It's that time of the year again ! The time to look ahead with good intentions & high expectations - Holiday Season Planning season. Unfortunately it's also often the time those expectations run afoul of practical considerations like availability of leave, funds etc. & half-hearted compromises have to be grudgingly accepted with face saving rationalizations tied to those acceptances.
My sincere advice to all is to rush through your holidays before you have kids & definitely before you have a second kid. Don't get me wrong - we love travelling with our kids & enjoy every minute (well almost every minute) but paying for only 2 tickets is twice as good as having to pay for 4 tickets ! We have painted ourselves into a bit of a corner anyway by not traveling by train when the kids were younger - Ani's first train ride was the TGV between Paris & Nice when he was 5 years old. Now we are somewhat afraid of offending their delicate sensibilities with the sights & sounds of a train journey so costly flights seem like the only option when we have to go someplace. Obviously this does not help the budget.
As someone who has traveled a bit it amazes me that for the rate one would pay for a good hotel room in India one could get 2 rooms in a similar hotel in many countries. Admittedly the service here is much better - for instance a welcome drink here is a uniformed guy with a frosted glass on a tray bearing a freshly plucked orchid & one in the US is a dismissive wave towards the vending machine in the lobby. The swings & roundabouts of holiday budgeting mean that the cheaper flights take you to more expensive places & vice versa.
The other big Q is where to go ? My bucket list is already big enough for a bathtub & if I add Priya's then we probably need a swimming pool. Obviously one more issue taking the kids along throws up is that they have to be entertained. As a case in point our Paris trip included only 4 hours at the Louvre but 2 days at Euro Disney. This does narrow the options a bit.
All things considered we now tend to look for trips where we can save on the travel, either drive or use miles, but be prepared to spend on the hotel - ideally a nice resort with a kids activity center, a pool & most importantly a good buffet. To round things off throw in a beach (or maybe a hill station).
Sanju, who says it is mandatory to travel with the kids? You can work out holidays in between holidays where just the 2 of you disappear for a few days! You seem to have already done most of Europe , Asia and Australia. Now, with the kids, see the rest of India, and there is LOTS to see!
ReplyDeleteSushama chechi - They're getting old enough that we are sort of toying with the idea of going off without them. So far those stars have not aligned yet but they soon will. A whole bunch of places in India are on the list - NE interest has been revenewed after seeing your photos.
ReplyDeleteSanjeev do share your plans, that will help lazy people like me, who are too lazy to plan, to pick up a well researched holiday :).
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