Vacation planning – stalled
One, two, three, four clicks away from finalizing everything, and I can’t pull the trigger. It’s all lined up. After a conference in DC, I will come back and fly and train and boat and relax… but I have refused to seal the deal. And yesterday I ran into a friend, going to DR for the summer, suggested I come for a week or two. Why does this sound more tempting?
The primary alternative is 4 – 5 days in Berlin, a day or two in Salonica, most of a week on a Greek island, meander back to my airport, and from there to Reykjavik for 2 full days (and 3 nights).
Why the delay? This is not necessarily cheap, and DR would be far cheaper, but I budgeted for it. It is a bit long altogether, maybe I want some of my summer in New York? Or I am nervous about so much packing and moving about (not as young as last year when I did Salonica, Istanbul, and a bunch of little cities and islands in between). And New Orleans might open up. But I know it won’t. Whatever it is, I really only have a week at most left to decide.
JD2718 
The European vacation sounds wonderful! You should go for it. It will make for wonderful memories.
My parents are now in their 70s and they still plan 2-3 very long (5-6 weeks) adventures every year. They figure that one day they won’t have the energy to do it any more. I think they’ll have the gusto for many years though. My brother-in-law grew up in South Africa where his parents still live. His 88 year old mother recently took a London, Long Island, Texas trip by herself to visit family. Now that’s gusto!
I woudn’t choose New Orleans over Europe. My husband has been there a few times this year, and he tells me that it just isn’t the same. Plus, the summers are very hot & muggy.
to be perfectly honest, your european tour sounds more like a run around than a vacation. i tend to do that, too. plan too many things, run from one place to the next, and i enjoy it, but then i need to rest when i get back home. never been to dr, but i’m sure there is plenty to do and see. and, the money you save you could put towards next year’s europe trip when you could maybe spend more time in each of the places you were going to breeze through this year. just a thought.
Go with your gut. If you were totally into doing the Europe trip, it would be a no-brainer. The fact that you are hesitating tells me that your second thought is probably the better one…
DR is a beautiful island, but the food sucks! (and I stayed at a 5 star hotel)–they don’t grow veggies and have to import. Also, malaria scare–I couldn’t donate blood for one year after the trip. I’d go for Europe too. This is my first summer in a long time without a European trip–my hubby wants to see Alaska and I gave in.
Have fun whatever you decide to do.
Ordering tickets now must be extremely expensive? Thought these things had to be finalized in, like, April in order to be near reasonably priced. Not that I’d know for sure, of course.
Good grief, go already. I’ll call you during the summer and you’ll be sitting at the computer and I’ll annoy you with an, I told you so. Look it over one more time, regroup, and go. Oh and the not as young as last year PLEEEEEEEZ! K