Off to Alaska

When planning a trip, it is very hard to get the process started.  You have to figure out where you’re going, how you’re getting there, and what you’re going to do once you get there.  As we discussed in class, it’s often helpful to find someone who has traveled to the place that you are interested in visiting.  I went to Alaska last summer with my family and we found a surprising number of people that were willing to help plan and who offered their opinions on particular attractions.

My family has traveled to 48 states, Alaska being the most recent, so my dad had the vacation planning process down to a science.  We fly to whichever part of the country we haven’t explored yet and then rent a car so that we can travel freely around that area.  However, the Alaska trip was a completely different situation. 

It’s not very easy to drive around Alaska considering the size of the state and the fact that some areas are only accessible by float planes or sled dogs.  We would not be able to travel like we normally do, so my dad started looking around for someone that could give him some tips on the area.  He went to a travel agent but even then he wasn’t completely sure what the best option for travel was.

While talking about our planning troubles at a family party, we realized that my aunt and uncle had gone to Alaska two years previously.  They explained that the best way to tour Alaska was by cruise ship because that way you were able to hit the more secluded port cities.  My dad also talked with some of his coworkers who suggested the best places to go ziplining and the best area to get salmon.  I also found out that someone I knew from Northeastern was actually from Alaska and she was able to give a local perspective on interesting places to visit.

The planning of our Alaska trip is a great example of how to take advantage of networks.  We were able to search through our friends and family for people that had any information on Alaska and use their input to better our vacation.  Once we had specific criteria for searching our network (anyone that had ever been or had a say on Alaska) it was easy to target the people that we were looking for.  Obviously, you can’t completely rely on all of the information that you are given but it sets a great foundation for you to begin.