lynn

Greetings all - <BR> <BR>After our recent trip and getting back into the grind of everyday life, it dawned on me just how much fun I have planning trips. I think it hit me all of a sudden because, right now, I'm not planning a trip and probably won't be for a few months (for travel around Nov.) I miss it. The anticipation of it. Of course, the trip is better than the planning, but, the planning "ain't half bad!" <BR> <BR>In a way, I feel like I'm on a trip the whole time I'm planning and while I'm there. Heck, I didn't just go to Paris for 6 days, I was there for 2 months! At least, in my head I was. Immersion, that's the word for it. You read about where you want to go, what you want to see. You hop on Fodor's asking and answering questions. You draft up "rough" itineraries (which usually get blown on the 1st day) with diligence and thought, and, above all, you look forward to the moment you step off the plane and begin your great "adventure." <BR> <BR>So what do ya say. Do you "immerse" yourself too? <BR> <BR

amber

<BR>Ya! I'm doing the same thing right now. I'm so excited. But the thing is, it's my first real trip away (I've been to Disney World, but that doesn't count). I'm going to London mid-May; I'm only afraid that because I've thought about it so much, the trip won't live up to my expectations. <BR <BR>

Bev

Lynn, you are absolutely right. I am going to Paris for 6 days in September, preceded by 2 weeks in the Channel Islands, Brittany and Normandy. I have been reading, planning, reading info on this forum, etc. since late in December. My 3 week trip lasts almost the whole year. For me anticipation almost equals realization. My husband takes no part in the planning stage and I think he misses out on a whole lot. Will be interested to see what others reply to this question.

lynn

Thanks for the responses... <BR> <BR>Amber, don't worry too much about disappointment. Like all areas of life, disappointments can, and do, enter our wonderful world of travel on ocassion. However, how you handle them, reigns supreme. Just learn and move on. <BR> <BR>For me, the joys and adventure of discovery have far outweighed any disappointments. And those have been few and far between. <BR> <BR>If you like to people watch, hang out around Picadilly Circus (as long as you are with someone) at 2-3 a.m. in the morning. It is a riot watching all the sloshed people trying to catch a cab when it's difficult for them to even stand up! <BR> <BR>Have a great trip. Let me know if you have a question. <BR> <BR>Bev - <BR> <BR>I agree. My husband doesn't do any planning either so I think he misses out a little. Although, I must say he gets a kick out of watching me plan. He thinks my obsessive/compulsive behavior in this area is hilarious. <BR> <BR>Have a great one! <BR> <BR

topoftheworld

Dear Lynn: Absolute Immersion! You are so right! That is such a great string of words: "I wasn't there for 6 days, I was there for two months..." <BR> <BR>Last Spring, I discovered a town in Austria, that was pulling me <BR>towards it. Almost every night, I researched it, sometimes for only a few minutes, other times, for more. <BR> <BR>I found out about areas and regions, <BR>how to get there, etc. I happen to <BR>love Europe for its 'olde worlde' ambience. I found small hill towns nestled in the Alps, lost to time <BR>and space. <BR> <BR>I distilled my itinerary to five <BR>towns, including a farm in the <BR>tyrolean countryside, the highest waterfalls in Europa, near a town <BR>with a population of less than 800, <BR>and a piece of heaven known as Hallstatt. <BR> <BR>By Summer of last year, I was making room reservations and car rental agreements, all online. I was e-mailing <BR>the innkeepers, paying them in advance, (thereby reducing the money I would need on the trip, itself); Some may find this strange, but you know, if you are visiting a small town which has only two or three places to stay, and only one, yes, one, has an in-house restaurant, guess where you'd go! <BR> <BR>This had an unexpected side-benefit: <BR>Everywhere I went, I usually got the best room -- it was 'low season'-- and was always greeted warmly, by name, or a reasonably close facsimilie thereof. <BR>I got back within 15 days of leaving San Francisco, but that journey began last spring and continues to this day. <BR> <BR>Kris <BR> <BR>PS: If you want to discover magic, you can read about my journey to Hallstatt, <BR>by clicking below and training your eye on the column of print on the right vertical. <BR> <BR>http://www.eurotrip.com/

s.fowler

Kris- Thanks for sharing your pictures and experiences. Hallstat looks GORGEOUS. <BR>I'm in full agreement that a 2 week vacation can actually be a 6 month one if you count the planning and dreaming And if you plan it right you can *always* be on vacation! I feel cheated when I am so busy that I can't savor the planning. [And I savor it just as much for places I know well, although the anticipations are different.] <BR>Looks as though we may be headed back to Skopje for a 2 week conference this July. [Assuming the Balkans are still there ] -- once we know for sure all the memories will come back and the anticipations of friends, sites and FOOD will come back in. But before then there is this matter of work...

