Wandering Around the Globe

  If you have been following along on the blog, then you will have already taken several steps in planning your dream vacation. First, you selected your location. Next, you bought a couple of travel guides and have read through them, marking the locations that you are interested in going to see. Then, you scoured the internet looking for other blogs and website recommendations on places to go, things to see, and places to eat. By now, you should have compiled a pretty long list of all the things that you might like to do while traveling on that dream vacation. Now comes the big question: How much is it going to cost? This is the part that scares most people when planning an adventure of any size. My view is to over budget and you’ll never be sad to come home with extra funds, upgrade a few items, or be able to splurge on something that you wouldn’t normally spend money on while on vacation. I start by trying to figure out what the big, key items for the trip will be. For instan...

Searching for help from other sources on the internet for your dream vacation after reading through travel guides may seem redundant. For me, it’s a security blanket. If I am spending serious money on a trip to a place that I might never see again, I want to make sure that I am making the most of it. The only way for me to do that is to research it every way that I can in all the ways that I can before I go. I will google “Top 100 things to do in ____” for each city that I plan to visit on my trip, and I will write down each place that it recommends looking at. I look at more than just the first two pages of what comes page on the search results. In fact, I usually skip the first couple of pages and start on the third or fourth so that I can see some of the hidden gems that are out there – especially if I am going to well-traveled places. I look for things to do, restaurants to eat at, places to see, things not to miss, and hidden jewels the city has to offer. My goal when I travel...