Trip Planning 101... [part 4 of 4]

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”
-Benjamin Disraeli 

The final aspect of my planning...
[Find the other parts of the Trip Planning series here: 1, 2, 3]

Our trip planning file from our 2011 Yosemite trip... not the greatest photo I've taken, sorry!

The expanding multi-pocket file.

Right before we leave for our trip, I print and organize paper copies of many reference materials. Some of it I may never look at on the trip, but for me, it's better safe than sorry. I admit that this part may lean towards OCD, but it certainly calms my nerves.

Store all of your documents in a plastic expanding pocket file (like this).

• Why a file rather than a folder? Because it's enclosed... I can throw this to the backseat and not worry about papers flying everywhere.
• Why plastic? Because it's somewhat waterproof... No need to worry about a water bottle spilling in your backpack or getting caught in a rainstorm on a hike. 
• Why multi-pockets? Because I can organize the documents by type or by date, whatever makes the most sense... I don't have to sort through my driving directions to find my hotel reservations.

The types of papers that are stored in here will depend on what type of trip we're planning. But some of the things that make it into my trip file include:

• Driving directions from the airport to the first destination... Would hate to arrive and realize that our GPS is on the fritz, and we don't know where we're going.
• Flight/hotel/car reservations... Yes, I know I have it all stored in my TripIt app, but I'm not quite convinced that the rinky-dink motel in the middle of nowhere is going to trust my iPhone.
• Tickets to any prepaid activities... Wouldn't want to show up at our Bryce Canyon ATV tour with no record of our ticket purchase.
• Trail maps... For each big hike that we know we're going to do, I try to print a trail map and directions... It only takes being lost on a trail once...
• Printable coupons to attractions or restaurants... Occasionally in my research of tourism bureaus, etc. I run across coupons for 1/2 off a meal or $2 off admission... While a showing at the Zion Canyon Giant Theater may not yet be cemented on the itinerary, I'd be kicking myself knowing that there was a coupon out there to save me a couple of bucks.
• Brochures, ticket stubs, etc.... This is also where I store the random memorabilia that I pick up throughout the trip. It makes a great keepsake after the trip is over. I have a whole shelf filled with pocket files from each of our vacations. Just flipping through the pockets is a trip down memory lane.

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What do you do with the "stuff" that you gather from a trip? Before the trip begins? While on the road? After you get back home?

Trip Planning 101... [part 3 of 4]

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
-Robert Louis Stevenson

[Find the other parts of the Trip Planning series here: 1, 2, 4]

So how can you be sure that your plan includes all of the must-sees around the area? How can you be sure that you've packed sufficiently for the tricky weather? How can you be sure that you've got your activities in a logical order? Just like everything else, ask the experts.

Itinerary feedback.
I've already mentioned that I love TripAdvisor for reading real reviews about hotels and other activities. But I also sing the praises of the TripAdvisor forums and community.

TripAdvisor forums

• Run your tentative plan by the Destination Experts on the TripAdvisor forums. Be sure to give them plenty of details about what kind of trip you're expecting (age and activity level of trip-goers). I have always been so thrilled with their answers... How else would I have known about the one-of-a-kind roadside attraction on the way to Bryce Canyon called the Rock Shop?!?
• Ask more specific questions on the forums where needed... When I asked what we should do on our last day at Bryce, I was rewarded with plenty of ideas from locals and people who had just returned from trips to the area. Now it's just a matter of choosing what we want to do (and more likely, how much energy we have at the end of the trip)!
• Pay it forward by writing a trip report on the forum after you return and writing reviews about all of the places you stayed. If you can upload photos of the hotels, restaurants, and sites from your trip, all the better.

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Would you feel more confident after getting feedback on your itinerary, or do you think this step is overkill and a sign of worrying too much?

Trip Planning 101... [part 2 of 4]

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” 
-Henry Miller

Next up on the travel agenda...
[Find the other parts here: 1, 3, 4]
 
Airline tickets/hotels/rental cars.
Although I usually start the "grand plan" document as soon as we begin considering a vacation, I don't nail down any firm plans until we book a flight. Once we've bought tickets and determined our arrival and departure dates, next I need to define where we'll be each day and reserve hotels. Finally, if the destination requires a rental car, I can't forget to rent a car. I don't want to get stuck at the airport with no (or only really expensive) transportation options.

