2015 travel plans

[jonathan]

2015 looks like being a bit of a bumper travel year for us. Philippa turns 60 at the end of January (as Pauline well knows ), our son Nick and his fiancée (as of last weekend, officially) Philly are getting married, probably in July, and Philippa plans to run at least one half and one full marathon during the early summer.

So to celebrate The Birthday, we're taking ourselves off to Malaysia for a fortnight; flying to Singapore (1 night), Malacca (3), Langkawi (4), Georgetown (5), and a final night in Singapore. I'm hugely looking forward to the street food in Georgetown, the rainforest & sea in Langkawi, and the whole feel of being back in SE Asia, where P and I first got together (whilst studying Balinese Gamelan music, back in 1980). And there's a further connection: P's mother was born in Malacca and spent her early childhood there.

We'd like to get to Ostuni for a few days around Easter, but will plan that nearer the date. P's definitely running the Edinburgh marathon at the end of May: we're very much looking forward to getting back to a city that we last visited when Nick was a toddler (and developed mumps while we were both performing in the Fringe - awkward!). And as a training run for Edinburgh, she fancies doing the Trieste Half, at the very beginning of May. We visited there in 2006 (when she ran the full marathon) and would love to return to its wonderful mix of Austrian/Hungarian and Italian cultures.

And then to San Francisco for The Wedding! We don't know much about this yet - we'll find out more this weekend, when we fly out (on a trip that's been arranged for ages) to stay at their new flat in the Inner Sunset. It will be lovely to see them again, drink some Californian IPAs, enjoy the brilliant SF foodie scene, run in Golden Gate Park, and have a GTG with Judy & family and Letha & Oscar. (And, to prove that it's not just about the food, a trip to SF Opera with Judy & Bill) That's all for this October trip, though: quite what is happening in next July is very much open at the moment - though P & I really fancy taking a car up into wine country and beyond again. A couple of years ago, we spent a few days touring through Mendocino, Ft Bragg & Sonoma: this time we fancy taking a bit more time and heading a bit further - we'll seek advice nearer the time.

 

[artnbarb]

what a wonderful year you have coming up! the only downside I can see is that we may miss you when we're in the Cotswolds if you're in Sf for the wedding - bummer!

Our 25th anniversary is in Feb, and I've requested a trip to NYC. Because of the unpredictable weather we're thinking we'll do everything last minute. We plan to drive to DC to visit our granddaughters for the weekend, head to NYC by bus or train Mon-Fri, then return to DC for another day or 2 with the grandgirls before driving back home.

Our summer plans include a week or 2 in Umbria, followed by almost 3 weeks in England - London/Bath/Cotswolds. We haven't been to England since 2006, and I'm VERY excited!!!

Additionally we're in the very early stages of trying to start a business taking 2-4 people to Umbria. I'm not sure if anything will pan out for our trip in June, but 2+ people would allow us to visit Umbria more often - our goal isn't to make money, it's to get to Italy more often! Anyway, we're still trying to figure out how to proceed with this, but I'd love to be able to visit Italy a second time in 2015!

 

[Jan55612]

So much fun to read about the trips everyone is planning for next year. We are also having a "bumper" year of travel next year. Two new grandchildren arriving in January and February in Missoula, MT and Colorado Springs, CO, a grandson's high school graduation in MT, a family wedding in Chicago in late June, and then a three week (or so) trip to Spain in October. We have planned to be in the Priorat with several friends to take part in a wine tasting/cooking adventure, preceded by time in Madrid and perhaps a bit of time in Barcelona after the program.

 

[Pauline]

2015 looks like being a bit of a bumper travel year for us. Philippa turns 60 at the end of January (as Pauline well knows ), ...

Philippa and I were born on the same day, but she was born in England and I in Canada. I guess we aren't celebrating our birthday together this year!

 

[jonathan]

We're not actually going to Malaysia until mid-Feb (work gets in the way), so a birthday bash is definitely on the cards

 

[Pauline]

Good!

I am making our travel plan for 2015 but have too many places I want to go. So far I have:

APRIL
Italy - 1 week in Puglia, 1 week somewhere else in southern Italy. I want to visit Valerie and Bryan.
OR
Portugal - 2 weeks hiking on Maderia (I bought the hiking guide last week).

