While I really like being spontaneous and just traveling to see what is around the bend. But sometimes you really have to have a plan and today the planning for my 2018 NCAA Tournament Vacation started coming together.
Every year since 2001 I have attend the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as various locations throughout the country. Some years I have stayed close to home, traveling to places like Greensboro, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina. Other years I venture a little farther to places like Dayton, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee and Greenville, South Carolina.
Every year has been a new adventure. He is a list of the tournament sites that I have visited over the years:
2001 - Greensboro, North Carolina 2010 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
2002 - Greenville, South Carolina 2011 - Charlotte, North Carolina
2003 - Birmingham, Alabama 2012 - Greensboro, North Carolina
2004 - Orlando, Florida 2013 - Kansas City, Missouri
2005 - Nashville, Tennessee 2014 - Raleigh, North Carolina
2006 - Dallas, Texas 2015 - Charlotte, North Carolina
2007 - Winston-Salem, North Carolina 2016 - Raleigh, North Carolina
2008 - Birmingham, Alabama 2017 - Greenville, South Carolina
2009- Greensboro, North Carolina
As you can see for the past 4-years I have been staying close to home. So in 2018 it will be time to hit the road and head west. When I first looked at the 2018 Tournament sites, one location immediately jumped out at me. So in March 2018 I will be hitting the road and heading to Dallas Texas.
Up until today, it had kind of been up in the air as to where I would be going for March Madness, as in the past, I had pick a tournament site only to have that site come up with very limited or no tickets available for public sale. Most years I have received and early buy access code for the NCAA which allows me to buy tickets before they go on sale to the General Public.
I received my early buy access code this morning an was able to log into the American Airlines Arena - Ticketmaster website and about about 20-minute I was able to select and purchase my 2018 Tournament Tickets.
After purchasing my tournament tickets, I went ahead and reserved my hotel room. As I said before, I am a fan of hotel reward programs and my preferred hotel is the Choice Hotel Brand (Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn and Quality Inn). In the past it has really paid off to make my hotel reservations early before they raise their rate based on a special event.
When making hotel reservations I always go through the CHOICE HOTELS WEBSITE where I can check the rates and reviews. Before making a final choice and confirming my reservation I also check the reviews on Trip Advisor. If the hotel get excellent or exceptional reviews on both sites then I go ahead and finalize my reservations.
One thing about travel reviews. If a review is too good then I tend to throw it out as it is more than likely written by the hotel or a friend of the hotel management. I also tend to throw out extremely bad reviews because they are written by someone who has an ax to grind or is basically just a totally unreasonable guest and wants to make matters worse than they actually were. I do contribute reviews to both sites and I never write a review while I am angry or upset. I always wait until I calm down so that I can be reasonably objective.
The hotel that I selected for my Dallas Tournament Stay is located about 5-miles away from the American Airlines Arena, for less than $100 a night. The one thing that I don't like about this years tournament in Dallas is the Games are Thursday - Saturday which means my off day is Friday and I will have to deal with Dallas Traffic when exploring. But it does give me an extra day on Sunday to explore the downtown area around Dealey Plaza where I want to return to The Sixth Floor Museum and visit the sites associated with the Assassination of President Kennedy.
Another reason that I wanted to go to Dallas is that the Final Four is also in San Antonio and while I don't have Final Four Tickets I can attend some of the fan events around the area that are associated with the Final Four.
My plan is to spend about 3-4 weeks touring around Texas. This will be my first major trip since I retired and I don't plan on having much of a schedule. The only place that I have to be is in Dallas for the Tournament in Mid-March. The rest of the time we will just see what is around the bend.
No comments:
Post a Comment