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The How-To guide to planning a trip in the Internet age
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After prowling through Travelzoo, Travel-ticker, and Smarter Travel, we finally found a reasonable airline flight to Thailand. But this fickle traveler had to marinate on the price ($670--in summer!), the dates, and if I could handle a 25 hour travel day with a two year old. When I returned to the above-mentioned websites the next day, I suddenly found that I could fly from San Francisco to Rome, or Athens, or Barcelona, or Paris, or Amsterdam for $350. Now my brain was fried. Would I rather sip sangria or ouzo on a beach or drink from a freshly chopped coconut? Would I sacrifice some rainy days in Phuket for epic sun drenched strands on the Costa Brava?
This is what plagues travelers today--too much choice, too much knowledge, and in the end, too slow reflexes. I wanted a night to decide and of course, the next morning, the cheap flights to Europe were gone (Delta's website had crashed with the volume of traffic). So, what's a traveling mama to do? Well this gal returned to the original plan and booked those cheap flights to Bangkok. But not without reservations.
See, today we have the world at our fingertips. I can Twitter to find a kid-friendly hotel in Bangkok or post my hunt on Facebook. I can do as savvy travelers have done for decades and buy a guidebook--but which one? Do I go for the backpacker favorite? The hiker's bible? Or the one for families? And once I buy my guidebook, I can email the writer and ask for even more advice. I can search the zillions on online travel magazines, newspapers, chats. I can even search You Tube for videos of train rides through southern Thailand.
But none of this will guarantee a hassle free vacation. It's been said countless times, we live in an information-overload era. At some point, we have to be ok with giving in to the experience of traveling. Sure we can book a sanitized vacation, with as many amenities of home (I mean who doesn't want a finely steamed latte rather than some instant coffee?), but nothing can assure that it won't rain every day; that our flight won't be delayed; or that we will actually like that particular resort.
The Internet, with its dizzying array of information, can show us reviews (though the authenticity of reviews are always in question), deals, and even 360 degree virtual tours. But it cannot capture the smell of rain, the symphony of birds at sunrise, or the wealth of mosquitoes that congregate underneath a particular table in a fancy restaurant.
So here are my tips to planning a trip, without making yourself crazy.
1. Buy a guidebook. Just one. There are probably five-ten titles per destination. Go to a bookstore and breeze through the introduction of the various titles. Ignore the photos. I know of one guidebook company that used these amazing glossy photos, but their information is often at the expense of locals who live there (ie: telling peopel to hike through private land to get to an unsafe beach). Pick the book whose author sounds like someone you would trust. Is the tone funny? Interesting? Does the person live there and does that matter to you? Do you want a book that thousands of people use so that you will eat at the safe restaurants as all the tourists or do you want to find the unexplored spots?
2. Use the Internet to find a cheap flight. When you find one, book it. Immediately. Usually cheap flights are released on Tuesday or Wednesday.
3. Use your guidebook to help you find which part of town you want to stay in and to narrow down your hotel search. Take San Francisco for instance. There is something like 500 hotels in 49 square miles. When I was researching my Northern California: An Explorer's Guide, I visited about 100 of them and only about 30 made the final cut. Guidebook writers are paid to pick and choose depending on their market. Sure you can find deals online, but how do you know that anyone you trust has actually seen the place? I have visited too many hotels that look fantastic online, but once in the room, there is paint peeling off the walls, bugs, and tattered curtains.
4. Once you have a few hotels in mind, search online for deals. Rarely do travelers pay the rack rate anymore. This is why the Internet is useful. Avoid getting too caught up in online reviews; you don't know the people reviewing a place.
5. Print or tear out any restaurant or recreation features in magazines or on websites. Mark these in your guidebook.
6. Go to the video store and pick out films filmed in the destination of your vacation. Going to Santa Cruz? Watch Lost Boys. Going to Kauai? Watch Tropic Thunder. Going to Thailand? Watch the Beach. Even better, find locally made films from that region.
7. For international travel, try to pick up a few key words and phrases in the local language. I always learn, "hello", "goodbye", "thank you", "please", "I don't speak ___", "Bathroom" and "beer". You'd be surprised how far that gets you. And even if you screw it up (for a week in China I was saying diaharrea instead of please) people appreciate you trying.
8. Know that to travel is to get out of your comfort zone. Understand that you cannot have everything you want when you want, even if you can pay for it. Sometimes the best and most memorable moments of our vacations come when we go with the bumps in our plans.
9. Once you arrive, put down the guidebook and ask locals where to eat or what to do. I guarantee you will have a much better experience than if you have your face buried in a book the entire trip.
10. Give in to the fact that a vacation is to get away. Once you have arrived, turn off. It's ok. You will survive. The news will always be there. You can find the baseball scores when you get home. And if there is an emergency, someone will contact you like they did before cell phones and email--by calling your hotel.
For more info: Pick up a copy of my Great Destinations Kauai or Northern California: An Explorer's Guide. But make sure to put them down when you are on the road.
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