JUNE
Italy - 1 week in Umbria, 1 week at Giulia's in Le Marche.
OR
France - 1 week in Vaison-la-Romaine (Provence) and 1 week at Kevin's in St Saturnin les Apt (he has a vacation rental apartment now).

SEPTEMBER
France - 1 week Normandy or Brittany. I thought we would do this last July, but we went to Tuscany in June instead. We would take our British drive car to France on this trip!
OR
Switzerland - 2 weeks in Lenk, because we liked it so much this year, but this time without renting a car (don't really need it).

It is too tempting living in England - it is easy to do frequent short trips. But I don't want to be traveling all the time.

 

[Chris]

I have two trips planned. In March I'll spend a week in Paris (for Shannon's birthday celebration) and the following week in Nice, then two months later I'm meeting old friends in Rome and we're going to Sant'Antonio in Tuscany for two weeks.

I've always flown coach, but while the misery of my 26-hour trip home from Barcelona two days ago is fresh in my memory, I'm shopping for business class tickets for those two trips!

 

[artnbarb]

Chris, if you have any FF miles you might consider doing what we did this past summer. We have miles with USAir, and they allow you to upgrade for $300 and 30,000 miles. Of course the seats are limited, but if you book early enough it seems like a bargain to me!

 

[Kathy]

Good!

JUNE
Italy - 1 week in Umbria, 1 week at Giulia's in Le Marche.
OR
France - 1 week in Vaison-la-Romaine (Provence) and 1 week at Kevin's in St Saturnin les Apt (he has a vacation rental apartment now).

Pauline, something to keep in mind... we'll be in Bonnieux (vacation time) from May 30 to June 11. So if you're in Vaison or St. Saturnin we could do some hiking together. We would love that.

Kathy

 

[artnbarb]

Pauline, something to keep in mind... we'll be in Bonnieux (vacation time) from May 30 to June 11. So if you're in Vaison or St. Saturnin we could do some hiking together. We would love that.

Kathy

You guys are making me so jealous! I'd LOVE to see some of France, but I'm very intimidated by the language, so seeing it with Charley and Kathy is my dream!

 

[SusanSeattle]

In June of 2015, my Mom and I are spending a few days in London, a couple of nights in Paris, and then joining one of Kathy's tours of the Dordogne region. It will be our 3rd tour with them and we are really looking forward to that.

After that part of the trip, my mom will fly home and the rest of my family (husband and 2 teenagers) will join me. We'll meet in London, spend a few days in Yorkshire, and then go up to Scotland. There we'll spend a couple of days in Edinburgh, and then 4 days in a loop around western/southern Scotland. We'll fly home from Glasgow.

 

[Pauline]

@Terry posted a trip report for her September 2014 trip to Scotland. You can read it here. She went to Edinburgh and the Highlands.

Sounds like a good trip you have planned @SusanSeattle !

 

[JustTravel]

We hope to spend half of 2015 in Europe. We will still be here in Venice for most of January. Then planning to be in Paris for ten weeks, one week in Brugge, and then two weeks in London for the spring/summer and then back to Venice for fall/winter for 13 weeks starting just before halloween.

We try to stay here as long as we can each time we have to take a flight from San Francisco. The long flight gets harder as we get older.

 

[artnbarb]

Well, we've bought our airfare! I'm a big chicken when it comes to airfares, and also pretty picky about schedules, so when I saw a fare that was $25/pp lower than last year AND had the schedule I wanted, I jumped!

We're doing an open jaw flight, into Rome and out of London Heathrow. I thought the London leg would be cheaper than the Rome leg but depending on the flight it was often several hundred dollars more.

The best part of our itinerary is that we're scheduled to arrive back home at 4 in the afternoon instead of the usual 9:30 - or later, which was a big draw. The flight over is on USAir and the return on AA, but as they continue to merge I'm afraid the schedule may change, but it hard to know for sure so now all I really need to do is book our cars for both Italy and England - progress!

 

[Heidi]

I love reading about every one's coming travel adventures. If I lived in Europe, I would have to curb my wander lust... maybe... but coming from California, I only manage to get to Europe once a year. I'm not complaining, as I usually try to stay for 6 weeks to a couple of months.

