I am so excited. One more shift at the hotel and then I’m off on holidays. I have missed being able to travel to new places and explore, so this is going to be a lot of fun. However, I’m also one of the biggest procrastinators and so here is how I plan and prepare for a trip.
Picking the Destination
This part was actually quite easy. My best friend and I have talked about going to St. John’s in Newfoundland for a while now. We knew that this year would be the year. Why St. John’s you ask? Why not? Honestly, I fell in love with the city from watching the show Hudson and Rex. It takes place in St. John’s and the scenery is stunning. I have also never been to the east coast before. So, with that in mind, and stomachs growling for fresh seafood, we picked our location and started the planning.
Accommodation
We knew that we wanted to go for a decent amount of time. Two weeks seemed good, but the idea of paying for a hotel for two weeks did not sound that great. Plus, if we wanted to just have a lazy day, being cooped up in a small hotel room would make us climb the walls. I know what you’re thinking. I work in a hotel, shouldn’t I support the hotel business? Here is the thing. I want to be on vacation. If I stayed in a hotel, I would compare it to ours, see what I could take back with me (ideas that is, I’m not going to steal.) I just want a break. So, my friend and I decided to check out Vrbo. Vrbo is a vacation home platform. You rent a place and it feels more like you’re at home than in a hotel. Now that we had that settled, we had to pick our flights.
Travel Plans
We did contemplate driving out to St. John’s to avoid the difficulties that can come with flying. With stories of flights getting cancelled last minute, and people being out thousands of dollars, it did seem like the better option. However, when we looked at travel time, flying seemed the more logical of the two as we didn’t want to spend most of our vacation time driving to and from St. John’s. We did hear that most of the last minute cancellations were with WestJet, so we looked at Air Canada, just to be safe. Online we found decently priced flights and booked them, even though we weren’t thrilled about a short layover in Toronto. Little did we know, this was not the worst news yet to come. The next day we glanced at flights again and saw that they had all increased in price, so we were glad to have booked when we did.
What else?
We knew that we did not want to pay for taxis all the time, so we rented a car. Deciding that we wouldn’t eat out for every meal means we will need to go grocery shopping. However, that didn’t stop me from scoping out some potential places to eat. We also needed to think of some things that we wanted to do. We originally planned to do a lot of hiking, but our bodies had other plans. As I mentioned in my running blog, I injured my ankle. It is doing much better, pain wise, but it is still swollen. My friend also has an injured foot, so too much walking could be bad for her. Whale watching season will be at its peak, so we are really hoping to still do that. Otherwise, we just plan to enjoy ourselves, take it easy, and not stress about it.
The Challenges
Okay, so you know how I said it would get worse? Here is how. Our flights got changed. Twice. I honestly do not remember how long the original layover in Toronto was, which is why I said it was just a short one. The first change told us that we would now have a nine hour layover in Toronto, overnight. We discussed getting a hotel, but agreed that the cost of a taxi and hotel in Toronto, plus the stress of making sure we got back to the airport in time, was not worth it. Then about a week or so ago we got another update. Now we have an eleven hour and forty six minute layover, overnight, in Toronto! Needless to say, we are not entirely impressed. Many people said we could have gotten there just as fast by driving. Too late now. Again we shot down the idea of a hotel, because the cost of the room and the taxi to and from the hotel was just not something we wanted to spend money on. We are going to bring snacks, games, and my laptop to keep us occupied and might sleep in shifts.
Procrastinator Problems
Now, I am a procrastinator. I’ve mentioned it before. This can cause problems when travelling, or planning. For example, I leave on July first. It is currently June twenty nine. I still have not packed. I need to clean my house before I leave. Now, I do have a roommate, but I’m not going to leave her with a messy house. That just wouldn’t be cool. So, needless to say, I still have a bit of work to do. I have my last shift in the evening tomorrow and it goes overnight. I’m going to actually bring all my stuff to the hotel, and after my shift, take a nap in one of the hotel rooms. My friend’s parents are going to pick us up and drive us to the airport. And then we are off.
Stay Tuned
I promise I’ll write a few blogs while I’m out there and share some pictures with you all. I want to practice being a travel blogger after all. Even with us not getting to do everything we originally wanted, and having the hiccups that we are facing, we know we will still have an incredible time. I honestly wish I had saved up better for this trip, but apparently I’m bad at that too. Things to work on, right? So, if you haven’t yet, you will want to subscribe so that you don’t miss a blog. Follow me on social media as I might just post some fun stuff there. I’ll put my links below, as usual. Thank you again for all your support. You guys are the best. Remember, anything can happen if you try.
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