That tricky first step to a dream vacation...

 

Taking a dream vacation that you plan yourself can either be a dream or a nightmare and it all depends on how you plan it. I have planned a few dream vacations for myself, and I have also planned group trips for varying budgets from the tightest to full luxury. The first thing to do in travel planning is simple.  Decide on where you want to go.  In fact, it is deceptively simple. There are 7 continents, undisputed. There are between 195 to 215 countries. This list varies depending on whether you recognize Vatican City or Taiwan or Macau or Scotland, even as countries. As a kid, my family didn’t have much and we camped – a lot. I spent a lot of time in state parks, and I grew to appreciate a simple vacation. It also meant I grew up reading of far-off lands and dreaming of visiting them at some point in my lifetime. I had created a short list of the top 10 places that I wanted to visit before I turned 50. I won’t be able to make it to all of them because life intervened (thanks to a worldwide pandemic), but I will have come very close. This list was made when I was 18 (1991) and had hopes of accomplishing it in a very short time frame. What I didn’t know is that I would be an end-of-life caregiver for my grandfather, both parents, a brother, and help another brother ease into that transition. In no particular order, here’s the places, I wanted to visit at that point in my life:

1. Alaska - 1998

2. Hawaii - 2018

3. Ireland - 2017

4. Italy - 2022

5. Grand Canyon – 2003, 2004

6. Las Vegas - 2004

7. Bahamas - 1996

8. Niagara Falls - 2017

9. Statue of Liberty - 2017

10. All 50 States – just 5 to go

I turn 50 years old in January 2023. I have plans to visit those last 5 states (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota) in May 2023. I didn’t miss my plan by far and there was a lot of interruptions of the real-world variety that kept me from traveling to those specific locations during those 32 years. However, they didn’t keep me from traveling and from finding experiences and building a treasure trove of how to and what not to dos on trips.

My first real dream trip that I planned 100% on my own for myself was to the Grand Canyon. It was a weekend trip after a work trip, so my plane tickets were paid for and the only thing that was out of pocket was my car and hotel for that weekend. I visited the South Rim on that trip and then when I went to Las Vegas the next year, I visited the North Rim. The trip to the South Rim was done based off physical maps received from AAA and guidebooks. It was a vastly different experience than planning a trip in the environment that we exist in today. Since I grew up camping in state parks, I knew that AAA had books on National Parks and could make reservations, as well as provide a decent discount for the stay. They would also provide a “triptik” which was a custom map guide from one point to another.  The only problem with this is that it didn’t really allow for a lot of flexibility.  Being able to read a road atlas was an essential skill, as was being able to remember basic directions. It was critical to understand how far towns were from one another and how to plan stops.

That trip was wonderful, and I have beautiful memories from it, but I also ended up sleeping the night in Sky Harbor Airport because I overestimated how quickly I could drive through some back roads and still stop/shop in small towns and ended up getting back to Phoenix at 1 in the morning with a 6am flight. While I had a cell phone with me, I did not have a signal most of where I was driving at the time. In the world we live in now, it’s hard to imagine not being able to be reached unless we choose to for it to be that way.

The key to going anywhere at all is simply choosing a place to go.  It is that simple. The next blog post will focus on guides and what to look for and why they even matter these days. Until then, keep thinking of travels yet taken…

LJ