Mr P would probably say my travel personality was of the control freak type (I call that organised), however alongside he acknowledges the awesome trips we’ve taken and that the planning helps us both relax very quickly! We always notice how quickly our skin takes on the out-of-office relaxed glow about 2 days into any trip! Any planning is worth the hassle for the benefits thereafter.
Much research pays off – a guided tour of a fossil forest for Mr P
But I do think there is more than one personality to me when it comes to travel – not in a medical way I might add…
The Anna-Planna:
Not just in relation to travel, I like to arrange and be organised rather than be arranged. At my happiest plotting – be that a weekend away or an overseas vacation. If I am watching the news one evening then I will also be searching Pinterest, favourite blogs or TripAdvisor for inspiration. Even when we go to places I know like Cornwall, I look for new places to discover. I put together an itinerary so that we know where we are and there is no risk. Travel planning is best accompanied by something fizzy! Mr P is involved from time to time – normally to ratify a decision or cast the deciding vote, but to his credit when he does get involved it’s pretty good (Cliveden House set a new standard). Sometimes though – normally a work trip – I leave the country in relative chaos with my fingers crossed that flights, hotels and cars are booked correctly. Once I didn’t even make a flight to the US due to traffic challenges and changed it on the way up the M3 – thank goodness for a fully-flexible ticket! Thankfully it has always come together, even though I struggled to check in to US flights last December on my grand tour and almost got sent to Hyderabad in Pakistan rather than India…
Glass of wine, some guide books, pinterest and the internet
The excitable traveller:
I am pretty sure I am a nightmare in the run up to a trip. List writing for packing, packing earlier than required, overpacking what is required, pre-buying the right books, getting some new clothes, checking and double checking all the details, unpacking and repacking. Every bit of the planner in me just makes me more and more excited about a trip. I do of course try to glide through the airport and flight in a carefree manner even though inside I just want to jump up and down and grin from ear to ear. Any holiday or trip is well earnt and much needed – we all know that – so there’s nothing wrong with getting a bit giddy. Pre-flight lounge fizz and flight fizz doesn’t normally tend to help – it just makes me even more excited! I also get nervous at this stage – and re-check all the booking dates just in case I made an error. When we were in Oman we almost had a night in a hotel that we didn’t need as the flight was at 2am, but I victoriously spotted it!
Splashing around like a little girl!
The daily itineriser:
Back in the day, I used to itinerise everything in advance, by the day and make sure we knew what we’d be doing and when. But I have (thankfully) grown out of this – whilst it is good to be organised, it is even better to wake up each morning and see what a new day brings. In my pre-planning I will have ID’d and pinned top ideas for an area (and compiled a detailed list in excel of course – accountants always do) -this makes daily planning easy. We wake up and see what we feel like – are we tired, are we feeling active, is it sunny, is it a blustery day to watch the sea or is it full of rain and best spent indoors. Using the planning and local information we plot our day. But even then – if we drive past something interesting then we tend to stop and explore (this technique is especially handy for vineyards). I do pre-book supper though, if there is somewhere we are desperate to visit.
Always planning to make sure we know what we could do in a day
The clueless wanderer
Once we are out for the day, I tend to leave the naviguession to Mr P. As the photos below illustrate sometimes I miss the blindingly obvious and spend time working out where I am when actually looking around would make it clear. We always use roaming in Europe for driving as it makes life non-stress. We remember all to clearly driving around Kingston in Jamaica at night trying to find a little road up into the Blue Mountains – we lived to tell the tale but don’t want to be in that situation again! We have actually nailed US car-navigation without 3G – before we go anywhere we google-map the route and surrounding area and zoom in and take screen grabs.
Map reading is clearly a strength of mine!
The relaxed traveller:
Every time we are anywhere warm with sea air, the same thing happens, I sleep. I could be looking at a view, exploring somewhere new or reading another book, but no – I always fall asleep. Mr P, as you can see, is good at catching the moment as well as thankfully making sure I have a sufficient shade to avoid waking up like a lobster! He’s the one that fell asleep on a lounger in a pool in Barbados and couldn’t be woken and so slept as a game of water volleyball went on above his head! Relaxed is good and I like to be relaxed – the sleeping normally arrives as evidence a couple of days in, once I’m on holiday time, have forgotten about the office, given up social media and properly relaxed into holiday-life.
Resting my eyes (Harry Potter picture from JonFurley.co.uk)
The grumpy traveller:
This is the worst phase. I hate it, Mr P hates it too. I am sure that to some degree we all get like this. It happens the moment we have to leave somewhere magical, or the moment we arrive at the airport, leave the warmth and sunshine outside and end up back in the real world. I’m hard to entertain in this phase – we end up sat in the lounge reviewing all our photos, this normally is the best solution to minimising my misery! Either that or discussing where we could go next. Given the large number of airmiles we have accrued we are able to travel up-front on our trips and this does make the flight home part of the holiday-experience, that does lesson the grumpiness too. It’s such a shame I don’t have any pictures of me being grumpy at the airport – but here’s a final view from last week in the US. We had an incredible 3 days and nights on the lighthouse in the distance – I don’t need to tell you how sad we were to leave.
