Holiday planning: stress and satisfaction guaranteed!

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time planning our upcoming trip to England. The initial idea was taking the ferry over and driving along the South coast, no fuss, no hassle, just seeing what happens. I bought the Great Britain version of the Eyewitness travel guides to see which places were definitely worth a visit because besides annual trips to London, Canterbury and some place I can’t remember were my relatives live, my knowledge of the UK landscape is minimal at best. Yet I’ve always wanted to drive or should I say be driven (still haven’t got a driver’s license) through the beautiful countryside, visit quaint villages, enjoy the local cuisine (don’t mock it until you’ve tried it) and shop till I drop. For some inexplicable reason England is the only holiday destination where my luggage has usually doubled in size by the end of the trip. The UK is also one of the few places outside of Belgium that can guarantee me a sunburn free summer, so what more could I ask for?


I started making a provisional route along all the places I (I mean we) wanted to see depending on how much we can cram into ten days. It looks something like this: Rye, Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters, Brighton, Winchester, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bournemouth, Cerne Abas, Dorchester, Chesil Beach, Farringdon (granddad’s birthplace), Torquay, Fowey, Eden Project, Penzance, St. Ives, Tintagel, Dartmoor National Park, Glastonbury, Cheddar Gorge, Bath, Bristol, Vale of the White Horse, Blenheim Palace, Oxford, Windsor, London, Leeds Castle and Canterbury for a quick trip to Sainsbury’s before we head home. Sounds relaxing, right? If you hadn’t guessed already, I’m not exactly the “sit on a beach and do nothing” type or not for more than two hours at least.


I also bought the AA Guide with over 3000 bed & breakfasts so we’d be sure to find somewhere to shower, shave and sleep. On our spontaneous voyage to France last year, finding a vacant chambre d’hôtes turned out to be quite a challenge so this year, I’m prepared or so I thought.


It all started with the ferry which turned out to be cheaper when booked in advance and we wouldn’t have to wait a couple of hours to board so we decided to set the dates of our arrival and return. Between the 9th and 18th of August we’d still be free to come and go as we pleased. I divided our route in ten almost equal pieces and started looking for decent B&B’s (meaning I need an ensuite) at our estimated location, just to see what was out there. I then encountered several very cute spots and we decided that maybe we should already book a few, no harm in that plus less worry along the way but as fate would have it, they were all fully booked making us very nervous indeed. I started contacting all the B&B’s in the region that were within our budget and still no luck, resulting in a slight panic. Needless to say, 12 hours and 68 emails later (thank you bookdirectrooms.com) we now have en route accommodation for each night. Bye bye spontaneity, hello tight schedule. I can hardly wait!