When Plans Fall Through

On March 10, 2016 By rebeccawanderlustingIn Travel Writing, Trip Planning9 Comments

Sometimes, no matter how meticulously you plan, travel plans fall through. Maybe something unavoidable came up, forcing you to cancel, maybe you’ve found that you’re in a little over your head financially and need to dial it back, or maybe you just lost interest in that particular destination. Whatever the case may be, it’s okay to change plans. It happens. Heck, it’s happened twice to me in the past month. I’ve rearranged travel plans to better fit my budget, and I’ve done the opposite and splurged on a trip I will need to save up some more money for. They actually go hand in hand, really.

Back in December, Mike gave me a trip to Toronto for my birthday. Over the past three months, this thoughtful gift turned into a little bit of stress for both of us. First it was because we had to keep changing the date due to work conflicts (my fault), then we couldn’t decide whether we should drive or fly there; these little things kept nagging at us. Plus it was starting to get more and more pricey. It just wasn’t coming together. It felt like a sign that this trip just wasn’t meant to be, so we cancelled it. We still wanted to have a long weekend though, because we both had already taken the days off of work. We needed somewhere closer, cheaper, and with enough points of interest to keep us busy, but not enough to overwhelm our short time there. Enter: Grand Rapids, Michigan, home of Founder’s Brewery, Frederick Meijer Gardens, good food and antique stores galore! You might think, “that is the most random place for a romantic weekend getaway,” but it fit the bill perfectly for us. And to be honest, I’m actually a little more excited with this change because it came together so seamlessly. The fact that it will be a cheaper long weekend is a big plus for me due to my second change of travel plans this month. I’ve scrapped a budget friendly trip for the fall to splurge on a eurotrip to Iceland and Copenhagen (more on that later).

So the moral of this story is, someday, a trip that maybe you had been looking forward to will fall through, but that does not mean an equally great if not better situation might come up. The great thing about travel is anywhere you go is bound to have at least one great attraction, restaurant, book store, or whatever interests you. Every destination has it’s merits.

Has this ever happened to you? How did you overcome cancelling your plans?

Trip Planning: Washington, D.C.

On February 1, 2016 By rebeccawanderlustingIn Travel Tips, Trip Planning4 Comments

I started this year with the knowledge that I would have a six day weekend towards the end of February. I had no idea where I was going to go during this time, but I knew I wanted to go somewhere. It wasn’t a hard problem to solve, as I have a very long list of places I want to visit and a knack for trip planning. I wanted to go somewhere that would be cheap to fly to, easy to get around once I was there, and that had a good amount of amazing food and interesting attractions. Washington, D.C. fit the bill. I’ve been there once before, way back in 8^th grade. We took a charter bus there that left from the school parking lot. My eighth grade brain took all of the history of D.C. in one ear and out the other and focused mostly on finding those cool FBI sweatshirts with my friends so we could all match. This time around, I’ll be going by myself and I plan to take it all in. I’m no longer interested in hooded sweatshirts, in fact the only thing I will have in common with my 8^th Grade self is my concern of when my next meal will be. I guess I’ve been on a recent kick of returning to places I’ve visited before to better appreciate them (see “Trip Planning: San Francisco”). I am so excited to revisit Washington, D.C. There is so much to see and do and eat there that I just hope I have enough time to accomplish it all. I’ll be there for three nights, staying two nights in a hotel and one night in a hostel to help keep my spending in check. I have a very long list of things I want to accomplish while I’m there. Here is the breakdown:

Flight:

American Airlines – nonstop from ORD to DCA

Lodging:

Courtyard Marriott
Hostelling International Washington, D.C.

What I want to see:

The National Mall, The Memorials and The White House, of course
The Smithsonian Museums
The Eastern Market
The Holocaust Memorial Museum
Georgetown, Columbia Heights, Dupont
The Folger Shakespeare Library
Glen Echo Park
And anything and everything else that I can fit in

What I want to eat:

We the Pizza (any Top Chef fans out there??)
Ted’s Bulletin
Founding Farmers
Dangerously Delicious Pie
Honestly, I could go on and on; I’m going to need to eat four meals a day to keep up with this list

I have two and a half days to do it all. My plan of attack is to tackle the National Mall, Monuments and Museums one day and tour the neighborhoods the next day. I am just so excited to go on this trip, and I can’t wait to explore Washington, D.C. I’m a little bit concerned that because I’m going there in the winter, some things may not be as enjoyable. However, I’m going to bundle up and power through to make the most of it. See you in a few weeks D.C.!

Washington, D.C. 2004 — A few pictures from the first time I visited Washington, D.C., in 2004

If you have any Washington, D.C. recommendations or tips, please share!

