Work, home maintenance, work, getting with friends, work and work... and I have slacked off on the blogging.
So shoot me.
Well, a couple posts ago I noted that we finally picked up the tickets for our next trip. Since then, in between work and working, I have managed to set up car rentals for a few legs of the trip, reserved rooms at small guesthouses, looked at train schedules in Switzerland, and bought ferry tickets to the Island of Islay in SingleMaltScotchlandia.
Oh yea. That last one...
Single Malt Scotch tasting at the actual distilleries, including my favorite: Ardbeg! We have a room in a small guesthouse in Port Ellen, and the plan is to ferry over, park the car, walk to the three distilleries (Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg) and then stagger home.
*Side note: my mouth is certainly looking forward to that part of the trip, and the following weeks in IrishWhiskyvania as well!
So, how much planning is too much planning?
Unfortunately, people get all in a huff debating this, when it is a false question.
There is never too much planning, because the right amount of planning depends on the individual.
Real life examples:
1. There are a few very small villages we are going to visit. One is Castle Combe, in the southern part of the Cotswolds, UK. As near as I can figure there is one hotel and two guest houses in the village, the rest are out of town. Now, going here was not part of my original plan, but one day when I was looking at some other information this photo came up of a beautiful place. It was mislabeled, by the way. Thanks to Google I was able to figure out where the photo was taken, where the village is, and then information about lodging. I am thinking this: middle of tourist season, few rooms, beautiful village: better reserve a room. So I did.
And... we got a 10% discount for reserving so far in advance.
Upside: we now have a room and can stay there. If we had just showed up, we might be out of luck. Downside: we are locked into that location on that day.
2. Continuing on the same room theme, once we did not have a room reserved in a town in Turkey. We wasted over an hour looking for a room, time that we could have better spent walking around, sitting on the beach or eating.
3. In my own personal travels I love just going with a general direction in mind, and ending up wherever for the night. This is pretty much how all of my road trips with my friend Dennis go: we decide to go to the coast, when we get there we then choose (at 65 MPH) to head north or south, and the rest just happens. This does not work as well when I travel as a married couple. There is a certain security and comfort level in knowing where you will be, or that you have a place. Not to mention the non-wasted time (#2 above).
BUT... We have been offered some great room prices walking off the train, by locals with a room to rent.
4. So, even I myself cannot agree with me, as I have two totally different comfort levels going at the same time. So to try to foist my ideas of "Plan it all" vs "Just go be free" upon any of you would be ludicrous.
And yes, I am damn proud I used the word ludicrous in a blog post. Next up: cornucopia.
5. That being said, it is useful to check on ferry times, and purchase advance tickets if there is one ferry per day and it could fill up. This kept me from getting stuck on the island of Rhodes and missing Santorini.
6. But, in direct contrast to #5 above, I do the same thing for train tickets and had it backfire on me in Ljubljana. We really wanted to take the night train to Budapest, and I got the train schedule direct from the national website: one night train a week on Thursday, but the train never fills up...
We showed up at the station on Wednesday to buy the ticket for Thursday night, just to find out that the night train was on Wednesday instead of Thursday.
My next blog post will be about purchasing train tickets, Eurail passes and so on.
7. I really wanted to stay in Füssen, Germany, and hike over the mountains skirting the Austrian border to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle. Good guesthouses book up fast there in the summer. The line to get a ticket at the castle is hours long; the "ticket" is a time to return (often hours later) to tour the castle.
I reserved a room, then asked the guesthouse owner to help me with ticket reservations after explaining our hiking plan to him. He knew how long it would take us to walk there, purchased reserved tickets for me, and didn't even charge anything extra. We woke up, ate breakfast, and set out on the hike. When we arrived at the castle we had time for a beer and pretzel, then walked past angry staring people in an hours long line snaking out to the parking lot up to the special side door marked "reserved tickets." We paid for the tickets and walked right in, toured and headed home back past the same angry people waiting in the looooong line.
Sometimes the lack of spontaneity is made up for by the ease of travel.
8. I like to load on Google maps and direction for important days, like the day we drive an hour from Glendalough, Ireland to the Dublin airport to catch a flight to Paris. I know it is one hour, I know where to go and I do NOT want to miss the flight.
9. When I reserved a room in Istanbul, they innkeeper kindly asked where we were going next. She checked the train schedules for me and let me know it was impossible to do what we wished. However, at her suggestion I looked into flying instead and it was not only more time efficient, but cheaper than my original plans. The locals know best.
TAKEAWAY LESSONS:
- If it is a really small town with few room options, reserve in advance if you really want to be sure to stay there.
- Everyone has different comfort levels. Do what works for you. Damn all the advice. Especially my advice.
- If you don't want to risk "getting stuck," it is worth checking transportation schedules.
- At times there is a financial advantage to reserving ahead. At times it is better to show up and bargain.
- Planning ahead can be a time saver.
- Sometimes planning ahead can lead to other useful information.
- On the other hand, I have missed the opportunity to spend a week in Olympus, Turkey, instead of a day there. I guess I will have to go back...
Press the button for the best single malt scotch whiskey. (Ask my friend Don, who up till now didn't even drink single malt.) Warning: they card you upon entry! Actually, I am getting to the age where it is a compliment to be carded, and I am kind of pissed off if they don't. What? Do I look THAT OLD to you?!?! |