travel planning – Retirementally Challenged

When my husband and I made the decision to travel to Europe this spring, we wanted to be away for at least two months. The price for our plane tickets and time spent in the air would be the same whether we traveled for days, weeks, or months, so why not stay longer and see more? Two of the countries we were visiting were new to us so there was a lot we wanted to see.

In planning our trip, it took us a while to settle on the exact dates and travel itinerary. What wasn’t up for debate was our decision to take only carry-on sized luggage. Since we would be traveling primarily by train, wrestling with large baggage between each stop was not appealing at all.

We knew it could be done and there were tons of blogs and videos with tips and tricks that made it sound easy.

“Pack clothes that can be mixed and matched.”

“Loosen up your definition of match.”

“Bring only essential items.”

“That third pair of pants? Not essential.”

“Make up? Not essential.”

“The key is to tightly roll your clothes.”

“No, the secret is to use packing cubes.”

We took bits of wisdom from multiple sources and managed to fit everything we thought we’d need into two 22”x 14”x 9” carry-ons and two backpacks. We knew that we wouldn’t be making any fashion statements with our clothes—except maybe: “You’re wearing that again?”—but that was ok.

Our travels took us to Spain, Portugal, and France (about three weeks in each country). We saw amazing sights, met interesting people, ate delicious food, and had experiences we will remember forever. We will also remember that we really can do fine with a minimal amount of clothes, as long as we have opportunities to do laundry and the time to let it dry.

Mr. and Ms. Hillbilly classing things up.

As we watched other travelers struggle with their large suitcases, we knew we made the right decision. Yes, we might have liked to have more wardrobe choices—pictures of each other taken over the nine weeks look strangely similar—but what we brought worked just fine. Small and easily carried was the way to go.

First up, Spain.

One of a zillion beautiful covered bridges in Vermont

Our latest road trip adventure started with the desire to attend the yearly car club gathering. We had traveled to several of the week-long events in the past, but never further east than Colorado. If we were still working, we probably would have opted not to attend this year, given that we would only have so much vacation time available and it would be hard to justify the expense based on that.

Now that we are retired, we have started to look at trips like this in a different light. Instead of having a limited amount of time to visit just one or two destinations, we find ourselves saying, “As long as we are going…” and looking for ways to expand our trip to include more: more time for travel, more places to see.

Look... a car patty! — Look… a car patty!

Lots of opportunities to purchase maple syrup at roadside stands

Unfortunately our rental Hyundai didn't qualify for this drive — Unfortunately our rental Hyundai didn’t qualify for this drive

This year’s event was being held at a ski resort in upstate Vermont. My husband and I agreed that driving across the country in our car wouldn’t be the most comfortable way to go (not to mention the very limited luggage space available for a multi-week trip) so flying and renting a car seemed to make the most sense. Once this decision was made, we started to think about what else we could do and see while we were in that area of the country.

Let’s see…

I had never been to the eastern part Canada before, except for a day trip to the Niagara Falls when I was five.
My cousin lives in a small town in Vermont. He and his wife visited us about ten years ago but now they have two daughters who we had never met.
A childhood friend now lives with her husband on several acres in the Finger Lakes area of New York. She had been encouraging me to visit and I was curious to see why she loved living there so much.
We thought it would be fun to see Niagara Falls again. It had been awhile for my husband too.

After identifying all the places we wanted to see, we worked out a possible travel route and plugged in some preliminary dates. In order to do everything we wanted to do, we figured that we would need about a month – an amount of time that would have been problematic if one or both of us still worked. In fact, we would have started our planning process with the number of vacation days we had available, then figured out what we could see in that limited time.

I am so grateful that where we want to travel and what we want to do are now more important factors in our travel planning than how much time we can be gone.

As long as we are going… we might as well see as much as we can!

Tag: travel planning

9 Weeks, 3 Countries, 2 Carry-Ons

GratiTuesday: “As long as we are going…” travel