Travel is a part of our lives. Well, for at least half of us. Here is the conundrum. When one of you flies to far flung places for a living and the other stays put, where do you vacation?
Add to that your new found obsession with frugal and it creates perpetual list of "well what about..." There are days I want to climb on top of a metaphorical chimney and shout "why don't we just go already? We're freaking kid free let's travel!" This is usually fueled by some sort of discussion that involved me saying, yet again, something about my new passport not yet having stamps. So classy. So thoughtful.
We've been to some great places, but with our new found responsible financial behavior, we're much more reluctant to just book a flight and go. I'm afraid we have vacation commitment issues.
First, we talked about taking out this nice girl Paris. Spend 10 days with her, rent an apartment, take advantage of great flights from Air France, shop the phenomenal January sales, see Versailles with snow, ooo la la.
Then we talked to a more outdoorsy chick Lake Placid. She has a killer lodge. Smores, roaring fires, hiking, down comforters, venison steak. Yum.
We flirted with the seductive Morocco. Oasis, sand dunes, history, the fez. Oh so spicy, but best enjoyed allegedly with a tour guide. We didn't want a chaperone.
There's always the venerable weekend trip, the one night stand of vacation relationships. We thought about picking up a few of those. New York, Charlottesville, Chicago, etc.
We've trolled jetsetter.com like it's going out of style. I discovered wanderfly.com and thought, yes! And then the ol' commitment issues crept back.
So outside the obvious (family obligated trips), how do you settle on where to travel and when?
Not unrelated: Where does "real travel" fit in when you're still doing the long-distance relationship thing and someone has to do real travel just to get you both in the same room?
ReplyDeleteThis year was easy, really. With a good friend getting married in Australia, we had an automatic vacation destination. Why would one go to Australia and NOT stay for a while? Best wedding travel ever (except the travel part, but that could've been worse).
Once relationship-maintenance travel is cut back, I'd like to focus vacation planning on what we want to get out of the time off. Do we need to be jarred out of our reality by another culture? Do we need to relax and have someone bring us cocktails on a beach? Is it (finally) time to accept my aunt and uncle's open offer at the Cape?
I'll tell you, though...between you, me, and the internet, I'm dying to do a week-long yoga retreat somewhere peaceful and beautiful. Where does a solitary vacation fit? ;)