Planning for overseas?

I don't know what happens in your house when you plan for a trip. In my house it used to be chaos!

So many options to consider.

Do you travel within Australia, do you travel overseas? Do you use the car, hire a camper van, travel by train or bus or plane? Do you stay in Youth Hostels, Hotels, Motels, B&Bs, or do you just give up on all of this and pack a tent?

Do you plan your own itinerary or do you let some travel agent plan it for you? Do you take a tour with some company or other doing the planning for you and if so which one and why?

Whatever you decide be assured that the person or people you are travelling with will have their versions of reality and will insist that they are right and you are wrong. It's inevitable so be prepared.

My 'solution' to this testing time is to use the matrix management model of trip planning.

This is where you can do the comparative analysis of each of the options in a spreadsheet like mode comparing costs, comforts, timeliness, the pros and cons of what you can see and do within each option showing the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

The beauty of this mode of planning is that it literally forces each proponent of one or more versions of reality to undertake his or her own research and come back with the facts which are then fed into the model. The more ideas someone has the more work they have to do.

Wonderful isn't it?

THEY do the work while you sit back and help to direct the development of the matrix.

When it is finalised the choices become remarkably clear and easy to make. What is perhaps more important, most people are so exhausted by the efforts they have made in the process of obtaining the data that they are willing to compromise on virtually anything so that the process can come to and end at last.

Try this notion the next time you have to plan a trip with family or friends. You will never look back and do it another way again!