Who does your travel planning?
 

When you go on vacation with your spouse or other, who does the travel planning? I always end up doing it all, and then get po'd because I did it all. I wish someone would TAKE ME on vacation!

I love planning, researching, coming up with itinerary, making reservations. I always involve a whole family with every aspect of every single trip. I always buy books, print out info from this board, then gave it all to my family and ask them for their input. We spend many evenings together figuring out how to plan so we can accommodate many different interests.

I do.

Gladly.

I don't want anybody to plan a trip for me unless they know how to please me better than I know how to please myself and my traveling companions. And, they don't.

If this is a chore, it is one I welcome.

HTTY

Me, I do it! I used to not plan at all and we ended up with a miserable few vacations. I have found that research and planning can make a much more enjoyable vacation. However, overplanning can be just as bad! There has to be downtime and room for changes in an itinerary.

I do all the planning. I get on the internet and google and check every web site pretaining to where we want to go. I send for every vacation planner, brochures etc I can. I also get on acouple travel boards and ask afew questions. I love planning trips. And have planned many. To me this is the fun of going on vacation. When I find something that I feel both DH and I would enjoy I will discuss it with him. But usually he just says "you do such a great job, just do it". Love my man.

Part of the fun of traveling for me is the planning part. My DH doesn't feel the same way though - he doesn't want to do any research until a day or two before we leave. Since I feel trips are much better when you have lots of information about the area, I do all the planning and then he & I discuss options each day we're there. Note that the 'options' don't include everything - only the options that I want. :) But DH still feels like he has some kind of choice so it all works out in the end.

Ditto to marleneawe's entire post!

I sometimes feel bad that my husband isn't having enough input, but we know each other pretty well, and we always have a great time. He's the perfect travel companion.

I went on ONE vacation that was planned by somebody else. I'm NEVER doing that again-no fun for me...

~Liz

~Liz

I do. IF DH had his way...we'd be calling from the parking lot to see if there was an available room!!

We select the destination together and then it's my baby. To me, planning and sorting out is half the fun.

He still resists my attempts to "plan" the entire trip so I find things we would like to do, places we'd like to visit while away and unless I absolutely need tickets in advance...keep the actual daily activities open to seeing how we feel each day. This keeps us both happy...some spontaneity and some planning in an overall sense of what we want to accomplish.

And always, laughter, love and flexibility so we have a great time.

Debi

We share it - since for both of us the planning and anticipation is at least half the fun.

But we do divy it up - once we have an itinerary one person does flights and car and the other hotels - checking with the other on final choices. For sights and restaurants we both do research and check with friends who have been wherever recently.

Moi! ME! Myself. I. Yours Truley! The One and Only...

That is why we have so much fun and not many problems. It has provent itself out that the more I plan the better it all goes. And then everyone is happy...ta da!

As an x-agent and the person who gets stuck booking reservations for everyone in my family, department and for friends, I get TIRED of research!
Plus researching hotels is a big part of my job.
If I plan to take a tour of somewhere I have not been, I am calling my wonderful Virtuoso agent (Precision Travel, in Dallas) who has been there, done that and knows exactly what I want, need and expect. I still research things to see and do, but I let them help me.
When you are a 'Virtuoso' customer you are treated royally, I might add.
It's not that I can't do it myself, it's just nice when I don't have to!

I do all the planning, and then my husband usually ruins the plan by not wanting to do what I wanted us to do! I guess I plan in more activites than he would like. Funny, he thinks the point of a vacation is to relax, while I think the point is to see the world :)

Joanne
http://www.vacationing-with-kids.com

I am the travel planner in my family too. I ask for input, do the research and reading, then get the ok before making any final arrangements. I love researching travel.

I think planning the trip is more than half the fun. I LOVE it. Most of my friends and co-workers come to me for advice when planning a trip, as well.

I do. I love doing it, find it to be almost as much fun as actually traveling. But there is one situation that really ticks me off.

Even though I do all the research, etc., I do ask for my family's input. After all, I want to make sure that they're going to enjoy the trip. But they usually don't want to be bothered. So when they start to complain about some decision I made once we're actually on the trip....! :-@

Me. DW doesn't have the patience which is fine because I enjoy doing it, even when I should be working..... I don't book anything until she's given her approval though.

My DH and I select a destination together, then I do all the planning. I love it and he doesn't, so we're both happy if I do it.

I only select activities, sights, museums, restaurants, etc, etc that I know we would both like--and we're very lucky that we, pretty much, like the same things.

He does all the driving, and more than his share of luggage toting, cancels the paper and mail before we go--and I'm happy that I don't have to do those things.

This year, I did most of the leg-work for all of our trips, but that's not typical.

We normally share the pleasure and we much prefer it that way. I research the hotels, activities, and restaurants, and my husband books the rental cars and when using rewards, I let him take care of the hotel and flight bookings (I don't enjoy that part, he does. However, I love to "spend" the reward points, lol...brings shopping to a whole new level). :D

Well, it's just hubby and me since kids are grown so I do the planning. We usually take one "Big" vacation per year with a couple of mini-vacations in between. We discuss the areas that we want to visit and pick our destinations (we have the next 3 "Big" destinations already picked out) and then I do the research and planning. I discuss the options that I come up with as I go along and we decide on lodging, timeframe, air itineraries, etc. together based on what I have found.

I LOVE doing it and I find it takes the post-vacation blues away when I come back from our last "Big" vacation if I start right into planning the next one.