Travel Planning: An Easy and Organized Method to Send You on Your Way

I have been drawn to other bloggers’ posts about planning vacations. Tips are always welcome in the fast changing world of travel. I am always disappointed that the pieces turn out to be nothing more than people bragging about all the nice places they have been and seen. No mechanics for planning, no nuggets of wisdom. So I have decided to write my own. I am a project manager by training and apply that discipline to planning. It is a tried and true, sound procedure. Let me share. 

• The first tip is to enjoy the process. It is almost like enjoying your vacation before you even before you go. The overarching key to being able to enjoy is to reserve enough time so as not to be rushed. This allows you to enjoy some of this process. 
• Like all daunting projects, the trick is to break up the process into manageable pieces. 
• Nothing annoys me more than wasting time and redoing work. Make notes about things you find along the way: a gem of a hotel you find while researching something else, for example. Keep notes about things you need to do later; reserving Vatican tickets would be one.

 Follow my template to inspire you while you work.

Phase 1. Picking a Destination

So you need a break and want to take a vacation. Where to go?

Time and Money

Start with an inventory of how much time you can vacation. This eliminates lots of possible places and types unfortunately. Budget will be another limiting factor to keep in mind.

Theme

Second decision. Decide what type of vacation you (and your traveling companions) desire. We will call this your “Theme”. Think about how much exercise you want, or not.

• Nature Themed
• Beach Orientated
• Active Adventures; biking, hiking or golf
• Culture, Architecture or Museums
• Food and Wine
• Volunteer or Social Conscious
• Travel for an event
• Or a multitude of other options

I am not suggesting that this choice eliminates all others. For example, wine and food can be a part of a safari vacation, and definitely a culture based one. This is just to define a focus to drive your next decisions. You can also have a week of one theme and a week of another. For instance one week of cities and culture and then head out into the bush. One time we went to Rome, Athens, and then Africa for a safari, on the same trip. Just a note, if you do this, you increase your necessary luggage a lot! You will not be needing the same clothes and gear in the city as on the safari. If you think you will be only taking a couple big trips in your lifetime, consider this. If you plan to do a lot of travel over your life, maybe don’t mix it up so much.

Some of our best vacations have started around a single event. Not necessarily something you are passionate about that would require your full attention. Just an event somewhat interesting to you. We went to New York City for the Westminster Dog Show. The dog show was a hoot. Taking in the City in Winter was an unexpected delight. Other ideas are: Oktoberfest, NCAA Final Four, America’s Cup, Kentucky Derby, or Il Palio in Sienna, Italy.

Country

Once you have a theme, start narrowing down the places that satisfy the theme. Maybe you (all) are interested in far east culture; consider China, Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam. You get the picture. Or European culture. Great thing about Europe, you can easily visit more than one country to get a variety. For an active adventure trip, look to countries that offer a variety of outdoor sports: hiking, biking, water sports like rafting and kayaking. Some good ones are Canada, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam (on my bucket list), and my favorite: Croatia. Many others too. Google “(insert country) Adventure Travel”. If you get a lot of hits, it’s worth a consideration. Have I mentioned before how grateful I am for Google. What ever did we do before?

Excluding choices

Think about things you do not want. For some dealing with a foreign language is out of the question. Assess your level of risk comfort. This step will probably happen automatically. If you are uncomfortable in a country where the language is foreign to you (pun intended), strike it. Same with anything else that turns you away: aversion to the food, politics, weather. Price may apply here too. Consulate travel advisories for current warnings and choose destinations armed with all the information you can. The world is a fast changing place.

Phase 2 Planning the Trip

Now that you have a theme and country(ies). It is time to start planning the guts of your trip. I have found some shortcuts to this overwhelming task to share. At this phase, you are developing your dates, route and how long you want to stay at each stop. Leave hotel choices for later. 

Season and Dates

If you have flexibility on the season and dates of your travel, now is the time to narrow it down. Consider weather, the seasonality of some destinations, and crowds. We like to travel in shoulder seasons: weather still good, crowds less, with kids back in school. Downside, some businesses may be closed or scaled down already. If you are going to Galapagos to see the blue footed booby, you better know when they will be there. Never a guarantee, they are birds and can leave at will, but still, they have a migratory schedule, don’t miss it. Planning a trip to Galapagos takes on a whole new order of planning; outside of this post. I digress, but you get the jist of my comment.

Explore packaged tours

Look into packaged tours, not because you want to take a packaged tour, but because where they go, is where most people want to go, and you may too. Further those trips are efficiently designed. If an interesting location is not part of a packaged tour, there is probably a logistical reason why that you need to discover. 

