I haven't been on a nice long ("long" to me means over 1 week) trip since Costa Rica in February so I'm getting a little antsy. I've realized that probably about 7-8 months without a long trip makes me tired of my commute, the ridiculously hot and humid DC weather (which we are in the height of right now!) and the general frenzied news cycle- especially with the presidential election season. I really like the freedom of going somewhere and not paying attention to politics and the tragic events that never seem to stop.
Anyway, unfortunately that's not happening anytime soon for me! I'm saving my vacation time (and money) because we have a bunch of stuff coming up next year so I'll just talk about that. I probably mentioned these trips in passing but here are the details.
January 2017 - We're going to the Galapagos with Brandon's family. I think we will only actually be on the (very small) cruise boat for 7 nights then we will have a night or two on one of the islands and then 2 nights before/after in Quito.
March 2017 - I'm going to Paris for 5 nights on my own! I'm very excited since I haven't ever traveled internationally alone and I can't wait to do all the stereotypical tourist stuff like visit the champagne bar at the top of the Eiffel Tower. On a whim a few months ago I bought a super cheap flight with WOW but then a few weeks later they lowered their Fall 2016 prices (which would have been the perfect time to go) but of course they have a huge change fee that I wasn't willing to pay so I'll just wait. Reading through my old Iceland entries I see that I swore off WOW for future trips but my annoyance can be surmounted for a $400 round trip flight to Paris!
October 2017 - We are going to northern India for 3 weeks! Oh man I am so excited. We worked with a local travel agent who was endlessly patient and helpful (and if he thought it was weird I was planning a trip a year in advance he didn't say so!). Initially we were going to go in September 2017 but a lot of things aren't open then so I moved the trip to October (mostly so we could go to Ranthambore National Park and see tigers). The cost for a 3 week trip is ridiculously cheap (and working with a local travel agent is so easy) so I wish I had looked into traveling to India sooner! When the time comes I'm going to try to get a 10 year visa for Brandon and myself so that we can go back easily.
That's all I have planned coming up and I'm not going to let myself plan anything until at least after I get back from Paris. I learned my lesson with buying my WOW plane ticket way too early! I think planning travel early is helpful but there is a line that's TOO early. I do have some ideas for our next big trip after India though. I really want to go to Africa and I'm thinking Madagascar would be perfect! There are also other places in Europe I would love to go to on shorter trips like Italy and Spain.
