Great post, sludick. I have been secretly doing #3 for years. Only my closest friends and DH have caught on. And a few have even confessed they really like traveling with me because I'm a walking guidebook & tour guide, but yet don't have a plan for every minute.

Good luck Jim!

sludick - I agree completely with your suggestions! Since I am the travel planner in the family, I frequently am asked for suggestions from family, friends, co-workers, etc. I usually have a file on every place we've traveled that I can pull up and use for tips. One other suggestion that I have found useful over the years, is a "rainly day" plan. I try to have an alternate plan in case of "rain", transportation strike, or whatever. I try to make "day plans" that can happen on any given day - that way we can be somewhat spontaneous - we can choose a plan for the day depending on the weather, etc.

Ha! I knew there were more of us!

travel_addict & blh, thanx for your comments. travel_addict -- do you think they are humoring us by pretending they don't know what we're diong? blh, I'm adding your great suggestions to my "plan for rabid planners."

Planning? What's that? At least when we're talking about the NE corridor.

This weekend, my parents did what they used to do when we were kids, "everyone at the car by 8am. we're going to ***."

So, this weekend, good daughter that I am, I was at the house by 8am, and we were on the road, driving to NJ to check out shopping malls, and then off to Delaware and Pennsylvania.

As long as we don't get lost, I think a spontaneous road trip is fun. That's not to say we didn't get lost this weekend though. We had a most interesting tour of the Philadelphia airport, Wilmington DE, and points in between. And we got a good laugh out of it.

I do love these trips the most.

Now, once we leave the country...the real planning begins. We pick out what major sites we'd ideally see in a day, find all relevant bus and train stations, and we're off for the most part. Like Karens noted, I'd hate to miss something I would have really loved to have seen, only to have found out about it upon my return home. My planning is to prevent this for the most part.

It wouldn't be a vacation to me if my time was planned down to the minute. Even a dinner reservation on vacation tends to cramp my style.

mynyc -- Too true. When we go somewhere closer to home (say, to St. Pete or Cocoa Beach), we like to be completely free of restrictive planning as well.

Of course, those long trips are also long range planning for us, so there is plenty of time to fill in anticipation...

JimF

We have been traveling the good olde USofA and Canada for many years, never once have we made reservations for a place to stay or camp. Never had a problem either. No interstate highways for us, nothing to see or do. At present the only thing I know for sure for this summers road trip is we are departing tomorrow morning out of the SunShineState and we are pointing the van in a northwesterly direction. Plan on being back in time for the peak of hurricane season, that be the end of Aug to mid Sept.... We always depend on AAA Maps, Tour Books and Camp books.

I found this to be an interesting question, my husband and I were actually discussing something similar on our recent trip.

I personally spend a TREMENDOUS amount of time researching and planning which hotels I will be staying at, but beyond this I don't do much else. I also, as others have said, happen to enjoy the research or I wouldn't spend the time doing it. To me, the hotel is a really important part of the trip...it sets the mood and has made some of my trips particularly memorable. Beyond this, I try not to get crazy with other definitely plans. I don't like to make dinner reservations (which rules out some restaurants) because I'm not sure what I'll be in the mood for on a given day and when I'll want to eat. To me, a vacation just isn't relaxing or enjoyable when an entire day is planned from start to finish. Sometimes it exhausts me just reading some of the possible itineraries people have thought out. I can't imagine working out where I would have lunch on a particular day but I know a lot of people do. Many of the best and most memorable experiences I've had on a trip have not and could not be planned. I think there is a balance here. :)

I'm with you Floridafran and travel3773. It's important to at least get your lodging in order especially if you are particular about amenities and want a good location. Like Floridafan said, it's particularly true of the National Parks.

The amount of time you will be on the trip also plays into this equation. RedRock, for example, does not make plans -- but will be on the road all summer. That allows for plenty of flexibility.

However, when planning for a few days to a couple of weeks, you do have to plan more closely if you want to see and do specific things. For example, we will be going to a family reunion across the country in a few weeks, for 6 days. Two days will be spent in travel alone (Florida to Wash. State). Two days will be spent with family, in Marysville and Westport (which means some drive time). The other 2 days we will take a whirlwind trip to the Okanagan and Vancouver (lots of drive time). So I plan carefully.

Personally, I think there's room for both approaches in life. :)

I went from huge research and exact planning to very similar to Love Italy's criteria over the last ten years.

My most uncomfortable times, and most "not vacationlike" occurences have happened on drive trips while trying to make a reserved spot when it no longer "jived" with what I had found on the way there.

I usually now on drive trips in North America only plan on 1 or 2 nights at the beginning or at the end in advance.

My youngest son who is totally off the seat of his pants has taught me how to change and there is a happy medium. He can often miss some big aspect of a time or place by not knowing it was/is there. I don't. But he taught me how to linger and enjoy what IS there and not to oversee myself into corners that 1000's of tourists have backed themselves into before me.

In other words, not all the places that are hot spots are worth any more than the ones that are not. Marketing has made many a stop that is rather underwhelming, in comparison to those you can find on your own.

A side of this I realized about 5 years ago is this; I often find myself liking the towns within 20 or 30 miles from "the" TOWN- more than "the" TOWN.

And all of the spontaneous are far more remembered, IMHO. We just had a real zinger with some old, old vintage equipment near Niagara. You aren't going to get that just going the planned and researched route. I haven't.

It really does have to do with how much control you are comfortable with during travel. Some people are extremely uncomfortable without fore-knowledge and fore-control of circumstance.

But there definitely is another side and individuality of experience can blossom in that field.