I love travel. Travel loves me. Some say I have been bitten by a nasty bug, one that has infected me with a severe, incurable case of wanderlust. They would be right.

My wife often comments (laments?) to friends: “He can’t take any trip unless the next one’s planned too.” She’s wrong about that; or at least she’s much too modest. It’s a rare day, you see, when I embark on any journey without having two more lined up behind it.

And that’s the way it should be! I love to travel. And I love planning trips. Myself. Every gritty detail. From flights to ground transportation to lodging to meals to entertainment to meet-ups with family and friends. And over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve become adventurous in the planning. Twenty years ago, when we had little money, it was Super 8’s and Motel 6’s all the time, because that’s what we knew. They were cheap, and there was comfort in the known. Then it became La Quintas and Residence Inns. Holiday Inn Expresses. Nicer, but still known. Still safe. When feeling peckish, or when business travel would allow, I’d kick it up a rung or two — the Omni, a Hyatt, or even a Ritz-Carlton. But still ….

An inn with a view: Mts. Cook & Tasman from the Mt. Cook View Motel, Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Today, the approach is different. The horizon is expanded. The appetite for risk and adventure is much greater. And the reward is oh-so-much richer. A two bedroom townhome on the shores of Southern California with my wife and kids; a five-bedroom house on the slopes of Park City with a large group of friends; a three-bedroom house on New Zealand’s South Island; a two-bedroom apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. I have learned, through some initiative of my own and the suggestions of friends, and with the help of a vast array of online resources, that the (eminently affordable!) alternatives to the middle-American hum-drum of chain hotels (and chain eateries, and chain entertainment parks, etc, etc, etc) are limitless and full of reward for those daring enough to step off the road most traveled.

In the coming months, perhaps even years (we’ll see how this goes!), I will share my own anecdotes, my experiences, my “secrets,” the tools of my trip-planning “trade.” I’ll share the things that I’ve learned — and continue to learn today — that have transformed my business and vacation travels into full-on adventures. I’ll share stories from exotic lands, places that most would consider never-in-a-lifetime destinations, yet places that everyone with just a little industriousness and a healthy sense of adventure can (and should!) visit. I’ll show you how you too can get there and how to go about filling out your days once you do. I’ll also share stories of weekend getaways, of cross-country family reunions, of breathtaking sunrises and stunning sunsets, of gems so hidden that they’re right beneath your nose, of inexpensive meals that will send you into fits of culinary ecstasy.

But most importantly, I will show you how I do all of this for myself. How I find the right flights to the right cities at the right time for the right fares. How I find clean, comfortable living spaces in cool parts of town for no more than the cost of a basic hotel room. How I maneuver through the crammed streets of the world’s largest cities one day, and then wander the wide open spaces of its most expansive countrysides the next. On occasion I will show you how to save money when you travel, but far more often, I’ll show you how to do and see and experience so much more on the money you’d plan to spend anyway.

Again, I’m no expert. I’m just a guy. And it might be that, in the end, I’m blogging for myself. My hope, though, is that by sharing what I’ve learned through my love of travel and trip planning, I’ll inspire you to think bigger, bolder and much more adventurous when you next leave home.

~ JD

(Cover photo: My son, Philip, descending Mt. Meru, Tanzania, in the glow of early dawn, with the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro looming in the distance.)