It is just me, or do other travelers feel averse to having every minute planned when vacationing? I think I may be in the minority, seeing all the tightly scheduled days that other travelers post here.
For me, vacations are to get away from the daily stress of schedules and deadlines. I love that feeling of 'endless' time stretching out ahead of me-- i.e. my week or two off-- with the freedom to do whatever, whenever. Can't overrate that feeling!
I think the weather dictates to a certain degree, so I want to be flexible to allow for that. And if I like a site, I want to linger there and not feel hurried to get on to the next place so I can keep 'on schedule'.
I love travel planning and am compulsive about using this great board to collect info. about hotels, modes of travel, and sites to see. I create an itinerary of hotels and transportation times/dates, and I take my prioritized list of things to do and see.
But I don't want to stress out if I can't fit it all in. I figure you can never see it all anyway. Part of the fun for me is wandering around, soaking up the culture, experiencing the feeling for places. Maybe its my anthropology background coming through.
Am I the only one?

Maureen, I don't even do that much! I figure a passport, money, a plane ticket, a hotel reservation, and a city map are all you need most places.

I think you misjudge most of the people here. Most make a schedule and are very flexible so that they can enjoy some sites longer or move them to a different day if it's raining, etc. But many of us prefer to know which days each site is open/closed and which are close together and can plan a loose schedule accordingly.

There are certainly those who stick to a schedule as written on paper no matter what, but that's not most travelers. You just don't go with those of us who have pre-thought-out itineraries to see how relaxed and spontaneous we can be on vacation.

I'm one of those who have every day of my vacation planned out. But, I don't plan on sticking to the plan!! Sure, I may have a museum scheduled for the morning and shopping for the afternoon, followed by a play in the evening, but I may still end up spending all morning in the park I happened upon on the way to the museum
Planning gives structure to my research and under it all I guess I'm a little insecure. If a whim strikes me or I find something better than 'the plan', then I won't hesitate to ditch / change the plan, but I like to know I can fall back on it. It's basically a way of listing possible options.

I plan the days on paper,and when I get there I see how things are and how I feel. I never do everything on the list. I feel that planning usually prevents disappointment, especially when European vacations are precious in terms of time and money and even stamina. If I have my heart set on seeing museum X or play Y and they are closed or sold out when I get there, that may disappoint me too much, especially when it could have been avoided. Skipping other events, or changing other plans, that I can deal with.

>I love travel planning ... I create an itinerary of hotels and transportation times/dates, and I take my prioritized list of things to do and see.<

Gee, that's different.

I absolutely must have an itinerary!

However, I use it as my point of departure. I may have several morning, afternoon, and evening items on each day's itinerary, but I in no way feel that I MUST meet all scheduled
items. After all, there's always another trip to catch what you missed the first time around, and it IS a vacation, not work!


BTW, it took me decades to relax this much in regard to "the itinerary." I am very proud of myself.

Thanks for your replies. Maybe my approach is more typical than I thought!
Please know that my post is not meant to 'judge' other people, just curious about how others do it.
Elaine, you're so right about checking for hours of operation and getting some tickets in advance. The time we were disappointed in that regard was when we walked to the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna on a Monday-- at the suggestion of the hotel desk clerk, no less! It's closed on Mondays, as most people know. But it was a nice walk, and the gardens there are one of the attractions anywy, so it wasn't a complete loss.
Suze, you sound like a fun traveler! And Ira, I think you're making fun of me...

Having an itinerary doesn't necessarily mean having 'every minute planned." We set up actvities, reservations, AND the appropriate amount of down time. Some people need a lot of it -- they keep the resorts going. Others like to go, go, go and visit 6 musems in one day. Most of us can work out where we fall within that range.

you sound like my dh - I on the other hand find planning every minute to be part of the fun of traveling - if, however, our trip doesn't follow it minute by minute, I don't have a heart attack - I just love to plan. For the first time, we're going on a trip this weekend to DC and I haven't planned a thing for Sunday except a one hour potomac cruise and maybe going to Georgetown - i was very proud of myself for that!

I read as much as I can, and if there are "must sees" I try mightily to see them when I am there. I have ideas about other things I want to do if I have time. that's about it. I know I'll be back, so I don't stress about the things I didn't get to see.

