As I get ready to depart for my next adventure on Friday, I thought it might be interesting to write a bit about how an adventure comes about.

Building an Itinerary

Back towards the end of 2023, I knew that I would have some free time this summer as my current contract was ending.  Focusing on Europe, I started a list of potential events to coordinate travel with.

First, I entered the lottery for tickets to the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany.  I had attended the World Cup in 2006 in Germany and have great memories of how well it was run and how much fun it was.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t successful in the lottery, so on to the next idea.

Since LA 1984, I’ve been fascinated with the Olympics and have always dreamed of attending one.  Paris is a city I’m familiar and comfortable with, has great public transportation, and is easy to fly to from Miami.  In November 2023, I started looking at that first week to see which events I may be able to fit into a week’s schedule (and which had ticket availability).  As I learned from going to the French Open in 2019, France is very against ticket touting, so even on resale I’d be able to pay face value or close to it.

By the end of November, I’d pulled together enough events to make the trip worthwhile.  As I was buying event tickets, I was looking at hotels to make sure that the cost wouldn’t be too outrageous.  Thankfully, I was able to find what looks like a good hotel right in Paris for less per night than you would pay in many American cities.  Booked.

Adding to the Adventure

F1 is never far from my travel plans, and I picked the first week of the Olympics knowing that the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa Francorchamps was happening the opening weekend.  Spa is a legendary circuit in the middle of the Ardennes Forest known for its hill climb, Radillon/Eau Rouge.  Spa is also known for wildly unpredictable weather – and being in the middle of a forest, camping is the only accommodation option.  With that in mind, I decided to buy only a ticket for Sunday race day and take a shuttle bus from Brussels.

With time to travel this summer, I began looking for other plans I could combine with the Olympics.  I’ve combined cruises with land tours of Europe before – it’s nice after a couple weeks of dragging a large backpack around to be able to park it in one place for a week or so.  Luckily, there was a reasonably priced cruise of the Aegean out of Athens which would include stops in Turkey, long a destination I’ve wanted to visit.  Booked.

For the week in between the end of my time in Paris and the start of the cruise in Athens, I decided to return to my favorite country in Europe, Switzerland.  I’ve never been to the Lake Geneva area, so I found a direct train from Paris to Lausanne and booked a few days in the French region of the country.

With itinerary finalized, it was time to find my flights over and back.  My friend jokes that I have an “endless well of miles”, so I was hoping to be able to cash some in for this usually expensive part of the trip (btw – highly recommend thepointsguy.com website – part of how I fill this endless well).  Surprisingly, I was able to find flights on Air France for a very reasonable price of miles.  The flight over even includes the train ride to Brussels once I land in CDG.  Picked up an internal flight on Swissair from Zurich to Athens to complete the transport part of this adventure.

Preparing for a Month Away

Being a project manager, I love using Excel and keep a pretty detailed accounting of costs paid and to be paid.  I also use it to plan for packing, since I don’t want to carry three weeks of clothes on my back.  By strategically scheduling laundry breaks in the plan, I can usually keep it to 7-10 days worth of clothes:

I have a packing list which I love to use – found this pad at the Container Store years ago and have used on every trip, short and long:

Naturally, a longer trip requires additional planning, so I keep a OneNote checklist for things such as holding mail delivery, making sure garbage is taken out and moving furniture in from the patio (this being Florida in the summer).

For me, the planning is part of the fun – and the real fun is about to begin.  Can’t wait.