I've Been Taking Fandom Voyages for Years. I Just Didn't Know It.

When I started thinking about Fandom Voyages, I kept coming back to one realization:

I've apparently been doing this for years.

Not professionally. Nobody was paying me to plan their vacation. But when I looked back at the trips I've taken with my family, my wife, and some of my closest friends, there was a pretty obvious pattern.

There was always a plan.

There were always a few side quests.

And somehow, the nerdy stuff had a way of sneaking into the itinerary.

The Annual Man Trip

Every year, a group of my best friends and I get permission from our incredibly understanding wives and kids to disappear for a random weekend.

We call it the Man Trip.

It started pretty simply: a weekend in Columbia, Missouri, to see a band. Then we did it again. And again. Over the years, we've traveled around the Midwest—to Columbia again, Champaign, Cincinnati, Chicago, Bentonville, and wherever else sounded interesting enough to justify getting everyone together.

These aren't luxury vacations. Far from it. The point is getting a group of longtime friends into an Airbnb somewhere with a few days to hang out.

But we've learned to make a surprising amount of adventure out of a relatively inexpensive weekend.

We've played footgolf almost every year. We've done escape rooms. We've hunted down gaming shops and tabletop stores. We've played games around the Airbnb. We've found themed coffee shops, explored local landmarks, and somehow even ended up watching live jousting.

And every year, I inevitably have a list. Not a minute-by-minute itinerary. A list. Because eventually someone is going to ask:

"So...what's next?"

And that's when having a plan becomes incredibly useful. Maybe we play footgolf. Maybe there's a cool brewery nearby. Maybe I found a weird coffee shop we need to see. Maybe everyone wants to go back to the Airbnb and play games.

The plan doesn't tell us what we have to do.

It tells us what we could do.

That's become one of my biggest philosophies about travel.

Have a Plan. Don't Let the Plan Have You.

My wife might actually be an even bigger travel-planning nerd than I am. We have spreadsheets. Color-coded spreadsheets. With multiple tabs. Hotels. Restaurants. Things to do. Recommendations. Reservations. Places we've read about. Random things somebody mentioned that sounded interesting.

We geek out about planning almost as much as we geek out about actually traveling.

But here's the funny part:

Our trips aren't particularly structured.

We book the things that need to be booked. We know where we need to be and when. And then we build possibilities around those anchors. If Tuesday afternoon is open, we don't necessarily decide three months beforehand exactly what we'll be doing at 2:15. Instead, we already know there are six interesting things nearby.

Then Tuesday comes. How's the weather? Are we tired? Are we hungry? Did we see something yesterday that completely changed our plans? Great. Let's figure it out.

The research gives us the freedom to be spontaneous without spending half the vacation staring at our phones trying to figure out what to do next. And that approach has led to some incredible experiences. We've eaten food I still think about years later. I've had beers in taverns that made my inner geek extremely happy.

We've traveled on wildly different budgets. And every once in a while, the universe throws in something no spreadsheet could possibly predict—like running into Jeff Goldblum in Florence or Adam Sandler in New York City.

Those definitely weren't on the itinerary.

Then We Started Traveling With Kids

My wife and I both love to travel, and one of the things we've wanted to give our children is that same curiosity about the world outside of where they live.

So we've taken them with us. They've played on beaches in Mexico, experienced fall in New England, winter in New York, and summer in California. They've stayed at resorts, explored theme parks, visited famous filming locations, walked through world-class museums, and seen places completely different from our suburban life in St. Louis.

Traveling with kids taught me something else:

A great itinerary isn't necessarily filled with your favorite things.

It's filled with everyone's favorite things. What sounds like an incredible afternoon to my wife and me may sound like an elaborate form of punishment to an elementary-aged kid. And vice versa.

So family travel became another kind of puzzle. What's really important to us? What's really important to them? What will everyone enjoy? Where can we compromise? And how can we fit enough of everyone's interests into the trip that everybody comes home with something they can't stop talking about?

That's personalized travel.

And it's a huge part of what I want Fandom Voyages to be.

The Side Quests Are Usually Worth It

I've noticed something else about the way I travel. I'm always looking for the side quest. If I'm going somewhere, I want to know what else is there. Is there a great tabletop gaming store nearby? Was a movie I love filmed around the corner? Is there some bizarre local attraction we would never find unless someone went looking for it? A themed restaurant? A historic tavern? A great brewery? A museum nobody in our group has ever heard of?

Sometimes those things are directly connected to something I love. Sometimes they're just weird. Either way, I want to know about them. Because the famous attraction might be why you booked the trip.

But the random place you discovered three blocks away might be what you remember from it.

That's Where Fandom Voyages Comes From

Eventually, I realized there was a common thread connecting all of this. I love traveling. I love planning travel. And I love finding ways to connect travel with the things people are genuinely excited about.

Fantasy.

Science fiction.

Movies.

Television.

Video games.

Tabletop games.

Theme parks.

Conventions.

Sports.

Food.

Beer.

History.

Whatever your thing is.

I don't think you need to build an entire vacation around a fandom to have a Fandom Voyage. Maybe your favorite fantasy story is the reason you're going to New Zealand. Awesome. But maybe you're already going to London and would get a ridiculous amount of joy from spending half a day visiting locations from a television show you've watched five times. That's awesome too.

The fandom doesn't always have to create the trip. Sometimes it just makes the trip yours.

You Don't Need an Unlimited Budget

The Man Trips have taught me this particularly well. Some of my favorite travel memories haven't come from expensive vacations. We've had fantastic weekends staying together in an Airbnb, finding inexpensive things to do, playing games, eating local food, and enjoying being somewhere different for a couple days.

Other trips have had bigger budgets. Both can be incredible. Good travel planning isn't about finding the most expensive hotel, restaurant, or experience. It's about figuring out what's worth spending money on. Save here. Splurge there. Skip something overrated. Spend a little more on something you'll remember forever.

And leave enough room for the unexpected.

Travel the Worlds You Love

That's ultimately what I want Fandom Voyages to help people do. Have a plan without being controlled by it. Find experiences everyone on the trip can get excited about. Use your budget where it matters.

Take the side quest. Try something new. Geek out about the things you love. And occasionally throw the entire itinerary out the window because something better came along.

Because after all the spreadsheets, reservations, flights, hotels, tickets, and research, my favorite part of every trip is actually pretty simple.

Being somewhere different.

Taking in the change of scenery. Trying something I haven't done before. Spending time with people I care about. And coming home with another story.

That's what Fandom Voyages is about.

Travel the Worlds You Love.