Until I discovered this board my approach was like Suze - but now seeing all the detailed itineraries- hearing of people who travel with spreadsheets listing attractions, places to eat, hotels have pulled up me socks

I do make a list of places that might be interesting - unfortunately on my recent trip to Montreal I left the list at home
However I am one of those more interested in wandering around soaking the atmosphere than going through a "must see" list.

The term "Vacation Itinerary" is not an oxymoron, however the post "Vacation Itinerary: an oxymoron?" is.

Let me ask you how do you travel? if you fly then you are subject to tight to the minute schedules/deadlines. Do you go for months or days? a week or two at marineworld might seem endless but the same amount of time in the UK would not.

Unless you have your own plane or travel using your own car and are interested in visiting free places which open 24hrs a day 365 days a year (like the sheriff's office) then without you knowing it you are doing vacation itiernary planning.

The more different the culture of the destination the greater the probability that without a well thought out vacation itinerary you will end up in front of a locked gate while the curator is having his siesta, or buying your full price entrance ticket 1 minute before the discount afternoon period commences, or get stuck waiting in an endless queue stretching out ahead of you at an attraction because you decided to sleep in.

Finally to the minute planning allows the planner to dream about being in the destination and imagine experiencing everything - addictive fun in itself.

I do not make any itineraries except for those things which are unchangeable, such as theater tickets and appointments to meet people. I have a rough idea of things I'd like to do. But I go with people (mostly my family members) who don't even want to think about what to do until we get there, so I stay flexible enough to do what everybody wants to do at the time.

Some people like to plan in detail; some, at the other extreme, play it by ear start to finish. Some make plans and ignore them. We seem to make much more detailed itineraries when we are going someplace for the first time. I think a vacation is doing what you want to do, as you want to do it. If planning is fun, plan. If not, don't plan. As detailed as some itineraries seem to be, I doubt if most people follow them exactly.

I generally travel Europe in the summer therefore making reservations is wise, so somewhat locked into an intinerary. However, we typically spend a week in each location in an apt or villa rental. Where you have somewhat of an idea of what you want to see but you're not locked in to that, and if you miss something oh well there's always another trip. Bottomline, I don't like to preplan too much of the trip finer details till we are there, but for location and lodging we're typically locked when in high season.
I have travelled offseason and basically the only reservations are airline, car rental and 1st and last night hotel...other than that its all off the cuff and its wonderful! Love that!

Interesting noone has mentioned traveling with a family, including children. With four people in the family, we do not get to Europe that often. When we do, I don't see the trip as "recreation," but as an opportunity to learn to appreciate other cultures and nations. For recreation, we stick closer to home.

Before we go on a trip abroad or to a major destination, I pour over the internet and travel books. I study each place we're going so I get a feel for what is there, rain and shine. I make reservations where necessary. When we arrive, I try to balance the days so the kids don't get bored. I look for cultural/historical activities that will appeal to the kids and we structure our days on the weather and how we are feeling. Our kids enjoy our vacations, but I think that is largely because I do a lot of planning behind the scenes.

got1tiel, I think you missed the point. Plus, your comments (below) struck me as slightly offensive:
1. "The term "Vacation Itinerary" is not an oxymoron, however the post "Vacation Itinerary: an oxymoron?" is."
(What does that mean?)
2. "...a week or two at marineworld might seem endless...
(A week or two at Marine World??)
3. "Unless you have your own plane ...or are interested in visiting free places which open 24hrs a day 365 days a year (like the sheriff's office)...
(The sheriff's office??)
4. "...or get stuck waiting in an endless queue because you decided to sleep in."
(I said I don't plan every minute, not that I'm so lazy I can't get out of bed to see the sights.)
Call me thin-skinned, but I never understand why someone feels the need to post nasty remarks like that. Let's keep it fun, eh?

Maureen,
There wasn't anything nasty about got1tiel's post, just their opinion. Interesting one though, while I do agree with having the knowledge of musuem hours for example I certainly don't plan say at 2pm on Tues I'm going. Yes we have times we need to be on a plane, duh! No we don't have to be here and there at certain times once we get there. Enjoy.

So much of the fun for me in travelling is planning an itinerary. I can spend hours on the internet, be interupted by a phone call and I feel like I've been pulled out of the vineyards of Tuscany. I love the discovery of what there is to see and the anticipation of being there in person. If I did not plan an itinerary, I wouldn't be able to determine how far I could travel and see what I want to.
I'm glad to see on this thread that there are others like me who love to plan .. but also like my husband who doesn't like to!!