Village street, Tenerife Island, Spain, 2009

I told you that we’re planning a trip. Or two. Well, right now it looks like none. We had to stop and drop the trip planning. It was impossible in several ways.

We’ve never ever had such a hard time finding the right trip deal. For days and nights now we’ve searched and searched for the best deal – or most appealing.

It was impossible to find and impossible to stop searching. Our eyes are sore. Our heads filled and spinning around with all facts: destination names, weather conditions, flights, hotels, locations, prices, attractions. Phew!

The result so far: nil thrill. Well, that’s a lie, not entirely. We do know a lot about those places by now. And the names of hundreds of hotels. *giggles*

I really wished that there would be better travel agencies around. There are some good ones, but I want a more innovative travel agency. One that throws in the more unusual approach to catch my interest, an unusual way of working with their clients, making travel searching and planning more fun! (If they can’t do it themselves, they should get help from a creative agency – I’m sure their sales would increase dramatically!)

We’ve done it so many times before, how come we’re having those trip planning problems now? Are we just picky or are we suffering from some kind of brain damage and can’t manage to sew it together?

Oh, there are lots of facts to consider, the “small” trip details like time, weather conditions, youth factors and last, but not least: wallet restrictions. Sorry to disappoint you, but we’re not millionaires.

At first we found great flight tickets to one destination, City 1, that was too good to resist, so we booked them without having a second thought about it. Then we started the research….

It was at this time it first hit us that we didn’t know much about where to find what in that city. The hotel booking sites tell you some facts, but not everything. We had to look it up.

We’ve learned from earlier trips that we’re getting old. When we’re out sightseeing we’re walking too much for our poor bodies, so we want to stay as central as possible. We like to be close to things – not only each other.

The hunt for a suitable hotel in that area started…. and did we get stuck at to see some fancy hotels that would be awesome to stay at.

….at least I thought so when first seeing them. Then I realized that I don’t fit in there. Not with my preferred apparels, mind – or wallet.

So I wasted time looking at those, but it might also have helped me in some way. To not book any hotel at all. *giggles*

Another thing making us hesitating to book, is the hotel reviews people writes about their stay at the hotels.

It sure is difficult to convince myself to book a hotel where the reviews tells me that there are ants – or mosquito’s – in the room, broken things (that doesn’t get fixed), rooms without any windows or the staff is very rude, just to mention a few!

So we changed our mind about the destination, thinking that maybe something else would be better. So we searched again…..

Found super cheap flight tickets to City 2, but for a bit longer stay than we had in mind, which meant that the hotel cost would eat up the cheap ticket cost and end up too expensive.

Search once again and found nice enough flight tickets to City 3, but as it turned out it would be too expensive hotel costs for a city that wasn’t exactly the number one choice to go with Jane. We wanted something more fun and upbeat.

Found flight tickets to City 4 and City 5 about the same time, two very popular cities that has a lot to offer, but perhaps one of them more to youngsters than the other? Reeeeesearch time again.

Getting tired yet…?

Those two cities would cost about the same and had tons of hotels to look through. Which we did. If we did get any closer to booking I really can’t tell. *giggles*

By now days had gone and we had to start over again and check up that the flight tickets to those cities still were available… some of the dates they were not. We also got so tired that we started to mix up all the cities and hotels.

Then in between all the booking research, we met Jane and she happened to reveal that she hopes that it would be a warm destination. Ouch. Back to zero again.

It has been unusually cold in Europe this winter. The temperatures will not be high enough in March when we found the best offers. Then there is Easter with skyrocketing prices, so it has to wait until the last half of April or maybe in May.

Sure, we could get help with this, but the problem is: we don’t all have the same taste. We still have to do our own research and make our own decisions if we want to be as satisfied as possible with our trip.

We know that she would be happy to go anywhere, but of course, we would like her to be as satisfied as possible too.

Normally, I really have fun planning our trips, but I tell you: this time there’s some trolls involved… *giggles*

So, we’re sitting here with flight tickets, but no where to stay yet. We don’t know if we’ll use them. It depends. If we can find some cheap last minute hotel prices, then we might use them anyway.

No second trip planned. I suspect it will have to become a last minute thing that one too. If there is any left by then. So it will continue to be a secret destination even for us.

Or maybe we’ll just end up in Säffle (place here in Sweden) for a coup of coffee, who knows…?

Lifecruiser ♥ Travel