karens

jg - I love the travel sections of my local libraries. The main library in Phila. has an extensive travel section which is fun to visit. I can't count the times a librarian has asked me, "Oh, are you going to Italy?", or wherever the books I'm checking out are for. Uh, yeah, maybe in 5 or 10 years. I love getting travel ideas from books and then supplementing the details from on-line sources.

FainaAgain

I start planning the next vacation in my head, on the way home. No exceptions!

Kal

Faina,
When we used to fly to Kauai from SFO, Mrs Kal would be planning the next trip by time we hit the Bay Bridge.

Sheesh...the Coppertone was still fresh!

FainaAgain

Hit the Bay Bridge? So that's why they talk about remodeling it! Thanks for clearing that

phieaglefan

Whew, I thought I was the only one! Now I can print this topic and show it to my husband. He won't believe it. I actually hate it when all of the details of a trip are nailed down, then I have nothing left to plan. That's generally when I go on to the next one.

Thanks everyone, you've made my day!!!
H

Kal

What AM I going to do with you?

emd

I am completely travel obsessed. But it's probably better than being obsessed with something that ruins my health, like vino indulgence, right Kal? Ok, Ok, I admit to a bit of the Viognier obsession too...
It does stretch my marital relationship though. My DH did make a snide comment about my "part-time job" planning my Japan trip, which I've only spent every waking extra minute planning for the last 18 months. What's so bad about that? It's not like I get up at 4 a.m. to plan. Well, not very often anyway.

Kal

:-?

"Viognier"...is that some sort of HiDef TV?

Mrs Kal and her LARGE family never traveled much when she was a kid.
Maybe went to Reno/Tahoe but no other states. Car trips only. Santa Cruz, Carmel, SF at the most.

As a child, my family did car trips but usually across the USA...the old Hwy 40 and Rte 66 days...not quite covered wagon days.

Right now, just wave an airline tic in front of us and we'll follow you anywhere.

suze

I love to travel but am not much of a planner. I pick a place I want to go (for whatever reason) and when I can get time off from work... buy a plane ticket and book a hotel. That's really all I have ever done (approaching 30 trips to date including Caribbean, Europe, Mexico and Hawaii).

emd

But how do you do that? Get there and then turn on the hotel's TV "what to do now that you are here" station? Hurry and read the "Hawaii" book in the hotel room and make a quick itinerary? Or get up the first day and start wandering around? Do tell your tricks on last minute throw together travel. The idea is so foreign to me, I can't fathom how one would do it.

swalter518

I have a planning problem. As kids we roadtripped all over and I went to Europe with a friend and her family after high school. Ever since then I have been addicted, budget permitting. My husband has tried to institute a one trip at a time rule but I ignore it! Vegas this weekend, Dallas in April and Fla. in May. Living in the Midwest I've found that planning Spring trips get me through Jan and Feb.!

lia_b

Sooo addictive. As a kid, my parents would take us on road trips and I was always mapping out our routes. Then at 18, a friend and I scraped some money together and went to Miami. That was an adventure, I got a good price but the flight took 8 hours! Then it was Paris and cruises and when we had children I thought it would be over but no. I have converted them also. This year, I pulled my kids out of school for several days to be able to go away in the winter. I should be ashamed but we all loved it! They have been to about 7 Caribbean islands, Puerto Vallarta, Panama and many places in the states including Hawaii and of course Disney (both). My friends think it's a waste of money, but I think it's a fun way to experience things and can be an education. For example, when the read about the Panama Canal, they can actually relate to it as they have been there. They saw a volcano up close and personal and in Mexico saw schoolchildren coming home on the "lancha". They have a curiosity about nature and other cultures.

I was so happy to discover Fodor's forums to feed my need to get inside information on places. Last summer we went to Hawaii and saw so much thanks to other people's postings here. My brother and his wife went the year before and didn't see a third of what we saw. This summer, I'm taking it easy, D.C. for educational purposes for the kids (remember I had pulled them out of school) Charleston and a beach rental at Isle of Palm because next year... planning Alaska, then Maui the year after, then Spain, Australia... the list goes on...
If I only had more time and money..

makai1

What a fun thread...

I thought I was the only one with the "coppertone still fresh" from one trip and already planning another.

