Planning is an integral part of the enjoyment of travel for me. That’s probably why I have chosen to help other people plan their travels too. With the multitude of travel apps, services and strategies for planning your travel, it can be overwhelming. Here are my travel planning tips to make the planning phase of your travel that much easier.
Travel Planning – tips & strategies
Have a strategy
When I plan trips for other people, I usually flesh out the important details (i.e. flight details, car hire times, hotels etc.); and then give them optional ideas for activities they can choose to do in each location. I think there are some real advantages to planning the basics, not only from a cost perspective, but to ensure you fit everything you need to into your trip. If you have the luxury of unlimited time and plentiful funds, then planning in advance is less necessary. But researching where you are going is still of value! You can read my tips on travel prioritisation and strategy here.
Hotel bookings
I have a three-part approach to booking hotels.
- First, book as far in advance as you can, using Booking.Com‘s Free Cancellation options. These prices are often very reasonable, and include any early-bird pricing options that hotels use.
- Part 2 is to look for combination hotel / flight deals via eBookers – it can often be cheaper to buy these in combination to get discounts.
- Part 3 is to use a last minute site (before your free cancellation date passes), to try for luxury deals at low prices. These are generated when hotels realise they have unsold rooms to fill. I use a variety of sites such as Hotwire.com. I’ve written more about my hotel booking strategies here.
Research
It doesn’t matter if you prefer to be spontaneous when you travel, there are a few things that it’s good to research beforehand. Such as airport transport options, public transport in the city you are visiting, and the opening hours of any attractions that you definitely want to see. I mainly use blogs, official sites, and tour sites like Get Your Guide for this info. This will arm you with the basic information so you can speed on into town to start exploring as soon as you arrive.
Travel Planning Apps & Tools
Depending on the length of trip, I use a variety of tools.
- Excel – For trips longer than 2 weeks (when you are visiting multiple destinations), I use an Excel spreadsheet to both chart a plan and also to budget. This is especially useful when collecting data and details of month-long trips.
- Roadtrippers.com – I find Roadtrippers to be a really neat alternative to google maps. It essentially does a similar job, but you can look up attractions along the way to add as waypoints too.
- TripIt – The TripIt app is a really useful tool for collating all your bookings. You register your email address and then forward your booking confirmations to a central email. You can then collate these bookings into trips and access them offline.
- Hopper – I love the Hopper app – it allows you to track flight costs for the routes you are hoping for, sending useful messages when the prices are good.
- Booking.com / eBookers apps – Need to book your hotels or flights on the fly? Having these and other airline apps on your phone can make quick work of these last minute requirements.
Advice
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. If other people have been there, made the mistake, and got the t-shirt… why should you go through the same thing? While I’d consider myself a pretty seasoned traveller (this blog is my case in point), I still reach out and ask for help when I’m unsure about something. If can’t find the answer online, I will search out Facebook groups or ask my travel network on twitter.
If you read this and still don’t fancy planning your own itinerary, please get in touch!
Booking.com
