The Seed Vault’s heirloom seeds. (Non-GMO).

In a perfect world, we’d never have to bear the expense of staying overnight or longer in hotels throughout the world. But, unfortunately, in some cases, we have no alternative when there’s a one or two-day gap between cruises.

Pretty flowers outside the Palais Theatre, where the Market @ Franklin is held the last Sunday of each month.

While heading directly to a vacation/holiday home after a flight or cruise, it may not be necessary unless we’re facing a long drive from the pier or airport. In these cases, we decide if a one-night stay in a hotel may prevent us from undesirable stress in finding the property at night.

Local wood button maker display.

We easily recall the night we arrived on the island of Madeira in May 2014. (Please check this link for details for the ultra-long flight). At the time, we were too embarrassed to admit we couldn’t find the vacation home in Campanario until 3:30, two hours after we’d picked up the rental car.

Local artist display with proceeds sent to the Tibetan Refugee Support Program as shown in next photo.

The prior night we’d each only slept three or four hours, and by the time we were searching for the correct turnoff, I’d considered suggesting we pull over somewhere to sleep in the car until the sun came up.

More handmade goods with a portion of sales donated to charity.

But Tom’s determination to bring the situation to a satisfactory resolution made him forge ahead until we finally found the house.  We never made it to bed that night until 4:30 am, only sleeping a few hours. We were anxious to get up, unpack, check out our new house and surroundings and head out grocery shopping.

A local artist supports the following refugee organization.

It was this experience that taught us two things; 1). Stay in a hotel rather than risk becoming stressed; 2). Please don’t be embarrassed to report our foibles to our readers. 

Custom-made buttons are displayed on these fancy shoes.

That incident was almost three years ago, and since that experience, we’ve spent many nights in hotels when there was a risk of being stuck driving on dark and unfamiliar roads in the middle of the night. 

No doubt, this has added an expense we hadn’t anticipated early on in our budgeting. But, now, we’re diligent in including this expense when we deem it an often necessary element in getting from one point to another.

Handmade doll shoes.

We always try to focus on our motto, as shown at the top of our page, which reads, “Wafting Through our World Wide Travels with Ease, Joy and Simplicity.” We never wanted or expected this life to be stressful, but reality prevails. Sometimes it is.

Our most serious attempt at eliminating stress, considering those aspects we have control, is on the days we’re boarding a cruise. Of course, it’s one thing to miss a flight. But, to miss a cruise embarkation is another matter altogether. Can you even imagine the stress of finding flights to get to the first port of call in another country to board at that location? 

Homemade chocolate treats.

We’ve heard of many scenarios when this occurred for various reasons, most often flight cancellations or delays. To avoid this risk, we seldom plan to take a cruise without staying at a nearby hotel the prior night.

Although we must mention that we’re taking that risk with our upcoming cruise from Hobart to Sydney in 29 days, we’re flying from Hobart, a 45-minute drive to the airport from the Huon Valley, to fly directly to Sydney on a less than 90-minute flight, taking a taxi to the pier from the airport.

Once outdoors, we investigated handmade items from additional vendors, including this woodworking display.

Based on the fact this flight is in the morning, and there are other flights from Hobart to Sydney that same day, we decided to risk it. A motivator was that the hotels in Sydney for that date were over AU 397, US $300 per night plus the cost of dinner. So it didn’t make sense for the 90-minute flight.

Upcoming on November 22, 2017, we had no choice but to book a hotel when we are flying from Costa Rica to Miami, Florida, after which we’ll have an hour drive (with traffic) to Fort Lauderdale for the next day’s cruise. 

Various crafts for fundraising.

In this particular case, based on the “free” one night we’d accumulated using our site, “Hotels.com,” located here on our page, it made a lot of sense to stay overnight in Fort Lauderdale. The next day will be the US’s Thanksgiving Day, when we’ll board the cruise for another 30 night back-to-back cruise which ends in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Whew! Another month-long cruise!

With our Hotel.com free membership, we receive one free night for every 10 hotel stays using the site. We have used several accumulated free nights (which value is determined by the average price of the past ten night’s stays). It’s worked well for us so far.

Wood handled tools for the “barbie.”

Of course, we haven’t yet booked the flight from Costa Rica to Miami but will do so over the next few months. The above mention hotel booking is complete. It’s important to mention, for our less experienced travelers, that flights generally can’t be booked more than 330 days before the desired travel date. 

Today, rainy with an intermittent cloud cover, we’ll stay put.  Tomorrow, after posting, we’re planning on visiting the town of Geeveston for an exciting popular annual event which we’ll be sharing the following day.

Be well. Be happy.

Photo from one year ago today, January 30, 2016:

In the early evenings, baby alpacas got together to play, running through the paddock, making us laugh over their playful antics. For more photos, please click here.