I know some people don't understand my addiction to travel. I sometimes wonder which I love more the planning and preparation of a trip or the trip itself. I've thought about this alot lately.
I love doing the research about a destination I have chosen to visit. I become so engrossed in reading about the history and culture the customs and culinary delights that I often consider myself a travel agent extrordinaire, albeit just for myself or a few select travel companions. I feel that seeking out as much information on a location as I can get will enable me to have numerous choices of things to do, places to see and food to eat while I am traveling and I just love that!
So this brings me to the topic of this blog entry. I have my 2006 trip planning well under my belt, save for a train ticket that I will purchase when I arrive to get a better deal then if I were to purchase the ticket through a broker on line. So I turned my sights on planning a 2007 trip calendar. There are so many places on my wish list that I was torn on where to start serious consideration. But after much lurking/reading on the Fodor's message boards and watching several of the Rick Steves travel shows I have determined that for 2007 my "big" trip will be to Turkey!
And yes, it will be a solo trip, for now anyway. If a friend decides to join me that would be great, but I am not going to sit back and wait for someone else to suggest it! And yes, it will be another group tour and yes, with Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door. I put my deposit in last week for September 24-October 6, 2007. It should be an interesting trip.
Now why another group tour? Again, it comes down to a few things. 1. I wouldn't feel comfortable traveling completely on my own in Turkey due to the language issue and with a guide I would have help. 2. Although I like traveling solo, I also like to be able to sit down to a meal with others who have shared daily experiences and 3. I really like the Rick Steve style of travel. So there it is, my first 2007 travel commitment.
I've also planned a long winter weekend trip out to Tucson in January 2007 to visit friends. Believe it or not, I was actually able to use frequent flier miles for this trip and only had to pay the $10 tax for the flight.
Now the big question is...should I plan a spring trip for 2007? I'm leaning toward saying yes to this because of how I am handling this years travel withdrawal I am going through. In 2006 I have only one (albeit a long one) trip planned...4 weeks in Central Europe. But that is not until September and the last time I packed my bags to go anywhere was in November 2005 (the infamous Thanksgiving trip to Tucson). So my thought is for 2007 I need to sprinkle even a one week or long weekend trip sometime in the spring so it will be between my Tucson trip in January and my Turkey trip in September (remember this is for 2007).
A few places have popped into my mind for a spring 2007 (think end of May/early June) trip. I loved Ireland so much last year and I was there the same time of year and it was lovely. I'm contemplating renting an apartment for a week and stay in one place and do day trips. So this would also entail renting a car, which may be an obstacle since I'm not comfortable driving a manual transmission (and automatics are pricey) and I would be driving on the opposite side of the road and in all likelihood I would be going it solo. Plus the airfare will probably be around $800-$900.
The other destination I have been considering for sping of 2007 is the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Seattle. I've checked out a trip with Backroads Tours that would be a hiking/walking trip, but that doesn't go until mid-June and I really wanted to take advantage of the Memorial Day Holiday to reduce the number of vacation I would be taking. So now I am mulling over maybe just doing a long weekend and concentrating on just Seattle. Afterall, my Seattle trip that was supposed to be in January 2006 got cancelled and it would be nice to be in Seattle in another month than January! Plus the airfare to Seattle would be half the price to Ireland. But part of me is just drawn to Ireland and if I could would go back every year!
Decisions, Decisions! I am happy that I will be going to Turkey and have promised myself that I will not start researching/reading about that destination until I am back from my jaunt around Central Europe!
As my mother says "Don't wish your life away"! :)
Happy Travels!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Saturday, June 10, 2006
A Better Plan????
I believe I have conjured up a better alternative to getting a train at 2:30 in the morning! Well, at least I think it's a better plan :)
So after much research and banging my head against a wall, or so it seemed, I came up with this plan...Rent a car!
My original thought was to rent a car in Bled, Slovenia where the tours. My plan was to pick up a rental car the last night of the group tour so CL and I could get an early start the next day and drive to Split to catch the fast catamaran to Hvar at 5pm. You can imagine my shock when I started pricing car rentals and the cheapest one came back at $517! We only wanted the car for one day, but since we would be renting in one country and dropping off in another there was a monumental drop off charge...300 Euros!
