As little as 10 years ago who would ever have considered arranging their holiday / vacation themselves? At the very least we started off with a brochure, usually obtained from a travel agent (or occasionally requested by phone or a little form cut out of a newspaper). Then we visited our travel agent and spent an hour or two there while they checked availability, got us to decide on flights etc. and tried to sell us their own travel insurance. I do remember booking a holiday direct with a holiday company on the phone about 12 years ago, but for many people that was just not something they did. This kind of process is fine for those who want to travel for 2 weeks to the costa del whatever, stay in a hotel and then return, but less suitable for people for whom the holiday they want can’t easily be found on the page of a book.

Since I got my first computer the way in which people plan and book their holiday has changed beyond recognition, what is more, with sites like trip advisor you can find out what real people think of the places / hotels / resorts you have chosen. There is a wealth of advice out there, choice is one thing there is no shortage of. But it sure has turned into a time consuming business.

Hubby and I along with my parents, will be travelling to the west coast of the USA in October for hubby’s 50th birthday (you would think he would want to sit in a dark room but no) and he desires to spend the weekend of his birthday in Las Vegas. With 3 stages to the holiday there is a certain complexity. Even if I wanted them to, the brochures out there wouldn’t quite give us what we want. I have already done hours of reading my book about California (plus the book on Las Vegas I have now mislayed somewhere in the house but thats another story) and more hours looking at fligths to San Francisco, hotels in San Francisco, flights to Vegas and back and finally holiday houses on the coast. I have also spent time looking at the Vineyards of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, because I would like to do a tour or two with a small amount of tasting thrown in.

Yesterday my parents came over for Sunday lunch, and between cooking roast beef etc. We went through all of my work to date, tracing the steps of the holiday and discussing exactly what would be our preferences. Now all that is left is to retrace all of these steps and actually book the thing. We are not rich people, and this is going to cost more than our average annual break, we will also be travelling pretty far from home so it is important to try at least to get things right.

The internet is a wonderful thing, it gives pleasure and freedom to do things like this, but you sure can lose hours of your day while trying to do something as simple as arranging a holiday. I must say though that now we have got this far, I am pretty excited about the prospect. Now all I need to do is get the 17 year old up to speed on his cooking and housekeeping abilities!