Travel Tuesday: It is Only A dream Trip, if you Limit Yourself to Dreaming About it

 

This most recent adventure was a dream trip for me.  The transAtlantic cruise is something I have dreamed about doing for years. When I was a teenager my grandmother and great grandmother would tell stories about their three crossings back in the days of steam and the Titanic.  And there were always reasons why I couldn't do it. The reasons were excuses. And excuses are like assholes, all of us have one, and most of them stink.  I finally moved this from a dream to reality. 

Most of you, could, if you wanted to, do what we have done.  There was a lady with no arms on the ship, if she can do it, we can all do it.  

So what did it cost?  

Air to Miami $12.50 plus frequent flyer miles

Hotel in Miami $400 

Cruise $3,500 including medical coverage for the two of us at sea. 

On the ship extras $725 (included the best haircut I have had in years.) 

Hotel in Barcelona $500

Train to Caracasone $150 

Hotel in Carcassonne  $450 

Train to Nimes $80

Rental car and fuel for 11 days with $0 liability $975

Hotel in Arles $250

Gite $450 for 7 nights

Hotel in Nimes including breakfast $500

Train to Paris $160 

Hotel at CDG $200 

Food about $1,200 we ate whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, we would have spent nearly this much on groceries and eating out if we had stayed home. 

Air for return flights $450 plus frequent flyer miles.

Travel Health Insurance for me $114 (My health insurance does not cover out of the country.) 

I probably spent another $150 on parking, admissions, and souvenirs.  

So round it up to $10,000. 

That is a lot of money, but if you really wanted to do it, would it be impossible for you to do? 

I selected and booked all of the hotels, saving a little.  I booked the cabin with the balcony that I wanted, I could have saved $1,500 by booking an inside cabin. I booked the train tickets in advance and used the senior discount. We selected restaurants based on what we wanted to eat, not really on price (once or twice I passed on someplace that I thought was overpriced.) I could have spent less on the rental car, I place comfort and quality over cost on that - and I always add all of the insurance when I am renting a car outside of my home country.  Bottom line, I could have spent a little less, I could have spent a lot more.  But we did what we wanted to do.  We lived our dream.  

We did it, because we wanted the trip to be a reality, and not a dream.  It is only a dream trip, if you limit yourself to dreaming about it.  Most of us limit trips to dreams, out of fear.  Fear of traveling for a month.  Fear of being in a place where you are not fluent in the language.  Fear of spending the money (remember you can't take it with you, what we spent on this trip would pay for a month of nursing home care that I would sooner die than endure - your heirs will be fine without the extra money.) Fear of getting lost in a foreign country. Fear of the unknown. 

If you have a dream trip, make it a real trip.  Get over the excuses, get over the fears, make the plans and just go do it.