do less, discover more!

scene from the Ring of Dingle, County Kerry

A traveler planning a trip to Ireland next May asked for suggestions for her itinerary on fodors.com. Her plan is to drive all the way around Ireland in three weeks, beginning in Dublin, going to Belfast, and continuing counter-clockwise all the way around the island.

It was exhausting just to read her twenty-one day itinerary! She had something planned virtually every day. Lots of one-night stays. Lots of long driving days. Lots of attractions to see. Lots of things to do. Lots of places to visit. Lots of questions about even more places she might add to her trip.

The one thing missing from her itinerary was time … time to relax, time to soak in the culture, time to feast her eyes on Ireland's forty shades of green, time to unwind and spend a day in a small Irish village just doing nothing but relaxing, time to meet the locals, time to hang out in the pubs, time to listen to Irish music, time to discover Ireland.

Do less, discover more! Fodors definitely has a bias against using travel consultants. Too bad, because travel can be the realization of a dream … if we can get away from the mentality of checking off items on a bucket list. Focus instead on the travel experiences we want to have. Here is where a trusted travel advisor can be so valuable. She will ask you the right kinds of questions:

• Tell me about the trip you want to take. What's important to you about it?
• What would make this a wow trip for you?
• When you come home from your trip, what will you want to say about it? How would you describe what you've just experienced in Ireland?

Discover More is Brownell's tagline, and our entire purpose is to listen to your dreams, then collaborate with you to design a life-enriching travel experience … and not a twenty-one day endurance test of a road trip.

copyright (c) 2013 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.