The countdown is on, and I officially have less than 10 days before my biggest solo vacation to date. My travelling companion came down with a medical emergency, so I am heading off to Puerto Rico for 6 days. I have chosen to embrace the imperfection in my own travel edition of Wabi Sabi and adjust my vacation to suit me, and me alone. While I am torn over the fact that I have a 2 bedroom AirB&B with only one body, I also want to declare the liberating quality that planning (and taking) a solo vacation affords the soul.
Some people get cold sweats when they sit down to plan a vacation. But for me, planning brings me more joy than it really should. Planning is not just a task for the anal retentive, type A personality perfectionist. It is a conscious attempt to take all of the guesswork out of your trip, freeing your mind to actually ENJOY the trip without stressing over the minutia. Mind you, planning like I do is not for the weak of heart. I actually like to create a travel brochure for each large vacation containing all pertinent information (flight numbers, addresses, travel insurance policy numbers, phone numbers, etc.) and an itinerary for each day. The following brochure is my largest, most informative brochure yet. For those who think that producing a brochure like mine is daunting, it is. I have planned this specific vacation for 3 years, since just after my mother passed away, so I would like to offer this brochure as something to which you can aspire.
You may ask a very important question about trip planning: where do you start? For me, I like to start in the Trip Advisor App. After creating a trip, I browse through all of the information for that specific destination. I save any place of interest, restaurant, activity, or attraction that appeals to my personality and likes. For Puerto Rico, I wanted to go to a Bioluminescent Bay, El Yunque Tropical Rain Forest, Old San Juan, and at least one public beach. I love seafood, vegan restaurants, and I wanted to try authentic Puerto Rican food. Excursions I wanted to go on were a Puerto Rican cooking class and a boat ride through Laguna Grande at night. And there you have it: the backbone of a great vacation!
My next step is to go through Pinterest searching for all posts relating to itineraries and "Best of"s posts for Puerto Rico. This step is crucial! Here is where I learn about tours that should not be missed, the best restaurants, and activities that I never would have found just by trial and error. Only by reading the different blog posts and comparing itineraries do I know which activities to keep and which to throw directly into the trashcan. This is where I found the cooking classes, the Museum of the Book (squeal!), and Calle la Fortaleza (the umbrella street) for photo ops and shopping. I also use this to separate great restaurants from ones that are just okay.
When I first started creating these travel plans about 7 years ago, I would go through every address of every place I wanted to visit while on vacation and lump them by zip codes. This process was very tedious and time consuming. Then about 2 years ago, I learned that I can go into Google Maps and create a customized map for each of my travel destinations. This is perhaps my favorite online tool for travel planning. As you can see in the screenshot below, I realized that there were about 4 different areas where all of my saved places were clustered. Bingo! Four days of travel and discovery just created themselves.
In case you are unaware, you can download any map you created to your phone which can be used offline. This is my most recent discovery in the land of travel planning, and I wish that I had known it sooner! Some parts of Puerto Rico are off the beaten path with sketchy cellphone service, so this is crucial to have in order to get to all of my activities and back to my AirB&B safely.
Finally, it is time for creating the travel itinerary. For this task, I use Canva, a free digital design website and app. For many years, I used Microsoft Publisher for all of my projects, but Microsoft Publisher is no longer supported by the Microsoft Suite. I find that Canva is more cost effective and is incredibly user-friendly. As for the style and color of the brochure, I leave that up to you. I chose the colors I did to match the color scheme of this trip in my travel journal, which I have previously written about in this blog. For me, the purpose of researching and creating an extensive itinerary is twofold: 1- to allow for a more enjoyable trip, and 2- creating the ultimate piece of ephemera for my travel journal.
There are a ton of methods to the madness known as Travel Journaling. Not one way is right or wrong; it just needs to serve your own purposes. Whether you are looking to record your memories from your travel or just wanting to create a plan of attack for your upcoming trip, keeping a travel journal is a wonderful pasttime that gives you a tangible keepsake for when you have finished all your journeys. And like J.R.R. Tolkein wrote, "Not all who wander are lost." May you find your next wanderings inspirational!