• Use Kayak price alerts to get updates of the current prices of flights. I usually set up alerts for each of the local airports... Atlanta and Charlotte are usually much cheaper than Greenville/Spartanburg or Asheville.

Kayak trip alerts come to your inbox daily.

• Before actually purchasing tickets, check the airlines sites themselves. I don't think we've ever purchased our tickets through an airline aggregator (like Kayak, Orbitz, etc); it seems we've always found the tickets for the same or cheaper price on the airline's website... Southwest Airlines had even more options for ATL to LAS, and they cost considerably less (especially after you count baggage fees).
• Keep list of potential hotels, current prices, and web links in your "grand plan" document. I have found that it's best to even list the ones that have no vacancies or are out of your price range... When Ruby's Inn is recommended by another website, I want to remember that I've already ruled it out because there are no rooms available for our dates. 
• Once you get to a short list of possible accommodations that meet your date and price requirements, search TripAdvisor for customer reviews and more importantly real photos of the rooms. It's eye-opening to see that rooms that guests photograph don't always match the professional photos highlighted on the hotel's own website. In my experience I have found TripAdvisor to be generally unbiased... you get both good and bad reviews. You just have to read through and decide whether it will bother you that you can hear through the walls or that the advertised breakfast is just cold cereal. 

TripAdvisor reviews

• If you're looking for a hotel in a major city, be sure to check out Hotwire and Priceline. You can choose a hotel based on its location, discounted price, amenities, and star rating. On previous vacations, we have been ecstatic to find 4-star accommodations for less than $85 per night. [Also from experience, the time we booked a 1.5 star hotel from Hotwire, it was absolutely awful... so I'd recommend sticking to 2.5+!]

Hotwire hotel search

• Reserve a rental car through Payless Car Rental as soon as your trip is booked. Their prices are usually as cheap as it gets, but you don't have to put any money down to reserve a vehicle... Which is totally awesome if we happen to score an even better price from somewhere else at the last minute and need to cancel this reservation. Fingers crossed...
• Name your own price for a rental car at Priceline.  Take a guess at how low they'll rent you the car of your choice. Once you're rate is approved, you're locked into buying... but it's great for low-balling especially at the last minute (as mentioned above). Priceline advertises that you can save up to 40% on car rentals, but there are some good tips here on how to save even more.
• Access all of your reservations numbers, flight information, check-in times, etc. in the ever-so-helpful TripIt app. When you receive a confirmation email from anywhere you book, simply forward it to plans@tripit.com, and it "magically" appears in your itinerary.

TripIt iPhone app

 
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What tips do you have for finding a great flight, hotel, car, or even just a great deal?

Trip Planning 101... [part 1 of 4]

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
-Lao Tzu

[Find the other parts here: 2, 3, 4]

Rob and I are counting down until vacation!! Just less than a month away until we head out of town for a week out West hiking the trails of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.

While I admire my friends who can take spontaneous trips without a specific itinerary, that's not how I roll. Rob's and my vacation philosophy is to go, go, go and to see as much as we can because it may be the only time we're there. (a.k.a., we don't like to waste time looking for a hotel,  backtracking as we drive, or paying an arm and a leg for things that could be cheaper.) And, therefore we need a plan. Don't get me wrong... we're definitely flexible with our plan and are willing to make adjustments if something better comes up or if we're over our heads. But, we start with a plan.

I'd love to share some of my tried and true tips for trip planning... This will be the first of a four-part series. Even if you're an on-the-fly traveler, there may be a tip or two that you can use, too.

The grand plan (aka always a work in progress).
When we start really planning for a trip, I start an Evernote document (I've also used Google Docs in the past) to keep track of the ideas. I really like Evernote because I can access it and edit it from my phone and without an internet connection which can come in handy mid-trip.

So, what do I write in my grand plan?

