Group Travel

Group travel has both pluses and minuses. You need to actually think about it before you sign on to a group travel excursions.

Are you a scheduled person? If so, group travel can make you nuts. It's hard to get multiple people ready to go at a specific time and to agree when and where to go.

Are you flexible? If you're flexible group travel may be a breeze for you. If you have one thing in mind and do the opposite you need to ask yourself ahead of time if that will be ok with you. Will it disrupt you and cause you irritation?

Are the folks you plan to travel with like minded? Do they like to do the same sort of things? If not, you could have a problem. If group 1 is active and wants to get up early to exercise; and group 2 wants to sleep in, get up leisurely and take the day as it comes without things being pre-arranged or scheduled. You might have conflicts. Will the early birds be quiet, are they content to do their own thing and leave you be?

Group Travel can save you money. But, it can also actually increase the costs. Are you all sharing equally in the cost of a condo vs each of you paying for your own hotel room? If you're paying for your own hotel room, you need not all have the same accommodations. Example ocean view generally costs more than side or street view. Are you eating out or eating in? If you're eating out, the choice of restaurant can up the cost of your trip. Likewise if you're eating in, are you sharing the costs? Does everyone like to eat the same thing?

Are you a person that likes things neat? If so, going on vacation sharing a house or condo with people who aren't can be an irritant to you. Example: You have a beautiful condo and every night people leave their shoes everywhere, their drink glasses on end tables, personal care items like sun tan lotion on the table. Access your situation, what you like, what your travel partners are likely to be like and decide if ground rules need to discussed before the trip.

If you're at a house or condo and are eating in. Who's doing the cooking, the cleaning up? Are you going to get stuck with it all the time? Is it being shared. Really a good idea to discuss this before hand.

Do you want to do some things by yourself, or with your spouse and not necessarily everything with the group? If so, discuss it before hand. People can get their feelings hurt if they expect all activities to be group activities and you want some time alone.

What time do you like to eat dinner? If you're a 5 o'clock person but traveling with people like myself who like to eat at 7 ish, you have a potential problem.

There is no right, or wrong way to go about this. We all have our routines. The important thing is to discuss things ahead of time.

Here's 2 of the biggest area's that can be a source for discord in a group. Pets and smoking. Pet people tend to think everyone should love their pets they way they do. If you're not a pet person, you probably don't want to travel with people who are or want to bring their pets. Time tables can be an issue here, when and where to stop. Where to eat, what to do with the dog in the car etc. Smoking, if you're a non smoker, chances are you don't want smoke in your hotel room, condo, or beach house. If you have people in the group who are smokers, discuss ahead of time how that's to be handled. Is there a reasonable place outside for them to smoke?

Organize yourself, think about what you want out of vacation, and by all means discuss things BEFORE hand that will give everyone the best possible means of having a wonderful vacation.

Securing your House when you Travel

While you travel, be it for business or pleasure you don't want to have worries about your house/apt. or condo while you're away. Take a few precautions to safe guard your home. Naturally everyone thinks to close the windows, and lock the doors; but there's more to be done. Always let one or two people in family and in your neighborhood know when and where you're traveling so they can keep an eye on the house.

Always stop the mail and the newspapers. Door hangers are more difficult to stop, so do have a neighbor check the house. Nothing sends more of a signal you're not home then to have a pile of mail, newspapers, and or door hangers advertising that fact by being piled up in your absence. You can stop you mail easily by doing it on line.

Have several automatic lights set to go off and on while you're away in various parts of the house. Set those times to match your normal routine. If you typically go to bed around 11, leaving lights on in the middle of the night is a sure signal to anyone that might wish to enter that you're not home. Leave your window blinds up so your neighbors can see if something is wrong inside the house.

Make sure at least one neighbor has keys to your house should they're be any problems.

Turn off the water. It's not uncommon for a leak to happen in hoses' and you don't want to come home to a flood. Or due to cold temperatures have a pipe burst.

Turn your automatic garage door opener off. You don't want people to play with your combination and or another opening and be able to work yours. Turning the electric to it completely off is double security.

Don't take out your trash can, as it will sit there the whole time your gone....another big flag you're not home.

If it's winter, make arrangements for someone to shovel your drive and walk if it snows; and or to drive their car in and out of your drive leaving tracks....it looks like you've been there then. Likewise with tracks on the walk.

Versatile Blogger Award

A nice blogger and friend, June Zach over on A Fledgling Blogger recently gave me “The Versatile Blogger Award“.
I never expected to be a recipient of this cool award. Thank you very much!
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The Rules:
* Be sure to thank and link back to the person who gave you the award. (check)
* Share 7 things about yourself.
* Pass the award to other bloggers who you think deserves it.(working on it this wkend)
* Be sure to let the bloggers know you chose them to receive the award.
7 Things about Me
1. I like quiet surroundings, rarely turn on the radio when in the car, even on a long trip.
2. I wish I were more techy with things on the computer, but strive continuously to learn new things.
3. I hate all the nasty things that come about during election times. People are so dishonest about their opponents it's troublesome
4. I no longer enjoy fall as I did when I was younger, thinking about the cold and snow and what follows causes me to want summer all year long.
5. I had a small speech problem when I was a kid, couldn't say s's at the beginning of the word. Took speech class which was helpful. Though at the time, I was upset about.
6. I wish my daughter lived nearer, we so enjoy time with her.
7. I knit and crochet for homeless, please check out my blog, Bridge and Beyond
Many thanks June for the award
Flat Stanley will be back next Friday with adventures. He's been busy planning for the next couple of weeks. Please check back

Laundry, Prepping for Travel

Laundry, something we all do all the time. Something you can't get away from no matter how hard you try. It's like the EverReady Bunny, it's just keep going and going. lol

You do laundry all 4 seasons of the year, you do it before after and sometimes during your travels. So, what's so important we need to talk about it here in this post? Laundry is a part of prepping for your travels. Make you life easy, make less work. As you do your laundry a week before departing for an adventure; set aside items you plan to pack and don't wear them. Lay them out on an extra bed (cover them if you have fur babies in the house that won't leave them alone). In the course of a normal week most of us do laundry multiple times. If you do this with all your laundry for the week, you'll have very little you actually need to get out of the closet or draws to get ready to pack. AND best of all, you won't have to do a last minute laundry because something you want isn't clean and ready.

There other benefit is, you have the opportunity to review things without feeling rushed about what to pack. You can see what might work or not, what might need a button sewn on etc. AND by keeping up with the laundry you're not pressed the minute you get home. It's also a good idea to launder, iron and have ready the outfit you'll need for your first day back at work before you go. If you're delayed getting home; you'll have what you need and not need to do laundry in the wee hours of morning to have something to wear to work; in fact.........you won't even have to unpack right then....you'll have what you need for your first day back.

Make your life simpler, plan ahead with this simple plan. It's saved us a couple of times. Getting stuck at the airport or even when driving due to weather and not making it back in town as scheduled doesn't have to stress you out, if you're ready.