Choosing your next destination

I have the same kind of issues each year when I plan my summer Europe trip. I tend to focus on practicalities: how long do I have to travel? where are the best cities to fly into/out of? From there, I try to group cities that are relatively close to each other, or easy to get to on cheap, non-stop flights. I don't want to waste a lot of money and/or time getting from place to place on my vacation. I want to BE on vacation. And I figure the places that I don't get to on my ever-growing list will still be there the next summer!! I also try to find a balance between seeing a lot of places each summer, and having enough time in each place so I don't feel rushed. I feel like I learn a lot about how I prefer to travel each summer.

When there's a good flight sale for any place on my priority list, I pick that place first (and leave others for the future)...it's that simple because that place becomes less expensive relative to others. If you're truly equally interested in several places, just pick a number out of a hat...it beats agonizing over a choice because you know deep down you'll be happy with any of the choices. Or you can simply pick a place that you think will be most different from the last place you've been to...for variety's sake.

I spend a lot of time on google maps. We travel by train so I try and make a reasonable route from place to place. I usually re-visit some places and add some new ones. Sometimes I'll pick a place because of the place itself or sometimes because it is a good base for several day trips.

I've been traveling to Europe since 1970 and there are few of the major cities that we've not been to three or four times. We finally got out of our comfort zone and started going to cities over on the east side of Europe previously behind the Iron Curtain. Right now, they're the bargains in travel.
As an experienced traveler, I can take two or three trips for the cost of one organized tour. Finding rooms and making travel arrangements have never been easier than with the internet.
We feel very blessed to have budget European airlines to have flights around $100 to and from anywhere in Europe for the most part. And we're also very, very glad that there are some budget airlines starting to fly to North America--keeping the old line legacy airlines' airfares basically half of what they were a year ago.
How do we figure out our next destination? We go where the airfares are bottom line, budget priced where we've never been before. Then we'll fly on a budget air carrier to one of our favorite and familiar cities on the way home.

Yes - that wanderlust feeing gets you!! I don't have the luxury of finding cheap tickets. I have to fly out of Tulsa, OK (Midwest area). So price on tickets don't work for me unfortunately in the deciding factor. Plus, both of us are tall and I do have/want to purchase the extra leg room for the long haul flights. I just pick the country/tour from RS and go for it.

I have been to 15 countries (16- Spain) in a few weeks and 8 overseas trips. All trips have been with a tour company (ACIS, EF and RS tours) and only one on our own.

I have loved all these countries but I also now wanting to go to countries that I have not been to yet and probably will go back to others that I have already been. I am going back to Ireland and Scotland next year. France and possibly England the year after. Then the following years Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Greece, Sicily and more of Italy are on my wish list.

I have been on most of my trips with my sister and friends but now since but Husband and I are retired (I work part-time tho). He is my travel partner now. He took is first RS tour last year and thoroughly loved it. ( I was a little nervous that he would not love European travel and RS tours like I do). So I may have to repeat some of these wonderful countries again soon to satisfy him.... ha! We think we are going to stick with RS tours from now on unless we get a little more familiar and comfortable totally on our own.
\We did do an awesome job last year on our 3 day before and 3 day after our Holland/Belgium tour, but it sure was nice having the major things planned out.

I tend to want to go for 2-3 weeks because of the cost of flights to Europe. My next two years of trips.... I am trying the back to back tours. Trying to decide which ones are easy to get to and then picking up the next tour. We went last year end of April first of May and the weather was nice and crowds were not to bad. I also am considering looking at the off season prices more or the times that have the cheaper cost to combine my tours.

Right now, they're the bargains in travel.

The Balkans and Eastern Europe (and Turkey) have always been bargains in travel once you're on the ground, not just now (although there weren't anywhere as many flights or budget carriers flying to those destinations from the US because there was no demand). It's just that US travelers were too afraid to visit..that or the "Iron Curtain" mindset really prevailed for decades after the wall came down (I'm from one of those countries behind the curtain). There are lots of places outside of Europe that are even more of a bargain than those (Mexico, Central America, some Asian countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, etc.)

