Neurotic Trip Planning
What I Learned on a Family Trip
We kidnapped my parents for Thanksgiving. We packed ’em up in our car, took my youngest sister & her husband along with us, & headed up to Hot Springs Arkansas. We rented a house on the Ouachita River, brought food with us, & left all itineraries/plans at home. We were winging this one & adapting day-by-day.
Traveling with family is totally out of character for Eric & I. We’ve perfected how to travel with each other & have become a fine-tuned travel machine. When you throw someone else into the mix, we don’t know what to do with them: What do they like to eat? Do they like waking up early or sleeping in? Do they really want to hike all day or are they just saying that for our benefit? Will they think I’m anti-social if I read a book for a few hours?
But we also know that memories are made during family trips & so we forced ourselves out of our comfort zone for this holiday. I won’t lie, there were moments when I thought “why did we do this?” but they were quickly followed by sweet moments or laugh-so-hard-I-snorted moments. And like all good trips, I learned some new things. For example, I learned (or was reminded) that…
My father is a sugar addict…
And apparently so am I…
My sister enjoys being still in nature just like I do…
My mother will never lose her adventurous spirit, even if her body begins to slow her down…
My family can easily revert to childhood…
We might have to sacrifice our long hikes, but being on the trail with family has its perks…
There really ARE fairies & they live at Garvan Woodland Gardens…
Having my mom around is good for me — otherwise, I would have bypassed the fascinating Hot Springs National Park Visitor’s Center which is in a restored bath house…
I might also have missed the once elegant Arlington Hotel, with its beautiful murals, haunted looking stairs & mobster past.
If you visit Hot Springs, eat at Rod’s Pizza Cellar. It’s a local hangout that’s been around since 1975 & their thick crust is FABULOUS! There was live music when we were there, and my parents were in heaven listening to tunes from their college days.
Garvan Woodland Gardens is beautiful in daylight but PURE MAGIC in the evening (especially during Christmas)!
Don’t go hiking in Arkansas during prime hunting season. Even if the trail brochures say nothing of hunting, assume that it’s allowed everywhere in “the Natural State.” And if you do, don’t be stupid [name will remain anonymous] & place a branch on your head so you look like a deer…
I had my heart set on hiking the Little Blakely trails, but I failed to check if hunting was allowed in that area. Boy was it! I’ve never seen so much orange & camo in my life! I managed one photo at the beginning of a trail before we had to skedaddle.
No matter how often I tell myself “I don’t travel well with others,” trips like these remind me that travel isn’t just about new places & new people, it’s also about new experiences with the people closest to me.
Pastries Nearly Killed the Budget…and Me
No matter how much time I spend planning & budgeting, our trips always seem to wander off track, which I’m totally fine with because it matches our travel style. Our recent trip to Germany & Austria, however, was a unique divergence…we blew our budget on PASTRIES!
For those who know my eating habits, you know that I try to limit my daily sugar intake. I do this because sugar is a guaranteed inflammatory for my Rheumatoid Arthritis — too much nectar of the Gods & my hands swell & my veins start throbbing. But I ADORE pastries & because I deny myself of their pleasure so often, when I found myself in a region that has patisseries & confiseries on every block…I was toast! Eric loves sweets even more than me, so my accountability partner was no help this time.
Ok, now that I’ve cleansed my soul with confession, let’s switch gears & I’ll discuss our actual budget for this trip. As with any trip, dining out is where you can really overspend. I knew breakfast was included in our lodging fees & based on past trips I assumed we’d eat light cheap lunches, leaving us room to splurge for dinner. I didn’t take into account the fact that we’d be ordering coffee & pastries every day (sometimes twice in one day) or that water would cost so much.
For a region surrounded by pristine lakes & rivers, how is it that water is never free & often costs the same or more than beer? Now I know why Germans drink so much beer — it’s cheaper! It’s also very accessible, as you can buy beer from vending machines in public parks.
Cost-saving tips for food in Germany
- Find the ethnic food restaurants & food trucks — they’re often cheaper.
- Pay attention to portion sizes. Most of the German restaurants we frequented had huge portions & we could have easily shared one entree.
- Bring a water bottle or hydration pack (like we did) that you can refill & look for signs that say trinkwasser, which means the water is safe to drink.
- Stay away from tourist traps. Our biggest dining mistake was in Munich, when we spent $78 for food that wasn’t that great. But, it was Sunday, it was raining, I was hurting, & it was the closest restaurant that had a nice website & was popular with tourists.
This restaurant’s only redeeming factor was that it gave us a memorable experience: A man walked in selling newspapers & was allowed to do so, which we thought odd, but when we realized it was a publication promoting erotica, we REALLY thought it bizarre!
I had budgeted a total of $4100 for our 14-day trip. Our actual expenses were $4646. Here’s where our money went:
- Lodging: $2035 (included breakfast every morning & 5 dinners)
- Transportation: $1518 (included flights, airport parking & public transit)
- Food: $901 (original budget was $560)
- Tickets: $192 (included castle passes to Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau, Salzburg Cards & Dachstein Cable Car)
Eric doesn’t like to drive in an unfamiliar country & he misses so much when he’s driving, so we opted to use public transit the entire trip. Germany & Austria have excellent train systems, so it was quite easy & comfortable to get around. I did my research beforehand & that helped, especially in explaining what types of tickets to purchase & how to plan itineraries that were close to transportation stations.
When purchasing tickets from a kiosk in Austria, make sure to look at the screen and note the location and times before you hit print as tickets do not show this information. This is especially important in a large train station where you’re not sure what platform to wait at. We made this mistake in Salzburg and nearly missed our bus because we didn’t know where to wait for it.
Buses could be a little tricky, but when we asked for help or relied on the transit schedules they never steered us wrong. Trains were the easiest because all we had to do was know our final destination & what direction we needed to go in, much like a subway system in any large city. Trains that crossed borders or stopped at airports usually had an English announcer as well as German, but most of the German words were easy to discern anyway (like “nachster halt” in Austria and “nexta statione” which meant “next stop”). The English narrator on our trains sounded just like Jim Dale & we learned to pay attention when we heard his voice, because it always meant something important …such as the train will divide in half & you have x minutes to move to the front.
Some other tidbits we noticed about the German trains: they don’t always check tickets but you need to have them close at hand & passports just in case. Also, water closets on trains were free but cost .50 cents in stations — definitely need to keep change in your pocket for WC emergencies.
Relying on trains meant we had to travel light, so Eric & I fit everything for 2 weeks into our Kelty backpacks, a very small Camelbak, & an Osprey bag. Everything we needed fit easily & I never felt discomfort carrying the large pack (as long as I had the hip straps fastened).
All said & done, I was very happy with our experience & what we paid for it. For future trips, I’ll look into the following options to save money & increase our enjoyment:
- Stay at fewer locations & opt for a kitchen — we would save money by not dining out every night & Eric would enjoy the opportunity to cook new foods & utilize fresh markets.
- Don’t assume trains are always cheapest — look at ride share options and Ubers.