For about a decade now, I've been traveling solo while my husband does his high adventure (high testosterone adrenaline, really) motorcycle tours around the world. I'm not a fan of motorcycles, and won't even travel on the back - so our paths have diverted.....He just turned 70 and can only do this for so long, as the tour companies have started requiring a doctors note to rent the motorcycles. very smart!

So this year, I will once again get to know Paris better with a 9 day stay before I'm off to Roma for a month. Jim will meet me in Roma for 5 days before he starts his Intriguing Southeast Europe Ride through Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania & Kosovo. We have traveled through Macedonia, by car, many years ago and he has been in and out of Albania several times, but never on a motorcycle.

We will meet in Dubrovnik on June 11th and stay for 8 nights to decompress. We've rented our favorite room at Villa Adriatica again, with the gorgeous terrace on the harbor.....We love that place and haven't been there together for years. Jim flies home through Roma and I go on for at least a week in London to visit a friend.

I have my apartments booked but not my flights. I'll do that in the next few days. Like artnbarb, I'll fly open jaw but into Paris and out of London's Heathrow. Can't wait! Love the planning & anticipation

 

[Kathy]

Like Heidi, I really enjoy reading about everyone's travel plans for this year. I realized that I hadn't posted my own!

We've only been back in the USA for 2-1/2 weeks after being away for much of the month of December. We stayed most of the time in our apartment in Bonnieux, including Christmas, which we love in Provence. But we also made a six day trip down to Morocco (Marrakech, the Atlas Mountains, and Essaouira)... this was an amazing experience and less than 3 hours from Marseille by direct flight. We're definitely going to go back.

In 2015 we're going over to Europe several times.... mostly France this year. We have four groups in Provence and then will stay on for 11 days just to relax, so over six weeks at our place, end of April to mid June. We'll fly back to the USA for our daughter's college graduation in mid-June and then fly back to France 10 days later to prepare for three groups in the Dordogne. From there we'll go to Alsace for three weeks to develop a new trip. We'll stay in hotels for the first week and then have a rental house in a village near Kaysersberg for two weeks. We'll probably spend a few days in London before flying home in mid August.

We're planning to go back to Provence at the end of the year, hopefully for most of December again and maybe into January. The last two years we've taken a week of private French lessons (3+ hours a day) in early December, and we hope to continue that again in December 2015.

We'll also do some travel in the USA this year: a long weekend in New York City in less than two weeks, a couple of trips in Asheville NC (two hours from us), and the big graduation weekend in Chicago. Chicago has been a great place to have a daughter in college... it's really a great city.

Meanwhile I'm working now on plans for 2016...

 

[Heidi]

Kathy, reading your travel plans and web pages, sounds like you are living a dream! What an ideal life style you have chosen. Your Bonnieux apartment and travel tours sound exactly like something my friends may be looking for. They are just planning - a little late? - for a month in France. I'll pass your information along.

 

[Pauline]

The Alsace seems like a perfect area for you to do tours. It combines your love of France and Austria/Germany! We have not traveled to that area, but it seems very interesting.

I have got to get planning and booking our trips for this year! I work on it a bit and then get distracted.

Heidi, your trip sounds great. And your husband's trips sound very interesting!!

 

[Pauline]

I have our April trip to Puglia and Basilicata booked!

Now I am working on two weeks hiking in Switzerland in late June/early July. This replaces the May trip and it will be nice to be in the UK for May because we weren't last year.

There is so much work to planning a trip! Today I am looking at trains in Switzerland from Zurich, Basel and Geneva (the 3 places we can fly to from Heathrow) and comparing the cost of the train to Lenk with the cost of renting a car. I have not even picked a vacation rental yet!!

 

[Doug Phillips]

Not as ambitious as some reports here - two trips planned.

1. March - 10 days in Texas. (I am a Canadian - Texas is very foreign to me in many ways). My sister lives in Texas & is relocating to another state in June - so this is our last best chance for a return visit to Texas (first time was 4 years ago). Five family members, including our newest grandchild (see profile pic) are going. I gotta get to the LBJ Ranch & my daughter just has to get to a Spurs NBA game in San Antonio. Otherwise, no definite plans, as yet. We have our return flights booked, Ottawa-Austin & car booked at the airport.

2. September-October - 17 days in Italy - 2 weeks on Sardinia & 3 days in Rome on the way back. Going with another couple. Flights & car rental booked - working on accommodations on Sardinia & hotel in Rome.