January 10, 2023

[lizzybuffy2008]

10 – Shop for Travel Day: First celebrated in 2018, Shop for Travel Day has continued annually on the second Tuesday of the year ever since. The reason for it being situated at this time on the calendar has to do with the fact that, in many cases, the early weeks of January are an especially advantageous time to shop for travel due to many companies offering special deals and discounts. When was the last time you travelled within your own country? How about outside of your own country? If money (and time) were no object, where would you love to travel to?

We travel a decent amount within our region: We have season tickets to a Broadway series in an historic theater about 100 miles away and our hair people are in a neighboring state about 60 miles away (so every 6 weeks.) We also go to DC for a long weekend every year for a doctor's appointment and to see my brother in-law (that may be ending, since my doctor has changed practices.) We usually also try to fit in a longer weekend/week to go somewhere else; in 2022, that was Miami.

We also (not counting COVID years 2020-2021,) we usually go to Europe for 10 days to two weeks. Last year it was Italy. We have not quite decided on this year yet and for 2024, I am considering a food tour in Morocco.

Comments

[kazzy_cee]

For us here in the UK that sounds like a ridiculously long way to travel to get to things LOL! Everything here is on our doorstep :)

[lizzybuffy2008]

Well, the hair thing is our choice. Prior to COVID, it was a great excuse to go to a town that has better grocery stores and restaurants, so we would go shopping before hair and have lunch after. Since COVID, there are not as many lunch choices, but it is starting to get better.

For the theater; that is the closest with national touring companies of shows that also have weekend performances. A theater attached to our local university just opened and they are going to host shows, but we are such a small area (population 65000 in our city) all of the shows are on Tuesday or Wednesday and that just does not work for us.

[kazzy_cee]

I always forget that we are so close to London so we're really lucky to have everything on our doorstep! The population of my area is around 90,000 (but we're part of a London borough which is has a population of around 333,000) so everything really cool is only a 30 minute journey on the train (London theatres/restaurants etc are doing OK post Covid).

[lizzybuffy2008]

I do sometimes really miss living in a big city, but we have become accustomed to the lack of traffic and the quiet. The city we go to for hair (Asheville, NC) was pretty lucky and did not loose all that many restaurants due to COVID. What did happen and continues to be an issue (causing the lack of lunch) is that places cannot find enough people to fill shifts, so most places are now only open for dinner, at least on Friday (which is when we go.)

[brunettepet]

A Moroccan food tour sounds fantastic.

[lizzybuffy2008]

I thought so and even though we are not tour people, I thought Morocco might be easier to do with a tour. It is just pretty pricey, so I am trying to justify that and also figure out how we would get there.