The INSANE Planning Process

There is ALOT the went into planning this dream. I decided last summer that for summer 2019 that I was going to Europe. I had no idea on how to do this beside the basics. Book flights, get currency, add new clothes and such…you know the typical. Well I can say that to go for 29 days, it took a year of planning. YUP, that’s right I said a year. My steps were literally all over the place in planning this dream vacation. I first had to decide on budget. I knew I wanted to not have to worry about anything and I certainly was determined on not owing a penny on any of it. So what was the budget I came up with? Well it was $15,000. You might have just spit out whatever you were drinking but let me break it down for you. I took $15,000 and divided it by 365 and it worked out to just over $41 a day for a full year. Since the majority of this trip is on a tour, that was a large chunk right there, $3,675 to be exact. What tour company is this you might ask? It’s Contiki. Contiki is a great company from everything that I know. A little bit of history about this company is, its been around since the 1960’s. It caters to the 18-35 demographic. It allows you to see the world on a reasonable budget. Who doesn’t want the affordability to travel? Best thing is that they do have an affiliate that handles the next demographic after this one. Take a look on the website after you’re finished here with me. 🙂 Add in flights of course… As I’m from Canada, I have to fly across this beautiful globe to even begin this trip. For all of my flights, it was about $1,750. I didn’t book these all at the same time. I did it in rounds as soon as I knew there were seat sales then I had it booked. Keep in mind there is a couple of flights that are on a European airlines. Of course in order to document this experience, I bought a pretty Apple MacBook Air. Her name is Rosie and I love her. Don’t laugh now. I knew I wanted an Apple laptop, only bad thing, is Apple products never go on sale. These was a hefty $1,870. I can only describe what I’ll see so well, you’re going to need to see what I’m seeing. That’s where this fantastic Nikon D3500 comes in. This camera I tell you, was well worth the purchase. I got it as a bundled deal which was fabulous. My bundled included two lenses and the camera My Nikon came to roughly $600. I don’t know a lot about it, but I’ll figure it out as I go. I definitely wanted to purchase some new merchandise for my solo adventures and such. I kept my spending somewhat light on that department. I’m excited to wear these. Typical woman yes I know. The crazy thing about planning this trip was not knowing how the exchange rate worked for England and the rest of Europe. With that being said, I certainly did not buy all of my currency at the same. My advise is to buy in doses. To sum it up, I’ve spent under $12,000. Believe me reading that number and saying it out loud, I’m pretty much saying what the bleep!! Haha. Honestly, if you’re looking at planning a trip, best thing I can say is book whatever part it is and pay it off and repeat that process. You will love the feeling of being debt free even before you leave.