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.
