaa! Overload indeed!

This has been a fun thread! As a travel agent I hear this from alot of clients who suffer from this little discussed malady and throw up their hands and turn their trip over to a professional.

That said, here *I* am on the site -- I enjoy reading everyone's posts and yes, I've got a huge file of info for our upcoming Italy trip in September!

Am not on overload (yet), but Damama --are we sharing the same husband? Mine said exactly the same thing to me last week! Of course, all trip planning is left to me and C.H. (Clueless Husband) will usually start asking question about where we're actually going, say.oooh, I dunno...ON THE PLANE perhaps?!

Lately I've stumbled onto people's trip reports and I find them absolutely fascinating. Some of them should be writing their own travel articles, they're that clever and entertaining!

Regards,

Melodie

I agree, information is power. I was starting to question my habit of over-researching, overplanning, supplying a color-coded excel sheet itinerary for every trip.

Then I went on a trip with 3 guys who don't plan, don't research, and don't like to be committed to any kind of itinerary. We'd wake up every day thinking, "So what are we doing today?" and wondering for hours as the day rolled on. I finally ramped back up into "super do-er" mode and started forcing plans on them. No surprise, the days that this happened, they said were their most interesting days of the trip.

It's OK to take each day at a time, but it's also good to have a <i>thought</i> of what you might want to do each day, in advance. kimerley, someone's gotta do it, why not us??

what a giggle to see my last trip posting.....yes I've got planning overload again!
My son (15yrs) and I had a fabulous time together. Lots of laughs and misadventures...particularly in Italy without a car.
The mappy directions and train timetables I copied and took were very useful. Our plans were not ridgid and we did most of the things we planned.
Getting lost in Bastia looking for the elusive factory outlet was not much fun at the time....but we had a good laugh when we finally made it back by public transport to our isolated villa near Perugia!
This time I am travelling with 2 friends for nearly 8 weeks.
London (5 nights by myself)
Paris (5 nights)
Luneau/Burgundy (7 nights)
Pernes les fontaines/Provence (7 nights)
Lajatico/Tuscany (7 nights)
Camporgiano/Tuscany (7 nights)
Nice (1 night)
Bidford on Avon/Cotswolds (5 nights)
London (4 nights)
then fly home to family and reality!
My overload at the moment is paying the deposits on the accommodation, working over our non existent budget, worrying about driving in France. Mind you I am very aware of how lucky I am so to be complaining about being overloaded with planning a trip is fairly dreadful. I am contrite!

wlzmatilda, I'm sure they must be twins! We are leaving in two weeks for Italy and if you ask my CH where we are going, he probably couldn't tell you anything beyond Italy. Not sure he knows what cities we will visit. He just better not complain about not being able to do what he wants or there will be only one person on the plane returning - that will be him. I'm not stupid enough to leave him there - he can come back to reality. I will stay there and play.

wlzmatilda and damama....I've got the missing CH triplet! We're off to the UK in May/June and I've stopped trying to clue him in on the plans! I think I'll just hand him a folder on the plane with all the details!

On Wednesday he called me at work and said &quot;What's the name of the city we're going to and what days do I need to schedule off?&quot; That's only the 4th phone call that went exactly the same way. At this point, I think I might have to safety pin a note to his shirt for the teacher (boss) with the vacation days clearly spelled out!

As for overload....ditto, ditto, ditto!

I have planned this trip to death. This is the first time all 5 of us are going to Europe, usually it's just me, and I enjoy booking rooms as I go, but that's just not going to cut it when you have to book rooms for a family, so I have turned into a full out Fodors addict.

CH has no clue, he thinks I come on this site and read the same things every day, trying to explain to him that the threads change/update is about as useful as telling the cats that the window isn't going anywhere and that bluejay is just cruel!

I think I'll need a 6 week solo trip to Europe when this is all done. Perhaps we can start a 6 step (no time for 12 steps) program of Planners Anonymous...each step being a week abroad?!?!?!

Happy Travels!

We just got a faxed confirmation for our Vatican tour. CH acted like it fell from the heavens with all the necessary information (including duh - we can &quot;avoid a queue by going to a special line&quot Where did he think I found out how to do all of this?

