Intentional Vacation Planning

Why Travel Deals aren’t the answer to your Dream Vacation

Black Friday is just around the corner, friends. And if you are anything like me you have a few things you will be looking for deals on! My daughter wants AirPods, and I know that I’m likely to find a big box store that will have these discounted. I am going to spend the money regardless on these AirPods, may as well find a deal on them! How does this tale of a hunt for the best deal on AirPods tie in with travel?

Every year around the madness of Black Friday frenzy travel “deals” will be offered from many cruise lines & vacation providers. They’ll be offered as a packaged price and will sound really great, BUT — hear me out here — When you are looking for a “good deal” on a vacation, you are putting the entire emphasis on the cost NOT the experience. Let me explain a little bit behind my reasoning here.

These vacations in a box are not customized for your individual preferences and can lead you to having experiences that weren’t anything like what you had in mind. If you have decided to spend your money on a vacation, then you’re already spending. When you choose to spend on the low cost options, that spend doesn’t feel good because the experience produced isn’t what you had hoped it would be. You’re left feeling a bit disappointed and like maybe it was a waste of money. Possibly spending more, and getting exactly what you wanted would feel good and worth the extra spend.

Now, in a perfect world where money is no object, of course we would choose to spend more and get the best experiences money can buy on every aspect of our vacations. This is where can work together to choose to make some trade-offs in certain aspects of the vacation in order to spend a little more on the things that really matter OR expand the budget to have the experience that you want. We have to understand the experience that we have and the money it takes to have that experience.

You have to be able to afford the vacation, right? Well, yes, maybe. When we focus our decision making solely based on the cost, we stop considering the type of experience we are wanting. If you are in pursuit of the best travel deal around, you’re then getting more excited about the deal you got versus the actual trip you’re taking.

So, to tie this all together with a bow – I am purchasing AirPods for Christmas, so I’m going to look for a deal. I’m going to spend that money regardless. But with travel, I want to make sure I have the dream vacation personalized to what I want to do and see, not something that is a cookie-cutter vacation in a box scenario. As you browse the plethora of deals and steals this holiday season, don’t get more excited about the deal than the actual vacation! Keep the intention in your travel and you’re winning already.

Grab a spot on my calendar and let’s talk about your dream vacation!

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