It's been awhile since we've completed one vacation and had absolutely no clue what our next one would be, but that's the situation we currently find ourselves in. We know when we're going, just not where, and that makes me all sorts of fidgety. I'm one of those people who given practically limitless options will seriously stress over making sure that I'm picking the exact right one and I will stress myself out big time about my decision. Once the decision has been made, however, I'm golden. I know it's out of my hands and I can concentrate on looking forward to something instead of planning the death out of something.
In discussing our vacation options we initially wanted to make sure that we were using that albatross around our traveling necks, the timeshare. We could go back to Kauai and stay in Kapaa or Princeville for the price of airfare and rental car. This is likely the cheapest option available to us, but we've already been to Hawaii once this year ... do we want to go back so soon? Especially when there's so much else of the world to explore? I dunno, I'm torn. We'd have a good time, no doubt. But ... but.
Then there's Cabo San Lucas, that desert beach playground for so many in California. I've never been to Cabo. Truthfully, I don't have a huge desire to go to Cabo, so I'm not really sure I even want to discuss that as an option because it's just one more thing I have to think about.
We can't really go to the Riviera Maya or the Caribbean. Since the Mother Nature gets a bit pissed off from August 1 to November 1, the best course of action is to stay far away from anywhere a hurricane could make landfall. I've been through the Irish Storm of the Millenium and the Kona Tsunami; I'm not sure I'm ready yet to batten down the hatches around a hurricane. It's a shame too because I'd love to visit New Orleans, or Negril, or the Bahamas.
We briefly considered flying in to Portland, Maine, and flying out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Unfortunately the B&Bs up in Maine at that time of the year are crazy expensive - $300+/night. We could fly in/out of Portland, rent a cottage along the coast somewhere for a week and do day trips. Going this route is still an option, I think. Maybe.
Then I saw amazing flight deals on Virgin America to NYC and that sounded like a great idea. But then Alan said maybe he doesn't want to spend a week in New York. And while the flight may be cheap, the hotels and the food and the shows certainly aren't cheap.
So that led us to thinking about going back to Tofino, British Columbia. Yup, where we went last year for our end-of-summer vacation. I planned it and priced it all out and everything seemed kosher except the price. Damn it's expensive up there. Our hotel would be $360/night! We'd "ruled out" the Maine option because we thought that was too expensive, so what is different about paying that for Tofino? Nothing much.
And then I got to thinking, I bet for $3100 we could go to Europe. And we could, but preliminary research reveals that our first choice destination - Scotland - is well outside of that price range. And the flights are terrible. We could fly in to London and take the train up to Edinburgh I suppose, but that's a long, long, long bit of travel. Not undoable, just complicated planning. So then I checked Paris and Rome, and again, it's somewhat doable but we're talking two star hotels and that's not exactly what I had in mind.
So here I am, no closer to deciding where our next vacation will be, but with my head buzzing with all the various options. I need to step away from the computer for a bit I think. Yeah, that's what I'll do.
