How I Plan A Trip

Am I a vacation planning expert? No, but I do it a lot, so I've made tons of mistakes that you can learn from!

You see, it all started in Paris in 2005... I had planned that trip down to the minute.  There was no room for altering from the itinerary because it would throw off the whole thing.  Needless to say, Jason and Jade felt a little suffocated by that, so I learned something important: Plan for Spontaneity.  I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but I mean it.  Now that I'm planning another trip to Paris 10 years later, I thought it would be the perfect time to see how things have changed.

While Jason and Jade didn't like having every minute planned on our trip, you also don't want to wake up in Paris one morning, and look at each other and say, "what are we doing today?"  Also, you don't want to come home from Paris and think, "I wish we would have done X."  That, to me, is so stressful!

So, here's how I plan now, I'll take you with me on my journey to plan a romantic weekend in Paris.

Once we've decided on a location to visit and book the flights, the next thing I do is NOT book hotels, but start researching what we want to do when we're there.  That way we can pick a hotel that's in an area that we want to be in.  Since we've been to Paris already, we don't have to see all of the same sights as last time.  And since last time was with Jade and my mom, this time I'd like it to be a more romantic trip.  Also, I'm now gluten free and have food allergies I didn't have last time.  Keeping that in mind, I start googling "what to do in Paris the second time" and "romantic Paris" and "gluten free crepes in Paris" among other searches (like looking at what shows and concerts are happening there at the time) to make a list of what we want to see and do.  My list looks like this:

1. A walk through the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, for views of Paris.  There is a waterfall at Rue Manin et Rue Botzaris in the 19eme, Metro Buttes Chaumont.
2. A late afternoon walking through Montmartre and sit on the the Basilica of Sacre Coeur steps to watch the sunset (did this last time, so don't have to do it)
3. Be at the Jardins du Trocadéro at the top of the hour at night to watch the Eiffel Tower light up
4. See the De Medici Fountain at the Luxembourg Gardens
5. Breizh Cafe for Gluten free crepes 109 rue Vieille du Temple, 75003 Paris, France (Le Marais)
6. Jazz festival at Saint-Germain-des-Prés
7. Watch a tennis match at the French Open

It's still a growing list, but we'll start with this for this exercise.  Next I'll map each place to see where they are in the city so I can group neighboring items together.  Having done this, here's what I've come up with:

The day we watch the tennis match at Rolland-Garros, we should stroll to the Jardins du Trocadéro to watch the Eiffel Tower light up, then head to Set Germain des Pres for some evening jazz and dinner. Day 1.

Also, we can pick up crepes for lunch from Breizh Cafe, then head to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont to explore and picnic before going to Montmartre to watch the sunset and have dinner.  Day 2

That just leaves a visit to the Luxembourg Gardens, maybe we'll do that one day while walking around and shopping.  Day 3 = planned spontaneity (AKA Jason day)! 

Now that we've got a loose itinerary, I would start researching hotels that are centrally located to what we plan to do.  I like to use venere and tripadvisor to find hotels.  I don't have to do that for this trip since ESPN is paying for Jason's hotel.

And that's it!  Trip is planned!