The First Step – Learn: Our Trip to France

Here is the first full article in my new travel planning series. As I mentioned in the last post, I thought what better way to introduce people to our travel planning process, than to allow you to follow along, step-by-step, as I plan our next big trip. I hope you enjoy this series and would love to hear any opinions or recommendations you have along the way.

The first step in the process is to learn. Learning about you and your travel partner’s current travel desires and how they align is an important first step.

Next, learn about what destination make the most sense to travel to right now. I consider two things when making this decision. Which destination makes the most sense given the time I have to travel? Second, which location makes the most sense give the amount of money I have?

Unfortunately for many of us, both time and money are finite. I have found that I have the best time on a trip when I have considered these two factors and have maximized each.

It has been two years since my wife Becky and I took our last major trip. Next year, 2010, will be our ten-year wedding anniversary. We have always thought we would go to Africa on safari for our tenth anniversary, but given the current world and local economy, as well as all of our other commitments, we figured that a less expensive destination would be the wiser choice at this time.

Following our own advice, we ran through our list of places to travel to next, and France quickly came to the top. France is on the short list for a number of different reasons, not least of which is that Becky has been to Paris and I have not. Most importantly though, France also fit the previous criteria we mentioned.

It fit the amount of time we had to spend on a trip, two weeks, and is more budget friendly than a safari to Africa. The next step is to develop an outline of our trip. I will cover this in the next post.

Until then, what are your thoughts? Where are you going or where would you like to go in 2010? Post you thoughts by responding to this post in the comments section below. Thanks, and for now, travel smart.

Tags: Africa, Economy, France, France Image, New Travel, Paris, podcast, Time And Money, Top France, Travel, Travel Desires, Travel France, travel itineraries, Travel Partner, Travel Planning, Travelogues