Itinerary is another word for pain in my butt

There's this song from the Chronicles of Narnia (the new one) that is really beautiful. It's written by Regina Spektor and begins like this:

"It started out as a feeling

Which then grew into a hope

Which then turned into a quiet thought

Which then turned into a quiet word"

It just so happened that I was listening to this song and thinking about that moment I decided to take this trip. She describes the growth of feelings so insightfully, I can really relate to it.

"Then that word grew louder and louder 'till it was a battle cry"

...and there was nothing for me to do but make a plan.

The first lesson in vacation planning is to figure out where you're going to go, followed closely by who is going with you.

A couple years back I decided on Peru. I just had to see Machu Picchu, I guess. Peru's a pretty safe place and my Spanish is passable, so I was good to go. Called my mom to let her know I would be buying tickets and she decided to come too.

Finding someone to travel with isn't always easy, though. There's the general problem of expressed interest verses actual interest. Tarika knew about my crazy past adventures and we've been really excited about this upcoming trip for ages. Nevertheless, Tarika's family was certain I would back out for months after purchased my flight tickets.

--Edit 8/25 @ 12:45 Have just discovered that Tarika's parents thought I was made up to get them to stop worrying. Afterall, who would actually want to go to Africa? --

I would strongly advise you to travel with people that move at the same pace as you, enjoy the same types of adventures, and are okay with the same level of comfort. 7:00am start or 10:00am? Go slowly through museums or weave quickly around crowds? Take a rafting trip or enjoy an expensive meal? Do everything and fall into an exhausted heap tangled up in your mosquito net or take things slowly because this is your time to relax (and the hotel has a very wonderful pool)?

Also important, once you know who is coming, you'll also know how many people you will need to book beds for. Also you can divide and conquer for the next phase of planning.

In New Zealand there were three of us, and we were going to the North Island, the South Island, and Samoa. Easy enough - each of us took a section.

**Pause. It's time to take my anti-malaria pill. This bright blue pill is to only be taken with food and must be taken at the same time every day. Dry swallow. My cousin asks how I can take it dry, but I've always found it easier.**

So you've got your travel buddies and you're ready to book tickets. If you are starting at different points you should know that it's generally not too difficult to get flights that land about the same time. With longer flights that have multiple legs it is pretty easy to get on the same flight for at least part of the journey. If you do that, take an extra moment to book together so that you can find seats that will be near each other.

In Africa, we will be going to Kenya and Tanzania. Tarika, took over planning Kenya while I got to do Tanzania.

This is probably one of the most exciting parts of planning. It's the trips to the library and the internet research that tell the story of the places you will be visiting.

Learning about the history of a place you will be visiting increases the pleasure of a visit exponentially. Even if it's a brand new spa that opened up last year, knowing why the spa was created seems to make a difference. When it comes to planning visits to countries... well you can only imagine. You get to find out all the things you can do and places you should see and that is thrilling. Narrowing down that huge list to a much smaller, achievable one that is tailored to you is fun and a bit heartbreaking.

You see, even after our preliminary culling is complete, we have to again come to the table and discuss what we wanted to keep and what to discard. For instance, during this upcoming trip we couldn't find a good way of going on a Rwandan Gorilla trek, or hiking Kilimanjaro and had to skip both. Neither really fit within our budget or within our time constraints.

Which brings us to the schedule or timeline. This isn't something yet set in stone. Not everything runs daily, so you must figure out how you're getting from place to place to really know when you're going from place to place. That, of course, is the next stage of planning.

Only then do we plan out where to stay - after we know what we'll be doing and how long we will be in each place. Some places book out quickly, so planning early may be essential to stay at the places you want to.

Oh yeah, don't forget people. Talk with people that went or who know people that went and find out what they like. You might even get lucky and score their itinerary!