Which is better: the anticipation of a trip or the trip itself?
 

As I have been planning/researching a trip for the summer (England, Sardinia, and Prague), I got to thinking about the anticipation that goes along with vacation. I don't know if everyone gets as excited about vacation as I do~I'm like a little kid waiting for Santa, but I love the whole looking forward to going someplace new, counting down the days, etc. SO, I wondered, do any of you think that the anticipation is actually better than the trip itself? Or have you ever been so excited about a trip, only to be disappointed once you had actually been?

amy,

To me, it's definitely the trip itself!

And in second place: memories of the trip, which remain with you forever.


Anticipation and planning, while great fun, are, to me, way down in third place.

Byrd

I totally agree with Byrd!

Me three.

I personally love the anticipation and trip planning. I spend hundreds and hundreds of hours doing trip research. However, every single place we have been to this point has still exceeded our expectations - we have never been disappointed (except one major European city I will not mention).

But as Byrd said, trip first, memories second and planning third.

I'm like you, amydelta. Sometimes I just get goosebumps thinking about what's coming...then I try to tell myself not to "over-anticipate." That being said, when my trip is well-planned and I'm relaxed, the actual trips are bliss. One little trick I use while on vacation is to focus on each moment. Sounds strange, but when I try to enjoy EACH moment fully -- whether it's sipping coffee on a rainy day or watching little kids play in a park -- the day actually expands! It's mind-blowing!

With that being said, I'm back to identifying inexpensive, great little restaurants within walking distance of our Paris apartment for our May trip. Oops...there goes those goosebumps again! :-)

I do enjoy the anticipation and planning stage of a trip but it is far better being there then dreaming of it.

www.nomadwannabe.com

I love all of it, especially when my sister/travel companion does most of the work of making reservations and the like. She makes fabulous spread sheets with all the information we could ever need. I just read the guidebooks and daydream.

The trip itself is of course the highlight, but we also enjoy looking at our pictures and reminiscing about the trip, the people we met, the food we ate. It's especially nice to do this because no one's tired and no one's feet hurt.

Love em both.

"to focus on each moment" - well said. The trick is to hurry up and slow down... value the simplest things.

Personally amydelta I find preparing for a trip a workout. I don't enjoy it until I am on the way to the airport. I agree with Byrd except for the fact I don't find planning the trip and all the numerous details fun.

I absolutely LOVE the planning for the trip. I have often said that it is almost as much fun as the trip itself. I love finding a flight we can afford and finding good hotels, but not too expensive. Each find is a separate pleasure! Of course, the trip is many separate pleasures as well.

Iused to relish the trip planning almost as much as the trip iteslef, but having logged well over 100 trips to Europe, plus innumerable domestic trips in recent years, I'm finding the thrill of planning is fading. Unless it's a completely new destination - then I'm all over it.

But in any case, I could never compare sitting around my house reading travel books, poring over maps, and searching the internet to actually BEING there, breathing in the sights and sounds and smells and all. And while mealtimes at my house aren't too shabby, I NEVER manage to eat or drink as well at home as I do in Europe.

I was very very excited many years ago about going to Tunisia...and was pretty disappointed after I'd actually been. At the same time, it was a trip that engendered an unbelievable number of funny stories to revisit, not to mention a few thousand dollars earned in travel articles about some of our misadventures.

I used to overplan and I did enjoy it but then I started thinking that too much planning took away from the trip itself.

I would plan so much that it became obsessive and irritating and frustrating. I would get so sick of the place before I had even been there! Sometimes I would start thinking, blech, now I don't even want to go there, I am sick of it!

To me nothing compares to the trip itself and the memories aferwards.

Hehe...only 54 days 'til I leave!!

sea urchin,

I've become the same way...at first I worried that it was because I didn't enjoy travel anymore...then I realize, no, I VERY much enjoy traveling but the planning can get tedious. Like you, one time I almost sick of the whole trip before I left because I had done so much research...but I greatly enjoyed my trip!

lyb, it is funny isn't it? Burnout I guess. Also I don't like the pressure of having so much planned that I feel like I should keep looking at my watch! I do enough of that in my regular life.

Amydelta- you're destinations sound wonderful!

See now, I think this question is a toughie. Once you begin on the trip, time just flies. But the time before you leave, if you give yourself enough time to relish the idea of the upcoming trip, time stretches out in front of you. I think the anticipation is one of life's sweetest pleasures...reading about the places, trying to choose what to do, imagining the feeling of being there. Nothing can replace the actual experience of the trip, but anticipation comes close. So then, which is better, the anticipation or the memories?

I enjoy figuring out where we'll go. Then I scout for airfares/seats. When I finally secure the plane tickets I get a little buzz!

The beginning of the planning to me is the hardest - where to base ourselves, figuring out transportation, hotels. It just takes hours of research. I'm really glad when I have all the hotels booked.

I must say, that the more trips we take, the more I let little details slide. I don't worry too much whether something is "the most perfect." I know we can find something interesting no matter where we are.

