8 Great Tips to Help with Planning a Trip
Feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of planning a trip? Take a deep breath and keep reading for help! Despite what may seem like a black hole of stress and anxiety, I assure you it isn’t as long as you have process in place.
And that’s what this article is all about. I’m going to show you my step-by-step guide to how I plan amazing trips that make excellent use of our time. With these steps, you’ll be planning that perfect trip of your dreams in no time!
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Planning a Trip Step 1: Decide Where to Go
Perhaps this is obvious, but the first thing you need to do is figure out where you’re going! Here are some factors to consider when choosing your destination:
- How long do you have?
- What are your finances like?
- What are your interests?
- When are you traveling?
All these considerations boil down to what type of trip you want. If money isn’t an option and you want a trip where you can just relax, maybe a fancy beachside resort is the answer. If money is a constraint and you want to see world class museums, hostels in a European capital is the way to go.
You also need to consider when you’ll be visiting to take into account weather and tourist fluctuations. Northern Europe can be a little cheaper and have less tourists in winter. However, the days will be short and the weather colder and wetter.
On the other hand, if you visit the same place in summer, you’ll have nicer weather and longer days, but you’ll pay more and be faced with longer lines from everyone else visiting at the same time.
Knowing the number of days is another important factor in deciding where to go. Which leads me to the next step in planning a trip.
I think it’s good to know at least four months in advance where you’re going. That gives more than enough time to book flights, book hotels and plan an itinerary. If you wait too much longer, you may be limited by things already being booked up.
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Planning a Trip Step 2: Figure Out How Many Days to Visit
It’s important to know early on in the process how many days you’ll be traveling so you can come up with a general itinerary. For a resort trip, this isn’t much of a consideration as you won’t be bopping around from place to place. Yet, for almost any other type of trip, this will guide where you’re able to visit and how much you’re able to do.
Don’t assume more days means a better trip, either. Our last couple trips were over two weeks long. Having this much time was nice because we got to see a lot while still having downtime. Conversely, after eating out for almost every meal for two weeks, we were both starting to look forward to a homecooked dinner. (If you stay at a place with a kitchenette, this may not be an issue.)
Once you have these first two steps figured out, you can purchase flight tickets. If you’re not sure exactly where you want to fly in and out of yet, the next two steps will cover that.
These first two steps almost go hand in hand with how we plan trips. That said, I try to figure this out around the same time as when I decide where I’m going.
Planning a Trip Step 3: Purchase (and Read) a Guidebook
Now that you know where you’re going and for how long, it’s time for the fun part: discovering what all there is to do where you’re heading!
For this step, I recommend purchasing a reliable guidebook to help you plan. I have nothing against travel blogs (obviously), but most of us don’t have the years of experience working with locals and other professional travelers that guidebook writers have.
Good guidebooks will have up-to-date practical information on tourist attractions (ticket options, parking, how to plan your visit, etc.), give attractions some historical context, provide recommendations on where to eat and sleep, provide itinerary suggestions, and give information on traveling from point A to point B.
If you can, I suggest getting a digital guidebook. These are easier to highlight important information to find later. They’re also a much better option than carrying around a book while you’re at your destination. Simply open up your smartphone and click to what you want for quick reference.
For European travel, I recommend Rick Steves Europe brand of guidebooks. He provides everything I mentioned above and more, all while delivering his unique style of dry humor. These books have been my prime source for planning our trips, and they have all worked out great for us.
Planning a Trip Step 4: Come Up with a General Itinerary
While I’m reading my guidebook, I’m starting to jot down notes for a rough itinerary. It’s also during this time where I’m figuring out the route of our trip so we can start booking accommodations.
I find the best way to do this is to create an Excel spreadsheet with a tab dedicated to each day. After going through your guidebook, figure out the order of the towns you’ll be visiting and mark the tabs correspondingly.
I also start listing out some things I want to do in each town regardless of importance to come back to a little later in the planning process. To make things a bit easier for later, you can also jot down quick notes such as hours and costs of attractions.
One thing to think about during this step is whether or not you will need to do laundry. For us, we usually only take our two backpacks. After about a week or so, we make sure we’ll be somewhere that has a convenient laundromat.
Once you have your route planned out, it’s time to start booking things. Specifically, you want to look into hotels and transportation, whether that’s a car rental and/or trains. I prefer to do this earlier rather than later to guarantee affordable hotels that fit our aesthetic, generally cheaper train fares and automatic cars if we’ll be driving.