Agnes and David - I really do need to do a better job of flight shopping. I do tend to pick the destination first, but what you said makes a lot more sense. We are a little constrained because we do have to give our jobs about 6 months of notice, so it's hard to do some of the sales. It looks like flights to Greece are more reasonable than others, so maybe that's the way we will go.
Kim - I love the tours too. We have been on several trips by ourselves and love that too, but there is something special about the tours that we love. We love the historical and cultural insight the guides give us, the new friends we make, and the ability to see so much in such a short amount of time. But lately as our time off feels like the most constricting factor, we are wondering if we would be better off visiting a new location for a week or so and then adding on a week in one or more locations we've been wanting to return to. A 2 week tour doesn't leave us any time to visit another place before or after, as we keep running out of time off. I guess the answer would be to try to stay home more.... But I don't like that answer! ;)

We also use the best price to go somewhere method. Flying with a family of 4 this makes up the biggest expense of a trip that is not a road trip for us, especially when restricted to school break times and a 1 or 2 hundred dollar difference in price on a ticket adds up quickly multiplied. We alternate between "Site" trips that we fly to and road trips in the west that are less expensive with our camper to get a variety of experiences for our kids. Luckily Norwegian had introductory fares from Denver to London this year and we got those for Thanksgiving break this year.

Ahh, decisions. But let's face it-how likely is it you will visit a place in Europe and hate it, especially on a RS tour? And, what you don't see next time, you'll see the time after. Having said that Greece was still our favorite RS tour and if you luck out with Colin as your guide, you hit the jackpot! We also loved Spain. As Rick states in his book "Spain is in Europe but not of Europe". We enjoyed it enough to want to return and we were looking at the Basque Country tour. But, with timing considerations we decided on Portugal and London. Tamara, I hope this is the toughest decision you ever have to make!!

Keith - I saw that Norwegian is starting flights out of Denver, very cooI,.... hope that stays and works out!! My plan is to do the RS tour in that area in 2020. IT is a quick flight here out of Tulsa to Denver on Southwest, then guess we could go on the Norwegian flight and back home.

Happy Travels to all

I've also done my must-sees, and in a couple of cases have made return trips. I love Budapest so much that any trips I plan will need to include a few days there at the end, if not actually a whole trip where I travel by train to other towns in Hungary. But I like the "something old, something new" aspect, so last year it was Paris and my 1st return to Budapest, this year it was Amsterdam and a return to Vienna and Budapest. Next year I'm contemplating Barcelona, Scotland, or Riga and Vilnius. It'll be several months before I book anything so for now I just keep reading the forums and working up ideas, could end up somewhere else entirely. My ultimate choices are always based on what things there are to do, ease of public transportation, cost is always relevant but if I want to go somewhere considered expensive I will, just maybe not for as long, and I prefer big cities as a solo traveler.

Having done the RS Greece tour, I can give it a 100% recommendation.

There is all the fabulous ancient Greek and Roman history PLUS the extraordinarily friendly Greek people.

One way to choose is to put the names in a fish bowl and pull one out

In a more serious vein, my Italian heritage and "History" being my favorite subject since grade school, made choosing Italy and Greece easy.

Picking a destination depends on what sort of things interest YOU.

My approach to selecting my next destination is different from what I'm reading in this interesting thread.

I can't say I do this systematically, but I maintain two lists: a bucket list of places I'm interested in seeing, and a list of the kinds of experiences that interest me. For example:

• Art
• Architecture
• Beach
• Mountains
• Charming, quaint
• History
• Exotic
• Majestic/awe-inspiring
• Quiet
• Big City Excitement
• Road Trip
• Nature/adventure

Then I pick a destination (or two) from my bucket list that includes one or two items from the experience list that I haven't done recently, and I build my trip around that.

My theory is the entire world is full of places worth seeing. I'm not likely to get to see all of it, or even most of the places on my bucket list. So I'm going to concentrate my efforts on a variety of experiences.

Both my bucket list and my experience list change often. "Charming and quaint" is temporarily off the list for now, as I've done a lot of that don't necessarily feel the urge to do more for a while.

My next trip, by the way, is to Patagonia, which wasn't even on my bucket list until about a year ago. There are definitely still some places in Europe on my bucket list, but they'll have to wait a bit.

