Travel Thought Process...

One of the sadder parts of being single and being physically away from family is that you tend to spend holidays alone. At the same time, it gives me an opportunity to reflect and look back at my accomplishments for the year.  Hey, its okay to be selfish once in a while. So when I heard about Virgin America’s 50% travel deal on First Class seats I immediately jumped the gun, went online and asked myself, “Where should I go?”
 
Initially, Portland came to mind. I’ve never been to Oregon and a few friends had recommended it, but I was not too keen on the flight schedules though, as it meant not being able to maximize my days and hotel nights.
 
Then Seattle caught my eye. The first class flights were pretty affordable, and there and then, I bought my tickets, and will be spending New Years Eve in the beautiful Emerald City. Now the planning begins. The first thing to think about is to determine what is important to you. Is it the attractions? Hotel stay? Family and friends?

Being an official tourist for this visit to Seattle, I've decided that the attractions (and food!) are my priorities for this trip. Now it’s a matter of deciding what I should do and where to go. Was I going to prioritize the sights and sounds of Puget Sound or was I going to spend my evenings on fantastic seafood dinners?

Here's what I did:

• Create a list of all the attractions you want to see and visit.
• Include a list of things to do – if you have friends to visit, things you want to buy, and any local meals you’d like to have.
• Prioritize them to your must, and nice to have.
• Once you have your list, look them up by location and map them out.
• Now determine where you want to stay. Do you have an early flight out that require you to stay closer to the airport? I hope you did not book that early morning flight! Don't sacrifice your hotel accommodations for the long travel commute to everywhere. Remember you only have 2-3 days! A cheaper hotel room may not always be worth it.

 
In my example, I chose to list down the attractions I wanted to visit first. Then I looked for any special deals and found CityPASS. They also have a lot of ads so its not easy to miss them. The CityPASS is not unique to Seattle, you can get one to use in 12 other cities. But for an official tourist in Seattle (my previous visit doesn't count because I stayed in Bellevue), it's a great deal! For $70 I could visit as much as 5 city attractions. I had a checklist of the places I wanted to visit and it worked out well with the CityPASS, so I ended up planning my trip around these attractions.
 
When it came down to choosing a place to stay, I noticed that majority of the places were close together, but in two areas in the city. The Seattle Aquarium, Argosy Cruise and Pike Place Market are all closer to downtown and the waterfront while the museums are in Seattle Center, in the northern part of downtown.
 
So I looked at hotels and Airbnb, are there any rooms between these two places? Accessible to the airport? If I have a later flight, can I leave my stuff and come back for it? Can I make pitstops to change clothes, leave shopping bags, etc? or even just pee?
 
Taking into consideration all the questions I have above, I determined that Belltown, which is located between Pike Place Market and Seattle Center would be a good option to stay. It was a 15-minute walk to the waterfront and a 10-minute walk to Seattle Center.

So my plan is starting to come to life.