Five Bad Ideas for Your Summer Vacation

 

 

Who wants to enjoy a great summer? 

"Not me!"

If that's you're answer, here are five ways to ensure the traditional vacation season passes you by uneventfully, or worse.

Sea Lion in Scotland

1. Procrastinate:  This old favorite has done more to make time pass at a mind-numbing crawl than any other technique.  Failing to plan is almost as good as planning to fail. 

Undoubtedly you've seen some last minute deals on cruises pop onto your radar for non-holiday weeks in winter and assume if you wait, those bargains will always be there when you need them in summer, when demand peaks and most ships and preferred flight schedules have filled early.  Wrong.



Carnival Victory Pool

 

2. Choose a Terrible Air Itinerary:  Just staying home is never your worst choice.  While it may sound glamorous to live that jet setting life, if you spend enough time in airports and on flights, you can find total disdain for travel, not to mention spend a lot of vacation dollars for marginal food and overpriced drinks in awkward seats.
 



Sunset in Redondo Beach, California

3. Ignore Inexpensive Vacation Opportunities Close to Home:  When our kids were small, we often drove fifty miles to La Jolla Indian Reservation to camp.  I think it cost about $15 per night for each space, and we'd meet my inlaws by the narrow creek that had decent rapids in the late spring.  We brought along an assortment of innertubes with names like Ski Biscuit and River Rat, which we had gradually accumulated over time at Big Five sales, plus some tri-tip steaks, eggs, potatoes, marshmallows and assorted other grocery items.  We never thought we lacked anything to enjoy a terrific mini-vacation, although perhaps the joy I took singing and strumming my guitar by the fire diminished the joys of listening to the river for the others.  When we all sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" together, however, that was musical alchemy. 

Julie and Wes At La Jolla Indian Reservation A Long Ago

I frequently came home with a bruised back from hitting jagged rocks on the river bottom when I had a child sitting on my stomach, and once 7 year-old Jay had the living daylights scared out of him when he lost his innertube going down a waterfall and discovered the water at the base was surprisingly deep, but we always enjoyed great times there or on the rare trips up to the wider and deeper Kern River.  Eventually Julie said she was done sleeping on the ground, but we enjoyed many great camping trips before that.

In any case, if you don't want to have a good summer, definitely avoid mini-vacations at inexpensive destinations close to home like National Parks, beaches and camp grounds.



Caribbean Princess at Princess Cays

4. Don't take a cruise.  Cruises have the highest guest satisfaction level of any vacation, so the worst possible way to have a terrible vacation would be to take a cruise.  Whether you choose a jaw-dropping Royal Caribbean mega-ship, a smaller upscale experience with Azamara Club Cruises or a river cruise on a small Uniworld ship, you would enjoy a wonderful vacation and terrific value.


"Ah," you think, "I can have a terrible vacation by simply choosing the wrong cruise for myself.  Maybe Carnival, which I've heard isn't very good."  If you don't like the party scene or kids bug you, then Carnival may not be ideal for you, but I dare say regardless of your intentions, you would end up having fun.  Carnival believes in its product so strongly that they guarantee you'll have fun on your cruise.  Your best chance for a bad cruise would be to book without a travel agent, but even on the totally wrong cruise you probably couldn't escape enjoying most of it.

5. Vacation in Baltimore:  Enough said.

However, perhaps you would rather go on a great vacation as the highlight of an amazing summer.  In that case, visit www.CruisePlanners1.com.