Planning the 2012 Vacation

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Our mission for this weekend was to book a vacation.  Long gone are the days when we’d leave it to the week before and bag ourselves a last minute bargain.  Those last minute deals just don’t seem to exist anymore.  The longer you leave it to book flights, the more expensive they seem to get.  In a matter of a week, the flights I’ve been looking at have already gone up £40!

Planning trips months in advance is not in my nature at all, but needs must.  This weekend, our planning shifted three times, from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C.

Plan A was to go to Thailand.  I absolutely adore everything about Thailand…  the food, the climate, the beaches, the flora and fauna, the temples and, most of all, the people.  We’ve been a few times, the first being back in 2002 for our honeymoon.  We also had the most amazing trip to Krabi early in 2003.

Here I am in beautiful Krabi... 9 weeks pregnant with Lil' L. Very poor quality pic, pre digital camera!

I thought it would be nice to celebrate our 10 year anniversary by revisiting Bangkok and Koh Samui.  Plus I was really looking forward to showing Lil’ L all the beautiful temples and statues of Buddha. 

Koh Samui Trip 2002

However, when I checked out the flights I was shocked at how expensive they were.  I don’t know whether there’s been a hike in the tax or cost of fuel,  but at over £2,000 for the three of us, those flights are crazily expensive at the moment 🙁

Onto Plan B… France.  Another favourite holiday destination of ours.  We checked out lots of rental accommodation in and around Annecy, an area that we last visited in 2008 and would love to visit again.  Incredibly, it was all fully booked!  Months in advance!

BTW I’ve just been looking through some photos of our 2008 trip to Annecy and I can’t believe how much Lil’ L has changed since then! 

Wow they grow up quick!

Despite these set backs, I’m pleased to say that Plan C has worked out and it’s all  booked up 🙂  We’re now going to stay in the Italian Dolomites.  It looks really pretty…

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…and the location looks perfect for us.  We’ll be able to do some mountain hiking and, in just over an hour, visit the coast and Venice.  I’m really looking forward to visiting Venice again.  

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I went there for a day trip when I was about 11 and, from what I remember, I was far more interested in the spectacular Italian icecreams than I was in the beautiful Venetian architecture.  I remember the black cherry icecream being a particular favourite on that holiday 😉  

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It will be fantastic to visit this beautiful city again and, this time round, take more note of the spectacular sights.  I wonder what will do it for Lil’ L… icecream or architecture?  I’ll report back later 😉

Are you planning to go away on vacation this year?  If so, have you had to book way in advance like us, or are you planning to ‘wing it’ closer to the time?

8 thoughts on “Planning the 2012 Vacation

  1. Holy wow! What a gorgeous place! I am sure you will have a fantastic time. Let me know if you’d like a nanny to come along. I’d love to hang out with Lil’ L so you can have a few date nights too. 😉
    I have always wanted to visit Thailand, and I hear nothing but good things about others’ experiences there. Someday…
    We are hoping to make it to St. Thomas in August for my niece’s wedding. You are right–travel costs are crazy right now and only seem to be going up!

    1. Ha ha, so kind of you to offer your services! 😉
      You must go to Thailand some time. It is such a wonderful place and there’s so much to see and do there. I adore everything about it.

  2. Glad you got all booked up! We just can’t afford a trip abroad right now so will be staycationing it up! I think we’ll probably go back to Brighton again and we are also hoping to go to the Kendal Calling festival again this year 🙂

  3. We plan in advance just to make sure we know when and where we are going. We are able to drive to our destination (albeit a 17 hour trip) so we will have to pay for gas, but not for airfare.
    You have some gorgeous choices and I am completely envious, but I know you all will have a wonderful time AND of course supply us with some fantastic photos.
    Lil’ L has indeed grown, but such a cute little boy 🙂 I imagine the ice cream will be a huge pull for him (best in the world…the Italians know what they are doing).

    1. I haven’t been to US yet, but there are lots of places within your beautiful country that I want to visit one day. Just got to wait for those air fares to come down!

  4. I love Italy – definitely one of my favourite places – the Dolomites looks gorgeous. I don’t have any foreign holidays planned, but I do have a break planned in your part of the country next month.

    1. Yay you’re coming to the South West! 🙂 Hopefully the weather will be good for you. For the past couple of years, our Easters have been hot and dry. Way nicer weather than in August, when it normally rains all month 🙁

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