Trip Planning

How were we able to plan trips before we had the internet?   I am grateful for travel websites, such as Trip Advisor, and travel blogs.  Since I have a couple of grand babies coming, I have decided to plan 3-day trips only for now (not including my jaunts to AZ) until next summer, at which time we will do a full family vacay (grands and all) to a beach house.

My next 3 day getaway will be to Galena, IL with a friend and co-retiree,  a teacher who worked with me for many years.  She is a new retiree, we retired together on June 3, and we decided to take at least one fun 3-day trip together during our first year of retirement.  Our first choice for a 3-day trip was to the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival in Indiana.  Little did we know, we would have had to book accommodations for this trip no later than last May, if not before.  OOPS!  We both agreed that Galena would be a great back-up plan!

After much discussion about the Galena trip at a breakfast outing, we decided that I would do the research, create an itinerary and email it to my friend for approval.  After googling "3-day trips to Galena," I was introduced to a multitude of websites and blogs with dozens of suggestions and reviews.  The first website I perused was Trip Advisor, a favorite travel website of mine, with reviews and links to other websites.  I have used Trip Advisor in the past to find hotel and restaurant suggestions, descriptions and reviews and have not been disappointed.  Trip Advisor includes other travel tools as well, including Things To Do, Trip Ideas, Forums and more...  Although the Forum and Things to Do tabs on the Trip Advisor website are very helpful, my favorite sources of information for things to do are travel blogs.  For example, we are booking a Ghost Tour while in Galena, an idea I got from a travel blog, not Trip Advisor.

For our trip to Galena, we will have a nice mixture of shopping, historical and informational tours, food, cocktails and entertainment.  Who doesn't love shopping and food mixed with a little bit of history and cocktails?  One of the best things about traveling as a retired person is that the trip won't be chock-full of tourists since we are traveling during the week.

Five of the six restaurants that we are choosing to visit on our trip are in the Top 10 of Galena according to reviews from Trip Advisor.  I chose the restaurants according to type of cuisine, ambiance and of course reviews from other travelers.  When traveling with a family, you will also need to consider price.  Our 3rd day will be our Spa Day - it's great to go home nice and rested right after a great spa treatment!  There are 3 great spas in Galena - the spa we chose is right in our hotel.

Any trip I have ever taken - from a week in Disney with my family to a 3-day girls' trip -  has an itinerary, a result of my Type A personality.  Although my trip itineraries are always extremely flexible,  they make me feel like we walk away from the trips satisfied that we did everything we wanted to do.  Of course, I NEVER do an itinerary for our beach vacations.  When we go to the beach house, we are on the "no schedule" schedule!

I am loving the planning and the anticipation of our Galena 3-day getaway.  Part of loving retirement is putting my strengths to use.  Hmmm... maybe I should become a travel agent!

        Galena