The Talking Suitcase

You’re ready to start planning your next vacation, but don’t know where to begin. We put together the beginners guide to vacation planning in answer to several emailed questions about this topic. This 15 step travel planning guide will hopefully put you on the path to traveling more frequently.

First, you need to decide WHERE you want to travel.  You need to give yourself a goal, something to make the trip real. Saying you want to travel more  is great, but you need to know where you want to travel to.  Deciding “I’m going to South America” or “I’m going to London” is going to get the ball rolling faster.

But deciding where to go isn’t always an easy task.  There are so many places in the world that deciding on just one destination can be tough.  It can be overwhelming and some of you may not even know how to begin picking a destination. Read on for my tips to get you headed in the right direction.

15 Step Travel Planning Guide:

1.  Deciding when to travel –  When to travel can be one of the most important travel factors.  If you are limited to traveling during certain times of the year due to school or work, you’re likely going to be traveling during peak season.  I recommend traveling during the off season, but that’s not always possible.  If your job only allows you to take vacation time during the summer, try to plan for early June before kids get out of school.  This will make travel cheaper and less crowded.

If you’re traveling around Christmas, the best days to fly are usually on Christmas or New Year’s Day or the days immediately preceding and following those dates.   Being even slightly flexible with your travel dates can save a ton of money on transportation and accommodation plus allow you to enjoy popular tourist attractions with shorter wait times and less crowds.

2.  What’s the weather? – Once you know when you can travel, you need to decide what type of climate you’re looking to enjoy on your vacation.  Is it hot and you’re looking to cool off at a Northern retreat?  Do you want to get away bfrom the snow and jet off to the beach?  Figure out what type of weather you’re looking forward to in order to help narrow down your travel destination choices.  This can go hand-in-hand with deciding when to travel as well.

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Saying travel hasn’t been easy in 2020 is an understatement. Most of us have faced cancelled vacations this year and aren’t even sure when we’ll be able to travel freely again. If you’re like my family, you still have that travel bug. While staying safe and healthy is a top priority, there are still ways to get out there and travel. It just may not be what you imagined when you last planned trips back in 2019. Staycation anyone?

Traveling local (within your states current guidelines) is still possible and can be a great way to get away while not going far from home. Derrick isn’t allowed to travel outside of the state (Virginia) without having to quarantine for 14 days on his return. That isn’t a great use of hard earned annual leave! Therefore, we have to be very careful what we plan.

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