Travel Planning – Where Dreaming & Scheming Come Together

Travel Planning – Choosing our trips

We used to totally fly by the seat of our pants when travel planning but for the last year, we have been getting serious. Devouring every travel list article, you know the ones, “50 Places That Should Be on Your Bucket List”, “The 25 Most Beautiful Places in the USA”.  We have created a comprehensive list of just over 200 incredible destinations that we are working through.  We committed to locking in 2 international and 2 domestic trips per year.  Then agreed to pick up other trips as opportunities present themselves.

The dreaming and wishing and the “ooh, let’s go there” are part of the overall enjoyment! We love to call each other on Sunday mornings and work through routes, sites, foods and must-see locations.

2020 travel planning has it’s challenges

We were splitting up for the first big trips of the year.  Patti led a yoga retreat (click here a list of upcoming retreats) in Bali in March, with a side trip to Malaysia.  I was going to Australia in March as well, but we all know where that ended up. Along with the rest of the travel community, I was grounded.

Sister Side Note (ssn) – I got kicked out of Malaysia by the Prime Minister after only 36 hours (it was due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but I’m totally going to work up a better story about being kicked out of Malaysia). In any case 36 hours was enough to convince me I need more of this beautiful country.

Sister side note side note (ssn sn) – Does anyone else think of Zoolander and get a little laugh when you hear a reference to the Prime Minister of Malaysia?

Together, we went to Bayfield, WI and The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in June and planned Jackson Hole for Labor Day.  Then throw in a few weekend getaways to Portland, Denver, Lexington (KY), Las Vegas, Clearwater (FL) and we have a pretty full year.  But that’s not all <using the infomercial voice in your head>…the biggest trip is for Patti’s 50^th birthday to Peru.  There are 2 locations on our Comprehensive Travel List that need to be checked off, Huacachina and Machu Picchu (duh!) but they aren’t that close together.  And there are so many other amazing locations that we will be taking 2 weeks and covering the southern region of the country with a detour to Bolivia and Lake Titicaca (even at our age this is giggle-worthy).

UPDATE: We did not actually get to go to Peru but opted for Mexico instead. It was amazing and wonderful but Peru has got to get back on the calendar. You can read about that trip and an unfortunate planning fail here (do as I say, not as I do, haha).

Did I mention I love the research?  Here is our process:

Travel Planning – Inspiration comes from Social Media

We have found that the amount and quality of social media content and inspiration can vary by destination.  For Bali, Instagram has you covered; for Peru, Pinterest has provided the biggest insight for this trip. Twitter and Facebook tend to be more useful when you have friends living in or having traveled to your destination or for discovering new locations.

Research (or Imagining, Dreaming, Fantasizing)

1. Follow the locale’s tourism accounts on Instagram, lots of them.  You’ll get scenery, attractions, restaurants and drinks.  We are constantly sending each other posts!
2. Buy a book or two.  And get a feel for the map. I LOVE travel books and travel guides!
3. Look into the local tourism websites and see what free literature is available.
4. Search Pinterest.  This is really the easiest place to find tips, sample itineraries and travel blogs.
5. Write down your must-see places, the nice to see and the eh, I could pass.
   • I literally do this on big presentation-size paper with colored markers. I think I was a school teacher in a previous life.

Building an Itinerary

There’s a term we use in my day job in setting performance goals, Aggressive but Achievable.  We like to fit as much into our time as possible while still appreciating each experience.

1. Decide how many locations you will be visiting
   • Will you travel to different towns and require travel days?
2. Decide how many days you need at each destination
   • Can you base your travel out of one city/town and do day trips?
   • Plan out your must-see locations and then fill in the like-to-see places.
3. Decide if sleep is important, we think not so much. Only slightly joking…
   • Do you like to get up early and beat the crowds? Or stay up late and revel in the night life?
   • Do you like to dawdle around <insert your objective here> or is a drive-by (metaphorically speaking, of course) sufficient?
   • Do you need down days? A day by the pool or at the beach with nowhere to be?
   • Do you have transportation or do you have to be concerned with being tied to a public transportation or tour schedule?

ssn – We always over schedule, with the understanding that once we are there we can adjust to what we feel is really important after we get a feel for the destination layout, people, crowds, etc.

Transportation – Planes, Trains and Automobiles

1. Planes
   • You know this, I don’t need to go into it 🙂
   • But consider whether it makes sense to arrive and depart from different cities
   • Consider whether in-country flights make more sense than rail or personal vehicle.
2. Trains
   • My biggest tip here is to look into overnight train travel. This gets you where you need to go, doesn’t cut into your valuable daylight hours and saves you on a night of lodging!
3. Automobiles
   • Is this your vehicle or will you rent?
   • Are you comfortable driving in this location?
4. Is the city walkable with some Uber/Lyft rides thrown in?

Lodging

1. I am a fan of AirBnB in the right situations.
   • I find the benefits of AirBnB are that you can get something unique, whether it is a pool or a view and just more living space.
   • Do you want a collective space to share with your travel partners?
   • More conducive to having a place to lounge in the evenings or coffee in the mornings.
   • Never underestimate the importance of a dining table for planning the next day’s adventure.
2. But a hotel is so nice
   • Generally has all the in-room amenities that you might need
   • Usually a restaurant or bar
   • Although pics on the web are remarkably enhanced, hotels are more of a known entity, you can be more confident that you are getting what you imagined.
   • If you tend to stay with a particular chain you can use or receive loyalty points.
   • We love Hotels.com – they have unique local places, great prices and free nights really add up! And we’ll use Hotwire for amazing same day deals!
3. Hostels
   • Not our thing but certainly worth researching

ssn – I prefer hotels, but I tend to skip big national (or international) chains in favor of places with more local flare and charm.

Any of the choices, or a combination of them, is great but most importantly, do read reviews!

Tours and Attractions

When you get to this point, you’ve done enough research to know the attractions that you must-see and how you are going to accomplish them. The few tips I can offer are:

1. Book tours early. We have learned this the hard way (Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik) and done this the right way (The Last Supper in Milan – books months in advance)
2. If it is a tour or excursion, start with TripAdvisor.  It is our go-to site for booking, however, they charge the small companies 20% so also be sure to check out the tour vendor’s website and look at the pricing there.
   • The advantage here is that you can typically cancel up to 24 hours in advance without penalty.
3. One of the best things I can recommend is first thing to do in every new city, is take a city tour, Big Bus or Hop On Hop Off or City Sightseeing.
   • This is a great way to get to see the biggies quickly and efficiently and get a feel for the layout of the city.
   • This is also a great mode of transportation – not efficient but not an additional expense either.
   • Lastly, this is a great activity for an arrival day when you tend to not have other activities booked.
4. What are the wonderful and exciting Instagrammable picture locations that you’ve seen? Keep a list and tick those off as you wander around.

I realize not everyone is as nerdy about planning as I am, but I know you all love the journey and the many incredible destinations. I hope this helps a bit or gives you some motivation to put some amazing plans into place for when the crazy corona-times are over.