Monica

Hi Lynn, <BR> <BR>Yes, Immersion!! On a daily basis I'm at this web site. I look at my maps, books, brochures, my itinerary, and so on! I love to plan my trips. It's a hobby for me, which I truly enjoy. By the time I get to a city, I already know many of the streets or metro stops and how to get around without my map. My only disappointment is after coming home from a wonderful trip. It's back to work and the everyday life I have. BUT! I just start to think about my next trip and hey, I just start my planning for next year! <BR>

Myriam

When the time comes to prepare a vacation, I am so busy with it that anything else must wait. My poor husband sometimes complains that during these months (yes, months) I have so little time to sit with him, because I'm always at the computer surfing on the internet or looking in my guidebooks. But indeed, planning "ain't half bad".

dan

Amber, I wouldn't worry too much about disappointments. I planned daily for a year for a recent trip, and I had the same concerns. What I found was that some things were not as great as expected, but there were so many more things that surpassed my expectations. To me this is one of the best parts of travel. You may look at a hundred pictures of the Tower of London and read ten guidebooks' accounts of it, but still there will be something very special about actually standing there looking at it for yourself and realizing "Yes, I am in London." No book or video can provide the cultural experience either that the actual travel does.

Maggie

You mean I'm not the only one!!!! I also love the planning and get totally obsessed. Like some of you I've read so much and learned so much that when I get there my "mental map" kicks in and I find things easily. My husband also plays no part in the planning---although he loves that I do it and loves the results. The best though is still actually being there--wherever the current there is!! For me it's Italy in two weeks and Ireland in the fall. This site is great for us planners!!!

cheryl

Just another "immersionist" checking in. (I love that concept). Has anyone noticed that only women have answered this post? I enjoy the planning so much that I'm not only busy planning our trip to Italy, I'm also making all the arrangements for my parents and sister to go to San Francisco. My husband teases me that 10 years from now, I'll be talking about what a great trip I had to SF, because I get so involved in the planning that I'll forget I didn't get to actually go on the trip! I think that especially when trips are by necessity short (i.e., when you're past your college years,aren't independently wealthy, or don't live in a country with 6 weeks vacation) you need to plan as carefully as possible to maximize what little time you do have. This site has been great, in fact, we're staying at a pensione in Florence that I would never have heard of if not for people here. I'll let everyone know how it was when we get back, if it's as good as they say, it might be the best bargain in the city.

Brian in Atlanta

I too find myself spending far too much time on this forum, either planning trips or looking for good ideas for yet to be planned trips. And no, my wife doesn't participate in the planning like I do - I think it would be counterproductive to have 2 people planning all the details. <BR>I do find, however, that I have to force myself to stop at some point or I'll never make a decision. For instance, in researching hotels in Paris, I was overwhelmed with great options and many that were highly recommended. I finaly had to simply say, "enough" and pick one and stop thinking about it. Of course, after all that work our trip had to be canceled, but that's another story. <BR> <BR>Does anyone see a bad side to over-researching a trip? Does this tend to take some of the surprises out of it and limit the fun of discovery?

wes fowler

Lynn, <BR> <BR>For me there are at least three elements in planning that make for a successful travel adventure. First, I think it's important to know not only what you want to see and why, but also to recognize its significance in our history and culture. One can go to Versailles, for example, and simply be awestruck by its opulence. Versailles becomes much more meaningful, however, if in visiting it, you carry an awareness of what prompted Louis XIV to abandon Paris for Versailles and the impact that extravagance had upon his Bourbon successors, the peasant taxpayers who underwrote that opulence and the revolution that impacted not only France but all of Europe. So, then, planning is not simply a case of delving into guidebooks and poring over maps. It includes exploring history, art, architecture, society's culture and mores, all of which can prove rewarding, enlightening and fulfilling. Second, I plan conservatively. I'd rather spend a week in a Netherlands fishing village, a French market town or a Bavarian farming community, that roar through nine countries and thirteen cities in seventeen days. Finally, I plan for nothing. I make time for the unexpected. Some years ago, I spent four days in Switzerland with the original intent of touring Luzerne, Bern, Zurich and the Interlaken area from the centrally located town of Langnau. For three days I never left the town. The first morning I was awakened by the sound of cowbells and watched farmers herd cows bedecked with floral headpieces into the town's main parking lot. City born and bred, I spent three days watching farmers judging cattle in the heart of town. I helped unload tables and benches from farm wagons, drank and dined with people with whom I could barely communicate, helped hose down the parking lot each day with hoses from the fire department and had one of my life's more enjoyable memories. <BR> <BR>I plan now both for myself and vicariously for many of the correspondents to Fodor's and find as much pleasure in drawing on what knowledge and expertise I might have in helping others as I do in planning my own adventures.

