<font color = '#736aff'> How soon before your trip do you start getting those &quot;I'm about to travel!&quot; butterflies?

For me, it is about to sink in that I will be able to see some of my favorite artists work up close and I will be able to see the Duomo and have espresso and be surrounded by a city I always longed to travel to.

I have got sooo much to do before then!! Yikes!!! </font>

From the moment I buy the tickets and have booked the hotels , I get really nervous !!!

Like kenderina, I get excited as soon as the first arrangements are made!

When the Yankee and I are sitting and talking about taking the trip and we/he/I suddenly say-&quot;Lets book it now!&quot; and we are off!
This can be months before the actual trip or days, the excitement is the same

I see from the different colors you're posting that you're real excited about your travel, and even more excited you found out how to change your font colors!

How long are you going to Florence?

As for me, I don't get travel butterflies until I get off the airplane. I'm often so bogged down in work beforehand that I just don't have the time to even think about my trip.

Sad.

I guess I'm jaded, with more than 100 trips under my belt. I get excited about two hours before I drive to, or the taxi comes to take me to, the airport. Suddenly the adrenaline kicks in and I wonder if I really do have everything I need - the passport, the house keys, the airline tickets, the euros, the ATM card, the credit cards...

But other than that I've gotten pretty blas&eacute; about it over the years, which I like because I'm not fretting about whether I've got the &quot;right&quot; shoes or the &quot;right&quot; clothes. Once on the ground, I deal with whatever I have to deal with.

For me the hardest thing is keeping up with technology - quadband phones, Bluetooth, wifi connections - there's alway something new I need to know about to stay afloat technologically while I'm over there. Other than that, no butterflies at all....Europe is just business as usual.

I get excited after the airplane is up in the air. Up until then I am wary.

US Airways has messed so many trips for me that I feel persecuted.

The one that beat it all was an attempt to get to Dublin. We missed a connecting flight in Charlotte, finally got to Philly the following day, waited for about 6 hours past the scheduled departure time until somebody shanghaied a crew. We never actually flew into Dublin. After a forced landing at Shannon we arrived by bus.

Then returning we missed the connection in Charlotte. Then the next two flights were cancelled. We were finally flown to Atlanta, which was perhaps 60 minutes closer by car to Athens. Then the Athens bound passengers were stuffed in a taxi. There were 7 overly upholstered people in the spaces which would, at best, have held 7 midgets. Then the driver refused to listen to my directions. As a result he got stuck in I 85 traffic for over an hour.

Finally when we got home, I told him to take me to my house and I would finish delivering his passengers who were strangers to the area. Some of them were trying to find obscure buildings on the UGA campus and I knew he would take a long time trying to find someone who even knew where they were!!

So after those wing dings, I get excited when I think I am on my way.

I think i should get excited only after I get off the plane in Europe. But I am an optimist.

I guess i should cheer up. My alternative is Delta.

LOL, bob brown, <i>US Airways has messed so many trips for me that I feel persecuted.&lt;/I How sad! I hope you will not get beaten up any more ~

I hope I am always excited and full of butterflies everytime I take a trip. Business as usual is when I go to the supermarket, if that happened with Travel, I would be depressed forever!!</i>

well, I messed up with that ! and did not proof read..sigh, sorry..

Excited? When the plan lands and I arrive. I sure don't get excited about flying anywhere. Being on a plane now is liking being crammed into a Greyhound Bus, LOL.

And of course I meant plane not plan, LOL.

Once I have the idea in my head, there is some level of excitement until I carry it out. Not constant, mind you, but for example, I decided I wanted to go to Morocco years and years ago, but I had to wait until the time was right. However, I was excited about it all those years.

I will say, though, that the real excitement starts when I make my first trip-specific purchase (be it an adapter or a notebook. . . whatever I buy with &quot;this is for X location&quot; in mind).

For me the excitement starts after I have arrived safely and taken delivery of my hire car, because my companion and I refuse to do any pre-trip planning these days and leave it totally to chance as to how the trip unfolds.

Harzer

I go through phases. I'll have days where I feel like I did as a little kid on Christmas Eve, can't sleep, can't think about anything else. It just can't get here fast enough. Then I'll have days where I'm so busy or preoccupied I don't think about it at all. But the week leading up to it, I get pretty high strung in a good way and don't really relax until I'm there.

From the time I decided where to go and buy the tickets, which could be a month or year before the actual trip.

For me planning the trip and researching the destination is half the fun!

I get excited when I first choose the place. Then the feeling ebbs away. I get excited again when I get some of the planning completed, such as flights or lodging. Then it ebbs away again. So I'd say it comes and goes but is always very strong the last several days before I leave.

I get excited when I first book the air flights and hotels...then there is usually a long break of several months where you are just waiting for time to pass. I get excited again when I start the planning process closer to departure...finalizing the itineary and fine tuning the plans about a month before I go. A nervous energy kicks in a day or two before departure where I can't sleep or concentrate.

I feel exactly like Poohgirl! But the best part is checking in - as soon as that is over, I feel like a complete different person - free and excited, and without any responsibilities!

It comes and goes in waves. The initial excitement is when the idea first strikes. Then there is the intial planning/researching/booking. There might be days, weeks, or months between each stage. Each stage brings about a whole wave of excitement, but then followed by a period of, well, normal life.

But, usually, about a month before hand I start getting nervous: is everything in place, can I really afford this, will my reservations be lost, will tragedy strike? Pre-trip jitters, I call them.

Then, the week before the trip, the excitement comes and stays. I'm living on a 5 - 7 day high.

Funny thing? After I arrive at my destination? The excitement is just...gone. I settle into total relaxation and vacation mode.

I get excited planning it from the get go. After I get the airline tickets, I am giddy. When I get on the plane, I am in a dream like trance. When I land, I am in heaven....
Travel is my passion.