Sabbatical Planning – Part 1

I’m working hard to make sure I’m not letting my sabbatical go to waste. I’m crossing some things off my bucket list, I’m seeing new sights, and I’m planning on doing nothing some days. I worked hard to earn these six weeks off, and I wanted to make sure that I’m getting everything I can out of this. It’s a struggle when you want to travel all around the world, but you’re tied to a Monday through Friday job. I’ve finally got my shot, and I’m going to make the most out of it.

Here’s my plan so far: 34 days. 3 countries.

I’ll be flying in to London and heading down to Bath. I’ll finally be able to live some of my Jane Austen fantasies in Bath. Even though Jane herself never cared for Bath, the town is one of the settings for my favorite novel, Persuasion. The Roman baths and a day trip to Stonehenge is an added bonus!

From Bath I’ll be headed up to Edinburgh via London. Edinburgh is where I’ll be spending the largest chunk of my time. My first week in Edinburgh will coincide with the last week of the Fringe Festival, which I happened to miss by a day last time I was in Scotland. While there…I’m going where the wind takes me. I want to go to the Writer’s Museum, the Scott Monument, Edinburgh Castle…the list goes on. I’ll be staying in Portobello (a seaside town), so I’ll be exploring there as well. I’m looking forward to doing anything and nothing.

After recharging in Edinburgh, I’ll be heading down and over to Paris! This will be the first time setting foot in France, and this is probably the part of the trip I’m most excited (and nervous!) about. I’ll be sticking to the Paris city center for a couple of days, with a day trip out to Versailles thrown in there, and then I’ll be going to Disneyland Paris! This is something I’ll finally be able to cross off my bucket list.

From Paris I’ll be going back to London and spending a few days in the city from there. I’ve been to London before, but now I’ll have a couple of days to see the things I missed before. One thing I’m doing for sure is finding the Korean restaurant my friend Anne took me to when we were in London last time. Look at that bibimbap!

I’ve made some decent progress on the planning. I’ve booked almost all of my lodging and the flights. Unfortunately, I have to wait until about 3 months before my trip before I can book most of my transportation stuff. This is torture for a planner like me.

Once everything is booked I’ll be posting my budget. I can definitely say that the thing that’s saved the most money is staying in hostels. The first time I stayed in hostels was my trip to Scotland, and I actually didn’t hate it. Especially since I will be traveling solo, it’s good to interact with different people and have that community-feel.