I revealed in part two of the hotel-booking posts that I had eliminated Milan from our itinerary. Today, I want to explain why I made that change in order to highlight why flexibility is important to ensuring that you get the best experience from your valuable travel time.
Read MoreIn the previous installments in this series, I wrote about having a blank slate for this year’s journey and selecting our transatlantic flights. I then discussed how I decided where we would actually go once we arrived in Europe. Today’s article is the first of two which will cover booking our initial hotel stays. I will describe my general strategy for making lodging reservations, along with the short-list of properties that I am considering and why they made the list. I will use Milan, Italy for this detailed discussion though I employed this approach for all bookings for this trip.
Read MoreThis is the time of year as I plan travels in the coming months that my thoughts turn toward Europe and strolls along the Seine or dining at a sidewalk café in a charming Italian town. Thanks to points and miles (and a good day job!), my wife and I have been blessed to take an annual trip to Europe, something we plan to continue in 2019. Today’s installment in my series about planning this trip focuses on where we should go once in Europe.
Read MoreThis is the time of year, when it’s cold and gray, that my thoughts turn toward Europe and warm strolls along the Seine or dining at a sidewalk café in a charming Italian town. Thanks to points and miles, my wife and I have been blessed to take an annual trip to Europe, something we plan to continue in 2019. I have written previously about my approach to travel planning, but this year’s trip is different in a few ways which makes the planning process different as well. However, the first step was booking our transatlantic flights.
Read MoreThe name Rick Steves can elicit a mixed response in the travel world. Some love him, with his devoted followers called “Rickniks,” while others are not quite as smitten. Me, I am somewhere in the middle. and I lean toward liking Rick far more often than not. Today, I will discuss how his variety of media content has greatly aided my European travel experience.
Read MoreI have begun planning my family's summer trip to France and Norway. While my wife and I have visited Europe annually since we met, this year we are taking her oldest son for his first visit. Our vacation was originally conceived as primarily a Scandinavian adventure. However, as I dove into the planning process, our general itinerary evolved. Because I want to writing more about maximizing travel experience, I wanted to address this morphing of our trip’s initial concept as the result of honestly assessing a trip plan that risks a shallow experience by trying to do too much.
Read MoreLast week, I debuted the new look of Debrian Travels and discussed why I would say I am not relaunching the blog but rather tightening its brand. Part of that process was defining my Hedgehog Concept, a framework developed by renowned business author Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. While the business analysis of my blog does not fall within the branding I outlined in my previous post, I think a deeper dive into that thought process could be useful to better understand the focus I will have with the updated Debrian Travels. An ancillary benefit is that it can serve as an example for other small businesses or bloggers.
Read MoreFor a recent trip to Europe, I took advantage of award tickets using American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Before I could actually identify and book flights, I had to do some research and preparation.
Read MoreHaving book my flights to get to and from Europe, I next needed to build the itinerary for the Deutschland Adventure!
Read MoreI never expected to return to Europe so soon after my first visit last year, but I am headed to Germany this summer!
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