Travel planning fail

As I work slowly towards my goal of going everywhere, I've been reprioritising some of my travel to try to mitigate some of the high costs of getting to hard to reach places.

I came to realise earlier this year that I needed to be a bit more strategic in how I travel. Yes, I still react to sales, and I still do trips on whims (such as going half way around the world to have lunch with a friend).

For some destinations I wish to visit, the affordable options dry up fast and so I should book as far ahead as I can. Conversely for other destinations I can see that potential/probable future airline alliance partners fly there, and for those I should wait until I can use awards or alliance fare products to reduce my costs. For example, for certain hard to get to African countries I should wait until Ethopian joins an alliance, or until Emirates starts flying there. Similarly, there are some places Continental flies to & I am waiting until they switch from Sky Team to Star Alliance.

It is thus becoming more difficult to plan my travels (along with some other new constraints I have). The increased currency volatility many countries are experiencing isn't helping either.

A few weeks ago I'd worked out a rough travel plan for the first six months of next year (following my itchy feet post). I haven't even ticketed the core part of that plan and already I've spent quite a bit of time tearing those plans apart. My new plan is to have a couple of core trips a year covering at least a few hard to reach places each, and leave the rest of my travel open to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

A significant part of my internal struggle is the desire to go and see lots of places is too strong. I'm like a child waiting for Christmas.