I should like to rise and go...

I should like to rise and go
Where the golden apples grow...
Where in sunshine reaching out
Eastern cities, miles about,
Are with mosques and minaret
Among sandy gardens set,
And the rich goods from near and far
Hang for sale in the bazaar...
                               Robert Louis Stevenson

Travel is one of my favourite pastimes, and I have enjoyed visiting many places over the years. Since my husband and I are now semi-retired we travel for about ten weeks each year and I have organised all the planning. But even when we were both working full-time we still travelled extensively and took our children all over the world. We tend to travel independently but we have also been away in small groups on occasion. We like the variety of 'doing our own thing' and the Internet is a wonderful source of information. Once we discuss our plans initially I start doing all the research and 'report back' with my findings although we are both very compatible in our tastes. As we are not keen on large groups, 'Trailfinders' have helped us in planning bespoke long-haul trips over the years while I have booked European flights, trains and hotels on my own. We like to stay in interesting, attractive, often historical, places fairly central so we can walk to restaurants. Sometimes we stay in hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation or apartments. Some of these are luxurious; others are not. I use 'booking.com' regularly and their APP keeps a record of past and future bookings. There is so much more variety these days compared to the limited choice in travel agents' brochures years ago. Sometimes we hire a car; sometimes we take trains, buses and trams. With long-haul bespoke trips we often hire a guide and driver to ourselves which gives us flexibility to visit places off the beaten track. My philosophy is that, although we might like to return to a place, we may not have the opportunity, so I need to do my homework to plan a trip that is interesting, fulfilling and memorable.
I have a large collection of Dorling Kindersley travel guides. Their colour photographs whet my appetite when I am planning a trip; pages are photocopied and disposed of during the journey, and the books are a wonderful aide-memoire when we are home. 'Trip Advisor' can be very helpful but I take some comments with a pinch of salt. It is hard to recommend specific places as everyone's needs and tastes are different; hotels may change or go out of business. I can only speak for my own experience at the time of staying there.
I am guided by trying to evoke a 'spirit of place', often inspired by novels or films, and I am addicted to reading coffee table books of memorable hotels around the world. I take a small notebook on each journey where I write down my research, then fill the pages with notes on what we did during our stay. I have a stash of these notebooks in the study, collected over the years. I take lots of photographs, print them off and put them in albums, and have often written stories based on travel memories.
My love of travel started in early childhood with family holidays spent in France and Spain from 1960. My father passed on his love of travelling; he had been out in the Middle East for six years during the War; his twin brother had been in Burma and India. But it was their sister Joan who was the biggest influence; she travelled extensively after the War which was quite unusual then. When I was 11 years old she bought me a hardback Atlas ( priced 11 shillings and sixpence) and ever since I've spent hours plotting and planning, pouring over maps and proximities of towns and cities. Some of the names no longer exist but, fifty years later, I have travelled to many of them and look back with very happy memories. That Atlas was an inspiration then, as it still is now. It has to be one of my most-loved books.