With today being national plan your vacation day, I thought it might be fun to review by 2020 travel plans.
There are so many places I would love to travel to this year. My list of places I would love to go to is a mile long! The problem is finding both the time and money to go. If only I could win the lottery!
This year is filled with business travel, which is something new to me. And being newly self-employed, this means all of this travel is coming out of my nearly empty pockets. So, I am focusing on traveling cheaply and trying to add a little fun on the trips I go on.
The first trip this year was a conference to Phoenix. Unfortunately, traveling to Phoenix in January was during peak travel time. They are inundated with snow birds in January. (Note, I aspire to being a snow bird!) Peak travel time meant the hotels were also at a peak rate. So, this increased the cost of the trip. I am thrifty when it comes to travel. The hotel included breakfast and the room had both a fridge and microwave, so this saved some money.
I also included some personal time in Phoenix. My husband and I ran a half marathon while we were there. We are aiming to race in all 50 states, so this knocked one of them off for us. We also drove up to Sedona and the Grand Canyon for a couple of days before heading home. Love Sedona!!
In February, my husband, son and I are heading out to Colorado to go skiing. I have only skied a handful of times in my life, so this should be interesting. (Read scary!) Keeping this trip on a budget will also be interesting. Skiing is not cheap! I’ll let you know how this goes.
In April another conference will take me to California. Heading to Ventura Beach for 5 days to learn and network. I booked a cheap flight out already and the hotel had a conference rate, so it saved me a little money. I haven’t really planned out this trip out yet, but I do know I will need to go to the beach at some point. I seem to have an addiction to the ocean.
A second April trip is planned to Nashville. We are running our second half marathon of the year. This is a favorite of ours so we keep returning. Which of course, makes it a little difficult to get to 50 states when we keep repeating one. But Nashville is a great city and an amazing host to the run. We just don’t seem to be able to skip it.
A July running trip to Chicago is planned. Nothing is booked yet, but I do know we will drive there. Chicago is such a cool city and we try to get there at least once a year.
Tentatively we may take our dream trip to Hawaii in the late fall of this year. But this will be dependent on just how fast I can get my business up and running. We have saved Marriott points so our hotel should be free. But to be clear, even with the hotel being free, this is a big trip and I have not yet made a final decision on this.
Most of this year will be committed to traveling for business and alternatively, spending time with family. With my youngest graduating from high school and enlisting in the Army this year, my priority is not as much travel and more family time.
What do your 2020 travel plans look like?