Setbacks During Travel Planning

Have you ever wanted to go on a trip and you start planning, only to have your trip date keep getting pushed back? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. It is hard to find the time to research destinations that fit our budgets, time off/work restraints, family commitments, all while working a full time job and everything else life throws at us.

For us, we are constantly looking at destinations, just getting ideas, then looking up the prices of plane tickets to where ever it may be. This gives us a baseline for the initial cost to get there, as well as the amount of time it will take just to get to the destination. From there we usually do further research as to what some of the main attractions are, things that are “must dos”, and the travel needs (time, money, difficulty) to get from one city to another (or attraction to attraction). Also consider food, whether you plan to get food from the grocery story or plan on eating out for each meal. Taking into consideration how much time off work we have, this gives us an idea if it is worth the trip (at that particular time) for the amount of experiences we get for the time/money we have. No one wants to spend their vacation budget just to get to a destination and have to turn around and go home a day or two later not getting to experience what that place has to offer or even kick back and relax. We usually do this for a few places just to have some options to compare to one another. Sometimes things don’t work out or surprises come up and we opt for a local/semi-local road trip for a few days. At least you have some knowledge for a few locations for future trips. Write down all the prices, travel time needed, things to do, and general itinerary as you gather the information so you have it for later if the trip does not work out at that particular time.

Planning certainly can be frustrating, especially when you know where you want to go and all of the sudden the price of the airline tickets goes up, or there’s some big event in town that you didn’t know about and the price of the hotel you were planning on staying at doubles. The most recent frustration for us has been having a trip planned and a rental car reserved, only to show up at the rental car place with our reservation to pick up the car, and they tell us that they do not have a car to give us…along with any of the other locations nearby…Luckily for us, this was for a longer road trip and we ended up using our own vehicle and made due. Planning ahead of time is certainly the best way to go, if you are able to do so. This allows for more time to adjust for surprises that may show up. For those last minute trips that come up (where we end up having time off we weren’t expecting) we usually just wing it. We have places in mind and we just pick one. We book a hotel as we are on our way and research what there is to do as we’re driving or in the airport. Then we just take it day by day. Don’t get discouraged by setbacks and enjoy the planning stages. What have been some of your biggest setbacks while planning a trip? How did you handle it?

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