Planning Process

Jane

I try to make sure our family has a new travel experience each year. While we may repeat some states or favorite sites, I like each overall vacation to be different. You could say we’re trying to see each state, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take to achieve that. But I do like to give our family a chance to do something unique and different on each vacation and in each state.

Up until the last couple of years, I did most of the vacation planning for our family. My husband and I would discuss things we wanted to do, and then I would put the plans into action. We did start asking the kids for ideas, and they’d tell us things like Walt Disney World or the beach. And we used to fly everywhere. I think the flying was based on the fact that I always flew as a kid, but we also had flight privileges through my dad’s work. This road trip thing has been a recent development, and we’ve taken a road trip each year since 2016.

So based on opinions and ideas from the family, I work toward creating new itineraries and routes for each year. I do this by borrowing Jacob’s huge Rand McNally atlas he got for a birthday present in 2017. I also use Google Maps for distances and then take a whole bunch of notes on post-its. My process isn’t very technical.

Another favorite resource of mine: travel books from the library. I hit the travel section of the local library and check out all the books I can on our decided destination. I read through each book to gain basic ideas of what to do and where to stay.

After all the book reading and map studying, I really love to find great places to stay. I will stay in hotels along the way if we’re driving to multiple destinations, but I enjoy picking out cabins or houses or condos on VRBO for big chunks of our trips. Our results have always been great with using this site, but I always put in many hours of research to ensure (or hope) this happens.

This planning may seem like overkill to some, but it really helps me feel good about where we’re going. And I will say, the places we go are pretty great!

Tags

Planning & Packing