Steps to Planning a Great Vacation
I spend a lot of time planning trips. Probably too much time. Before a vacation to a new city or country, I will spend hours pouring over the internet, reading books, and analyzing maps, and I have had many late nights. Over the years though, I have developed more or less of a process that has helped me create better and better itineraries. And since I’m currently in the midst of planning an Icelandic adventure, I thought I would share how I do it with you. Here are my personal steps to planning a great vacation.
Step One: Book your transportation and accommodation. This step is sort of a given. You kind of need a way to get to your destination whether that is a car, train, boat, or plane. What mode of travel you choose will depend on your budget and time. It is also a good idea to book your accommodation (hotel, hostel, camp site, etc), but I have known people who wait until they get to a city to find a place to stay which works sometimes but usually not. For peace of mind, however, I would definitely recommend booking something ahead of time. If you want the maximum amount of flexibility, you can stop reading right here. Planning completed! However, unless you are an extremely laid back traveler who’s not short on time or doesn’t necessarily care about seeing all the major attractions, I’d suggest to proceeding to step two. You don’t want to get home only to realize that you missed some really cool attractions.
I’d like to note that although I put transportation and accommodations in step one, I typically don’t book these in the first stage of my trip planning. I’m only putting them at step one because they are top priority.
Read our articles on booking a hostel and booking airfare for tips.
Step Two: Take a peak at a tour company’s itinerary. Tour companies have itineraries put together by travel professionals, so they are usually an excellent first draft to your own itinerary. You can be sure they have the main attractions listed, and they are also usually in a really good order. For example, I’m currently planning a trip to Iceland in March. When I started my planning, I didn’t know anything about the country, but after looking at a couple of tour company itineraries, I saw that some musts are a city tour of Reykjavik, the Golden Circle Tour, the South Coast Tour, and the Blue Lagoon. I had a good start to my itinerary and I had only spent 10 minutes!
Step Three: Look at the top attractions on TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor is one of the best tools to use when planning a trip because the community is huge, and it is used world-wide. Just type in the location and what you are looking for (“Things to Do” in this case), and it will show you the top rated activities in your location. For my Iceland trip, 3 out of the top 5 activities were day tours from the cities which reassured me that the itinerary I pulled from the travel companies was a good one. By clicking on the day tours, I was then able to see the top rated companies providing the tours. After reading several (or 50) reviews, I picked a tour company. (As a side note, if you are taking multiple day tours from the same company, be sure to email them for extra discounts!) TripAdvisor also showed me which sights I should seek out in Reykjavik including Hallgrimskirkja and the National Museum of Iceland.
Step Four: Use Pinterest and read the blogs. This is a somewhat newer way of preparing for you trip, but you can find awesome and insightful information. And yes, guys can use it too! If you go to Pinterest and search for your destination, you are sure to find hundreds of amazing photos for inspiration. Sometimes the photos alone will lead you to adding a new stop on your itinerary, but I encourage you actually click on the photos. A lot of the time, the photos are linked to blogs (like PandaTrot!) that give great tips on packing, transportation, and attractions along with personal experiences and recommendations. While reading the blogs on Iceland that I found on Pinterest, I realized I needed waterproof winter boots and I definately did not want to be driving there in the unpredictable winter weather (among lots of other things). The bloggers also reviewed some of the famous (and not so ethical) Icelandic food such as whale, puffin, and fermented shark. Definitely going on my list, but probably not going to try it…stay tuned!
Check out my Pinterest page and stay up-to-date on my travels in a fun and inspiring way!
Step Five: Make a list of restaurants. A lot of people may skip this step, and that is fine. But, if you really want to enjoy the local flavor or don’t want to kill your budget on overpriced tourist joints, you should seriously consider reading up on some restaurants before your trip. It always baffles me how people eat at restaurants in the most touristy area and then generalize the food in the city as mediocre with rude waiters (Paris especially comes to mind). A little research goes a long way, and there are several ways to find the best restaurants including Yelp, TripAdvisor, and travel blogs. I typically start my list based on the blogs I have already read and then finalize it with either Yelp or TripAdvisor. (If you are traveling internationally, TripAdvisor generally has more reviews compared to Yelp). I know I want to try some of the interesting food in Iceland that all the bloggers are talking about, and for the most part, they have told me where to try it. I know which hot dog stand is the best and where to eat lobster soup. A quick search on TripAdvisor confirmed their experiences and even led me to adding a few more places to my list.
Step Six: Don’t over plan. While it might be tempting to plan every minute of your trip, remember to leave some flexibility. I’m hoping to see the Northern Lights on my upcoming trip, but I know I probably won’t see it the first night I’m there (or at all). So I’m leaving flexibility in my itinerary so I can try again another night. Another example is when I was in Barcelona last fall. I had some room in my itinerary so when I found out that my hostel provided amazing walking tours and fun cooking lessons, I was able to move things around and participate in the unanticipated.
How do you plan a great vacation?
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