Every time my wife and I go on vacation, I take the lead in doing most of the planning. As a travele

Every time my wife and I go on vacation, I take the lead in doing most of the planning. As a traveler, you might label me as a bit of an anal retentive. I don t want us to miss anything fun or interesting cheap las vegas vacation packages just because I was unprepared. This usually means building a trip notebook to carry with us wherever we go. I thought I d share the notebook I have built for our upcoming trp to San Francisco. If you find this kind of neurosis cheap las vegas vacation packages interesting, or want to consider adding it to your own list, please click below to see more
As you can see in the above picture, my trip notebooks are of the 3-ring binder variety to make the addition and removal of pages as easy as possible. In the past I have gone with very slim, flexible binders. This has made them easy to carry and fit into my small travel backpack, but it has also led to crowded pages and difficulty in writing on pages when out and about. This time I have decided to go with a larger binder with a stiffer cover and a larger, looser backpack to hold it. I ll report on how well this worked for me at some point.
Every trip notebook is a little different, but they all include vital information, paperwork, maps, coupons, etc for the associated trip. In the past, I have included any airport/flight or driving information cheap las vegas vacation packages at the beginning and ending cheap las vegas vacation packages of my trip notebooks. This led to having to flip past these pages the entire trip after getting to our location or just ripping cheap las vegas vacation packages them out, so I have decided cheap las vegas vacation packages to move all of this info into a separate folder for this trip. This folder will include our full flight itinerary, preflight parking reservation cheap las vegas vacation packages and coupon, and boarding passes. In addition, I have printed out maps for each of the airport terminals we will be visiting during layovers on our flights to and returning from San Francisco (Washington DCA and O Hare). This will help us find bathrooms, restaurants, and shops there if we need them. I also have included a map of SFO airport and recommendations I found online on airport door-to-door shuttle services, complete with pictures of the vans we should be looking for (below, shown when initially in the main notebook).
Once we get to the hotel in SF, I will be able to set this flight info folder aside and carry only the main orange cheap las vegas vacation packages tourist binder for our days enjoying the city by the bay. The main body of the orange binder will be concerned with our daily planned activities, how to get to them, and what happens next. Due to the fantastic number of things there are to do in SF, I have had to plan each day very carefully, scheduling desired activities around those things which needed to be reserved ahead of time. For example, on the morining of the 5th we will be touring Alcatraz. This is a tour which had to be set up in advance, and it only makes sense to try to see other nearby things once that tour is done rather than seeing those things on previous days and finding ourselves wandering the same area with no real idea what to do next. Another reason for this strict scheduling approach is that many attractions in SF are closed on irregular days. While one museum may be closed on Mondays, another may be shut down on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Hopefully careful planning will limit these kinds of disappointments.
Each page in the orange binder will include the date it helps outline at the top and will show that day s activities in order by name, with a map of the location, a picture of what it looks like at street level, and the phone number and address cheap las vegas vacation packages for it. Some entries will also include reservation information and recommendations about how to best enjoy an attraction or what food to order at a restaurant. Most days take up multiple pages.
Directions from one location to another by foot or public transportation are included cheap las vegas vacation packages in some cases when the appropriate route is not obvious based on the provided location maps. We have purchased a pass for the SF Muni public transportation service that will allow us to ride their buses, trains, cheap las vegas vacation packages and trolleys without constantly digging for pocket change during our whole week there. The back cover and inside back pocket of the orange binder have maps of the Muni system we will be able to reference if we end up having to wing it at any time.
A quick note on winging it : It will happen. I have personally found that the key to enjoying any vacation is to absolutely over-plan, but then to be 100% willing to toss the plan out the window if the circumstances call for it. Just because I ve planned for us to walk around parts of Golden Gate Park (which I have a map for, shown in the picture below) on a particular cheap las vegas vacation packages day does not mean that it won t rain cats and dogs that day. To stick to the plan slavishly in that situation would be foolishness. Adjustments will invariably have to be made. We have already had to bump one intended activity to accomodate my wife s running schedule. Winging it can not only help avoid potentially unpleasant situations, but may lead to unexpectedly wonderful experiences. This said, I would NEVER go on vacation thinking I could just wing the whole thing and have a rewarding trip. Having no plan can lead to having no fun.
I am well aware that in this digital age, many of the jobs of my trip notebook can be accomplished with a well-employed smart phone. I will indeed be using multiple apps on my iPhone to try to make our trip run smoothly, cheap las vegas vacation packages however I am still just old and tech-uncertain enough to feel better having a hard copy in hand. Also, I have found that most maps need significantly more viewing area than a phone can muster and I am NOT taking my iPad with me while I m out in an unfamiliar city being a tourist. From what I understand, phone service is very spotty cheap las vegas vacation packages in SF anyway. I will, however, be using the Photobucket and WordPress apps on my iPad some evenings to post a little something here. I specifically chose our hotel because, unlike most of the other SF hotels I researched, it boasted free internet wi fi. So hopefully that all works out, and you ll get to see some of what the marvelous Lynn and I experience as next week progresses instead of having to wait until we return.
cheap las vegas vacation packages I ve never done it before, but we ve got a 3 hour layover at O Hare, and it got me to thinking. Once we find our connecting gate what will we do with the rest of that time? I always end up making nervous cheap las vegas vacation packages expeditions for one thing or another without knowing how long it ll take. This seemed like the best plan.
On our last Disney World trip we lost one of Kara s shoes at the airport. She took it off and hurled it while she was in her stroller. I scooped the thing up and put it in a bag I was carrying. Little did I know, the bag had a hole in it.
A while later, someone stopped us and asked us if we were missing a shoe. I reached into my bag to procure the infant Nike Kara had lobbed only to find it missing. We decided not double back for the shoe seeing as how she would only toss it again.
Over the course of the trip, she tossed shoes and socks constantly. One day we looked down at her feet to find she was missing a sock. Amazingly, at the end of the day, we found it by the busroute as we returned to our room.
When I was 13, my grandparents took my folks, my brother and me on a five week trip to Europe. We were in Florence, Italy and had glommed onto a tour group full of Americans whose tour guide was sharing fascinating information about the huge bronze doors we were standing in front of (this is the sort of thing my grandparents did to save money on long vacations. cheap las vegas vacation packages others included never taking cabs and eating most meals out of paper bags in their hotel rooms). I turned around to say something to my brother about one of the more interesting tidbits only to find my whole family was no longer standing behind me. Rather than panic, I wandered around for probably fifteen minutes in the crowded square looking for them. yep. they were gone. and so was the tour group of Americans I had just been standing with. I heard nothing but Italian around me.
After a few seconds cheap las vegas vacation packages of abject terror, I quickly calmed myself down and resolved to find the American embassy. If that failed, I reasoned that I may be able to find work at the horse track there as a stable boy. The little cheap las vegas vacation packages American stable boy who would eventually learn Italian and make a more than comfortable life for himself in his new country. Just then I heard my name and saw my family walking towards cheap las vegas vacation packages me.
That s a great story. Before I got to the end, I wondered if a little bit of you wondered how life as a stable boy would have turned out. Sounds like a pretty romantic notion to me. Where do I sign up?
If my kids lose sight of me for a split second, they freak out. There is almost no way to lose them (even if I tried). Even so, I m taking all kinds of precautions. Kids get separated at WDW all the time. Since my kids are practically attached to Mindy and me, I doubt we have anything to worry about. But I hear Disney doesn t pay very well. A life there may be less romantic than that of a stable boy in Italy.
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