Now, with 7 nights left (!) before our trip to Netherlands and Belgium I am done planning. We'll finalize sights when we're there. And we'll go with the flow. Knowing that I have excellent hotels booked has eased my mind greatly.

c.

I love to plan my trips. I love reading the guidebooks, pouring over the maps, etc. I start to imagine myself in those places. I don't think about how my day will go, I just imagine standing on the bank of a river, gazing at a famous landmark, etc.

While I plan my trips very carefully, I don't overplan my activities. I make sure I have plenty of downtime and have no problem changing my plans as I go.

I have yet to have a "bad trip" (knock on wood), so I've always come back from my trip as happy, if not happier, than when I left.

And it's 134 days, 2 hours until I leave for my next trip! Not that I'm counting...

The trip itself is far superior to the research, planning and booking chores. Yes, that's how I feel about the job of booking hotels and flights-its a lot of work. Sure I'm very excited about the trip and I count the days til we leave but there is nothing like actually being there and living the fantastic days of traveling. Memories second and planning third, for me.

Isn't it funny how it seems to take FOREVER for your vacation to get here, and then, once on your trip, how QUICKLY it seems to be time to go home? And start planning your next trip? :)

Yes, that is why I have learned to slow down and savor each minute on a trip. No matter what I am doing, even waiting in line, I think, I am waiting in line and I am in.......

Once when our car needed fixing in Naples I sat at the car repair and just savored the insights into their culture.

I have learned to live in the moment and to forget schedules as much as I can.

I love the research about a place. Then I just drop it for about 2 weeks before I go. Sleepless in an airplane, I then re-hash my plans with a carefully chosen guide-book.
But there is nothing like being there...

I have been planning my upcoming trip (43 days away!) to Europe for about 16 months now. I can say that with any vacation, including Vegas even though I have been there about 20 times, I just immerse myself in the planning and love every minute of it. I find that the "possibility" of what I can experience on a trip is very enticing to me. Which usually results in me overplanning and trying to cram in too many things that I could never possibly accomplish.

But since I haven't been on this Europe trip yet I don't know how it will compare. :)

It's so amazing how different my husband and I are as far as planning. Just this past week he finally picked up a guidebook and picked out a few restaurants in Paris he wanted to check out. I told him too bad but I already have reservations for our dinners; you snooze you lose!!! (just kidding, we'll fit in some of his choices too)

I hope I enjoy the trip more than the planning but the planning has been blissful thus far!!!

I don't think of it as planning; I think of it as fantasizing. But better, because I know it will happen. The real thing is great, but the fantasies before and after make the trip last much longer, and they polish and shape the images that last forever.

There was a television show back in the '70s called "The A-team," and the character played by George Peppard used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."

I enjoy planning.

I enjoy seeing sights and the travel experience, planned or unplanned. Spur of the moment stuff is great.

But nothing beats the feeling when something that you planned long in advance, based on perhaps less than perfect information, or perhaps with some trepidation, works out better than you had expected.

amydelta
The anticipation is great, but it is the trip that makes all the research fun and worth it. Even our worst trip -- made worse only because we were both sick the whole time -- was good. We still saw what we wanted to see and sat in cafes. Only that time we mostly drank hot tea and orange juice :-)

Sandy

It's all good. Given the choice of planning a trip that I can't take, or taking a trip that I can't plan, I'd probably take the trip. So, I guess that means I value the trip itself over the planning.

But that's not to say I don't enjoy planning in and of itself. I'll even plan family members' trips just for fun.

Edited to add: I'm not much on the post-trip experience. I take a lot of pictures, but I don't bother to take notes, or write trip reports, etc. Instead of re-living a past trip I just plan another new one, even if its to the same old place.

I love both, for different reasons.

I HAVE to plan out the details for most of of our trips, especially the big, special ones. I like to know where we're staying, have restaurant recommendations and have a general idea of what's in the area that's going to interest us. I do tend to get really caught up in the planning aspect, and consequently drive my husband nuts.

That being said, when you're still planning, everything is still "perfect." You haven't had a bad meal, a hard bed or a rainy day. Everything is still new and full of possibilities. Every lodging or site is at its greatest potential.

That being said, you can enjoy that feeling, but then you must quickly surrender it the moment you leave your house. The trip won't be perfect and you will likely have a bad meal, a hard bed and get caught in a downpour and have your afternoon plans thrown out the window. But even though the "reality" can marr the perfect view you had, it's what it makes that place real and creates true memories in your mind. And, as some have said, some of the best stories.

So I love both - planning and the anticipation and trying to sleep the night before is my "pre-vacation," but it's the same vacation I take every year and I have no memory of it. It's the actual vacation itself that lives on in my mind.

When I first started going overseas, the anticipation was big. Now I get so annoyed planning & preparing for the trip, I end up wishing that I was just staying home. Then once I'm there, I have a blast & want to stay longer!

I much much much prefer the trip itself. What you call "anticipation" for me is merely anxiety.