I love planning, mostly vacations. I love the research behind it, reading the reviews, deciding where to stay, spending countless days searching for the right airfare. I don't do it just by price either, I figure in price, route and aircraft! I get excited just writing this.
Last week I talked myself out of a new car, all because I am saving for this
Yep, this is where the kids and I are traveling in December. (A little note about the car. I have one that's only a few years old, and honestly quite perfect for me, plus it's paid off, so it's not like I need a car, I just really miss luxury cars)!
My son will be a senior next year so I gave him the choice of what country/continent would he want to travel to in Decemember (I have two weeks of uninterrupted time with the kids, with out having to trade a day, hence December). He didn't really care, so I threw out a few I enjoyed from my flight attendant days. London, Austria, Australia.....he chose Australia. Out of all the places I have been this is the one place I have most desired to go back to. However planning is over whelming, this is a very large country. And a little more costly than I originally thought.
For planning I went straight to one of the best sources. I have a friend from Australia. I met up at his house last week for a couple hours. I got wonderful advice, how to get more of a real "Aussie" experience, how to travel between Sydney and Melbourne, what to see and where to stay along the way. How many days are typically needed, Australian search engines, plus he emailed me the following day with a PDF of a mapped out trip so I could have that on file to go back to while planning! I have travel books and notes from Ricks co-worker that just got back, and have been reading many reviews on the different places to stay. My kids may be in for a real treat, because one place I want to stay is about four hours south of Sydney, by rental car.....me driving on the "wrong" side of the road, oh dear!
$$$ for the trip, the amount I may spend on this trip makes me slightly ill, but I can do it! First the airfare in December is ridiculous, however Hawaiian seems to be the cheapest, by about $2000. for the three tickets, plus I have enough miles for a departure (the more expensive leg of the trip). We'll see though, I do have a wedding I am in need of planning and Hawaii is at the top of our list right now for destination wedding, so may use those miles then...which brings me to the other way I am saving for this trip. Having two big houses full of furniture, that will be eventually combined into one, I have been going craigslist happy selling and getting ready to sell stuff. I love it. We have too much of everything so have been picking and choosing what we will keep and what we won't, money from selling everything in my house is paying for Australia!
After I get the Australia details set, we will try to get some wedding plans in order. For the record I am very much enjoying the initial wedding planning phase!
Just a fun picture of my après ski snack this last weekend!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment