Why you should search the internet for ideas on where to go for your dream vacation

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 is to never eat the same thing twice and to not eat in a restaurant that I see at home. This applies for domestic and international travel. Stepping out of one’s comfort zone when traveling is part of the fun for me. The other part is the experience. I am a creature of habit when I am at home, so when I travel – all bets are off. I look at travel blogs, Instagram influencers, and any other possible combination of information that I can think of to search for information. Once I do this, I make use of Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps) and begin searching out the places that I want to visit and look at what is around those places. In doing so, I have managed to find several neat places to visit.  This also allows you to search out for laundromats (in case you need to wash clothes while traveling) or find small grocery stores to pick up fruit, snacks, bottled water, or other necessities that you may have forgotten to pack.

When staying in Rome and in Florence – we were in each location for almost a week. We found a local grocer where we were able to pick up some snacks, fresh fruit, and bottled water to keep us from paying vending prices in between meals or when we wanted a snack. In Florence, we were just a block away from a laundromat, so we were able to cut down on the amount of clothes that we packed and washed everything halfway through our trip. While it did take two hours of our time, it kept us from having to worry about luggage fees. This kind of prep work allows you to get familiar with the neighborhood of where you’ll be staying on your trip and is especially important if you are in a location for five or six days at a time. That familiarity is nice at the end of a long day. Also, searching google maps for what is around items that you plan to visit can give you suggestions for restaurants. This is beneficial because it’ll let you see reviews for those places and images or menus that people have uploaded. While the world is a vast place, the internet has made it a much more connected place and easier to find great places to eat!

For instance, I found a travel influencer on Instagram who focuses on Florence. In one of her reels, she talked about La Sorbettiera’s (https://www.lasorbettiera.it/) gelato and taking a class from Antonio. I immediately reached out to Antonio to see if I could schedule a time for my cousin and I to take class from him while we were in Florence. We had two open afternoons and it happened to work out perfectly! We spent the afternoon making two flavors of gelato and tasting all the different flavors in the shop.  We came away with a much greater appreciation of this lovely dessert as well as his passion for his native city. In addition, the gelato was the best we had in all of Italy!