• Keep an updated summary at the top, so I have a quick reference where we're staying and the main activity for each day.
• Organize the document with headings for each day, like Day One: Saturday June 22. The activities under each day are just ideas and often get moved from day to day, especially in the beginning... Maybe the Angel's Landing hike works better on Wednesday instead of Monday...
• Add web links wherever I can so that I can reference the information later to see more details, find contact information, check prices, etc.
• Add timing notes as I see fit.  Especially for driving times between places or mileage/estimated times for hikes... It's helpful when planning other activities to know that the drive from Las Vegas to Springdale is 2 hours and 40 minutes or that the Navajo Loop Trail is 3.5 miles round-trip and takes 1-3 hours.
• Record any ideas that seem neat, even if there may not be enough time to accomplish them all. While on the trip, we usually sit down each night to make the final decisions of what we want to do. 
• Make notes about any tips and hints that I've read about each activity... Don't want to forget to "lace your shoes tightly on the return to prevent your toes from constantly jamming into the end of your shoes" when we're hiking to Observation Point. Such a little thing could make a really big difference in how much we enjoy each activity.
• Keep a list of local, can't miss restaurants as well as lists of great places to watch the sunrise/sunset. These don't necessarily have to be planned in the itinerary, but will be great to reference when we're driving around town starving because we're not sure where to eat.

 
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Do you travel with a set schedule planned in advance, or are you more spontaneous than me?

When the bubble bursts...

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.”
-Helen Keller

As middle-class Americans, most of us live in a bubble. Even as globally-minded as we think we are, we don’t have a good understanding of what it’s like to be impoverished and struggle daily to survive. 

And, then sometimes our bubble pops… as mine did the other day when I read Kristen Howerton’s post the inconvenient truth about your halloween chocolate and forced child labor. Until then, I didn’t realize that most of our  chocolate is sourced from West African plantations where child labor is the norm, and child slavery is common. My stomach has been in knots, and I have been having trouble sleeping, thinking about life without M&M’s. And, then I just get angry at myself for being so wrapped up in little chocolate candies. Knowing that there are children and forced labor behind these treats, how can I justify even a fun-sized bag? 

As my sister said in our gchat conversation yesterday… “it looks like im giving up chocolate for a while....”  

Then of course, looking deeper, many items that we buy without thinking are regularly cited for workers’ rights violations. Sugar and coffee being two common violators. (Thank goodness I don’t drink coffee…) But, that just makes me wonder… are there others.

This revelation is hitting at a time when I am especially ripe for this sort of message. After reading Interrupted and several other blog favorites, I’m trying to embrace simplicity and “less is more,” and I even have Rob on board in that endeavor. I’m also finally reading Same Kind of Different as Me and A Lesson Before Dying, both of which speak to the ramifications of modern-day slavery. And, our women’s group at church is currently selling fair trade Bead for Life products. 

On one hand, I want to do everything I can to boycott these disreputable companies and to spread to word; on the other, I’m overwhelmed… we still have to eat, we have to work within a budget, and ohmygosh, we live in the middle of South Carolina, where there just aren’t a whole lot of convenient options. 

My sister recommended a website/iPhone app, called Free2Work, which rates brands and products by measuring a brand’s efforts to make sure that child and forced labor do not exist in its supply chain. (The irony is not lost on me that I’m accessing this information through a product from a company that scores an overall D rating.) 

After days of consternation after reading her first post, I also appreciated Kristen Howerton’s follow-up post, from problem to solution: practical ideas for an ethical halloween, where she provides levels of practical activism that address the chocolate issue. 

For myself, I’ve decided that this journey begins with heightened awareness and a new conscientiousness at the grocery store. It may feel a little risky and uncomfortable at times, but if I can have even the smallest impact, it’s got to be worth it. I’ll be checking product labels for more than just nutritional information, and after an initial browse of the Free2Work ratings, I’ll be avoiding Hershey’s, Nestle, Wal-Mart store brands, Pop Secret, McCormick spices, Zatarain’s, Lawry’s, Simply Asia (this list is more for my own reminder than yours). I’ll be looking for fair trade/organic chocolates and sugar, as well as seeking products made in the USA with a new urgency. 

What will your response be?

Holiday (in)sanity...

"Christmas is for children. But it is for grown-ups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts."

-Lenora Mattingly Weber

The #1 thing that keeps me sane throughout the Christmas season... the Better Christmas List app on my iPhone. 

I've used it for three years straight, and I love it. I'm a total believer in picking up gifts throughout the year. (Come December, I'm always thrilled to discover that I can avoid the crowds at the mall and still stick to my budget.) But once a gift is hidden away in my secret gift stash, it's easy to forget that it's there. However, with a quick tap of my fingers, this app keeps track of my ever-growing gift list.

