It’s time to make a travel plan. Your vacation awaits after this lengthy pandemic shut dow. We asked Jamie Edwards, our guest for Episode 20 of the TripCast360 podcast to share some of her ideas. She’s a luxury travel connoisseur with some wonderfully written stories on her website Iamlostandfound.com. This story prompted us to invite Jamie to participate in our podcast.

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Seven months into the pandemic, or as my husband likes to say, on this ‘new planet’, I have started to dive deep into my memory bank, my travel files, and my bucket lists, as I dream up future travel experiences so that I can stay sane. I have lofty ideas, loads of research, and plenty of notes, hidden in places on my phone that I can’t ever seem to locate.

The new planet concept didn’t win me over at first. I didn’t get it. I wanted my old planet back.

But did I, really? There were things on the old planet that I didn’t like, appointments that clogged my calendar, car pools on faraway fields, and scheduling that took up much-needed bandwidth in my brain.

Using another analogy (which I’ve been told is not my strong suit) is that we have all been dealt a new deck. My old deck did have a few crappy cards, I’ll admit, but I was comfortable with that deck. We had a history.

Back to the new planet analogy, which is simpler, less chaotic, less competitive, and more relaxing, in some ways. I realize I need to stop comparing this new planet to the old one. To stop telling myself, ‘just wait until summer is over’, ‘just wait until Thanksgiving’, or ‘we will be back to normal by Christmas.’ Time wasted waiting for life to go back to the way it was. I don’t want to go back to the way it was. Not exactly.

There are big worries on the new planet; global worries, political worries, and parental worries. And for those who know me, worry is my middle name. I come from worry stock. Looking at this planet as a way to start anew, with things as they are right now, not as they were, is a nice concept. I’m going to try it out.

OLD PLANET, NEW PLANET

That said, I am still craving some things from my old planet. Travel, for one, not surprisingly. But more specifically, the way travel makes me feel, and the long lasting positives it brings out in me. The freeing sense of exploration, the sometimes scary, exhilarating sense of adventure, and the escapism from reality.

I started to wonder how I could recapture some of those feelings. Maybe not this minute, but soon. Could I figure out how to travel again on this new planet? Travel is bound to make a comeback. I’ve heard it referred to recently as, ‘Travel Revenge’. That seems quite a harsh term for something that brings such joy. Instead, I’m going create my own term, ‘Travel Comeback’. It sounds more Rudy, and Friday Night Lights, than Ozark, or the Avengers. More appealing, more liberating, and more inspirational.

What follows are the five travel experiences I am using as a template for future trips, and to create what I will coin as my very own ‘personal travel comebacks’. Hello, new world.