Jaime and I like to joke that it would be so fun (and probably terrifying) to be in each other’s head for a day to figure out how the other thinks. Well, today is your lucky day friends because you have free tickets to the behind-the-scenes tour of what happens in my brain when I’m in trip planning mode. First things first, get comfortable, pour a nice big glass of wine (preferably a dry French red) and fire up your laptop. Things are about to get serious, seriously organized that is! Whenever I start planning a big trip, I turn to my trusted friend excel. I firmly believe that almost everything in life can be handled with a detailed, multi tab, color coded document.
Funny side bar, we had a short engagement, almost exactly six months between the day Jaime proposed and our winter wedding day. He decided to take on planning our honeymoon – three weeks of island hopping in Hawaii. It was amazing and he did a great job handling all the details. But – every single trip we’ve taken since getting married – I plan and now he’s the passenger princess. Being a planner is in my blood. I’ve made a career out of orchestrating hugely complicated projects and having back up plans to the back up plans. I love everything about trip planning, almost everything. Sitting on the phone with Delta for an hour last week because they thought it would be fun to cancel one leg of our upcoming multi country trip….that wasn’t so much fun. Sigh. But seeing the trip itinerary I spent so much time building come to life before my eyes and seeing Jaime’s reaction to it all – that’s the best!
Back to the travel talk: One bonus of Jaime no longer teaching is that we have more flexibility regarding when we travel. Instead of vacationing during spring break season or the summer months, known in our house as teacher time off, we now have the ability to visit places during non-peak travel time. Because I still have a “regular job” now my work calendar is the constraint, so I try to minimize the number of vacation days I must use for each getaway. We travel as much as possible every year, so I take full advantage of weekends, companywide holidays, etc. A great example of this, we spent 17 days adventuring around Scotland, but I only needed to take nine days off work thanks to some careful calendar planning.
Deciding where to go next is always the first question. We I keep a list of all the places in the world we want to see and things we want to experience: cities, countries, sights, restaurants, national parks. Things we watch on TV often end up on the list. We ventured to Iceland before it was trendy thanks to an episode of House Hunters International. Next year we are heading to Italy and going out of our way to go eat at a restaurant we saw on Chef’s Table. Why not?!
Big Picture
Regardless of where we are going, here’s my approach:
- Capture everything either of us could potentially want to see, do or experience including location information, cost, website and days/ times its open on my fancy spreadsheet.
- Once I have an unrealistic and completely overwhelming list of possibilities, I highlight each idea with a different color as “absolutely must do” or “would like to do” or “back up plan”.
- Decide how much travel we are willing to do once we get to the destination. Sometimes this is decided for us based on the amount of time we have. But if we aren’t crunched for time, we like to get to a place and stay for a few days, really see and appreciate the area before moving on to the next stop. This is something I’ve learned through trial and error. Neither of us will ever forget the all-day walking tour I booked in Budapest. Yes, we got to see the entire city, and I mean the ENTIRE CITY, but the exhaustion and blisters we had afterwards were absolutely not worth it.
- Nail down the homebases. If we are exploring a new country, I start by figuring out reasonable distances between cities and must see sites to start mapping out possible itineraries. I don’t like to waste full days traveling intercountry and neither of us like to pack and unpack every day. So that’s something I always take into consideration.
- After I have a good idea of what area we will be staying in and for how long, I start the daily itinerary breakdown in my vacation planner. Each day has a section for transportation, lodging, food and tickets. I make note of important information like check in/out times, anticipated travel time and method to get from the hotel to an event or to get from the subway to dinner, keep track of all reservations, etc. This master planner is revisited and tweaked and reviewed over and over again as the trip details come together.
Planes, Trains & Ferrys Oh my!
After those big pieces of our travel puzzle have been identified, it’s time to see how they can best fit together. That usually starts with booking airfare. If it’s possible, fly direct. You can’t buy time, but you can buy a plane ticket that gets you to your destination as fast as possible. Connecting flights add time, further risk of lost luggage and the potential for additional travel delays.
A couple of things to remember:
- Be mindful of the time change. Before you buy your flights, double and triple check the arrival and departure dates. If you are traveling to another continent, you will likely lose a day or two. Don’t screw that up! I always like to arrive at the final destination early in the day (local time). Doing this gives us a chance to explore, get checked in to the hotel and grab dinner before going to bed no earlier than 8pm so we can adjust to the new time zone.