Hmmmmm...what to do now? Well, if we could get into Croatia to rent a car maybe the prices would be cheaper. But I didn't want to miss the last night of the group tour. So then my brain goes into over-drive thinking through how this can be done, but I know it can be done and not for $500!
After going over the various scenarios in my head here is the plan I came up with and CL agreed...Thank God she is so easy going!
We will take the 5:20am train from Bled to Zagreb, Croatia's capital. It's approximately a 3 hour train ride. We get to the main train station in downtown Zagreb at about 8:30am, this is on a Tuesday. I found there is an Avis rental car desk at the Sheraton Hotel Zagreb which is only a few blocks from the train station so we can walk there easily pulling our wheely-bags behind us. This worked out perfectly because even though we will only need to rent the car for a few hours the cost is about $100. Now you are probably wondering why don't they take the train all the way to Split. Well....it's because the train will not get us there in time for the last fast catamaran at 5pm, and by driving once we get out of Zagreb the A-1 Highway is a brand new, straight shot from Zagreb to Split. And I have from a reliable source the drive from Zagreb to Split on the A-1 is about 3 hours with good traffic conditions. So in my mind I have told myself it should take about 4 hours, because I have giving us 1 hour to negoiate getting out of downtown and onto the highway. And since we are going to drop off the car at the Split airport which is outside the city, the drive may be a little shorter. Once we drop off the car we just hop on the city bus that will take us directly to the ferry terminal!
Now, I know this sounds like a lot of changes in modes of transportation. But even with the train ticket to Zagreb, the car rental, the gas, the tolls, the bus to the ferry terminal and the catamaran, the cost of that is less then renting a car in Bled and about the same amount as a direct train ticket from Bled to Split.
Even though we will be spending an entire day "in transit" we will be getting to Hvar in the early evening and that was my goal for that day. Then we have 3 days to bum around Hvar! :)
All is well in the world of Croatia travel planning! :)
So after much research and banging my head against a wall, or so it seemed, I came up with this plan...Rent a car!
My original thought was to rent a car in Bled, Slovenia where the tours. My plan was to pick up a rental car the last night of the group tour so CL and I could get an early start the next day and drive to Split to catch the fast catamaran to Hvar at 5pm. You can imagine my shock when I started pricing car rentals and the cheapest one came back at $517! We only wanted the car for one day, but since we would be renting in one country and dropping off in another there was a monumental drop off charge...300 Euros!
Hmmmmm...what to do now? Well, if we could get into Croatia to rent a car maybe the prices would be cheaper. But I didn't want to miss the last night of the group tour. So then my brain goes into over-drive thinking through how this can be done, but I know it can be done and not for $500!
After going over the various scenarios in my head here is the plan I came up with and CL agreed...Thank God she is so easy going!
We will take the 5:20am train from Bled to Zagreb, Croatia's capital. It's approximately a 3 hour train ride. We get to the main train station in downtown Zagreb at about 8:30am, this is on a Tuesday. I found there is an Avis rental car desk at the Sheraton Hotel Zagreb which is only a few blocks from the train station so we can walk there easily pulling our wheely-bags behind us. This worked out perfectly because even though we will only need to rent the car for a few hours the cost is about $100. Now you are probably wondering why don't they take the train all the way to Split. Well....it's because the train will not get us there in time for the last fast catamaran at 5pm, and by driving once we get out of Zagreb the A-1 Highway is a brand new, straight shot from Zagreb to Split. And I have from a reliable source the drive from Zagreb to Split on the A-1 is about 3 hours with good traffic conditions. So in my mind I have told myself it should take about 4 hours, because I have giving us 1 hour to negoiate getting out of downtown and onto the highway. And since we are going to drop off the car at the Split airport which is outside the city, the drive may be a little shorter. Once we drop off the car we just hop on the city bus that will take us directly to the ferry terminal!
Now, I know this sounds like a lot of changes in modes of transportation. But even with the train ticket to Zagreb, the car rental, the gas, the tolls, the bus to the ferry terminal and the catamaran, the cost of that is less then renting a car in Bled and about the same amount as a direct train ticket from Bled to Split.
Even though we will be spending an entire day "in transit" we will be getting to Hvar in the early evening and that was my goal for that day. Then we have 3 days to bum around Hvar! :)
All is well in the world of Croatia travel planning! :)
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