My husband and I love to travel, we try to plan a big trip every year or at least that is the plan until we have kids and are a little more restricted. From the beginning of our relationship we traveled. On our 1 year anniversary (dating) we spent 6 weeks backpacking through Europe. We started in Germany, France then Switzerland, Italy & Greece. It was our first time traveling together and we survived it. I find that traveling together really tests your relationship. Your not at home, you don't know where everything is, you get lost, you don't speak the language. That was probably when I realized our relationship would stand the test of time....and travel!
Everyone has their own travel style, some people like to bake in the sun and swim up to a bar in the pool, others like to cities on guided tours through museums cathedrals and landmarks. Luckily, Jeremy and I have similar travel styles. We are not crazy about guided tours unless they are short. Museums we prefer to walk at our own pace and neither of us is that interested in Churches or Cathedrals unless something particularly interesting happened there. We always hit all the key sightseeing spots but don't go the extra mile. We prefer to walk around a city and do our own tour, always on our list is markets whether they be for food, crafts or antiques. We find you learn more off the beaten path than you would following the Frommers guide to (insert city name here) We always try to learn a few basic words in the language of the city we are in. Obviously it doesn't hide the fact that we are tourists but at least we can be polite.
We have been to other Greek Islands (Crete & Corfu) as part of family vacations. Trips closer to home have included NYC & Florida and we were engaged in Bermuda.
When we planned our honeymoon in Tahiti and Bora Bora our thought process was "let's go as far as we can, where we wouldn't bring kids, and probably won't get a chance to go back to" The plan worked! Our honeymoon was very special definitly a once in a lifetime trip.
Last summer we sent to London and Prague. We put those cities together randomly.
Neither of us had been to London and I had been to Prague and wanted my husband to see it too. Another hugely successful trip. Great food paired with sightseeing at our own pace.
Now we are planning our trip for 2010. We have yet to go to Asia and since we don't have kids yet it is on my high priority of things to do before I get pregnant! My thought process is that we can travel to Europe with kids the flight isn't too long but a 16-18 hour flight with children running up and down an airplane is not fun for anyone.
So we are looking at a cruise of Asian Capitals and Vietnam it will hit all the key cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nag, Hanoi and end in Hong Kong. The cruise is 14 days which will translate into an 18 day trip factoring in travel time etc. On the one hand I feel like I am rushing to make these travel plans but on the other it makes sense because I am going to get pregnant eventually and then travel to asia is out of the question for a while. Planning such a substantial trip makes me a little nervous, it's kind of like the honeymoon, you want to get it right because chances are you won't be going back, and if you do it will be much later in life.
So if anyone has traveled to the far east and has any suggestions please share them!
We still have a lot of the world we want to see, our list goes across the atlantic to Ireland, Spain & the south of France, or just across the continent to San Francisco. I look forward to exploring the world with my husband well into the golden years of our marriage.