We noticed a lot of trips combining Vienna, Budapest and Prague. We would not have made this link ourselves, but so many tours did. Why, because these three diverse capitals are all located in easy proximity to each other. It is a no-brainer to visit them together. 

By the way, going the packaged tour route is a good option. In some cases we do these. For us, we do packaged tours in countries where local knowledge for safety and security is important. We have also found that if time is short, packaged tours allow you to do and see a lot more in less time. They can do this because they have resources and experience you do not. They have the kayaks at the right spot for you when you arrive, shuttle you around. Have dinner reservations lined up. Every day these tour operators demonstrate their value. When we use a packaged tour, we like to use a local company. Huck Finn Adventures in Croatia was one of the best

Look at a map

Americans in particular are not that familiar with geography. It matters. Consult a map. Athens and Rome in the same trip sounded logical culture wise. But not really so much geographically. 

Internet Research

Consult the big travel websites: Tripadvisor, Fodors, Lonely Planet, Rick Steves. Oodles of information is available on these sites. 

Peruse Travel forums. Subscribe to facebook groups about travel to your chosen destination.This is a fast way to get timely information and recommendations about your chosen destination. If a business is no longer operating (a common issue post covid), you can probably find out on a local facebook group. 

Figure out the best Direction of Travel

Once you have the destinations decided, decide the order of travel. Where you start and end. Consult airline schedules and prices. That is the most important factor. If you plan to include a travel hub in your trip, it is where you want to start or finish, or both. That reminds me, we usually plan open jaw vacations (where you fly into one city and leave from another). There are some cases where starting and finishing in the same place (i.e. making a circle) makes more sense. Car rental dropoff, or if you can store some of your baggage are benefits to returning to a starting point. 

Number of Days

Figure out how many days you need at each destination. I do this by taking a quick inventory of what we want to do there. 

1. Consult the travel websites, local travel bureau websites, the forums and local facebook groups as in step 5, but this time for activities. Figure out how many day trips you want to do, museums, etc. Everyone going on the trip needs to participate at this stage.
2. Add up the time very loosely. You can do one day trip a day and not much else. Plan a half a day for museum type destinations: palaces, galleries, museums. If you are taking in a show: the Spanish Riding School performance in Austria for example (must do BTW), plan a half day. Remember time to eat, get around, and rest between events is going to be needed.
3. Your arrival day is a dead day, there is no way around this. The day is lost to getting your bearings no matter how early you arrive. We plan on a quick walk around the city center and nothing more. The day you leave is usually the same. So, a 3 night stay only gives you two days to take in the place. Almost never enough; keep this in mind. 
4. Very important step: Check for black out days. You do not want to plan 2 nights in Paris (virtually only one day there), and have that be on Tuesday: the day that the Louvre is closed. Check the the operating times of the activities you are planning. Make a note of the things you will need to purchase in advance (to be done later). Research the holidays of the country, and city.
5. If you are staying in a resort or fancy hotel, make sure you have time to enjoy it. One time I figured out how much the hotel cost per hour and decided how much money I was wasting per hour by not being there. We usually do not stay in those places, but if you do – don’t leave. 
6. See if any of your destinations can be consolidated into one location. It is always better to stay in one place and take days trips than to get up and move every day. 

Once you have a framework of (1) where you are going, (2) in which order and (3) how many days in each city, you are nearly there.

Pulling the Trigger

 It is almost time to make commitments. Research airline tickets and hotels, and make reservations. 

*This is a great time to divide and conquer. In our household one of us handles transport and the other lodging. We work together to get the best fit between the two. For example, If I am in love with a particular hotel, we may shift travel to accommodate the hotel’s availability. Conversely, if he finds a great flight, we may adjust plans to utilize that. 

Selecting your accommodation could be a fun part of your planning if you let it. You can virtually tour hotel rooms and amenities; peruse restaurant menus, and spa services. If you do this right, there will be no surprises when you arrive.

*At this stage also, you may need to consider activities that book up in advance. If you are going to Rome, make sure you can get your colosseum or Vatican Garden tour tickets for the dates you want. Sometimes it is a puzzle to fit the (1) hotel, (2) transportation and (3) activities together.

*I cannot stress enough that the travel planning needs to include everyone on the trip. Sometimes, okay usually, some people are more keen to plan than others. Fine, they do most of the work. But find something for everyone, even kids, to participate in the decision making. Sometimes I find a few candidates for hotels and let the partner make the pick between them.

