#21

Flights, accommodation, transfers: all booked in advance if possible.

Museums/attractions that require pre-booking: all done in advance.

Then we’ll have days planned out, usually by location with a couple of places to eat nearby already on the list, but we won’t set aside the exact order in which we do those days.

Then we check the weather forecast in the morning and decide which day we do (Eg Museum quarter if it’s wet, exploring if it’s dry, that kind of thing).

#23

Agree.

#24

This sentence is like a paradox for me, I couldn’t define something as a month away because that thing doesn’t even exist because you haven’t booked flights for it yet.

#25

We’re going away in November, I know he hasn’t booked his flights yet. I will have to do it myself if I want peace of mind about it - he gets paid decent so maybe he doesn’t care but these things take like 10 mins to sort?!

#26

I was quite big on planning compared to most ‘travellers’, who massively look down on anyone with an itinerary. I would’ve been very uncomfortable without one though and definitely wouldn’t have felt safe, so they can fuck off.

I like a general plan for holidays but hate packing loads of stuff in because it doesn’t leave much time for finding little gems. One thing planned per day is fine.

#28

For me, planning for holidays is part of the fun - a great way to get excited about it before the holiday even starts.

it’s a lot more important once you have kids too - it’s one thing for you to trawl around trying to find accommodation on your own, rolling into a hostel at 11pm, but you can’t do that with a toddler.

it also means you don’t waste your holiday too. Unless the plan for your holiday is “spend every day on the beach”, then it’s good to have an idea of what you’re up to or where to go in advance, even if it is a rough list of things you might want to get done over the space of a week.

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#29

Planning things gives me something to look forward to

#30

It’s both. I like to go with the flow at weekends and on holiday, but a lot of hard work and advance planning has to go into being able to take that liberty. Like packing the right stuff for various eventualities, so that you can relax on holiday without having to rush about and buy stuff. Like being on top of your laundry and chores at home so that weekends can be all like ‘fuck it, let’s go to the park/ beach/ out for lunch and a drive’ instead of making that decision at 9am, but not getting out of the door till 2pm because you didn’t have fuel in the car/ couldn’t find the swim bags and when you did they were full of wet stuff. etc etc. So the two are intrinsically linked for me rather than being mutually exclusive. Maybe if I didn’t have the child aspect to factor in, I could be more laissez faire but even as a very slummy mummy, I fear the days of just throwing caution to the wind/ turning your knickers inside out, throwing on last night’s frock and going straight out again if the fancy takes you, are gone for a few years.

#31
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#32

The whole point of planning stuff is to build in the slack to be able to go with the flow. My wife’s a big fan of planning an itinerary on TripAdvisor which I don’t like though. That’s a bit much and in any case TripAdvisor’s a bit of a shit way of organising a holiday in my opinion (I’m far from dogmatic on this point though).

Luckily I enjoy planning and organising so when it comes to group holidays or stags etc. I’ll sort everything out. Partly because I enjoy it; partly because I’m terrified of one of my moronic friends doing it instead.

#33

do you have to wear wellies LOL

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#35

Planning is well brexit.

#36

brexit wishes!

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#37

I get other people to plan stuff by being a useless indecisive douche, then go with the flow

#38

very true, it makes a difference what stage in life you are at/ any one who depends on you

#39

Is this thread just about holidays, ie no one wants to know about my current fascinating project management concerns?

Assuming so, I’m a fairly solid planner for holidays - flights/apartment (switched to apartments since taking the kids with us - having kids with you increases your planning requirements comfortably two-fold I would say) booked at least a term in advance, airport parking and transfers where necessary booked shortly after, some form of guidebook purchased a month or so in advance and digested (plus some Duolingo done if I have the time). Have a rough plan of what we want to do while there, but play this a little by ear when on the ground. As mentioned above, pre-planning allows you time to go with the flow once you arrive.

The TV on the contrary plans approximately nothing. We went up to Scotland to visit her family and spend a couple of days at The Fringe and she said she was going to sort it all. To zero surprise, she basically left it until a couple of days beforehand to do anything. This resulted in us staying in an expensive hell hole in Edinburgh - so bad that we complained to Booking.com and got half the cost back. When we flew to Croatia the other week, I went to the airport straight from work and she drove from home. She left 90 minutes later than planned and had the incoming flight been on time we would have missed it completely. As it was we had to sprint through the airport with two small children in tow to make it by the skin of our teeth. That was a fairly stressful experience :scream::scream::scream_cat:

Incidentally, anyone planning for May 2019 half term then Easyjet flights go on sale on September 20th :+1:

#40

I used to plan quite meticulously because I’d never really been on an adult holiday before.
Now I can’t really be arsed. Just see what we wanna do when we get there. We’re not really into doing touristy things so just cycle or walk about and have food and drinks and that’s it. I ain’t queuing for shit on holiday.
We travel around on big holidays so as long as we know where we’re moving to on what days, that’s all that matters.

It helps when planning a big USA road trip though so you can have decent lunch options and cool places to stop off like national parks or fresh water pools etc.

A man at work has a wife who makes up proper professionally printed laminate itineraries. With pictures, tips etc. Bit much but definitely stealing that for my trip to Vietnam.

#41

Used to totally go with the flow, but since we decided to add to the population planning now happens a bit more for their sake…i’d never get anything done otherwise!

A loose plan is good - don’t think about eating or any of that nonsense though. Enjoy the adventure of exploring whats about and not knowing what you will have…or going hungry all day.

My wife is a planner though so it drives her mad.

#43

hardcore daft

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#44

Might put this on my business cards.

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