Leaving behind anywhere special is tough
After all these phases, we go full circle and the whole process kicks off again – normally by the time we are home from one trip I’m trying to work out when we can take a long weekend, anything to beat those nasty holiday blues!
This was written as part of the fab monthly travel link up hosted by Emma, Kelly, Rebecca and Catherine. What’s your personality – come and join us, just link up through one of these 4 pages.
I think I enjoy the planning and research just as much as I enjoy the actual trip! Mr S helps me mellow somewhat on the dictator-like control of a trip too!
Lots of love,
Angie
Author
I think that makes them happy too – safe in the knowledge of a well-planned trip and taking some credit for ensuring relaxation!
The Anna-Planna, love it! Interesting to see how many stages you go through, I think we all do though I need to do more actual relaxing
Suze | LuxuryColumnist
Author
And you know what Suze – the way to ensure we relax at the right stage, is to keep practicing, what a bind – if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again!
I adore your snoozing pics – it is something we need to do more of…!
Author
I’ll do my best this weekend in Vienna!
I really really love how so many of us travel bloggers are such planners! And everyone seems to find a boyfriend/husband who’s the opposite! So funny! Also I totally get the relaxed thing, when I’m on holiday I can literally fall asleep anywhere!
C x | Lux Life
Author
I think they keep us grounded (and do very well out of all the manic planning too)!!x
I’m going to out myself and say the only way I got most of our accommodation booked for our trip to HK and Malaysia was by opening up a spreadsheet on Sunday and marking it all out!
Like you, I used to have everything planned with timings and routes etc; that got thrown out the window at 30 and now I just wander and get lost and relax.
I think Anna-Planna is gonna stick as your nickname 😉
xx
Around the World in 80 Pairs of Shoes
Author
Always a spreadsheet – there is a reason we spend many hours learning Excel skills and that is clearly for holiday! Anna-Planna was born in my wedding planning – I gave the ushers a 10 or so page sheet of information! xx
You sound like such an organised traveller, but also a little like me when it comes to letting your other half do the navigation. I am truly awful at anything like that, but thank goodness for Google Maps!
Author
I do the organising before hand – indeed, but I hate having to stress over map-reading on holiday!
I’m impressed with the travel planning – think I need your expertise to help plan my 9 months away!! Great post, I too am a tick list traveller- especially when packing 🙂 x
Author
9 months, I think I would panic – 3 weeks is about my maximum, any more and my spreadsheet would look more like my work ones! 😉
Good job spotting the extra hotel night you didn’t need! That’s the kind of thing that would haunt me… 😀
Author
Saved us a small fortune as it was at the Chedi in Oman, naughty they didn’t make it clearer in booking really…
I’m a big fan of naps, so I can definitely relate to being the relaxed traveller 😉
Author
Napping does indeed personify reaching the holiday-relaxed stage!
I use to love planning and research, but since travelling the world full time for 3 years we lead a lot more spontaneous existence. Sometimes it does my head in and others I am so glad.
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I don’t think I could cope with full-time planning, I agree when you are constantly on the move spontaneity is needed!
They say everyone has a twin and you may well be mine. I am a born organiser and enjoy searching out new and different experience. I am also the excitable traveler, who is like a child when I see something amazing. I am clueless with directions but am not a sleeper.
Author
You can be the awake twin that makes sure nothing goes wrong while I snooze. I think this travel-blogging is making planner-clones of us all!
Goodness me – how many different sides to you there are! I find i never have enough time these days to properly research a place before I go and while being spontaneous is fun it is a shame when you realise too late that you’ve missed something wonderful because you didn’t do your homework.
Author
Many many sides, probably more than I listed! I think pinterest is a cracker for quick research to avoid missing something, I’ve found allsorts that way.
I tend to go in circles/stages but lately I have a general plan and hotels/locations planned and then I check into sites and daily activities when I am on the ground so there are fun surprises in store
Author
Good method – knowing what you have planned but also time for nice surprises too
I have a grumpy stage too, but it usually happens when I am tired. It actually turns out alright because, looking back, it is hilarious to think of all the silly things that would irritate me in any given trip. Definitely gives me stories to tell, so I embrace my grumpy stage.
Check out my travel personality: http://www.lifeismyoyster.com/my-travel-personality/
Author
Embrace the grumpy – I will tell my travel-wearing husband that now!!
Getting excited is half the fun of a trip I think, lovely post!
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Thank you – I know, it is like being a little kid again getting ready to go on holiday!