Hello everyone! I'm curious how you typically narrow down your options.
Lets just say in Europe, do you choose the countries that are next to each other to travel? Me, I always choose the countries that I want to visit. When I visit Edinburgh, I didn't go to London. After Edinburgh I just go to Sweden (Gothenburg and Stockholm) instead of going to London. Then after Sweden, I went to Slovenia.
I have lived overseas for 9 years as well as traveled a lot since retiring 15 years ago.
I always plan to visit places that are relatively close together to avoid wasting time traveling between places. Also, it saves money.
We visit a few places that we have visited before, but mostly try to visit new places.
For example, last year we did a great tour of Northern Spain and Southern France, starting in Barcelona, where we have visited three times before. However, we did visit some great places other than that, Carrassonee France and the Bordeaux region of France, then the Basque region of Spain before ending in Madrid, where I had been once.
Also, I had done Egypt in 1985, but my wife had not, so we did it with the Nile cruise and tour of other great places, also doing Abu Simbel, that I had not done before. I enjoyed seeing those same places again.
One thing that I discovered was the Egypt had vastly improved its infrastructure, with more modern highways. Also, it looked significantly more prosperous than when I visited in 85.
There are cities that I want to visit and those I want to return to. I'm often structuring my choices while aligning them with my best airfare options.
Looking at return flight from London to visit Leicester, Norwich & London. While also considering a multi-city into Dublin and home from Amsterdam to visit Dublin, London and Delft. A third is into Dublin and out of London to do Dublin, Norwich & London.
It depends on what we feel like doing next, and how much time we have to do it. Of course we pick countries that we want to visit. Why would we go somewhere we didn't want to go? Sometimes it's only one country. Sometimes it's 2 or 3 neighbouring countries. And sometimes it is quite far flung. Last year we spent 2 weeks travelling in Scotland followed by a week in London. A couple of years before that we started in London and travelled for 6 weeks through France, Germany, and Italy before flying home from Florence. And one memorable trip we started in The UAE and ended in China. It all depends on what is of interest to us at any given time.
We used to pride ourselves on being able to cleverly cram a lot into each trip. Usually came home exhausted. With age and experience (and retirement--IK that makes a difference) we're opting for longer, slower travel in a more restricted radius and find it much more enjoyable. We also opt for primarily train travel, with renting a car onlybfor a few days in selected scenic locations where we feel it's essential. So choosing a destination usually comes down to weather, crowds and economic factors.
Usually there is one specific thing that caught our attention and then we built a trip around it. For example, we leave for London on Sunday because many years ago we were watching the Christmas movie 'Love Actually' and we were intrigued about how London was decked out for Christmas. That's the sole reason we decided to make a trip out of it.
In 2023 we spent 2 weeks in Sorrento because I'd read a novel about Pompeii years before and was intrigued. Once again we built a trip out of a single idea.
Years ago I had read about cave art at Lascaux in France. That single idea turned into the RS Loire to the South of France tour in 2019. During that tour we spent about 30 minutes in Beynac which had me craving more, and in October last year we spent a week there.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we pick an idea or theme and then expand on it.
we leave for London on Sunday because many years ago we were watching the Christmas movie 'Love Actually' and we were intrigued about how London was decked out for Christmas.
I get that. I'd always had it in my mind that I wanted to visit Iceland, but it was watching Ben Stiller's take on the Secret Life of Walter Mitty that pushed me over the edge, and I leapt.
Travel is one of our hobbies so my husband and I enjoy making up random itineraries. We have 6 currently on the “future travel” spreadsheet.
Sometimes we create an itinerary based on simple proximity and ease of travel. (Especially in 2022 & 23.) In and out of Frankfurt - all Germany all the time. Coming up spring 2026, we’ve planned a 4 week big loop around France by train that starts and ends in Paris. Easy-peasy.
Sometimes we come up with a theme — like visiting every city in Europe and the British Isles with a Vermeer painting. We called it “Vermeer Quest”. Note: That trip never happened because The Rjiksmuseum heard our prayer and pulled most of the paintings together for us all in one place in 2023. We ended up just going to the Netherlands that time. We’ve since managed to see all of the Vermeer’s available to see in the US and abroad - except the one in Braunschweig. Next week we’ll be in Boston to see the empty frame on the wall at the Isabella Gardener Museum where the stolen Vermeer used to hang.
Sometimes we see something on a trip and want more. Years ago, we were in Amsterdam at the Van Gogh museum and I was wondering where “Starry Night” was. It’s at MoMA in New York City. So that was our very next family trip. Art and artists are a recurring theme.
Sometimes we just knit two or three places together because we enjoy combining the new with the old - new to me Madrid and Barcelona with my fave Paris wasn’t an obvious combo but very enjoyable. Last fall we hopped from Berlin to London to Paris with a week in each.
We do prefer direct flights from Seattle so tend to figure out some way to start or end in a city that we can fly to/from non-stop — Paris, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt etc and jump off from there. I do not complain if I have to start or end in Paris.
When we were working and vacation time was limited, we always just traveled to one country or a few times to two adjacent ones. These were all countries we wanted to visit.
During my solo trips after retirement, I always just went to one country- Spain, Italy or France.
There’s two exceptions:
But my norm now as a widow is just to concentrate on a portion of one country, I.e. northern Italy above Florence, to reduce the transportation time on a trip.