It's so funny to read all of these posts, they're as if I wrote them myself. I am currently planning a 22 day trip to Italy for this July and my husband thinks, as usual, I'm a bit obsessed with guidebooks and this website. When we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon in 2001, he teased me for reading guidebooks ahead of time, asking friends for recommendations and picking up all the flyers at the airport upon arrival. Once checked into our room, I booked all our reservations for everything from golf to dinners and horseback riding during our stay, while he sat next to me and made fun of my &quot;overplanning.&quot; Boy did he tease me -he wanted to &quot;wing it&quot;. At the end of the trip as we boarded the plane for home, he said &quot;thanks for planning all that stuff, we never would have gotten it all in if you hadn't.&quot; He's right Although it was overwhelming at the time, I am glad I planned ahead and am very much enjoying the planning for Italy!

chocaholic,

Although I have received specific advice here at Fodors that has been very helpful, I think the most valuable part of this community is that is shows there are many ways to see a place. There is no &quot;right&quot; way for everyone.

This community also encourages me to try things that might normally be a little outside my comfort zone.

Keith

Enjoyed reading all the posts - I'm in the middle of planning a trip to Italy June 1st for a Med Cruise with several days in Rome before and after the cruise. I've researched soooo many hotels, but do have us booked at a nice residenza beforehand and a 5-star hotel for afterwards. Just wanted to experience both worlds. Still have to line up our daily itinerary and restaurants, but do know what we will try to see while in Rome. As a contrast to &quot;planning&quot;, several years ago my oldest daughter and I did an impromptu trip to Nice, Venice, Florence, Sorrento, Rome, and Paris to meet my youngest daughter who was backpacking around Europe. We left here with our airline tickets and hotel reservations for Nice. We winged it the entire trip by booking hotels for the next stop and buying train tickets as we went. My daughter, the backpacker, had her rail pass and had been winging it for about 3 weeks and we wanted to just &quot;get in step with her&quot;. This was such a fun trip because it was so spontaneous. In fact, we had not planned on going to Sorrento...the girls were looking at our travel book and decided they would like to go to the Amalfi Coast....so we did. I'm sure some would never set out like this, but it worked for us and was a very memorable trip.

Hi JudyT, my late DH and I always went to Italy with the proper documentation and a hotel room for the first night.

After that we &quot;winged it&quot; all the time. We had wonderful and very special trips.

I wonder if I had had Fodors if I would have overplanned. It is a question that keeps coming to mind.

Now when I visit Italy I have wonderful friends that I see. And they do tend to schedule things. It is so beautiful of them to want me to have a beautiful trip. But sometimes I long for being a bit more sponteneous.

I thought I'd take a break and let my DH plan our fall trip to Australia. Four weeks until our trip, and he didn't have a clue. Airline was booked (by me), but besides that ... When I asked which PART of Australia he wanted to explore, he just looked blank. Needless to say, I took over. (It's the same with Christmas shopping - he wants to buy presents for his family, but I'm always rushing out on Christmas Eve to finish his shopping!) I try not to be too rigid; I made reservations where I knew we'd be staying the night and planned to play it by ear other nights - wrong! There aren't many hotels on those backroads, and most B&amp;B's close up shop by 6:00. We learned our lesson. We had a great time, though, and are now busy planning our trip to Greece this spring! With all *our* planning, we won't miss anything! (And I DO love my DH!)

&quot;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.&quot;

Our experience, exactly, kimerley. I've always had an exhaustive itinerary for travel my wife and I take, but we both realize that I overload our schedule. If we linger in a pub, a museum, or a shop beyond our alloted time we just adjust on the fly. When we look at what we &quot;missed&quot; on the trip, our response is: &quot;next time.&quot;

I agree with artstuff and jimmy. With all of the planning and research i do for our trips I dont think that i have once followed the trip to the letter. Something always happens to change things but if you have done enough research then it always seems to work out. We are planning a christmas trip to Barcelona and it (me) is driving my wife crazy.

I am planning a 15 day trip to England and Wales for my husband and myself in September. I love the planning whether we actually do all the stuff I plan or not. It's like taking a mini-vacation to read the guidebooks and posts on Fodors. I have friends who decide one day to hop on a plane and take an extended trip with no forethought and they have a great time. There is something to be said for both plannning and spontaneity. A little of both is probably the best.

Patsy

Yes! After overplanning about 4 or 5 long trips, we did one with almost no planning last fall. It was more of an adventure and great fun. Drove from Chicago to Biloxi (and back) and hit about 4 or 5 cities in 8 days. There is something to be said for just falling into places that you can give the pause time they require, instead of keeping to a rigid schedule.

well when there are no international flights involved, you do have a larger degree of freedom and margin of error.

i dont think you can overplan a trip to europe. you can only underplan, like the people who will be visiting the louvre on april 4th will realize.