With this blog, my intent is to focus on travel-planning - or, more broadly, how to travel. This might seem odd to you. After all, there sure seem to be lots of sites, blogs, and newsletters already out there - focused 100% on travel. But, despite all of those resources, it sure does seem like a lot of people find the task of planning a trip or vacation just a little overwhelming. I've spoken with dozens of people regarding their feelings about travel-planning. What I hear is a lot of frustration:

  • It's time-consuming.
  • It's hard to know who you can trust.
  • It's hard to feel truly prepared.

So, what's a person to do? Just as with anything in life that seems to be a little beyond you, you find someone knowledgeable and follow their advice. Yup, I'm gonna' nominate myself here.

I like to travel. And I've been told that I have some degree of talent when it comes to travel-planning. I'm a pretty-good writer. And I'm a web/software developer by trade, so I "get" the web. Mind you, I'm not a professional. And there are lots and lots of people in the world who are more well-traveled and adventurous than I. But, those people don't seem to be doing a lot of explaining about just how exactly they plan their fantabulous globe-trotting jaunts. So, I figure I will, even if my jaunts are simply neat, and not quite fantabulous.

On this blog, I plan on discussing how you can use the web to do some do-it-yourself travel-planning. This includes deciding what attractions to hit, choosing and booking hotels, selecting restaurants, understanding transportation options, and outlining an itinerary - while keeping in mind that money doesn't grow on trees.

Let's see how successful I am.

So, what would you hope to get out of a travel-planning blog? What frustrates you about travel-planning? Let me know in the comments.