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Great responses on this thread - a terrific read! I'm very happy to read that most people are like me and spend a solid amount of time preparing for a trip, which I personally find very enjoyable. I'm all for allowing time for spontaneity, and I hate having every second of every day pre-planned, but I cannot imagine taking a vacation without figuring out the best and most beautiful things to see and do.
Some of it depends on the nature and length of my trip.
I usually do some basic research about local points of interest and interesting neighborhoods and restaurants and cultural things and then within that framework, explore. Like if I use yelp or some other online resource and I notice that one neighborhood seems to be eclectic and in my 'wheelhouse' I will bookmark it and spend a day exploring there.
I won't make a checklist and stick to it religiously.
How thoroughly do you research a travel destination before you go there?.
We are constantly researching places all over the world. We typically start talking about and researching possible destinations two years before we go. That gives us a lot of choices. We usually take 5 - 7 trips per year.
At about one year before the trip, we get more serious and begin developing plans. Some reservations are best made 10 - 11 months out such as award airline tickets and rental houses. By the time we are ready to travel, we know quite a lot about the destination. We have found a large number of special places doing research.
Book a hotwire, hotel in the exact location I want to be in, book the airline tickets, learn as much as I can about the location, find some legacy restaurants, book several large things, then play the rest by ear.
The hubs and I have bought annual Disney passes for each other this year and all I do is book the hotels. The rest is on the fly.
How thoroughly do you research a travel destination before you go there?
I guess I like surprises, I don't even prepare for the weather. I usually book a hotel, for the first night, if I'm flying in, but that's about it.
I spent two weeks in Kyrgyzstan, and didn't know about their Africa-level GDP until after I got home. I had to buy warm clothes in Ethiopia. I didn't know about Georgian kachapuri until I got there.
I like to draw my own conclusions about a place, without being warned.
When heading to India for the first time, I ensured I had a Tamil to English (in that case) translation book handy, and read up on customs so I didn't look like a total B'wana Englishman idiot. Hopefully I did not, on arrival. Nor did I ask why Gandhi was on the head of many/most/all Rupee notes: didn't really need to, now did I?
You can bet I had my shots up to date for there, and Africa (later), too. Yellow Fever or malaria can wreck your whole day. Not looking into WHO, CDC, and State Department recommendations would just be...stupid.
One could spend a lifetime in India and only scratch the surface, so much more than that was pointless. But it was not pointless to learn local and regional customs, especially around business in that case, if I was to be using the 'right' yardstick for measuring business competencies. Mission accomplished, Namaste.
When I jetted off to Lincoln, Nebraska the other year, I only needed to know a few things: 1) the local college football schedule 2) where UNR was 3) the Top 5 things to do in town, of which I did 3 in two days. Other than that, I winged it. Lot of mud in town, but hey: it's fertile farm country, and bless them for it.
I plan a place to stay usually and look up some things to do and then only do those things if I feel like it. Sometimes I just wander when I get there or if I find a place I like I become a "regular" for a few days.
I remember when I went to East Berlin in 88' I went off solo for a bit and followed an attractive guy for a few blocks and ended up staying till after dark. Then I found myself walking I think west toward checkpoint Charlie but an alternate route thru bombed out buildings on both sides of the street for many blocks. It was quite dark, deserted and really eerie.
That was fun.
My man often likes to be really well prepared and hates getting lost so that is a drag sometimes.
It depends on the trip. We're heading to Oahu for five days coming up soon and won't do any research for it at all, but we're visiting friends and don't really need to know any schedules of public transport or show times or anything. Our last big vacation to Europe, I spent hours - if not days, checking out things to do in the areas we were going to be in. I still didn't have enough planning done before we left, there were several towns where we didn't do all the things we could have because we didn't know enough.
Once the basics are in place - airfare, hotels, transportation, then the rest doesn't need the same level of planning.
When I jetted off to Lincoln, Nebraska the other year, I only needed to know a few things: 1) the local college football schedule 2) where UNR was 3) the Top 5 things to do in town, of which I did 3 in two days. Other than that, I winged it. Lot of mud in town, but hey: it's fertile farm country, and bless them for it.
Been to Lincoln also -- I found it merited a day trip. The University of Nebraska has a decent natural history museum and small art museum with a couple interesting modern art pieces.
Best thing, though, was the capitol building -- one of the best ten such places I've encountered (been to 37 so far). Unusual place, with lots of mosaic-like work inside and an almost Byzantine style interior, a tall central tower topped with a dome, and a nice view of the city. Gorgeous and unusual.
There are a few other things like a quilt museum and botanical garden, but didn't have time for them.
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