If travel is an art, I'm in the French phase of my travel career. I decided the best way I could see France with my limited vacation time was to plan four 17 night loops. The first was to Normandie, Brittany and Loir from Paris last Setember. The second ended yesterday and included Burgundy, Alsace and Reims from Paris (plus a weekend in Normandie and a couple days in Germany near Alsace). The next loop will be the southeast loop that wil include essentially Lyon, Chamonix and Provence (possibly Corsica) this coming September. The last loop will likely be southwest and will include the Dordogne and Bordeaux areas (possibly some of coastal Basque country) probably next spring.

After I complete my French phase, I have a lot to do. I've yet to visit Greece, Turkey, the Dalmatian Coast, Italy south of Rome, plus a few of the former eastern bloc countries. After that, I need to focus on Africa and South America for awhile.

I usually have a few travel ideas in the hopper at any given moment. Why pick one over the other? Usually something comes up that makes one seem a little more urgent (maybe a great deal on flights or other offer?).

Brad - looking forward to your trip report of Alsace and Germany, we're headed there in 3 weeks!

We picked this trip, arriving in Brussels and flying out of Zurich, because Delta was having a Sky Miles sale for certain cities and we had about a day to decide. We figured we could arrange a trip between these two cities with a lot of options. A LOT of options. It's been hard to narrow down. I don't know how we'll pick the next one. As for tours, we prefer My Way tours, so if Rick decides to do one in Spain, that might be an option. DH really wants to go to Spain, so even if there's no My Way, we'll probably do it on our own.

And if you've never been to Ireland, any travel list that doesn't have it at the very top should be rethought. :)

I love hearing how everyone plans their trips!

Lane - I love your two list ideas. We have been trying to do a small version of that with a more city based tour and then a nature one. So we did Italy last year and we are going to some national parks in the US and Canada this year. Then we are thinking of doing maybe Greece next year and Patagonia after that, to keep up the alternation. It's hard knowing there are more interesting places to see than you'll ever be able to visit, isn't it? Although I'm so grateful I've been able to see so much so far.

Brad - your France trips sound very interesting! What a great way to cover a country!

Celeste - Ireland is pretty high on my list, as is the English countryside, but I keep thinking I need to bump it higher! And I double checked, and RD does have a My Way Spain tour! So maybe you can do it after all! :)

Sadly, I don't really get too many good flight options out of my home airport, because I really hate the thought of flying west to Montreal or Toronto, only to have to fly back east over where we live - not to mention that I like the smaller configuration plane that flies out of Halifax (2-3-2) as opposed to the larger one we got crammed on when we flew to Paris via Montreal (3-4-3). I do get very jealous when I see fare sales in the USA for flights to Rome for like $500 RT. Halifax will have some flights to places in Europe other than London, but usually only during summer months (when we don't travel) and only on certain days of the week. Oh well...dems de brakes.

So for me, I seem to be working on my bucket list places now. We would do one year overseas, then one year to the USA (which, for...um...'unnamed' reasons won't be happening again until...maybe 2020, hopefully not 2024...ahem..my decision). Generally we would travel in Sept/Oct, but last year (because of our poor dollar, which is even worse now) we revisited Toronto in May. And I didn't want to wait until Sept of this year to travel again. So I'm like...OK...tulips in Netherlands is on my bucket list, well, April is perfect. So got that one done. I thought we'd do Venice at Carnivale next year (another bucket list) but it is very early next year (late Jan/early Feb) so I decided to save that for 2019 when it runs late Feb/early March. So...Scotland has been on my want to see list since I was a teenager (a few short years ago...lol), so planning to do that next year, Venice in 2019 and maybe finally hit the west coast of Canada in 2020.

We only really vacay once a year, but hubby hopefully can have 'freedom 55' so that may open things up for us a little more in a few years and let us take 4 week vacays instead of 2.5. The worst part is, we visit somewhere, and I always want to return (def want to go back to NL and yearning to return to Switzerland after spending 3 nights there in 2010), so it's trying to temper the 'we haven't seen this country yet' with 'but I loved Belgium and want to go back!'

Hmm, wonder why I thought there wasn't a Spain My Way? Thanks for the reminder! Maybe 2018! :D