Help Plan Our Spring Travels!

One of my favourite things about travel is meeting other travellers and hearing about where they’ve been, what they’ve enjoyed along the way. Creating a community of like-minded travellers through a travel blog has meant I can do this practically every day via Facebook and Flashpacker Family. Getting reader input into our travel planning process is essential to us. In the past when we’ve asked for help planning our summer and winter travels, I’ve gotten great tips, advice and ideas from many of you.

Here is your opportunity to help plan our Spring travels!

This is the rough plan we’ve come up with so far. Everything is 100% flexible so please give me your input!

Snowy Trees in Park City, Utah

Spring Skiing

We’ve set ourselves up here in Park City, Utah for the ski season which we are loving! We have an Epic Pass which covers all of the Vail Resorts meaning we have some flexibility with where we spend our winter months. Originally we planned to stay here until 1 March and then move onto Colorado for a month but we’re very happy in Park City with a great condo and a lovely nanny. It makes it hard to think about leaving when we’re all so happy. We still want to experience a little of Colorado’s ski resorts so we might extend our stay in Park City to mid-March and then head to Colorado for just a few weeks to catch the last of the snow.

UPDATE: We have decided to stay in Park City until the end of March and then head back to Las Vegas for a week. Lee’s parents will be there and it seems like a good opportunity to catch up with them before they head back to Australia.

The US really is the best country for road trips!

Continuing Our US Road Trip

From Colorado, we’re going to continue with our US road trip. This time, we’re thinking of heading East and then veering North. Heading North from Denver in the general direction of Canada there are some great cities I’d love to see. Chicago, Toronto, Detroit even. It does mean driving across Kansas for a couple days which doesn’t sound that fun. From the looks of the map there is nothing much along the way. Kansas City and St Louis would also be good places to stop on this route.

Alternatively, we could skip Colorado and drive upwards through Wyoming to see the Grand Tetons National Park, do a bit of snowboarding and then head into Yellowstone (although I’m not sure how much of Yellowstone is open before May.) We’d still get to see Chicago and Toronto on this route but would add the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin to the list.

Which route would you choose??

UPDATE: Because we’re now starting from Las Vegas we’re looking at a different route that goes a little like this. Starting in Vegas and driving to Flagstaff and Albuquerque (both of which we’ve already been to) then heading east across the Texas panhandle and into Oklahoma City. Then visiting a friend in Little Rock before heading up to Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati and Detroit before reaching Toronto.

What do you think of this route? Where would you spend time and where would you just stop over en route? 

A European Whirlwind

Here’s something I’m just thinking about. How about a month in Europe? Nothing set in stone. More of an idea I have as I’d like to attend a conference in Spain at the end of April. We really enjoyed being back in the US after being in Mexico for a month. It made us truly appreciate what a great country the US is and how much easier it is to travel with little kids when you have a car. A month in Europe to soak up some culture and see a few more countries might do us some good. We could easily park our car in Montreal, Toronto or Chicago for a month while we were across the pond.

If we did go to Europe, here’s what I’m thinking we’d do: A week in Lisbon then a week in Barcelona with a side trip to Costa Brava to attend the conference. After that heading to Switzerland for a week followed by a swift trip up to Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands.

What do you think? With a month in Europe in the Spring, where would you choose to go?

A Month in Montreal

After a few weeks of road tripping and fast travel around Europe we’ll, no doubt, be looking for a break. We need to build time into our itinerary to catch up on work and let the children have a breather from the quick pace of travel. After about 5-6 weeks they tend to unravel a little and crave some routine and structure. Montreal sounds like a great place to just be. We really enjoyed being in a non-English speaking country and practicing our Spanish while we were down in Mexico so an opportunity to revive our long-forgotten high school French seems like a good plan.

One of my travel resolutions for the year was to create a focus for any stay we did over a month that gets me outside my comfort zone. So, I need to find a focus for my time in Montreal. Some kind of class to attend, or new skill to practice. I’m thinking something like CrossFit might do the trick

Have you been to Montreal in the Spring? Please tell me it’s lovely!

I’d love your input on our plans! Share your ideas in the comments below.