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DIY Travel.  That's my shtick.  There is practically nothing more that makes me giddy than travelling.  It's the reason why I work!  And truth be told, there is giddiness in travel planning itself.  DIY travel is the antithesis of the hop-on-hop-offs.  Nobody would know you more intimately than you, so why pay money to delegate something as important and potentially life-altering to a tour company who would offer a generic itinerary that obligates you to go with the crowds and eat with your fellow tourists?  Wouldn't you like the thrill of getting lost in a medieval Italian city, or the adventure of meeting locals at a bar in Paris, or cooking dinner with your host in Tuscany?  Besides, have you seen what those things cost?

I proselytize going through the lengths of planning one's own travel from top to bottom.  Sure, it would require poring over cartography, price-watching airline tickets, amassing Lonely Planet guides, and masterminding a trip that is idiosyncratic to your interests and tastes.  But the ROI is that every trip that has your DNA on it ends up being a trip of a lifetime.  Everytime.