How we come up with a helpful planning template
I love travelling. I think about the next trip meanwhile I am on a trip. Crazy right?! Well, it is part of me and I enjoy it so much exploring new places. The best part of it is that Alket loves it too and so we travel together. That is great! As a result, we need to plan a trip that we are taking. Honestly, this part is exhausting! Except to search for spots and activities, searching on the internet for tickets, accommodations and guides is tiring. So was for us at the beginning.
After a lot of failures and mistakes, we found a way how to plan a trip efficiently.
We came up what was the best way to organize each part of the trip and made a template to plan the next adventures together. This took from us a lot of stress. During the process, we found a lot of resources that helped to make the planning easier. Since planning a trip is a very important part of travelling, we created this guide to help you in your next adventure. Below you will find the necessary steps to make the first part of your vacation, planning, effortless.
Each of the bullet points is chronologically part of the planning. In addition, it includes the best tips from our experience.
Where to go and when
How to find the perfect place to visit? It all depends on what you enjoy doing. It can be a beach, mountain, or city trip. There are a lot of people that choose the destination instantly. But some others do not. Then what to do? Well, it is not so tricky, especially with today’s opportunities online.
So let’s begin. You know what kind of trip to take but you haven’t still decided about the country. Let’s suppose you want to take a beach trip to Europe. Firstly, go to Google Maps to have a better overview of the countries. South Europe is closer to Ecuador and certainly warmer than North Europe. So we have a beautiful Mediterranean coast from Greece to Portugal. There are two significant regions. The Balkans and Western Europe. The main difference between these two is the budget. The Balkans are more convenient than other countries in West Europe. Let’s say the budget is not a problem and you choose to head to the Western Europe region. In short, you have this way choosed the part of the world you want to be heading to for the next trip.
Google Maps is a useful tool to plan a trip all by yourself .
Now you need resources to find the best beaches in the Mediterranean Sea. Firstly, other travel bloggers are a very helpful resource for finding beautiful destinations and tips from their travels. Visit travel bloggers’ websites or their social networks. Also, there are a lot of travel magazines or websites with great material. Secondly, Instagram gives endless visualized ideas through photos and reels. Once again I will head you again at Google Maps. I like it so much searching there for places and ideas. Recently, it is so widely used and gives a more realistic idea for the spot than Instagram. People add photos in Maps and most of them are not edited. This way photos and reviews are great feedback. Finally, after all the tips you are able to find the desirable travel spot for you.
Travel websites and Instagram are huge resources to find destinations tips.
Then when to go to the selected destination? Time should be chosen very carefully. Recently years, especially after the pandemic, the number of travelers has been high and the trend is going to be so for years that follow regarding the studies. In most countries, the high season is full of tourists, the service is not the best, prices reach the peak and you can not even move. I mean how to enjoy a spot with so many people?
One of the best lessons that we have learned from our travels is not to do a trip in high season. Let’s take for example Spain. The peak season for Spain is the summer months, July and August. The situation at this time in most of the places is as I described above. The perfect choice would be to travel during the shoulder season which are months of May-June and September-October. At this time you have the best weather and will be avoiding high temperatures. You will find in these months the best deals in terms of tickets, accommodations, and activities. Briefly just check on google when is the shoulder season for your destination and start planning your trip.
Shoulder season is the best time to visit the country that you have planned.
What to visit
After you have decided where and when to go, the next step would be to choose what to do. Google has created a page for travel and there you can find many places and choose between them. Just type the name of the country, region, or city on google, and on the right side, after some general information, are many points of interest for the specific place. Depending on what interests you, choose the type of activity.
Another way to search for activities is through guide websites such as Tripadvisor, Getmyguide, etc. Both travel websites give many possibilities for activities and not only. Most of them are guides with paid options. You can take it and enjoy or make it on your own after finding ideas. Last, is the tourist information office. These are quite underrated sources of information but they should be the first when you visit a city. These offices are there for you, to help you. You can take valuable information from the local office, which is always the best, and in addition, take maps and flyers for your trip. Whatever way you choose, enjoy it at its best.
Points of interest by Google, guide websites, and tourist information offices will help you to find the best attractions for your destination.
How to get there and how to move around
Transportation is a main point to think about when travelling. Depending on how far you are from your destination, you can fly or ride. Start searching your itinerary on Flyconnections to have an overview of your route. The website gives more than one way for not direct flights and you can choose the most convenient one for you. One of the best websites out there for finding the right flight for you is Skyscanner. It gives a great overview of prices for an entire month. Type the desirable month at Depart and Return and the prices will be shown in front of you.
Another awesome source for searching and booking tickets are airline websites. Most of the time they other the lowest deals for your flight. Enter the name of the airline for example Lufthansa and by filling From and To, you will have on your screen an entire month price overview. This way you can plan an affordable flight at your desired destination. They are many ways to book a flight ticket. Experiment and what work for you, stick with it.
Booking the tickets three to six months before your trip is a good strategy to save some money.
The plane ticket is booked and now we have to think about moving around around. How to plan this part of the trip? The more developed a country, the better is the public transportation. Most countries in Europe, especially Western Europe, have a great train system. Search for the train operator at the area or city you are and choose the subscription that fit you best. Daily, weekly, monthly or even one way ticket are the types of tickets by apps or ticket machines inside the trains, buses or stations. Keep in mind, high speed trains itineraries should be booked weeks earlier before the ride. Their prices tend to increase a lot the last days before the ride.
In case you are looking to visit out-path places, a rented car would be a better solution. It spares you a lot of time comparing with regional trans and buses. Another good option is transport secured by guides. Most of them have included at their package the transportation from hotel and back. Generally it is convenient since this way is a group of people together to be transferred. The rented cars and transportation secured by guides is the best way to move around in developing countries. The lack of infrastructure and updated online information make it difficult to move around on your own.
Whenever you be travelling to, a planning before head will help you to avoid unnecessary stress.
How to choose your accommodation
There are many types of accommodation. Hostels, guesthouses, hotels, apartments etc. Finding the right one is not so easy. The first tip would be by going to maps and looking for accommodations at the city or region you are heading to. Many positive reviews in maps are a good indication that this is a great apartment or hotel. Many of them have a contact on their profile and you can reach them easily.
Additionally, Booking is a great website to find a cozy place to stay. The offer almost all kinds of accommodation. I would suggest before booking to select a stay with free cancelation policy. Never knows, the plan can change and you can lose a lot of money. By free cancelation policy, you have the flexibility to cancel your reservation. Before booking for a place to stay, make a search beforehand so you can have a general overview of the accommodation.
With these easy steps, now you can plan a trip efficiently, without becoming a headache. It is important to plan the important steps of the trip but not over plan everything. To much planning and sightseeing is overwhelming. Leave some time to relax and enjoy your vacation. It can be staying at the beach or a lazy breakfast at your hotel.
