Plan Your 2017 Theme Vacation Now

The 2017 Montreux Jazz Festival Switzerland in July, is a good example of a dual theme holiday, which is checking out Lake Geneva and also soaking up all that jazz.

Taking a theme vacation will make you a happy tourist because you will not be found dragging your feet in strange cities upsetting people who were born and raised there.

There is nothing painful like seeing bored tourists. Join millions of people who use their passion as the springboard for vacations.

Your honeymoon was a theme vacation.

Two people gave it a lot of thought and answered the five questions that are the pillars of journalism. Who What Why Where When.

Choosing Themes

The theme will be decided by your hobby or things you have always wondered about. For example, if you are a journalist, you will like to know what happens to members of the original Vienna Boys Choir when they retire (this choir is now found in other countries).

If you love music, you might want to go to West Africa to see how drums are made and used with electronic instruments. You might also consider the following.

• Going to the south of France on 14 December for the Corconne Olive Festival if you love olive oil and everything related to it, or going to Sonoma California to watch an olive oil harvest

• Going to West Bengal to see how women grow and package Darjeeling, your favourite tea

• Going to Johannesburg for gospel music, the biggest selling genre in South Africa

• Going to Atlanta to see slave quarters you saw in Tyler Perry’s film Madea’s Family Reunion

• Taking a bus trip from Winnipeg to British Columbia to discover majestic Canada

• Going to Austria to catch chamber music at the Vienna State Opera

• Going to Tuscany, Italy to experience traditional ways of making pasta

• Going to Trinidad and Tobago months before the carnival to see how they make costumes and tune steel pans

• Going to Chicago for vintage cars’ exhibitions and a wish to spot Oprah Winfrey window shopping

Vacation Partners

• Vacation is taking a break from the same house, job, city smog, bumper to bumper traffic and the same food.
• Vacation is supposed to be fun so you don’t have to take your husband or wife along if you cannot stand each other. You will fight at the check-in desk and upset airline staff and people behind you. It is better to go on holiday with people who have the same passion.
• If your theme is British pubs, take along someone who loves seeing barmen ‘pull that pint’, old furniture, pub food and people playing darts. Taking someone who will wait at the hotel with a long face defeats the whole exercise of taking a break from your usual life at home.
• If the theme is a walking vacation in Japan, you might take your cousin who walks two miles daily in Phoenix Arizona, whether it is hot or not.

Preparations

The internet makes planning a breeze but it will still be a good idea to visit a travel agency. They will be so happy to see you because the evil internet has robbed them of walk-in clients, they might share travel tips and secrets.

Travel agencies have airfare specials and other information you might miss online. They’ll advise you that travelling to a certain city in April is more expensive because of a famous country and western festival. That is no problem if your theme is that music.

Security deposits

Security deposits are part of the preparations for your theme vacation.

Hotels and restaurants especially in small villages want to plan ahead based on the number of guests they are expecting. They are able to do that if there is some form of advance payment. They might also warn you that you forfeit the deposit if you don’t show up.

For example, show up if you have signed up for a Japanese cooking class.

Other people did not get in because of you. This is your theme vacation so such requirements will not bother you at all.

7 Days of the Week

Having a theme holiday keeps you busy for the duration of your stay in a foreign country. You know what you will be doing every day, even if it means taking a day off to relax.

This is extremely important if the country has traditions that are cast in stone. They might have a siesta after lunch. Maybe businesses are closed for prayers at noon. You have to plan your theme holiday around that.

Safety for Women

You might live in a country where women travelling alone are commonplace. Having a theme holiday enables you to also do research on safety.

There are always tour busses from hotels to places of interest but you might want to branch off to a specific waterfall or small temple.

If you still want to go despite negative news about women tourists, make alternative arrangements for example, get a dedicated driver from the hotel. The hotel has a lot to lose if anything happens to their guests, so they will oblige at extra cost of course.

What to pack

• Leave your laptop at home. Your mobile phone has everything.

• If you are going to Vienna for chamber music you will pack formal. Summer dresses and men’s khakhi pants for Kenya.

• Some religious countries want women to cover up completely so pack long skirts and big scarves to cover your head. Keep these items in your in-flight bag.

• Do your hair for example, black women make cornrows because they are so artistic and need little maintenance when travelling. Pack wigs or do a weave before you travel.

Shipping Gifts

Having a theme holiday forces you to think about gifts and mementos. You don’t want to pay extra because of excess luggage. Besides your Master Card has lost weight, about 20 thousand euros, dollars, pounds or yens from all that swiping.

Ask the hotel about the local post office. It is a good opportunity to practice our online language lessons. People in North America are used to courier companies.

The post office is still the best option in some countries. You might get a flyer there with information about how much they charge per kilo to air freight things. It obviously depends on the country of destination.

The post office might also sell special boxes and bubble wrap to package your new possession. I’m thinking of that special vase that was hand crafted by the men in that monastery. You might also stumble across a wall rug that depict the village you just visited.

After Vacation

Please go back home. I have read too many Irish and English novels where women do not return home. I’m also thinking about that movie Shirley Valentine who did not go back to her husband and kids in England.