What type of traveler are you?

I found this fun “quiz” on Victoria Qvist’s blog Qandvictoria, who credited the questions to the Resfredag blog. I decided to translate the questions and make a post with my answers for you to enjoy.

‘1. Dive in head first or carefully lower yourself into the water?

I’m not much of a diver, simply because I have never mastered an elegant jump so I tend to use the pool stairs or otherwise ease myself into the water gently.

2. Backpacker or “suitcaser”?

Never been a backpacker really – I have this image in my head of things getting all wrinkly and messed up in a backpack so I prefer a suitcase. All in all, I’m more of a city trip, more “luxurious” type of a traveler who prefers more high-end accommodation options to backpacking and trekking.

3. Pack the night before or well ahead of time?

I either pack the night before or the day of. I do, however, plan what to pack ahead of time. The reason for doing the actual packing last minute is that our cats get really nervous when they see a suitcase, so in order to give them some peace of mind I leave the suitcases in storage until packing is essential.

What do you mean, you need to pack?

4. Arrive at the airport/train station, etc. just in nick of time or one hour before the deadline?

I am always afraid of being late so I reserve plenty of time to get to the airport and tend to always arrive well ahead of the deadline. I also hate mulling about around the house waiting to leave (because I’m always ready to go well ahead of the time I have to leave the house) and once I am on the way to the airport or such, it feels like the trip has begun.

5. Package tours or independent travel?

I’m an independent travel kind of girl all the way. The only package tours I’ve ever booked have been a couple of ski trips to the Alps more than a decade ago. These days even our ski trips are independent. As I said in the previous post, I love trip planning and package tours would not satisfy this urge.

6. Foodie or nature junkie?

Foodie all the way. Not a big nature lover anyway – it is nice to see some nature-like things while traveling but I much rather enjoy good food in a city setting than head out to the wilderness.

7. Ski trip or beach holiday?

I have to say ski trip as downhill skiing has been a hobby of mine for over 40 years. Also I get bored on the beach even though I do love warm weather.


Views from the summit of Valluga Mountain in St Anton am Arlberg

8. Recurring favorites or a new destination every time?

Both, there are a few perpetual favorites that I enjoy returning to and several destinations that warrant at least a second visit. However, I also love exploring new places but many times you get to do that even when returning somewhere for another visit as you very rarely can see “everything” a place has to offer on one trip.

NYC is one of the destinations I never get bored with

9. Road trip or rail journey?

I do like trains but will opt for road trip and the freedom it warrants.

Car packed and ready to go

10. System camera or camera phone?

For a few years now I’ve been lazy and only used my camera phone even though I do own a large system camera. Just recently I purchased a more compact system camera (a mirrorless camera) so now I will start using that when traveling instead of my camera phone.

My new travel companion

11. Morning or evening person?

My spirit says I am an evening person but due to silly grown-up things like work I am forced to go to bed at a reasonable time to have the energy to get up for work. When traveling I tend to slip away from my working life forced schedule and sleep in more in order to stay up later.

Things you can find when staying up late

12. Spain or Italy?

No actual preference – have been to both countries a few times and enjoyed each trip a lot. Both countries offer delicious food, tasty wines, heaps of culture and history, so what’s not to like.

Florence, Italy
Valencia, Spain

13. Soda or alcohol?

Not much of a soda drinker so I guess I have to say alcohol. This does not mean I spend my trips drunk, but I do enjoy the occasional drink in a cozy bar or with dinner.

14. Actual books or audio books?

Actual books all the way, and I even prefer the paper kind even though I also have books downloaded on my iPad and my phone. Have never gotten into the audio book scene maybe partly because I find it uncomfortable to wear headphones for longer periods of time and also because when I listen to something (like podcasts) my mind starts to wander and I have to rewind to relisten to what I’ve missed.

So how about you, what kind of traveler are you?

Trip planning

I love trip planning almost as much as actual traveling. I get really excited at all the possibilities that lie ahead when planning a trip. Just now I’m planning our summer vacation trip. We will travel to Gotland in Sweden where we will spend four nights after which we will spend three nights in Stockholm before heading home. We booked our ferry transfers (from Turku to Stockholm and back and from Nynäshamn to Visby and back) over the weekend and now I am looking at accommodation options. This got me thinking about travel planning in general so I decided to write a small post on the subject.

Our travel plans start with picking a destination, how we go about this varies depending on factors like how much time we have available to spend traveling. If we have less than a week we opt for something that is relatively close by and generally start looking within Europe but if we have a longer vacation we look further afield. After we have picked a few possible destinations we start looking at flight prices and if we find a good deal we book the flights. If nothing jumps out as being especially affordable we look at other details of the flights to make a final decision or opt for the destination that has seemed most interesting. After securing the flights (or in some cases other forms of transport) we start looking at accommodation options. My favorite options for looking for accommodation are Airbnb and booking.com. I prefer booking.com over other sites providing accommodation options because I get cashback through Bonusway if I book my accommodation through booking.com and unlike some other sites it often offers the option to pay when you actually stay at the accommodation and not in advance. With accommodation we look at things like location, amenities, bed options, room size, hotel ratings, etc.

I tend to explore blogs and tourist information sites before picking a destination and once we have booked our trip I spend a lot of time exploring destination information. A favorite tool for doing this is Pinterest because it helps me return to interesting information about the destination later on and during the actual trip if necessary. We tend to make rough day plans for when we are traveling but are not keen on minute-to-minute schedules because there has to be room for extempore exploration, etc. We often make some table reservations for dinners ahead of time but like with the day plans we want to leave room for chance. Quite often we also book some activity in advance, especially if the trip lasts at least a week.