Musings about Booking a Holiday

Flip a coin and decide where you're going next on holiday, is that how you decide or do you have a list of places you want to see and then plan to visit them, checking them off one after the other. The reason I ask is that I tend to not plan trips, and then buy my plane ticket at the last minute, or book a hotel when I arrive.

But several of my friends are the type of people who like everything meticulously planned months ahead, they say they enjoy the build up of anticipation so they go to a travel agent, they collect brochures, they ponder together, go back and ask lots of questions, then eventually settle on their choice and make a booking, and then pay it off in instalments.

I'm the opposite, I pretty much see travel as something I do not to have an organised relaxation, but as a period of undefined excitement. If I want to visit Australia I'll simply book a flight, and check out Hotel Club Sydney. Easy. After that it's a simple matter of visiting the local tourist office, grab a map, and ask about the must see attractions.

OK, so maybe going to Australia is a destination I might plan just a little more, for example I'd make sure my first night accommodation was booked so I can go directly from the airport to a comfy room and sleep off the jet lag, and just maybe I'd book that room for two nights so I didn't have to find a different hotel on the second day. What would you do?

When I travel around Europe I rarely book hotels at all, I have a smartphone, wifi is pretty much easy to find everywhere even if you need to pay for a drink or a meal to access it, so why not use the web to book hotel rooms and get them cheaper, or best of all, have the chance to see the area it is in before making a reservation. And just personally, I trust web reviews more than the 'opinion' of my travel agent who may never have been there.