Crap like this just makes me want to stay home (worst, claustrophobic)

[MinuteMan]

Originally Posted by floridadreamer

I'd really like to know what city this is as well.

Its Chicago.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/11293470-post32.html

[firebll31]

Originally Posted by BergenCountyJohnny

I'm like you - the end of the trip, and after the trip are very sad and disappointing for me. The OP definitely is not a real "traveler", IMO. Real travel-lovers enjoy actually traveling. Real travelers plan to avoid the "hassles" and learn how to handle whatever problems arise. Real travelers also learn how to cope with and roll with setbacks.

Your recommendation to the OP to take a guided tour is a great one; they are perfect for people who want to travel but aren't very good at doing it themselves or handling the unexpected.

It's funny, when I heard people say how they like "after the trip" better than the trip itself, I just couldn't relate. If you like being home more, then why even travel??? I get sad on my last day of a trip, knowing I'm going home to work and "real life".

To me, the trip is more fun before and during... BEFORE, because the researching, planning, and creating of the trip is so fun, and I stretch it out for months. The anticipation is exciting. Planning the trip is ALMOST better than the trip itself. And DURING the trip, well the trip itself is the main event! It should be THE best part of traveling, and for me, it is. I'm on a natural high, the entire time I travel, especially if it's for pleasure, but even when it's a business trip.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds the research and anticipation exciting! I have 6 months until our trip to Loreto, Mexico and have been checking websites and blogs almost every day. They laugh at me at work , but I find that planning for a spring or early summer vacation the fall before helps me make it through the winter.....

[floridadreamer]

Originally Posted by MinuteMan

Its Chicago.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/11293470-post32.html

Thanks. Personally, I don't think I'd go to a city that size alone unless it was in at least a 3 star hotel, or I was with a tour, or meeting up with a travel partner, but hey that's me.

[BergenCountyJohnny]

Originally Posted by firebll31

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds the research and anticipation exciting! I have 6 months until our trip to Loreto, Mexico and have been checking websites and blogs almost every day. They laugh at me at work , but I find that planning for a spring or early summer vacation the fall before helps me make it through the winter.....

GOOD FOR YOU!

It's exciting. Preparation gets you excited as well as prepared. It certainly gives you something to look forward to. Many people take at least 2 trips a year, even if one or both are simple, short trips...if they plan them out and keep researching, etc. they will find that the time goes by more quickly, it gets you through work, it brightens some of your less-than-stellar days, etc.

Not to be too graphic, but it's like the foreplay before the, well, climax. A vacation is usually anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. Either way, it comes and goes very quickly. It is the climax. But if you prepare for it, you are getting more out of the trip than just the trip itself. When you take the time to prepare, get psyched for it, let yourself get teased with it, get worked up and ready, then, when it finally happens, it's incredible! lol

[tijlover]

Leonard Woof once remarked: It's the journey, not the arrival that counts.

I can definitely relate to the foreplay concept. The longer the foreplay, the more exciting. I sometimes will start planning a trip 3 months in advance.

It can take a huge amount of time just reading the reviews of hotels on Hotel.com or Expedia. And, sometimes, after reading 50 of them, you're no better off that when you started, half having a favorable review, the other half condemning the place.

If I'm traveling by car, I like to take the old routes into town where all the older motels dotted the entrace to the city, where some of them won't even appear on Expedia or Hotel.com. Yes, a good number of them have turned residential and are run down, but I found that a number of them reserve a few rooms for tourists and are quite nice. I discovered that in Aberdeen, Washington on a recent trip. I could tell from driving into the lot, with lots of junky cars, this particular place was residential. But I perservered anyway, and I was so surprised that they reserved a few rooms for tourists which was beyond my expectations. And I talked to any number of the residential tenants while there. Didn't feel unsafe or threatened in any way. A far more interesting experience than staying at a Hilton or Sheraton.

[susancruzs]

I've always planned my trips in advance, I don't like doing the last minute routine. I do the smaller motel thing, too, as well as state highways rather than an interstate providing I'm not short of time.

I'm a little more cautious than I used to be as I get older but overall find small motels, mom and pop places are great, similar to booking an older, boutique hotel in Europe.

I tend to eat the same way, too. I'm amazed at the number of people who travel and just go to a chain restaurant instead of a local place.

I moved to a small town and I have yet to be in McDonalds, too many good local places to chose from, the exception being Cousins and Subway.

[mongoslade223]

I travel by this rule: Plan out all the costs in advance then double it when it's time to leave!

[floridadreamer]

Originally Posted by mongoslade223

I travel by this rule: Plan out all the costs in advance then double it when it's time to leave!

I also do this, but mainly for road trips or when moving. I calculate the mileage and cost of fuel, and then double it. That way if we get lost, the vehicle breaks down, or we have some other unforseen issue, there is always an extra $400-ish around as a cushion.

[sskkc]

We took a 2 1/2 week roadtrip last spring with our kids. We stayed in a total of 7 different hotels. I am an anal planner, but things come up.

For instance, the kids and I needed to rent a car for a couple days, as dh ended up working some days we didn't expect. That was in Chicago. I did some research and found a rental car for $30/day. The biggest problem we had with that was that I didn't know the area and we waited 45 minutes for them to come pick us up (the hotel shuttle was booked) while they kept saying they'd be there in 5 minutes. Turns out they were less than a block from the hotel. They gave us an upgrade when I showed up laughing about it and the manager overheard.

I also learned a lesson about hotels.com and won't use them for extended trips again - hotels don't like customers who use them and won't make changes to a reservation made through them.

Again, a for instance - one of the hotels we stayed at (4th 'leg' of trip), southwest suburb of Chicago - got there, and the ad on the front counter indicated they were having an unadvertised special on their suites - buy two nights, get one free. We were staying two nights, but our schedule was flexible so I tried to switch. No deal. We ended up paying more for two nights in a smaller room without a frig (the reservation said 'upon request', but they had already given them all out when we arrived). From that point, I cancelled all our reservations for the remainder of the trip (halfway point) and rebooking all our hotel stays with that chain directly, with a suite, for less money (except at the last town).

For the final night of the trip, the hotel had flat out lied - and the reviews were faked. It was a flea bag with duct tape on the curtains, an outdoor DIRTY pool (not a state of the art indoor one), dirty, dirty, dirty. But the whole town was like that - we tried going out to dinner, but that was a disaster. But we learned a valuable lesson and since we now have to drive through that town on future roadtrips to the northwest of us (we take at least two a year) we know to avoid that entire town and even plan gas stops to avoid it.

As I said though, it was a 2 1/2 week trip with 2 adults, 2 kids (6 & 9) and those were the ONLY bumps we had. Good planning goes a LOOOONG way.

[floridadreamer]

Originally Posted by sskkc

I also learned a lesson about hotels.com and won't use them for extended trips again - hotels don't like customers who use them and won't make changes to a reservation made through them.

I learned the same thing when I had to book a smoking room on hotels.com and although the hotel had non-smoking available on arrival, they said they weren't allowed to change it because we booked it through a website such as Hotels.com. They ended up giving us a room that had been air out and an ionizer machine used in the process of changing the hotel to non-smoking down the road. Couldn't happen soon enough for me everywhere.