Frontier Airlines: A Review

On January 5, 2016 By rebeccawanderlustingIn Travel Tips, Trip Planning1 Comment

I booked our flight to San Francisco through Frontier Airlines, because….well, because it was cheap. All told, it was $160 round trip for each of us, which is a pretty good deal. I’ve flown with them once before and had a not so great experience, so this time I wanted to document the flight and see whether the great price is really worth the trouble. The last time I flew Frontier, it was to Salt Lake City in November 2014. That time, my flight was delayed over an hour because one of their flight attendants didn’t show up for work that day. To make it up to us, they gave us a $15 credit, which I didn’t have the opportunity to use because it expired three months later. This plus an unpleasant interaction with their customer service team when I had to change my return flight just left me with a bad overall experience. So although their tickets are cheap and they fly places that I want to go, it took me over a year to book with Frontier again. This time around, the flight was on time and the service was much better. Here’s the breakdown:

Pros:

The flight attendants were friendly and were all on time for work
The boarding process was quick, with the seats pre-assigned at check-in
Cheap airfare, especially when you catch a good sale
No muss, no fuss travel

Cons:

The luggage fees are almost as much as the cheap airfare
There are no free refreshments during the flight
The standard seating has very little leg room and there’s a fee to pick your seat ahead of time
The flyfrontier.com website is not very user-friendly and sometimes goes on the fritz

Tips:

Check your bags instead of carrying on (it’s $5 cheaper), and choose to do so ahead of time to save some money
Don’t pick your seat unless you are super choosey, they’re pretty good about putting you next to who you booked your flight with
Bring your own snacks and water so you don’t have to buy them on the plane

Overall, Frontier is a cheap way to get from point A to point B if you plan ahead and aren’t picky about where you sit. I wouldn’t book this airline if I was travelling outside the continental U.S. (they do offer flights to Mexico and The Caribbean), but it works just fine for short flights. In my humble opinion, it works best if you don’t have a set destination in mind and you book based on the sales that run frequently. I’d definitely do it again, if everything fell into place like it did for San Francisco. So, if the question is to fly Frontier or not to fly Frontier, flight time and budget should be your deciding factors.

Have you flown with Frontier before? What was your experience like? Is there another budget airline that you prefer?

Trip Planning: San Francisco

On November 10, 2015November 10, 2015 By rebeccawanderlustingIn Travel Tips, Trip Planning3 Comments

Trip Planning: San Francisco

I cannot tell you how excited I am for my upcoming trip to San Francisco. One more month! I booked the flights three months ago, but have only just begun to plan the actual trip. I will once again be travelling with my boyfriend, Michael, and we’ll be celebrating my birthday (ahem, my 26^th Birthday) while we’re there. Right now, I have one hotel booked, but only for two out of our three nights there, and a long list of attractions I want to see. Here’s what I have so far:

Flights: Frontier Airlines – Previously, I had a not so great experience with Frontier (see SLC Punks), but was willing to try them again because the price was so right. I plan on doing a full review on them this time to set the record straight.

Hotels: Hostel International San Francisco Downtown – 2 nights booked. We are on a little bit of a budget for this trip, which is why we chose to stay in a hostel for the majority of the trip. However, I tend to like to stay in a hostel for a couple nights to save money, then book a nice-ish hotel for the last night, just to get both perspectives (I did this in North Carolina too). I think our second hotel will be Hotel Vertigo, but I have yet to book it out of sheer procrastination.

Attractions: The Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, The Mission, Cable Cars… the list goes on and on. I would really like to bike across The Golden Gate Bridge, shop in Haight Ashbury, eat some good seafood by the ocean, and find the Full House house. We are also planning on driving to John Muir Woods to hike and Sonoma for some wine tastings. There are a lot of things to check off and I’m hoping we can get to them all without going crazy.

Restaurants: I have had two recommendations that were pounded into my brain by insistent friends: 1. Dottie’s for breakfast and 2. Yank Sing for dim sum. I plan to try both, and as I said before, I really want to east some good seafood in Fisherman’s Wharf. I don’t want to pick too many restaurants that we absolutely must go to so we can ask around when we get there to see what the locals recommend.

Typically what I do for trips like this is to write down my must-sees/must-eats, which I choose from Pinterest and Travel Blogs, and use Google maps to see how far away from the hotel each one is. That way, I can group attractions together based on what’s near what. I try to make a rough, but not too binding, schedule of how I can make it to everything. This is especially important for this trip, because we have to rent a car for a day to get to a couple of our must-sees (John Muir Woods and Sonoma). I haven’t made the car reservation yet, or our last night hotel reservation, BUT I did get “On The Road” to read on the plane before we visit the historic Jack Kerouac Alley. So that’s settled. Even though not everything is organized quite yet, I am beyond thrilled to be able to visit and experience this gorgeous city.

I’ll keep you updated on this trip, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos from the first time I was ever in San Francisco in 2002. We only stopped there for a couple of hours on our way to Yosemite National Park, but I guess it was long enough to make me want to go back!
Feel free to leave all of your best San Francisco travel tips in the comments!