When, Why, and Where of Travel--Follow Me

First let me say, I wish I could take credit for this fabulous picture; but I can't it's one of the sample pictures that came loaded on my computer. No doubt you've got one like it on yours. It seemed appropriate though, ever wonder how many places a butterfly has visited? How many things it's seen?

The when, why, and where of travel may not be something a butterfly thinks about you; but you should. Thinking and planning will make all who travel with you enjoy themselves more.

The when of travel maybe dictated to you based on your work load, or when the kids are out of school, but even within those restrictions you need to think about when. Is this window of travel time a high or low season? Meaning are you paying big bucks or getting a deal for travel during an off time. Naturally you can save money if you travel during non peak times, you can save further if you look at what days even to go. Are you staying at a hotel that gives deals on week days or the week ends? A hotel we've frequented in St. Louis (when our daughter was in school there), had great wk-end deals. Why? Isn't that when people travel? It was near a large computer center that had lots going on through the work week with business travelers, and so offered great deals on the wk-end to get people to stay there. If you fly, often the same thing is possible. In other words, check things out before you book.

Why? Why travel? Do you travel to relax, do you travel to see interesting things, do you travel because you like history, do you travel for recreation? Do you travel for family time, or adult time. These are very important questions to ask yourself before you book a vacation/adventure. If you have a hectic life and work schedule; you might not enjoy a hectic busy adventure style vacation like getting up early every morning to be the first in the lift line to ski. You might prefer a quiet relaxing vacation curled up with a book instead. If you're days are filled with children because you're a school teacher, you probably don't want a child filled resort like Disney on your vacation. If you sit at a computer day after day at work, you probably would really enjoy a hiking, skiing, more active vacation. Hubby and I in our early years were very different in this regard. He wanted the active vacation because he wasn't active at work. I was super active at work and wanted down time for vacation. He couldn't understand why I didn't want to get up at 6 am on vacation to hit the slopes and ski to the ski patrol pulled us off the mountain. I was on vacation, I didn't want a schedule. Through the years, we've found compromise; but it's important to discuss and understand what going on vacation means to each person you're traveling with. Otherwise things probably won't run smoothly.

Once you figure out the when and the why; then think about the where. Most people do this backward. As a result they come back from vacation tired, sad because they didn't get to do what they thought they were going to do, and in general...things just didn't measure up.

When? Our next vacation will be in early February. It's a slow time for hubby at work, an ugly time here at home, and it's low season which fits our budget.
Why? I want relaxation, he wants more active.
Where? We're heading to South Carolina where it will be warm enough for him to play golf. I can relax, go for walks, knit or crochet, and sleep in. Perfect! We'll get in some site seeing, because with it being low season things won't be crowded. We both love to do that, and both enjoy history. We'll both get to do what we enjoy; and because of good planning the vacation will be a success. We will spend time on the beach, but probably won't have to worry about getting too much sun.