My Ideal Yatra

Every year, I start by planning the ideal holiday. It usually involves perusing a number of travel blogs, visiting a number of travel booking sites, doing tons of currency conversions.

All of this is then followed by tons of wishful thinking. Maybe we will get upgraded to business or first class, maybe I will win a couple of tickets (btw, this actually happened once when we won a holiday to Sri Lanka)!

For research purposes, I always love to use Yatra to research on flight prices and routes. In fact, our Bangalore to Dubai Flights and Bangalore to Singapore Flights for our last two international trips were both worked out through Yatra only, and I was very happy with the rates and the service.

Anyway, back to my ideal yatra. In the beginning of this year, I started off grandly planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand for Christmas (the only time in the year that we all can take off as a family). What I hadn’t taken into account though was that the rates were low, because I was planning almost a year in advance. But now as the dates creep closer, the rates go higher and higher (because of course Christmas week is peak travel week).

So, now I set my sights a little lower and think Maldives. I could probably work that out. The kids love beach holidays and beautiful images from the web tempt me so much.

Image credits: Lux resorts

But then K tells me if I keep splurging on vacations every year, then I won’t be able to save up for our dream Australia / New Zealand holiday. He’s so right 🙁 .

I really need to get my priorities straight and my wish list in order instead of just blindly going for whatever looks cheapest and most affordable. I still can’t decide though. Is it better to stay put for a couple of years and save up for that dream vacation, or is it better to acknowledge that the dream may be a bit too out of reach, and instead tackle other less expensive options closer by?

Maybe I should just put Maldives also out of my head, and instead visit Chennai for our annual holiday. Or maybe, it might be possible to squeeze in Goa or Kerala on a budget? Thus, the search goes on endlessly even though I know in my heart that I cannot visit any place during Christmas time on any kind of budget.

I then put across my dilemma to Snubnose who is far wiser than me in so many ways. I rambled on and on, until she stopped me and said,

We should just do Chennai for the moment.

Her rationale was if planning a trip was this much trouble, and involved this much back and forth and fretting, it’s just not worth the effort. Hold your horses and just wait for next year.

Oh my dear Snubnose. Do you actually have to be this wise?

Anyway for the moment, I am taking her advise and not planning on any travel this year. That said, I am still hoping that some mind-blowing offer comes up, or maybe we get some sudden unexpected cash (yeah, right!), that would be great. We could then travel someplace without having to break into our Australia / New Zealand travel savings plan.

So, do share. How do you plan your travels? Do you look at pricing first, or place first? And how do you save on travel costs and bookings? Do share, I’d love to know. And what is your absolute dream destination?