Planning A Trip- Tips

I like traveling but I love planning….I think I enjoy planning a holiday more than actually being on it…that’s my issue and often my boyfriend’s, but maybe I can use my crazy to help others?

And you may think you like being spontaneous and don’t want to plan every minute detail of the holiday…my response to you is how are you getting from the airport to your hotel?

If you don’t have an answer to that are you going to be wandering around the airport car park at midnight in a country where you don’t speak the language trying to find a bus?  Figuring a few things out before you go can make the holiday much less stressful.

1. You may be restricted to which days you can take off work, and which countries you fancy visiting.  So give them a google and figure out the best time of year to visit.
   e.g Parts of Japan are hit by typhoons in September, and most of Spain is too hot in August and over crowded by tourists. You need to factor in the weather, crowds, prices, and public holidays.
2. Once you’ve decided where you’re going, use websites like Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, TripAdvisor, as well as travel blogs and Youtube to get a rough list of things you want to do or see.  This will help you figure out how many days you’ll need to spend there.
3. Popular ticketed events will book up fast, sometimes many months in advance which is where planning helps.  This is also a good time to check opening times for museum, shops, restaurants etc or you’ll rock up on the day it’s closed.  You can book the essentials, and lock them into the schedule, and fit other things in around them.
4. Create a map on google, or even a paper map, and mark on the essential places you definitely want to visit and the things you’ve already booked.  This will help you see the locations of attractions so you can get an idea of what stuff you’ll do together so you don’t waste time travelling across the city from one thing to another.  It helps to look up a few possible restaurants in the area too, so you’re not wandering around looking for an hour looking for food at 2pm.
5. Find accommodation, if you want to be a free spirit then just book the first night.  Then plan how you’re going to get there from the airport.  Taxi’s are usually the quickest and easiest but very expensive, most airports will have a shuttle bus and you can get the details from their website.
6. Find out if you can drop your bags of at your accommodation if you arrive before check in, or find somewhere to securely store them. Main train station’s will normally have lockers (although not really in the UK because out public transport sucks).
7. And then plan all that for the return journey!