- Packing and Luggage. Make sure your luggage sizes are compliant with all modes of transportation you will be utilizing on your trip. Your departure airport and associated airline might have different requirements than an intercountry European flight for example. Will you be renting a car? You might not be able to find (or want to have) a giant SUV with loads of storage space. If you end up with a compact sedan that has no trunk, will your oversized luggage fit? Can you realistically run through a crowded train or subway station and board through the narrow doors carrying your luggage by yourself? What if your hotel doesn’t have an elevator? Wheel bottomed bags don’t roll well over cobblestoned streets. All things to consider before you start packing.
- Passports, Visas and Vaccinations. Every country has unique entrance requirements. Make sure you check months before you travel to give yourself time to renew your passport, apply for a Visa or go through a round of shots before you depart.
After the flights to the destination and back home are taken care of, then I figure out intercountry transportation. Many times, taking a train is a better choice than an intercountry flight. By the time you go through the hassle of airport security, checking bags, etc it might be faster to just hop on a train. I’m a sucker for train stations; I love them just as much as airports I think – maybe more – depending on the country I’m in. And sometimes you meet some incredibly charming people, like the tiny elderly woman who briefly sat next to us in Austria. She was dressed up in a long flower dress, wearing a cardigan held closed with a broach and carrying a small potted basil plant and Tupperware container. She didn’t speak much English, but we figured out she was headed to a family get together just a few stops away. The basil was her hostess gift and inside the Tupperware were her famous cookies. She insisted that we each eat one, so we did. My goodness! Those little cookies were delightful and so was she.
If you’ve never traveled by train, don’t be intimidated….but do pre-book your ticket. Price check to see if it’s a better deal to book multiple stop to stop tickets or instead buy a rail pass for your time away. Know that you will be responsible for carrying your luggage on and off the train. This means walking up a couple of large steps and squeezing through narrow-ish doors. Once on board, you leave your big bag in luggage racks so having a bag lock is a good idea. Take your personal item with you, there should be storage available above your head to place a small bag – but keep your passport and all important documents on your person. Depending on the class of your ticket and the length of your journey, there might be food and drink available.
Ferrys are another great mode of getting from place to place, and again might be a better choice than flying. If you’ve rented a car, make sure your rental policy includes ferry coverage if you might find yourself on a boat. Just like with train travel, pre book your ticket and know that you will most likely be separated from your luggage. Speaking of car, if you are picking up your car in one city/ country and dropping it off in another, make sure you work out the fine details ahead of time with your rental agency.
Hotels
After all the transportation has been ironed out and booked, hotel reservations are next on the to do list. Location is key! How close do you want to be to the sights you plan on seeing? Is there a train or subway station nearby? Is parking available and if so, what is the daily rate? It’s worth it for us to pay more for a hotel that is right in the middle of the action instead of saving a few bucks and then need to hassle with cabs, ubers, trains or long walks to get to wherever it is we want to go. For us, having a good breakfast option in the place we are staying is also important. We don’t like to waste time in the morning trying to find a place to grab coffee and food. And, if at all possible, I book a place with a gym. Yes, I’m one of those people who like to keep up with the exercise routine even while traveling. Since I’m up early I can usually get a workout in before Jaime even wakes up, then we grab breakfast and start our day.
Other things to consider:
- Know that bed sizes are different in other parts of the world. If you have a king size bed at home, and book a king size bed in another country, you might find that you are sleeping a lot closer to your partner than what you’re used to. Or you might find that your room has two twin sized beds and not one mattress.
- What kind of electrical outlets will your room have? Will you need adaptors? Will your travel steamer or curling iron work?
- I think this goes without saying, but read the fine print of what’s included vs what is extra so you aren’t surprised at the bill when you check out. You might find a really good rate and then discover the actual amount is much higher when you add up the nightly taxes and fees.
Excursions and Event Tickets
Remember the color coded list of “absolutely must do” or “would like to do” or “back up plan”? If any of the absolutely must do’s require reservations or tickets, make sure you secure those spots in advance. If your excursion could be impacted by the weather, find out what the cancellation/ refund policy is and then make sure your itinerary can be flexible to accommodate rebooking if possible. The last few trips to Europe I’ve started booking a three hour walking tour with food and cocktails for arrival day. We’ve both really enjoyed doing this as it’s a great way to get familiar with a new place, usually checks off all of the touristy “must see’s” and helps us stay awake to get adjusted to local time. Win, win, and win!
One final thought – try not to over plan and instead just go with the flow. That might sound strange coming from a Type A planner, but leave plenty of time to be spontaneous. Leisurely stroll through a new place withOUT a plan and see where the day takes you. That’s where the best travel memories are made. Your over scheduled busy life will be waiting for you when you get back from vacation.
This concludes the cliff notes version of trip planning inside Angie’s head.