How to Stress While Planning a Vacation

After our wedding last year, Kurt and I decided to save up for a vacation this Spring. Meant to be a sort of a splurge before buying a house and starting a family, we wanted to go somewhere we’d never been before. I was pushing for Europe or San Francisco, Kurt wanted an all-inclusive in the Caribbean. Since our “splurge” is much less a splurge than a “we need to find the best deal we can possibly find” and because flights are so expensive, the all-inclusive won out.

We searched deal sites for months looking for not only the best deal, but the best resort for the money. A few times we almost booked a vacation at a couple of resorts, only to find upon doing further research that these resorts were rated very poorly by previous travelers.

Is it weird that I was extremely stressed while researching this vacation? I cannot tell you the stress I felt trying to find a good all-inclusive vacation. I found it much more stressful than planning a trip to Europe or California, and here’s why:

So many options

Do we go to Jamaica? Mexico? Dominican Republic? Antigua? Bahamas? I was getting so fed up with the amount of options I almost closed my eyes and pointed to a resort, just to get it over with.

“Don’t Leave the Resort”

Many of the resorts (ok, many of the cheap resorts) were in countries where it is recommended you do not go and travel on your own. I’m not a big fan of being told not to do something. I’m especially not a fan of being told the area in which we’ll be staying for 5 nights is dangerous. But this was the main source of my stress: if the resort is dirty, or the beach is awful, or the food is terrible and we cannot leave the resort, that makes for a very unpleasant vacation. When planning other types of vacations, hotels don’t really matter (at least to me). I’ve stayed in hostels in amazing cities and had wonderful vacations, because in those instances, you’re in the hotel to sleep, and that’s it. If your hotel is terrible, oh well. It doesn’t mean the end of your vacation.

I have control issues

The all-inclusive vacation has never really appealed to me. I see why it would to others and I’m sure I’ll be raving about its perks when we come back, but I’d rather have the freedom to explore the island. I want the freedom to choose where I eat each night and what I do during the day. The resort really has all the control.

I’m an all-inclusive virgin

While I love the adrenaline rush of discovering something new, I’m a creature of habit at heart. I like knowing what to expect. This type of vacationing is new to me. I’ve traveled in Europe and in the US, so if we went to one of those places, I know what to expect, more or less. I have absolutely no idea what to expect with this vacation. I know, I know. I’m stressed while planning a vacation.  What a problem to have, right?

Putting all your eggs in one basket

When you book a vacation, your money goes to the flight and hotel upfront, that’s it. Each day of your vacation, you decide where to spend your money, which restaurants to eat in, which activities to do, etc. With an all-inclusive resort, all your money for your entire vacation is taken away up front. While I know it’ll be great not to have to think about money for the entirety of the trip, the process of booking becomes all the more stressful. The idea of "You better know what you’re getting into, because we’re about to take ALL your money" really freaks me out. I spent about 20 minutes with the “buy now” screen open on my computer. Should I really do it? Are we ready? Are we sure? Yes, Kurt assured me. We were ready and sure. DO IT. I clicked the button, and immediately felt buyer’s remorse. What if it’s terrible? Did we do the right thing? Should I have bought vacation insurance? Are the flights REALLY included in the price? (I checked about six times to make sure they were).

Luckily, we found a resort that put my concerns to rest. We’re going to Antigua which doesn’t really have a “don’t leave the resort” disclaimer and because we have the freedom to leave if we want to, I feel less trapped. The resort got great reviews on all the travel sites I checked (and believe me, I checked A LOT of them) and most importantly, the beach got spectacular reviews. Now that the hard part is over, I’m looking forward to spending 6 days laying on the beach, snorkeling, and touring a new locale. We’re going in mid-April and at this point, mid-April can’t get here soon enough. It’s amazing how quickly stress dissipates once there’s nothing you can do to change your mind.

So, as a nod to our vacation-t0-be, here's a stress-relieving photo of a beach in Antigua to start your day.