Meinhilde’s Travel Plans for 2015

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Tomiko and I get anxious if we have vacation time with no travelling. Some families camp. Others go skiing. Some go to the cottage or just hang around the house. Our family’s thing was travel, especially when we lived in Saudi Arabia. Our parents met in Thailand, lived in Canada for a while, and then moved to Saudi Arabia for adventure. Every holiday we had from school, we would plan a trip somewhere. Oh, a four day weekend? Let’s go to Istanbul! Eid holidays? How about Sri Lanka?

We would always travel on a budget – we preferred the number of trips over quality of the hotel. Our family is now immune to bad hotels – a 3-star is now exceedingly fancy and decadent for us. We tolerated bed bugs in Cairo, cockroaches in the bed in Bangkok, stayed in a brothel in Nairobi, and a primitive campsite in the Kenyan wilderness where our breakfast was cooked over an open fire and there was only one chair for the whole family to share, so now even Motel 6 is charming and comfortable. As long as the place has running water and no cockroaches in the bed, we are golden.

Now that we live in Canada again, flights to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East are expensive. So we generally stick around North America (for now…). Thankfully I get a generous amount of vacation days from work, so I make good use of them. Here are my travel plans (so far), for 2015:

1. New York City in April

Our aunt lives in Manhattan and we are so grateful for it! Since coming to Canada, we have generally visited her in NYC twice a year during long weekends. It’s always a great stay, and not just because it’s always a little warmer there … I stand out as a Canadian tourist, walking around in a t-shirt, while the locals are still bundled up in jackets and scarves! Even though it’s NYC, this trip will be affordable to me because I will be staying with my aunt. She has a kitchen, so that already eliminates 1-2 meals bought per day. Other than a few subway trips, I plan on walking everywhere.

 

2. Utah in May

My parents and I went to Utah in October 2014 and we loved it. We spent almost 10 days hiking through Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. After living in the Middle East for so long, we are automatically drawn to the desert. In May, we are planning to return to Utah, this time flying into Salt Lake City, then going to the Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. Other than the flight, this trip will be rather low-cost since we will be staying in a campervan/RV so accommodations are taken care of, gas is cheap, and we will be making our own meals. And there is nothing to buy when you’re hiking in the wilderness all day!

 

3. Montreal in June

Montreal is just a 5-6 hour drive from Toronto, and my dad and I have been making the trip for the past few years to go to the Formula 1 Grand Prix! We spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the races, and then spend the evenings wandering around Montreal itself. There is no flight, so the cost of this trip is mostly in the Formula 1 race tickets, for which I budget every year. If we are a larger group with Tomiko, Donatello, Karlos, Ryan and his dad, we share hotel rooms.

 

4. Maine in September

Inspired by hiking in Utah, we now want to try hiking closer to home. We will probably drive down, and hopefully go to Acadia National Park. This will be an even cheaper trip than Utah, because there is no flight! We will be driving, staying in motels (or even just camping out of our minivan), and spending our days hiking. (photos from here and here)

 

5. New Orleans in October

Inspired by New Orleans jazz at Grossman’s Tavern here in Toronto, our family is planning our first all-family trip since we went to Costa Rica in 2006. After moving to Canada, flights were more expensive and my siblings and I started working, we didn’t have as much vacation time. So this will be a wonderful ‘reunion.’ It’s a good thing we all get along very well! This time, we are planning on taking Donatello and Ryan with us. I hope we don’t scare them with our antics! (photos from here and here)