I have a confession. I do not think anyone, but my husband knows this, but I check flight prices on a regular basis. Places I want to go, places I have been, and places I think I would probably want to go for the right price, I check them. I check different seasons, different days of the week to see what would be the cheapest. I would estimate I check flights on a weekly basis, if I am not crazy busy.
I've always had this unspoken goal of visiting all of the continents (minus Antarctica of course! brrr!). I have lived in North America for the majority of my life. I had already visited Asia. Some might call this cheating, but I was born in Europe, even though I have no memory of it. So of course I had an interest in traveling to South America.
I knew I would be graduating soon, and transitioning from my part-time, flexible nanny job into a career in social work. Two months prior to our departure date, I naturally started thinking about taking a big trip during this transition time. It was my opportune moment, and maybe the last for a while. I checked flight prices to all of the countries in South America during my dates. Ecuador had the only tickets selling for less than $500. Coming in at $480.00 for a round trip ticket, I thought it was a steal! At this point there was a small hiccup in my plan. I talked to my husband about going to Ecuador for a week. Although, I am a huge supporter of solo female travel, he tried to redirect me to traveling to a country I had already been, and where I would at least know someone on the ground. He said if I could find someone to travel with me to Ecuador, he would feel better about it. Challenge accepted! Most of my friends were either busy with work, classes, or have kids so my list of traveling companions was slim to none. One day at work, I thought what about my nineteen year old brother. He did not have a job at the time, and would not have classes during my travel dates. So I jokingly text my dad to see if my brother had his passport. Come to find out he did, so I called him to try to get him on board. He of course was not interested. Travel is not really his thing. I thought my chance to travel to Ecuador had gone down in flames. Then I spoke to my sister, who I thought was unavailable during the dates I could go, and turned out she was free and ready to go! I felt a wide range of emotions that day. My disappointment quickly turned into excitement.
And that is how I ended up in Ecuador for a week. A lot of friends, family, other travelers, and Ecuadorians asked us why we came to Ecuador. I laughed a bit when I told them, it was the cheapest ticket to South America. For choosing the destination having no real knowledge of what the country had to offer, it really turned out amazing!
How do you choose your travel destination? Comment below! I look forward to hearing from you!