10 easy steps for Planning your Perfect trip
learn how to plan your dream vacation itinerary
Booking a trip doesn’t have to mean going to a travel agent. Sure, it’ll save you time and effort, but it’ll be more expensive, and there’ll be less flexibility. Plus, planning a vacation is fun! And helps you get excited weeks before you go.
I’ve planned all my trips myself, and saved money doing so. In fact, I’ve planned every itinerary on this site. So how do I do it? And how can you do it too? Well, the following simple steps should help you get started. And if you want any further help, you can always just message me for advice.
1. Figure out your budget
Probably the least exciting step, but also the most important. It may seem obvious, but it’s important to check that you can afford your dream destination before you book anything. You can start by running some google searches on how expensive a place is by checking out some flight and accommodation prices. If it’s more expensive than you were expecting, maybe move the goal posts and decide to go for less time. There’s usually a way around these things! Remember, you’ll need to budget for accommodation every night, travel between stops, tours, food, plus some extra for emergencies or spontaneous new plans.
2. Book your flights
Once you’ve figured out your budget, it’s time to plan when to go and how to get there. Again, it’s worth popping googling what the best times are to visit a place (e.g., when’s cheapest, the high season, and what the weather’s like at different times of the year). Once you’ve figured out a rough ballpark for timings it’s time to visit SkyScanner. SkyScanner is a website that automatically scans all the flights running to your destination on a particular day. You can filter the search by certain elements, such as price, airport, airline, number of layovers or time of day. It’s worth comparing options across a few different dates, to make sure you get the best flights for you. And if you can, book directly through the airline rather than through one of the online travel agents offered, as your purchase is usually a little more protected this way. Of course, please do check the individual Ts and Cs of your chosen partner before booking.
Important: SkyScanner uses cookies! This means the more you visit the website, the more it knows about what flights you’re looking for, and the more likely your prices are going to go up. Fortunately, there’s a way around this: just make sure you access SkyScanner in Incognito mode.to
3. Figure out your must-sees
Now your flights are booked, it’s time to start planning your itinerary! Usually, I started by googling my destination, and figuring out the places that I absolutely must see on my trip. You can also search by place on instagram, or follow the hashtag for your destination of choice.
4. plan your itinerary
Once you have a list of must-sees, it’s time to start searching for sample itineraries online. Here’s some of my own examples. Itineraries are a great way to get an idea about the order to visit places in, how to get to each one, how long each journey will take and where to stay when you get there. Try searching for the name of your destination, with some of your must-sees and the word itinerary on the end. It’s also worth looking on Reddit, TripAdvisor, or joining an appropriate Facebook group.
Another great way to get itinerary ideas is to search for tour company itineraries. I often start with G Adventures as a guideline. They share full maps and day by day descriptions of their planned activities. One thing I would say is that these trips are often jam-packed. So unless you want to be moving from place to place every day or two, I’d think about what you can cut out of their plans, rather than what you can add. I always try to plan more time in less places, rather than the opposite. Sometimes it’s easy to get lured into cramming in as much as possible, but travelling and checking in and out of hotels can be tiring and take away from your experience.
5. Map out your itinerary
Now it’s time to check your itinerary will actually work in practice. First, have a look on google maps, and figure out the travel times between each of your stops. It’s good to start thinking about how you’ll get between each destination. And definitely add some buffer time too! Google maps isn’t always accurate.
You might be planning on hiring a car, so enter a quote into a site like Kayak to see how much this would set you back. If you don’t want to do this, have a look at what sort of public (or private) transport is available, and how reliable it is. In a lot of cases, it works out cheaper to book your hire car or train ticket ahead of time. So once you’ve confirmed your itinerary, i’d recommend booking the trips you know you’ll definitely be taking.
6. Check your itinerary is fool-proof
Honestly, the internet is a wonderful place. And you’ll be surprised how many strangers out there are willing to help you out. Once I think i’ve got my itinerary nailed down, I often head to reddit or Facebook and find a relevant sub or group for my destination. I then make a post asking for the members to check my itinerary. In all my time doing this, I’ve only ever received incredible advice, either from locals or people who’ve been there before. They’ll often point out a better route, or suggest other places to visit.
7. Plan your travel between stops
Once you’re happy with your itinerary, it’s time to start planning how you’re going to move about in your destination. You might like the idea of hiring a car, so enter a quote into a site like Kayak to see how much this would set you back. If you don’t want to hire a car, have a look at what sort of public transport is available, and figure out how reliable it is. It’s no fun waiting for a bus that never arrives (speaking from experience)! In most cases, it works out cheaper to book your hire car or train ticket ahead of time. So once you’ve confirmed your itinerary, consider booking the trips you’ll definitely be taking, leaving out the ones where you want a little more flexibility.
8. Book your accommodation
Accommodation can sap a big chunk from your holiday budget, so it’s important to be sure of how much you’re willing to pay per night before you start booking. Once you have your nightly budget, you can start searching on websites or apps such as booking.com or airbnb (my two favourites) and tailor your search results by price. You can also filter by things that are important to you, such as air conditioning, breakfast or free cancellation. Personally, I will always opt for properties with free cancellation. You never know what could happen between now and your trip, and it gives you a little more flexibility to chop and change once you’re there. Both booking.com and airbnb allow previous tenants to provide reviews, so scour these to get a true picture of what a place is like. You can also search reviews for your specific requirements such as ‘breakfast’ or ‘parking’.
9. Book some tours in advance
It might just be me, but I’m not a huge fan of leaving plans to the very last minute. Trips and tours can sell out, or get more expensive nearer the time. If your dream is to see a baseball game in San Francisco, then just book it as soon as you know when you want to go! I’ve done this recently and saved 75% on a ticket price. Plus, you don’t want to get there and find out there are no tickets left. Personally, I avoid booking through sites such as TripAdvisor and Viator. I always find prices are steeper there. Do some research before parting with your cash, there’s usually always better deals available somewhere.
10. get packed and get excited!
Before you pack for your trip, it’s worth googling some example packing lists for your destination. You might find that a waterproof iPhone case is exactly what you need for getting snaps on your kayaking trip. Or bug spray is essential in certain areas that you’re visiting. Whatever it is, it can’t hurt to be prepared and buy it before you get to the airport. Airports have limited stock, and can be expensive too.
Also, even though in this day and age most of our tickets can exist on our phone, I’d recommend printing out a couple of back-up copies of everything that you’ve booked. Sometimes it’s easier to get hold of paper quickly, and it’s good to not have to always rely on your phone.
And that’s it! I hope this has helped you plan your dream trip. All that’s left to do now is get excited. Have a great time!