Surprise Trip?

[toddman70]

MNetters, I’m looking for opinions from mostly women please. This is about doing or not doing a future surprise trip for my DW.
Here are the details:
We live in the U.S., married for 27 years, she is 47, and she will finish her college degree in 2 and a half years. Her birthday and our anniversary are 2 weeks apart, and she will graduate 2 months before her birthday. What the surprise would be, would be a trip to either Greece or Scotland; both of these locations are on her bucker list. My question is: is this a good idea or is does this sound like a disaster waiting to happen? What would your reaction be to this type of gesture?

When is it you plan to travel - now or in 2.5 years?

Sounds great! I’d go for it!

I think it's a great plan- how soon before you go do you imagine telling her?

Is she the kind of person who likes surprises, or does she prefer to plan ahead? I personally hate surprises and won’t enjoy this, but others would love it.

It depends on your wife. I would be fine with offer in principle but like to organise and plan trips. I’d want to pick the location in either country, the itinerary and the accommodation. If I was presented with a full package I would be happy but a bit scratchy that I missed my favourite planning bit. Tbh my DP knows that and would let me do this and just offer to pay.

But I know lots of people who just want the whole thing planned for them. Others who would want to do it together.

We are all different.

The only issue is whether a holiday is a present if it is shared. I mean 2020 exempted we holiday every year.

HollowTalk
When is it you plan to travel - now or in 2.5 years?
The trip would be in 2.5 years for a massive celebration for all of the collective accomplishments.

SoulofanAggron
I think it's a great plan- how soon before you go do you imagine telling her?

Since the trip is something that she has always wanted to do, she is not working right now (fulltime student, only 1 DS who is currently a senior in college), hopefully I wouldn’t have to tell her to much in advance of the trip. But, I’m horrible at keeping secrets, so she’ll know I’m trying to plan something anyway.

Roberta268
Is she the kind of person who likes surprises, or does she prefer to plan ahead?

She can go either way with surprises. It really depends on what the occasion is and who is organizing the surprise.

LemonTT
It depends on your wife. I would be fine with offer in principle but like to organize and plan trips. I’d want to pick the location in either country, the itinerary and the accommodation. If I was presented with a full package I would be happy but a bit scratchy that I missed my favourite planning bit.

DW has kind of made a rough itinerary of what she would like to do, but you point is most definitely one that I was wondering about, and concerned about. She would be over the moon happy with the trip, but not ecstatic if she really didn’t have any input into what we would be doing. So, that is a fine line between being a gift for us, and a gift for me.