How do you pick your next vacation

It's January and it's time to think of where we are going to travel to this year.  I have so many places on my list that I want to see, that it makes it hard to choose just one or two places to go to.  Then balancing the cost, distance, and time off available makes it even trickier.  We also have a couple of long weekends that we commit to with friends that we need to plan around.  

So when I consider all of this, I start by having everyone in our family their top one to three places that they want to visit in a jar.  Then we pick 3 and we discuss those.  This year the three were not my husband's or I's favorites.  The top picks were Valencia Spain, Monaco, and a trip with a family that we love, without a specific destination.  The kids also asked several times about going to Rome but I would like to go there with friends if possible.  Although I love to travel with friends, I don't expect that our friends will be able to travel with us.  I consider myself lucky that we have had friends travel with us several times. 

So the kids' three options were not high on my list,  My husband suggested The Grand Canyon. My little one suggested we go back to The Pine Cliffs in Albufeira Portugal and my older one suggested we go back to Paris.  I am still not sure where we will go.  I am truly curious as to how other families choose their trips! 

I am currently looking at options that we can do on points.  Chase has a transfer bonus offer this month (January 2024) with Air Canada and another one with JetBlue.  JetBlue flies to Costa Rica and that has been on my travel list for the last couple of years.  I plan on booking our flights and hotel via points.  I typically transfer points to travel brands like Marriott or Hyatt vs booking straight through the various points portals because you can get more for your points, especially when there is a bonus.

Do you have any tips or tricks to travel? Let me know about them!  Email me at nabetsi@nabetsi.com