I typically try having this all done around three months before our trip. It depends on the popularity of where you’re visiting and the time of year, though. If you’re heading somewhere popular in the middle of the peak tourist season, you may want to have all this booked even earlier to be safe. However, if you’re the type who enjoys hostels or budget hotels, you can wait till closer to your departure.
Planning a Trip Step 5: Sleep on It for a Bit
Unless you waited till the last second to plan this trip, around this time, you should have a couple months before you take off. Try to not fill all that time with too much concrete planning lest you burn yourself out before you even step foot in your destination.
Rather, take at least a couple weeks to let that excitement sit at a steady simmer.
During this time, I like to read blogs and watch travel shows about our destination. This helps to get a better idea of what to expect once we’re actually there. It’s also a good way to find places to eat or less touristy places to visit.
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Planning a Trip Step 6: Fine Tune Your Itinerary
Finally, we’ve arrived at the real meat and potatoes part of my planning process: finalizing the itinerary. The amount of time and effort you put into this step depends on how you travel. Personally, I’m a bit of an overplanner when it comes to travelling. I only have so much time, so I want to make the most of it. If you prefer to go with the flow, you might just want to make a general list of things you want to visit at some point in your trip.
If you’re like me, I recommend researching approximately how long people take for each attraction while simultaneously considering how long you typically take touring similar places. Also, map out where everything you want to see is in relation to each other.
Additionally, I like to differentiate between things that are must-do versus things we could do. The things we could do are in case something is unexpectedly closed or we have more time than expected.
From there, you can start coming up with your itinerary. Pick no more than two big ticket attractions (generally, things that take 60 minutes or more) per day and sprinkle in a couple smaller things here and there. If you put in the research mentioned above, it should be relatively easy to figure out each day.
Do Not Underestimate the Importance of Downtime!
One of the biggest mistakes you can make while traveling is trying to do too much in one day. I want to make the most of my time, but I know the importance of having time to sit and relax, too. What’s the point in seeing museum after museum if you’re going to be too exhausted to appreciate or remember it?
If you’re still having trouble figuring things out, tell yourself that you will be back one day. Don’t try to fit every single thing in. Besides, leaving some things for later gives you an excuse to return!
By now, you should have between one and two months left before your trip.
More Travel Inspiration: A 2-Day Venice Itinerary to Fall in Love with La Serenissima
Planning a Trip Step 7: Book Advance Reservations
Don’t underestimate the importance of this step to ensure you have a smooth and enjoyable trip. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and overtourism concerns, many tourist attractions allow you to book reservations in advance to limit how many people are visiting at once.
It’s important to note that some places even require advanced reservations. These tend to be the more popular and busier attractions. So, even if you are the type of person who likes to have flexibility, make sure you check the website of each attraction you’re visiting for updated ticketing guidelines.
Further, some places that don’t have reserved times will still let you buy your tickets early. Oftentimes, while these tickets may not give you a specific time to enter, they will let you skip the line. I shouldn’t have to tell you how convenient it is to not have to wait in line, but it is extremely convenient!
Besides other miscellaneous things, this is my last major planning step of the process. I try to do this at least 3-4 weeks before our trip. However, take into account where you’re visiting. Iconic locations like the Roman Colosseum and Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle can book up several weeks in advance. If you have a tight schedule, make sure you book these as soon as possible to guarantee your preferred time and day.
Planning a Trip Step 8: Enjoy Your Trip!
If you gave yourself plenty of time and planned out a logical, efficient itinerary, you should have nothing to worry about! It’s time to unwind and head out into the world to see what’s out there. Have a drink at the airport and think about all the fun you’re about to have over the coming days.
My last few pieces of advice during this little bit of time before your trip is to organize your tickets, guidebook and itinerary. Personally, I think it’s best to have both paper and digital copies of your itinerary just to be safe. (I also find it very satisfactory to cross things off on the paper itinerary!) Make sure the digital copy is somewhere you can find quickly, too. Save it as a file on your phone so you don’t have to search through emails.
Along those lines, I also find it helpful to go through and highlight important information in your guidebook. Doing so makes it easy to find important background information on the fly about the places you’ll be visiting.
Finally, if you haven’t already, go through your emails to screenshot all your reservations and tickets. It’s so much easier to access them this way rather than having to search through your emails in the moment when checking in to your hotel or walking into a museum.
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Resources to Book a Trip Today
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