Stamps in My Passport

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the gal people ask for travel advice, recommendations and tips. It’s no secret that I love to travel and as a bonus I’ve always been a type A planner, so travel planning has been a no brainer for me. Making lists and staying organized are just some of the things that have helped me to plan incredible trips and make the most of the time I have while on vacation.

There really is an art, a kind of dance if you will to travel planning. It’s taking into account everyone’s hopes and wishes, requests and recommendations when you’re planning, especially if you’re organizing a group trip. Having a go to resource like a travel guide and check lists can take all the guess work out of planning and greatly reduce the time you’ll spend planning. For those who like to plan and organize the details as much as I do here are a few tips to assist you with your planning…

If this is your first go at planning an itinerary (aka: a glorified, fancy, long list of to do’s/places to see, restaurant recommendations, maps/driving info and parking info, opening/closing times & costs, and everything else pertinent to your trip)…. Start by grabbing a pad of paper and a pen, your ipad or laptop and opening a blank google doc or note and begin jotting down ideas. I recommend seperating your ideas by place, top sights/attractions, activities, adventures and dream destinations. Perhaps make seperate lists for family vacations, couple retreats/getaways, solo travels, trips with friends etc. Next I’d recomend putting your destinations in order by most preferred/dream destinations listed 1-10 etc. and organize your list based on that. Then you’ll want to do a little research to learn what the average flight costs are and start tracking when flights are low. The best way to do this is to use a flight tracking app like “Hopper” that will find and keep track of flights, predict when a sale will be and tell you when is the best time to purchase your tickets.

After you purchase tickets the fun can start! Once those are secured, it’s time to research fun activities and begin hunting for the hidden gems in the areas you want to visit as well as surrounding areas. The best places to find this info is by doing a little Pinterest search, reading blogs, travel magazines and if those fail, find the info on the source of all things, Google. I usually spend around 10-20 hours doing research (If the destination is somewhere I’ve never been or not very familiar with) and end up making an outline with the information I glean.

From this list I will curate a list of all the sights we want to see & map them out on google maps. That helps to get a visual and figure out the best route to minimize zig zagging across towns/areas and allows me to make the most of our days by capitalizing on locations that are next to or close to others and arrange our itinerary schedule based on that info. Then I’ll look at opening times and costs to determine which locations we might need to eliminate from the list and decide which day we should visit them. For example if multiple locations are only open Monday -Thursday but you’ll only be visiting the area Wednesday -Friday you’ll need to arrange your schedule so you add those locations on the correct day or you will end up missing out.

Once all the preliminary research is done I often spend time browsing my local library and read any pertinent books I find, also blogs & social media posts and many google searches to confirm information and hopefully discover other hidden gems. There is a wealth of knowledge available at our finger tips. We live in a day and age where we’re able to find the answer to almost all of our questions within a matter of seconds via the power of the internet. Most of the time when I have a question I search several travel groups I’ve joined on Facebook and receive a wealth of knowledge from fellow travelers and locals will share insights that have been invaluable gems of wisdom and I’ve benefited so much from their input. I encourage you to look on Facebook and other social media sources there are so many resrouces available to find the information you’re looking for and help you plan your perfect trip.

For a really in depth version you can add photos & maps to your itinerary and arrange by day/date and time you’ll be doing each activity/seeing each destination. That not only helps with sorting which desitinations/activities you want to see (especially if you highlight or star next to your favorites/must see/do sights and activities) it also helps you have a visual of what you’ll be heading to next when you’re on the trip & is a clear reference to show others on the trip with you what’s next on the agenda.

Travel planning and creating the perfect itinerary can be so much fun & really is pretty simple when you break it down. It’s just learning how best to incorporate all the things that you and your travel companions wish to include on the trip and orchestrating and arranging your daily schedule in a way that makes sense for the group you’re traveling with and the kind of trip you’re taking. Think of it as a blend of a fancy check list & frame of reference to help you keep on track, make sure you don’t forget anything important, see as many of the locations as possible, and reduce your stress knowing you’ll have everything you need when you arrive because you researched & planned ahead. But don’t forget that it isn’t written in stone, it’s okay if you end up scrapping several locations or activities because you don’t end up feeling it the day of/spend longer at a prior destination or activity than you alloted/planned on or decided to skip something in lieu of doing somthing else, or perhaps you discover a brand new recommendation from a local or spot something exciting when you arrive that wasn’t on the list. The point of an itinerary is to help minimize the “what are we going to do”, “where are we going to eat”, “when does that place open”, “how much does that cost”, type of questions etc.. so that you can relax and enjoy your time on the vacation as much as possible!

Do you like to plan too? Do you have any tips that others would benefit from? Drop them in the comments I’d love to glean from you and your wisdom!

Keep an eye out for “The art of travel planning Part II” coming shortly- with more travel planning tips, pointers and insights how I map out my itineraries as well as a few recomendations of how I keep them all organized when planning and researching for multiple trips!

Happy travels everyone!

~Krista

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