By Mark W, July 23, 2008 at 10:14 AM

Like all good things, this trip began in a bar.

It was a warm evening as we stood along the railing of a roof top bar in Orlando. The illuminated bank buildings filled the sky as the loud music filled the air. One of my co-workers was celebrating a birthday and bar hopping had brought us to this relatively empty bar on a Wednesday night.

I said, "It's too bad you're in school, I was hoping to go to Munich this year again."

"I'm not in school. I'm taking the semester off," she replied.

The conversation moved on to what I think it would cost and when I was looking at going. The past trips I've made (the earlier one I've started blogging about) have been two years ago. If I made a trip this year, I will have been to Oktoberfest every two years for the past four years.

Of course, bar talk rarely leads to action and I wasn't expecting anything to come of the trip after that evening. I had, in the past couple of months, talked with others about their interested in traveling to Europe. Some had an interest, but either time constraints or fiscal concerns prevented any solid leads.

I had resigned myself to probably not making the trip. Besides, airfare was rising, the dollar was sinking, and everyone was advocating "staycations" (I hate that word, btw). It was turning out to be a bad year to travel.

And then I received a text message on my phone: Checked airfare. Only $850, cheaper then I thought.

The game was afoot.

One thing I knew, if we were going to go to Oktoberfest, we had to book the hotel as soon as possible. Oktoberfest in prior years attracted over six million visitors during the two week period. Cheap hotels would be near impossible to find.

Over the next several days, we talked about what the trip would look like. I had originally looked at doing a full week at Oktoberfest. However the cost for that was proving to be a challenge. The recommendation was made to do a couple of days in Munich, travel by train to another location and do a couple of days there.

One of the limiting factors we faced was available vacation time. I had plenty of vacation available from my full time job (in fact, if I didn't take any vacation, I would soon be topped out and not earn any more). My travel mate only had about a week available, including travel days.

Three cities were suggested: Paris, Venice or Vienna. I had been to Paris and Venice, she had never been to any of them. Vienna would be the closest to Munich (a four hour train ride). Venice and Paris both about 7 hours. It'd be nice to see Venice again before it sinks, but I didn't think it was going to sink any time soon. I've loved Paris the last couple of time's I've been there, so that's a plus.

In the end, the decision came down to money, Paris would be a little bit cheaper to do. The trip would involve an open jaw flight: Into Munich, out of Paris. We would need a hotel in both cities and transportation between them.

During a few days, I spent a lot of time on the various travel sites out there trying to find the best deal. In Munich, I debated, do we get a hotel in the center of town to save on U-Bahn tickets or do we stay out near the airport, which would be cheaper nightly.

I considered other options in Paris. A hotel or do an apartment rental for a couple of nights. And where in Paris would we stay? One of the hotels I looked at was near the Eiffel Tower, which would be a great location. The last time I stayed in Paris, we were in the suburbs north east of the city. It wasn't a bad location.

The cool thing I found was that Expedia had a great multi-destination booking tool. So via the site, I could create the exact itinerary I wanted (assuming it was only two cities). I put in my departure time, when I needed the hotel for the first city. Did I need transportation between the two cities or would I arrange it myself (I was going to arrange it myself). When I'd need the hotel in the second city and when I was leaving.

Between all of the travel sites, it was the easiest to do.

Now some folks would argue at this point that I should have booked it all individually. Maybe I'd get a better price, maybe I'd get better control over where I stayed. Maybe just because I run a site called Travel Off The Cuff I shouldn't pre-book all of this stuff anyhow and just go and find my way when I get there.

On this trip, because I'm going to be in Munich for Oktoberfest, pre-booking is necessary. I'd hate to arrive and not find a hotel that fit in my budget.

As far as booking separately, that's a possibility that I certainly considered. But after some research, the package deal worked out to be the best option.

I picked a hotel at the airport for Munich (get in early, check in, get out sightseeing). I was a little concerned about the cost of the U-Bahn, but after some serious investigating on the web, there are some good all day "Partner" tickets that we can use for the two days we're there.

In Paris, I opted for a small hotel in the Montmartre area. Since our train isn't arriving until nearly 5, I'm thinking we can spend the first evening around that area without having to get a metro pass. Then we've got two full days to explore. If we're lucky, we might be able to see Sacre Coeur that evening.

Now, I just needed to get train tickets.

And I'll save that story, for next time.