Tips for Planning Your Next Vacation
How to plan your next vacation to suit your travel style
I love to travel. My family loves to travel. So much so that people are often more surprised when we ARE in town, then when we are gone. Not only do I love to travel, I love to plan travel. Give me all the spreadsheets, research, reviews all day long. I love it. I also love to help people plan for their trips. Offering some recommendations and guidance on what to do and how to plan.
When offering recommendations, I always add the caveat to take every recommendation from me or anyone else with a grain of salt. What you enjoy isn’t necessarily the same as someone else. Consider what the recommender enjoys compared to what you enjoy and use that to determine what works for you. So as I write this, I would say the same to you, take every recommendation you receive with a grain of salt. They are simply suggestions based on one person’s experience.
Below you will find some suggestions on how to build a framework for your vacation. Where to start and how to build your dream itinerary. It can be daunting, but if you want to dive in and plan your trip, hopefully these tips can help.** While my main experience is with European destinations, these tips should apply to any planning. Let’s get to planning!
1. What kind of traveler are you?
Everyone travels differently. Planning a vacation is very much a personal thing. I listened to a podcast years ago by Hilary Rushford about three types of travelers: Doers, Be-ers, and Eaters (at least that is how I remembered it). I think it is an easy way to determine what you want your trip to look like. By determining what kind of traveler you are, you can weed through the recommendations and focus your planning on the right things for you. Do you like to go non-stop? Do you like to go/do/see everything? Maybe you want to hit all the hot, Instragram-worthy photo spots. You are a DOer. You should focus your planning on sightseeing, tours, museums, photo spots, and highlights of your destination. Do you like to eat at all the trendy restaurants? Seek out all the delicious treats? Is that your main priority? You are a EATer. Your research should center around top restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, and any reservations required. Or, do you just like to wander and soak in the beauty of the new place? Explore a new neighborhood with no agenda? You are a BE-er. Your trip will focus on open blocks of time to explore different areas of your destination. Once you determine what kind of traveler you are, you can focus your planning around that. My family and I are a mix of Be and Eat. We love to eat all the good food and soak up a place with long strolls and no big plans. If it is somewhere new, we always add in the “must see” spots, but with room and space to wander around. We also like to stay in one spot for longer versus moving every other night to a new place.
2. Where do you want to go?
This is important for obvious reasons. Determining your location and bare bones itinerary will help narrow everything else down. This depends on a number of factors: time, flights, accessibility, type of traveler you are, etc. Our next trip is to Munich and Salzburg. We chose this location because the price was right, it is a direct flight from Denver, we have never been to either, Salzburg is a quick train ride from Munich, and logistically it is all pretty easy. So where do you want to go? How much time do you have? How long do you want to stay? If you are flexible on timing, consider playing with days and flights to find the best itinerary and cheapest option. Then book your main flight. Remember, you can do point to point flights if you want to start somewhere and end somewhere else. Get creative and watch flights because they will fluctuate.
3. Where do you want to stay?
Now that you have your main flights, determine what cities you want to visit and how long you want to stay. Things to consider include location, budget, transportation between, safety, amenities, and noise. When looking for hotels, narrow down your neighborhood or general area for the city and then use Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor reviews are your best friend. People are brutally honest with them. If there is an issue with a place, big or small, it will be in the reviews. I don’t pay attention to all reviews, but I do look for information about the area, safety concerns, cleanliness, etc. AirBnb reviews are the same. Spend time reading reviews before booking and if possible, book with places that have a generous cancellation policy. Remember also, you can do day trips to some places, while keeping a home base. Sometimes, that is easier and less expensive to stay in one place rather than packing everything up to move around a lot. When visiting France/Germany a few years ago, we did several day trips to cities like Colmar, Luxembourg city, and Heidelberg while staying at the same hotel because it was easier. Google is also really helpful when considering itineraries. Look for inspiration there, travel forums, apps like Out of Office and Instagram, and friends to figure out your main cities, neighborhoods, etc.
4. What do you want to do?
Going back to the first point, what do you want to do on your vacation? Now that you have framed out your itinerary with flights and hotels, start filling in the main activities. If you are a doer, focus on planning out and reserving any tours, transportation, sightseeing reservations, museum reservations you need. Group them by location, day, and time. You want a bike tour to see the Tuscan countryside? Book it. Desperate to see the David in Florence? Book it. You will see and do more if you plan in advance, especially during peak season. When in Rome, we booked our Vatican tickets in advance saving us HOURS in line, ultimately giving us extra time to do something else. You can leave room for flexibility, but book the “must dos” in advance or you might miss out. If you are a foodie, find those hot spots and reserve in advance. Again, places book up, especially during high season. We have recently upped our food game and we often make reservations months in advance. Restaurants vary on when they open up their calendar to reservations, so research and plan accordingly. If you are a be-er, research neighborhoods for prime wandering. Get inspiration and make notes of where you want to wander, highlights to see, and how to get there. I will even tentatively plan out the days we want to explore certain neighborhoods based around day of the week, time available, other activities, etc. For example, the Portobello Road Market is crazy on Saturdays in Notting Hill, London. You may want to plan to be there to shop or plan to avoid the area depending on personal preference. Our rule of thumb is to book one activity/highlight each day on our trips. For London it was tea, ice skating, and a show. For Hawaii it might be a hike, a certain beach, or a great reservation. This gives some structure, while leaving room for adjustments. Look to the internet, travel books, friends, Instagram, Trip Advisor, and so many more to help you find what you want to do. Once there, you can plan out additional activities the day or two before based on what you have done and have yet to do.
5. What final details need planning?
Congrats, you now have a pretty solid itinerary for your trip based on your personal preference and travel style. Now at this point, I always keep a document full of things we may want to do, possibilities with links to more information, restaurants, playgrounds for our daughter, and other activities.. This is so we can adjust and add plans as we go. But I rest easy knowing the main things are planned and booked. The last things to research include transportation to and from the airport (train, taxi, private car, bus), trains to your next destination (book in advance during peak season if longer trains), general culture research, and any more casual things you may want to do. Don’t forget planning out getting to and from the airport before your trip, it will help with any stress upon landing!
Easy right? Okay, maybe not easy, but totally doable! Did the tips help? What did I forget? I hope you find yourself planning and dreaming of a fun getaway soon.
Bon voyage!
**If you don’t have any interest in planning your own trip, there are plenty of travel planners/advisors to help you, such as our own Content Creator, Victoria Fricke, with Vic's Vacations. This information will still be helpful in making sure what they plan suits your needs.
About the Content Creator:
Lana is a Franklin, IN native who currently resides in the Denver area. She is a former social studies teacher and current family and newborn photographer serving families in the south Denver area. She loves the way photography makes time stand still, just for a moment, and regularly fills her home with her favorite images. Lana spends her time with her husband and daughter exploring all the Foothills and Denver have to offer. You will often find the three of them traveling the US, the world, or at least planning their next big adventure together. Their recent trips include Paris, Italy, London, and Hawaii with Germany and Austria up next. Lana also loves to cook/bake, stay fit, and cozy up with a good book and if time weren’t an issue, you would find her doing those things in abundance.
Follow @lanamarietravel on Instagram for travel inspiration/wanderlust or shop travel prints at www.lanamariephoto.com (including the images on this post).
