Where2Next

The excitement is building – the day of departure has arrived. We’ve spent many months planning our fall trip to Europe. After our summer camping trip (which I have yet to upload), we put our Oliver travel trailer in storage in Hammond, Louisiana and checked on our sailboat, giving the cockpit a little cleanup. We deposited our two cats (Mascot and Poopsie Magruder) with a good friend in Chicago and our final preparation besides last minute packing was getting the latest Covid and Flu shots.

We started looking for inexpensive airfares earlier in March but didn’t book our flights until June.  This year has been different, it’s harder and harder to get a very cheap flight – we were worried that the prices were going to escalate so we bit the bullet and bought during one of Icelandair sales but still not the lowest prices we were used to getting.  Icelandair has been our go-to airline but we’re always keeping our eyes open for all sales.  We started looking at AirBnB’s and hotels in March and booked our first AirBnB in Inverlochy, Scotland March 4 (pictured below).

I noticed there were not a lot of available AirBnBs in the 4.9 and above rating, which is what we like to book.    So far, we have not had a bad experience by going with the highest ratings.  We still read all the reviews to make sure there are no surprises like needing to climb 5 flights of stairs or sleeping on a sleeper sofa which has happened to us once.  That’s not so bad when you are younger, but our backs can’t take a lumpy sleeper sofa anymore.  The limited number of high rating accommodations is a sign that traveling is way up this year.  September used to be considered the shoulder season but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.    It does take a lot of time researching, coordinating, and planning it all.  There is coordinating train travel times or car rentals in respect to the location of your accommodations.  You must consider how you are getting around, where the AirBnB is from the train station or airport.  We do like to travel economically so that means walking to the AirBnB or Hotel from the train station; not taking expensive taxis or Ubers.  We walk a lot and sometimes take the local buses.

All of our AirBnB’s are booked as well as all of our train transportation. The earlier out you can purchase train tickets the better. They are usually much cheaper; however local trains are the same price no matter when you purchase. All the excursions and activities are also booked for the most part because ever since Covid if you don’t have your tickets to popular attractions you are out of luck if you expect to show up and get in. Sometimes you get lucky, but we don’t like to chance it.

While traveling we’ve discovered (by trial and error) that a minimum night stay for us is three; sometimes we spend a week but never less than three nights unless special circumstances apply like going to a port to catch a ferry first thing in the am. If we really love a particular place, we can always go back again if we are able and spend a longer time which, we have especially done in London. We also love Rome and Bologna and can’t wait to return….. maybe next year.

After we have our itinerary in place, we explore the areas we are staying and look for new and fun things to do that we both enjoy.  This can be a cooking class, theater, afternoon, tea, or whisky tasting.  This trip includes all of those listed above and more.  We get plenty of steps in and are as busy as we want to be.  Looking forward to this adventure in Scotland, Ireland, London, and France.  Hop aboard.