While I'm pretty sure that this app has some functions that I still haven't utilized the fullest, I love the fact that I can

• Archive the data from each year, so that I can see what gifts I gave last year and prevent any repeats.
• Attach a photo of the gift after I buy it, so that I can match something else to it later, and I don't have to dig in the secret stash to remember exactly what it is.
• Organize the list both by recipient and by what step I'm on (need to purchase, bought, wrapped, or delivered)-- the latter comes in handy especially during the month of December when I'm trying to pull it all together.
• Add notes about each gift, so that I can compare prices and/or continue brainstorming.
• Keep track of my budget, although I have to admit, I'm not very good at setting initial budget limits, so I always set them so that I'm way under-budget!
• Match each recipient with their address and other contact info through my phonebook, so that I don't get stuck at the post office without my address book.
• Be confident that I always have the list with me, so I don't have to keep up with a physical notebook (I'm always leaving those at home or even in the car anyway)!

All wrapped up...

"As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is."

-Eric Sevareid

With the exception of a few handmade gifts that I need to finish, I have all of our Christmas presents bought and wrapped. I'm no expert gift wrapper by all means, but I have picked up a few tips over the last couple of years that make all of the difference for me.

First off, wrapping paper quality is key. There is nothing more frustrating than that cheap drugstore giftwrap that tears in a million and one directions except for the way you want it to. I've tried many alternatives over the years, including brown kraft paper and matte paper, but I think I landed on my favorite.

Last year during a half-off sale, I purchased two rolls of glossy-finish paper from Hobby Lobby (Brother Sister Design Studios). Not only are they fun coordinating patterns, but they even have a grid pattern printed on the reverse to help you cut in straight lines. They're surprisingly thick, allowing my scissors to glide right through. And, you can't even see through the white paper! I think I'm in love.

Next, tags. I always like to find a clever way to address the presents for the recipients. Sometimes that means making my own tags, sometimes that means finding cute printables online, and once in awhile, it means printing customized tags for each person!  

Some quick tag inspiration for you: Printable Gift Tag Roundup from Creature Comforts, Circle Snowflake Tags from Winnie0917, Printable Gift Tags from Skip To My Lou, and Fun with Fonts from Bugs and Fishes

Last, ribbons. On a tip from Jordan Ferney on Oh Happy Day years ago, I purchased several rolls of 7/8" single face satin ribbon from PaperMart. She raves about this ribbon, and I agree. It's gorgeous! Unfortunately after several years with the same stash, I need to remember to order more before next year's holiday season.

Tutorial on my awesome ribbon tying method coming up next!!

The most wonderful time of year...

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."
-Norman Vincent Peale

Today is the first day of December. My December favorites include:

• Christmas trees: I have a mini-collection of modern tree statues, and I'm a sucker for an exquisite tree. Despite the fact that we've decided to go back to our faux tree this year, and as usual, our tree will sport a mismatch of ornaments, a part of me wishes for a tree like these. Green & Gold Christmas :: White-flocked trees :: Young House Love tree
  
• Shopping for gifts: This year, thanks to "A Better Christmas Tree" app, I'm been shopping all year, and just have a couple of extras left to get. Some of my favorite gifts this year. Handmade scarves for my friends:: "A Year of Teeth" calendar for my uncle :: something special for my mom and sister
• Christmas cards: Some say that the tradition of sending cards is outdated, but I still look forward to the cards, the photos, and the letters. I've got something up my sleeve for our family as well, but here are some designs that have inspired me. Return Address Luxury :: Dotted Frame Holiday :: Peace and Love :: Christmas Overlays
• Sweets: The holiday season doesn't seem complete without a baking day! Also, makes a great gift for those hard-to-gift male colleagues. Some favorite recipes include Best Toffee Ever :: Chocolate Covered Pretzels with Sprinkles :: Peppermint Bark :: Our traditional sugar cookies with magical icing!
• Counting down the days: The anticipation is always so much better than the actual day. And, this year I have a whole week out of school to anticipate before the holiday actually arrives. Count down with Burlap Sack Advent Calendar :: Advent Re-Invent :: Felt Advent Calendar :: Paper Holiday Advent Calendar