Choosing Your Accommodations

The area of town where you want to stay is the first decision. We rarely have a car, so City Center is usually the place for us. Tripadvisor forums are a good place to find out from other travelers the neighborhoods where you want to stay, or avoid. Every City has both. We had a preconceived idea when we began traveling that the area around a train station would be a bad area. Sometimes it is, but more often these days, it is a great location.

Consult the travel websites for hotels. I like to start with Tripadvisor for hotel considerations; I like their different ranking schemes. We usually use more than one site. Hotels.com is big in Europe; Booking.com more robust in Australia and New Zealand. City travel bureaus are worth a look, but often information is not up to date.

Be aware of your preconceived assumptions. Smoking is one of these. Smoking is still prevalent in much of the world. If a Non-Smoking Room is important to you, do not forget to make this part of your search criteria. Forget about a coffee machine outside the USA. You may get a packet or two of instant coffee and a kettle. Refrigerators are also rare in hotel rooms outside the USA. In New Zealand and Australia, it is very easy to find a room, even in a hotel, with a washing machine. I have never seen that in the USA.

Scour the Reviews

Again I like Tripadvisor for reviews. You can search for keywords that interest you. Be thorough in this process. One of us is a light sleeper, so noise matters. I search all these related keywords: “Noise”, “Loud”, “Quiet”. Be thorough about whatever your important factors of a hotel may be. Search more than one keyword synonym and antonyms.

Location is another aspect important to most travelers. Keep in mind, not everyone’s idea of the optimal location is the same. Some want to be in the center of the nightlife, others want quiet. Be cognizant of the reviewer’s situation regarding location. If they had a car, their idea of a good location is going to be quite different than yours, if you do not. 

Direct Booking

Once you have decided the hotel you want to use, contact it directly if you can. If there is a savings on a hotel website like Hotels.com or booking.com, the hotel will probably match it. Also note the cancelation policy. Unfortunately, sometimes the hotel website is non refundable, but the reservation would be if you use the booking platform.

We have discovered that we are treated better by the hotel, when we have made our reservations directly with the hotel. Same with airlines. Use any airfare notification app you want, but buy your ticket directly. We have been caught once too many going to a reseller like Expedia or Agoda. You are setting yourself up for frustration dealing with an airline reseller. You get what you pay for. And forget about trying to get your money back. 

What are some of our tips and tricks for selecting hotels, you ask.

Variety of Hotel Classes

We like to use a variety of hotel classes. It is always nice to stay in an iconic hotel at least once on your trip. We like to do this at either the beginning or end of the trip. This is when we are more likely to be tired and/or likely to have more time to spend in the hotel. When we have a busy schedule, and will only going to be using the hotel for sleeping, the glitz and perks will be wasted. 

Breakfast included or not?

If we are packing a lot into our days, having breakfast included is a benefit. It saves time and you usually get a very hearty breakfast that may last you past lunch. That being said, we rarely do so. Opting instead to pick up quick breakfast items ourselves. Note, in Europe you are very unlikely to find a hotel with a refrigerator, or coffee machine. But options for coffee and croissant will be plentiful just steps from most accomodations

Self Catering

Sometimes we like to cook for ourselves. You get a very different perspective of a place when you shop and cook like a local. Sourcing local ingredients is a treat. This is also a money saver, and not getting dressed to go out is a restful night you may need. Air B&B style or self catering apartments are a great value. In Europe look for “Aparthotels”. 

Other tidbits of travel planning advice

Overpacking your Time. When we started out as travelers, we always thought each trip would be “The Trip of a Lifetime”. We crammed a lot into our days. This suited us. We still manage to accomplish a lot in a day. Americans, who get very little work time off, are going to probably do the same. It is the very lucky traveler that can linger and savoir each morsel of travel. Experts will always tell you, you need more time. Of course you do, but if you do not have it, what are you going to do? Wake up early, and make the most of the time you have. There is a huge benefit for waking up early in crowded tourist locations. This is just about the only time you will be able to get those iconic pictures without people in your way. Most travelers it seems, do not rise with the sun like we do. Other bloggers and travel websites are full of the advice not to plan to do too much. Those people may have more time than you. I get it. I am also not going to tell you to pack light.

Changing your Mind. If you are marching down the road of vacation planning, and not enjoying the task, perhaps you are not planning the right vacation. When we start down the planning track, if we do not start getting really excited about our upcoming trip, we reconsider. Perhaps we did not get steps 2 and 3 right. We bag the destination and come up with another; a place we can get excited about. Another time, after investigating the destination, China it was, we decided we just did not have enough time to do this area right (step 1). We put it aside for another time in our lives when we can spend the time. 

Packing Does packing for your trip daunt you? See our packing tips. You are going to find we have very different thoughts than most travel “experts”.