Overcoming Travel Planning Overwhelm

TTT Overwhelm
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Meggan: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. As always, I am joined by my pal and fellow podcaster. Jenn, how are you today?

Jenn: I am doing well.

Meggan: Me too. The sun is shining. Summer is upon us. Yes. , So I wanna take some time to give a few shout outs here because just last week, , my best friend and her husband jetted off to France to celebrate each of them recently turning 50.

And they also celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary while on this trip. A lot of big celebrations and neither of them, had ever been to Europe prior to this trip or of course, therefore, they had never planned anything like this before. And just last year at this time, they were considering a cruise to commemorate these big milestones.

I kind of had a big heart to heart with her because I don't keep my opinions to myself. Um, and I talked about how like [00:01:00] literally we only get one chance at life and big anniversaries, or honestly anything, in my opinion, I'll travel for any reason. But, but big anniversaries themselves deserve a big celebration, and their hearts truly wanted to celebrate in France, not on the cruise.

I felt that they were settling. So I told her, please go for it. And here they are, a year later on their big adventure. I'm so proud of them. And we did have supper with them on the day that they left. And when she finally told me about their itinerary, 'cause she doesn't live in Halifax, so we're not like getting coffee and hanging out all the time.

So I didn't know what they were going to be doing. And honestly, when she told me I was in awe, they have. So much planned and it includes of course, planes 'cause I have to get there. Uh, trains, automobiles, uh, plus different accommodation types with a few tours booked as well that really spoke to them and it got me thinking.

I bet some people, especially first time big trip travelers, likely don't do [00:02:00] all of the things they truly wanna do. Or maybe they don't even go because it seems intimidating to plan it all. So I dug in with them a bit deeper to get sort of their insight as newbies and newbie travel planning, um, as well.

So first they had taken my advice and they had actually hired a travel planner.

Jenn: Awesome.

Meggan: So I asked them about that experience and how the trip actually came to be, and they told me that a lot of the trip they actually planned themselves. So the flights they wanted, trains, cars, uh, and whatnot, and then took it to their travel planner. So in doing this, it took the pressure off of them actually having to be responsible for making it real, like through the actual bookings and also helped them avoid mistakes in those bookings. And another thing that they told me that the travel planner gave them some great advice.

So they had wanted to go to a few places and through her expertise [00:03:00] she was able to say, you know what? This isn't gonna make sense with all of the other things you want to do and where you will be geographically. So logistically it wasn't gonna happen for them, but they didn't of course, see that in their planning. So that was really, really helpful. Now personally, we are in the very early stages of booking our Italy trip for next April, so just sort of planning. And I would also like to intermingle planes, trains, automobiles. And to me, and I've planned tons of trips, it does seem a bit overwhelming and we have done it many times.

But all of this to say. If you want to go big, don't let it scare you into not doing it. Many times before, we have mentioned on this podcast that travel planners and travel advisors have the expertise, and I'm actually witnessing it playing out on their right now, and the key points are that they came up with what they wanted, the places they wanted to be, and when, and then they actually had help making it happen. The tours

Jenn: [00:04:00] Okay.

Meggan: they wanted, uh, locally in those places, they actually handled that part themselves because they did the research. A tour is pretty easy to book. They knew when they were gonna be there,

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: they put their own research in for that.

So you can also do all of this on your own if you are determined to just take it slow, do lots of research before actually booking to get exactly what you want, but don't not do it. I guess that's the whole point. I will be definitely taking their route and not letting myself become intimidated as well by something that's more complicated than normal to celebrate my own 50th birthday.

So their courage to do that and see what they wanna see has also like inspired me not to be intimidated. So.

Jenn: Yeah,

Meggan: curious for you, have you ever not done something or not gone somewhere because it just seems like too much work or too complicated, even though you really wanted to?

Jenn: a hundred percent. Like right now, I thought

Meggan: I'm living

Jenn: it

I, am literally right now, I thought. [00:05:00] You know, if you'd asked me in January or February, I would said we were going to Ireland in the beginning of June. And I, I feel this in my soul because I just, I kept putting off planning it because I, I. I was overwhelmed and I've planned a lot of trips and I know how much work it can be.

And I, you know, talked about this on my, on my social media. Um, I've been really overwhelmed. I am working full time. I freelance. I do this podcast, which is a labor of love, and I love it so much, but it is of course work and I'm also taking a course right now and I have a lot on my plate and with all of my responsibilities, planning a big trip felt like too much work, and that's why we didn't do it. Um, we're still thinking about doing something in the fall. I don't know, but I think that this is a really good reminder that I don't actually have to do the work. Um, I can outsource that. and I think [00:06:00] that that's just a really good reminder even though I, I can, I have the skills to plan this, I don't actually have to. And in the past, planning travel was one of my favorite parts of traveling, like the months leading up to it, the research and the planning, but like that's okay if it's overwhelming to outsource that a hundred percent.

Meggan: It is. 'cause I think if you really wanna do it now, if life happens and you don't, there's next year. Let's hope. But like that's the thing, if you really wanna do it and you just don't feel like you have enough capacity, which also happens, life happens in general. There are people to reach out to for assistance and it's one of those things that I don't want people to not do it just because it's overwhelming you and you also don't have to give up all control to the travel advisor.

Jenn: Yeah, exactly. A hundred

Meggan: percent

Just have.

Jenn: A great job of, uh, getting that balance of being in control of what you're doing, but then [00:07:00] also like taking their advice on like, actually you can't really do this feasibly. Like, why don't you do this instead? That's perfect.

Meggan: Exactly. Um, well that is it for this week's travel Tip Tuesday, brought to you by the courage of my best friend and her husband who are out running through France on the countryside as we record this. They were at Juno Beach today. I.

Jenn: Amazing.

Meggan: know they had a little Canadian flag there on the beach. It was quite, uh, quite a scene.

Um, and I hope this brief story has provided you with the same courage to ensure that you are spending your precious travel time, how you want to, regardless of how scary the planning and booking might seem. Reach out for help if you need it. Plus there's tons of resources online. Um, and you can always find us on our website, travel mug podcast.com, on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Travel Mug Podcast.

You can buy us a coffee through the link in our show notes to support what we're doing [00:08:00] here, or leave us a review on Apple or Spotify that is free, so why not. Um, and until next time, safe travels and bye everyone.

Jenn: Bye!