Lesson 4: Imagination Questions- Activities
With your basic preferences complete, you can continue to expand the creative part of the travel planning process. Now you can start filling that restriction framework with things you want to do on your trip. You can choose whatever activities you want to do on your vacation. You can choose to do nothing. Your imagination is your only limit.
Thus, the next step to good travel planning is to define your activities. In this lesson you will learn the questions to ask to find out what general and specific activity types you’d prefer. Later you will learn organize this information into your existing framework.
Family Fun
The first activity category is Family Fun. The activities in this category tend to be common family vacations. However, many of the activities in the other categories are equally amenable to families.
Take a piece of paper and write the title “Family Fun”. I have also posted an Activity Questions Form in the Exercise 1-Family Fun section of this lesson. Feel free to print out a copy of this form for your own use. Down one side of the paper write the following topics: Amusement/Theme Parks, Animal Preserves/Zoos, Beach/Lake, Day Tripping, Family Museums, Family Reunions, Farms/ Ranches, Festivals, Houses for Rent, Living History Museums, Natural History Tours, Science Museums, State Parks, Playgrounds, Vacation at Home, and Visiting Friends/Family. Add any additional Family Fun categories that come to mind. Feel free to share these new categories on the discussion board.
Most of these Family Fun categories are self-explanatory. Amusement and Theme Parks range from the local waterslide to Disneyland. Similarly, Animal Preserves and Zoos range from the local zoo or aquarium to an African Game Preserve.
A few of these Family Fun categories may require further explanation. For example, Farms and Ranches are kept as a separate category from Guest Ranches. The difference between the categories is that Farms and Ranches are living, working places, perhaps owned by a relative or friend. A Guest Ranch is a tourist resort. Hence Guest Ranch will appear in the Cruises and Resorts Activity section.
Under the Family Fun title also rate your preferred Family Fun activities. Rate each Family Fun category between one and five. One on this scale means there is no possible way that anyone can force you to do put yourself through that torture. Five on this scale means you’d love try this activity, you’ve always dreamed of this doing this activity. Exactly between these two extremes is a three. A three on this scale means you neither like nor dislike the idea. A two on this scale means you’d really rather not try this activity. A four on this scale means that it sounds kind of fun.
Try to answer each of these selections as honestly as possible. Remember that there are no wrong answers. However, the more honest you are the more you will enjoy your vacation. If others are accompanying you on your vacation, complete this section for each of them as well.
There is also a section for comments at the end of each response line. Use this space for your general comments or to write any specific ideas that come to mind. For instance, in the Amusement Park comment section you might write the name of that amusement park that the kids have been talking about.
For further information on this topic refer to pages 62-65 of Buying Travel Services on the Internet and pages 56-65 and 80-82 of Travel Planning for Dummies.