We're just back from Belize and already I'm itching to be back in Hawaii... what did I just read about Kauai being shut down during Aug. and Jan.? I think maybe July, too.

elizabeth_reed

No, I'm not "planning" the next . . . but I sure am thinking about the possibilities!!!

chitowngirl

Count me in. Our usual discussion on the way home from a trip is "What's next?" Already have a return trip to San Francisco planned for the end of the month. Just finished booking/planning daughter's 21st birthday trip to Vegas in August. Now what??? Arghhh, I am not in the midst of planning anything, I can feel the travel demons calling... Well, I could start working on where to go over Thanksgiving. I wonder if travel addiction/therapy is covered illness under my medical insurance?

highflyer

I identify with a little bit of everyone here and I am a travel addict.
Maybe Fodors should be renamed TA (travellers anonymous).

I moved to the US 3 years ago to make travel over here more convenient having 'done' a large portion of Europe!
Now after visiting 18 states (many of my favorites more than once)+ a couple of Canadian provinces, I'm taking Japanese lessons with my 14yr old son (yes emd I've read some of your Japan threads...thankyou!), trying to fit in an annual trip home to the UK/or anywhere European for 'a fix' and planning several trips ahead (some are merely wishful thinking!)

Oh and I used to live in the West Indies as a Peace Corps equivalent and travelled all over the Caribbean/ S.America on near zero budget.

Can anyone suggest a cure?
I avoid the 'house-happy syndrome' by taking day trips to the beach in summer (I've lost count of the New England beaches we've driven to at weekends)

Travel enriches my life! And, yes, just like OWJ I get asked when's my next trip as soon as I get home!

slipperblue

Annabel - what is your Disney wardrobe? We're going to Disneyland in a couple of weeks and pondering what to pack.

mobylvr

Count me in! My husband and I went to Lake Tahoe (Black Bear Inn), Calistoga (Cottage Grove Inn), and Santa Cruz (Pleasure Point Inn) in August. Then, over the holidays, our whole family went to Key West (Wyndham Casa Marina), came home for 4 days, then went to Disneyworld (Coronado Springs Resort). With the help of you wonderful Fodorites, I planned a splendid trip to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary (Halekulani, Kauai Hyatt) and my husband FREAKED OUT when I told him how much it would cost. Yes, we still have one son in college, and yes, I just paid the VISA from December, but ATA had flights to Honolulu from Chicago for $600-- what was I supposed to do! ( Oh, and he just got back from Vegas (Green Valley Resort).) Yes, being independently wealthy would be such a relief; VISA bills wouldn't be such an inconvenience. We really started travelling when our youngest started college and we didn't have to worry about what was happening at home while we were gone. Now I just want to look for great deals, but work gets in the way. Of course, they help to pay the bills...

scooter11

It's nice to know there are other people like me out there! I love to plan vacations...I am currently working on 3 trips. We are going to Hawaii in '06(Oahu and Big island)Thats how I found this website. I am also planning a trip with my hubby to playa del carmen this fall. The third trip I am planning is for my hubby's 50th birthday-thinking of getting all of his siblings to rent a villa in Puerto Vallarta.I have thought of looking into a career as a travel agent,but don't know how to go about it. We usually go on 2 trips a year-a short ski trip and then a summer trip with family(in the US) My hubby's job is pretty demanding so we do not travel as much as other people seem to on this board. He likes to stay at home too much! Last summer my son(11) spent 12 days with my family in Seattle, so we went to Punta Cana for a week. What a great place-just beautiful! 3 years ago we went to Barbados for our 10th wedding anniversary-had a great time! My hubby lets me do all the planning-knows that I love to do it. As a child I lived in Europe for 7 years, so did lots of travelling. We would spend 2 weeks at each destination-went to Greece, France,Germany,Spain,Denmark,Norway,Sweden ,Finland,Belgium,Holland. Lived in Germany and England. It's been 20 years since I have been back there...just waiting for my son to grow up a bit and then I will start planning another trip! These vacations were a highlite of my childhood...I stll think back to them, and I am 46!

iamq

Not only planning, but constantly changing my mind about where I want to go. After becoming obsessed with Italy, doing days of research and spending $$ for books for a proposed trip that I thought we both wanted to go on, I sat down with mr. q and after a lengthy discussion we discovered that both of us would rather do another "go beach" vacation and save Italy for another time. So now I'm off in another direction! Should it be Fiji? Palau? Oahu? St. John? Mexico? Aghhh.... This is a good problem to have however.
In the short term, I am really looking forward to our upcoming trip to The Sea Ranch on the Sonoma coast. Walking along the bluff trail witht he yellow lupine just b
-Bill