A very interesting article for all you travel planners out there

Great article. Describes me perfectly. Planning the trip, and working through variations of a potential itinerary are a huge part of the vacation enjoyment for me. Last trip two trips to Italy, I listened to language cd's in the car to/from work. But can't do that for Scotland and England.... We are tending to watch British shows more; Top Gear, Love Actually, Knottinghill, Brave Hart, Wedding Date, Bond movies, etc. And I've read a couple good books based in Yorkshire.
When I have problems going to sleep or wake in the middle of the night and can't go back going to sleep, I imagine my vacation, from the time we leave to the airport, the flight, train, hotels, etc. and it helps me relieve stress before I go to sleep. Reliving a great vacation in my mind does the same.

Just seeing this post. What a fun, and true, article! I totally agree, one of the great pleasure of travel is the planning phase. It is like studying for a test, the more time you put into it, the better your chance of getting an "A and all the satisfaction that goes with that!

I tend to plan a ton at home, then play it more by ear on the road.

Years ago I visited Okinawa. I had a taxi driver give me a tour. He showed me all the stuff that most military visitors wanted to see. Downtown, nightclubs, strip joints, Pachenko Palaces, restaurants, etc. My friends, who lived there, weren't much help either. They took me to essentially the same things. After I got home, I read about the remains of a 15th century Shogun palace overlooking the ocean that would have topped my must see list for the area.

Since then, I want to know all the options in the area. I can't see everything, but I want to know what I'm passing up when I choose one sight over another.

I study the language, history, and culture of places I'm planning to visit. With background to build on, things make more sense and I learn a lot more on my trip.

The one place I'd differ with the author is about talking to your friends about your upcoming trip. I don't keep it secret but I try really hard to avoid sounding boastful. It's bad enough that my friends might feel a twinge of envy without them feeling I'm rubbing their noses in it. I'm also a big believer in "pride goes before the fall", I think humility increases the chance I'll have a great trip.

For me it depends on the destination. Planning a repeat visit to London or Paris usually means pleasurable searching for places I haven't been too yet, once I've found a single place to stay. I just got back from a 24-day trip to Italy and the planning was sometimes fun, other times stressful. All but 1.5 days were in places I hadn't been to before. I was definitely more relaxed when I finally got to my first hotel room and could just enjoy the trip. The most enjoyable part of planning for me is talking to friends who've been to the places I'm headed and conferring with all the great people who contribute on the travel forums. . . mainly here at RS. Of course, it's even more fun coming home and talking to friends who've been to the places I've just come back from. Or even those who haven't been - most of my friends love to travel and are as interested in hearing about my travels as I am in reliving them.

I think the author had me in mind when she wrote this article. I derive great enjoyment out of planning a trip, be it London, Paris, a day trip to a Broadway play or Walt Disney World. For every hour I plan, I daydream about what I'm going to see. Maybe it's my engineering background or my Scottish frugality...or I'm just nuts. No matter--I enjoy doing it. I've already started planning our 2015 trip to Italy for my 60th.

My husband always has a difficult time waiting for the actual trip to happen. I enjoy the anticipation so much that I am the opposite. We are always in a state of planning for the next trip (even while we are traveling).