Preparing before you travel

I love travelling and discovering new places in the world that I have dreamed of going to. But I suspect that I get more enjoyment out of the planning that happens before the trip.

It keeps me going for months before the trip actually happens and so, by the time I actually travel, I feel like I am already immersed in all things to do with the place I am going. The more self planned travel I have done, the more tips and tricks I have picked up along the way and the more adventurous I seem to have become.

A few weeks ago, we (my husband and I) took a beautiful two week trip to Italy. I have been asked by people I know to share the itinerary, which I will do in the next few posts. I spent a good few months planning this trip and was really pleased that everything went according to plan.  

My first overseas trip was in 2004. I had known my now husband for a year when we went, and he convinced me that a trip to the UK with only the flights booked and a bit of reading in the guidebook would be sufficient. He had travelled there a number of times before and I trusted him on this. We travelled for a friend's wedding. The trip started with the wedding for the first few days whereafter we were handed the keys to their car and the keys to the flat in central London. And please to fetch them at Heathrow on a Sunday night in two weeks time (easier said than done in those pre-GPS days!). 

We had a super trip but seemed to waste a lot of time trying to find places to stay once we had settled on the area we planned to stay that night. I am glad we did that trip in such a spontaneous way because it convinced me that that way of travelling probably isn't the best thing for my personality. And that Basil Fawlty's brother wearing a string vest really did run a small B&B in Brighton and he really did serve sausages that closely resembled cardboard for the breakfast. It was a "once in a lifetime" experience that I am not sure I would like to repeat anytime soon!

When we travel, I am conscious that I won't see "everything" in this lifetime. I try to remember that there are no travel police checking that I see the 10 best things to do in a place. So, I try and plan that we don't just do a whistle stop trip of all the places we are going to, and rather try and see fewer places, and spend a few extra days in each to really savor them.  Of course, there is only ever so much time and money and I try and balance this. So my trip to Italy didn't do the three typical highlights of Rome, Florence and Venice, because we decided to do Rome, Umbria and Florence instead.  And it seems to work for us.