Many of us when we’re abroad for a vacation would enroll in a tour package and let someone else handle all the arrangements pertaining to places, transportation, accommodation and the like. There’s indeed an argument for leaving planning to the experts of course. It’s hassle free, and you (usually) get better rates. And if seeing as many places and things is high on your agenda, that’s the way to go.
But for those of us who’re more adventurous, one of the most fun things about going somewhere is the planning process for an itinerary. We’ve taken turns to plan for itineraries on our most recent trips. E.g. Ling handled the recent Rawa and Phuket trips, while I did the Bali trip planning.
This last couple of days I’ve been working out the itinerary for the San Francisco trip starting this Sunday. We aren’t spending a lot of time as a group for the three of six students – the other three students are in the Conference Associate program, so they have their own schedules as passed out by the organizers – I’m travelling with.
But after pouring over maps, transportation routes, places, visitation periods over the last several hours, and trying to synchronize each day’s plan with conference hours, career seminars, award festival events, networking and party nights, I’ve come up with a plan that I’m pretty happy with. We’re gonna be occupied every single morning, afternoon and night for next week!
The planning was helped especially that we’re going to a place where English is the spoken language. I think things would be that much more challenging if we were going to say Japan and planning our own itineraries.
And of course, there’s Google. Back several years ago when we were planning for our Copenhagen visit I don’t think there was nearly as nifty a tool at Google Maps. I don’t have a PDA or a Smartphone which would make things even easier since you can view maps on those devices, so it’s paper + printer planning instead.
Matt was remarking that he finds it hard to get over the fact that I’m travelling all the way over to his country and he won’t be there to see me. He asked how am I going to act properly in the US without him, and that I’m probably gonna screw up my first liqour store robbery, or be way too polite during my first mugging. If he were there, he’d make sure I’ll fit right in LOL
As I often say, there’s no better place to serve prison time than in the US. We’ve made an entire industry out of it. : )
Needless to say I’m a bit envious you’re going to be able to visit San Francisco and see the sights. It’s probably the US city I most want to visit and explore.