pam

I'm sitting in my office, enjoying all your posts--when I should be working. Does that answer part of the question? We've been saving for our trip to Italy for 12 months. I've been actively planning for about 8. We leave in 5 1/2 weeks--and guess who just chimed in about what he would like to do last night? Yes, my husband. 'Nother subject! I wholeheartedly agree about the joy in planning trips. I told hubby last week that we'd better decide where we want to go next because I'll need something to focus on when we get home after our trip! (Not that my house couldn't use a ton of attention.) Researching for me makes me much more comfortable when I 'get there.' So, no, it doesn't take away anything for me; it adds to the experience. <BR>

cheryl

Well, so much for my theory about this being a female thing. I don't see a down side to planning. I agree with Wes that it greatly adds to the enjoyment to truly understand the history and culture. Luckily, my husband is an historian, so I do the research on the trip, and he takes care of the history knowledge. It makes for a perfect partnership. I also try to "plan" time without a plan. I find that research and planning make it possible to do both.

Bob Brown

I think most of us have limited time and financial resources, yet we like to maximize the benefit of what we do have. <BR> <BR> <BR>So we plan. I have tried it both ways, and found that an unplanned trip is often full of less than optimal experiences. Also, when I plan, I learn.

dan

To take this to a whole new level. What about planning for trips that you might not even take for years. I constantly make lists of trips that I want to take - usually 2-3 main destinations and some minor ones in a particular area of the world. A few weeks ago, a local bookstore was going out of business, and I bought about ten travel and language guides (Bulgarian)- some places I had been and some I may go to in 20 years. Since we just had our first child a few weeks ago, it could be 2-3 years or longer before I get to Europe again, but it is fun to plan and think about it anyway. There are even other benefits to being familiar with travel resources. Someone in our exports dept. at work called asking if we (marketing research) have a map of Washington, D.C., since he is going there on business, and he wanted to find hotels near the one he had tried to get but was full. In no time, I provided him with a Fodors travel guide and map from home and a list of 85 hotels in that area with the distances of each from his first choice hotel (from the Internet.) He was fairly impressed. It provided a good break for me to look this up too.

D. Spiegel

I think most of us on this board can get pretty immersed in this planning thing. I, too, have felt an information overload with all the information now available on the net. I can relate with the feeling that at some point I just had to make decisions. I travel with a friend who lets me pick the destinations and do all the planning. She just shows up. The good part is that I get to go wherever I want and stay as long as I choose. The bad is that I have no one with whom to share the excitement of the planning and the things I am learning. Between this board and AOL's boards, I have gained an enormous amount of information -- and I thank you.

michele

I, too, love the planning aspect of the trip. I read just about everything I can get my hands on about the place from Gourmet magazine to historical texts. I don't want to be one of those tourists who while walking around the Alhambra in Granada wonders aloud "Just why did Ronald Reagan invade this place?" I also enjoy planning trips to places I will probably never go, like Syria, which sounds fascinating, but due to politics, lack of tours, and limited hotels doesn't sound likely. I call it "virtual <BR>vacationing". My husband does little to no planning, but does offer advice, like "let's play it by ear." <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Don and Linda

"The fun of planning the trip is almost as good as the trip itself." That's the first line of text on our non-commercial web site, TheTravelzine.com. We know from the traffic on our site and from the mail we get, we're not alone in that feeling. We get so much mail, in fact, that we have started a kind of travel support group by email. In just two weeks, we have 51 subscribers from 13 countries helping each other to plan. Everyone is welcome to join our non-commercial, travel discussion list. TheTravelzine is absolutely free. http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/TheTravelzine