I want to share some basic tricks for your upcoming trip in the year 2017. Hence, I decided to write the 1st post of 2017 on “How to prepare the ultimate itinerary?” which helps you save money and time.
I hope you all had a grand celebration for welcoming 2017 and are already geared up to accomplish your goals. So I sat back and figured out my goals, which included saving money and traveling more. Hence, I am starting with the introductory post “How to prepare the ultimate itinerary? This helps you save time and give you a chance to explore more.
How to prepare the ultimate itinerary
Step 1: – Finalize your destination first.
The very 1st step is to decide where you want to go for a vacation. It can be a City, a National Park, a Beach, a Mountain, etc. A random search on the internet doesn’t help until you decide where you want to go. Only after that can you make all the required bookings like flights, car rental, hotels, etc.
Step 2: – How many days are you planning to spend the vacation?
Suppose you plan to go hiking or backpacking, then depending on you, it might take 1 to 5 days. Let’s say you want to go to key west and relax on the beachside, then 2-3 days might be enough. But if you are planning a road trip, you would require more days.
Step 3: List all the spots you want to explore during your vacation.
Let me explain with an example of Death Valley National Park, which was my recent trip. The Death Valley National Park is spread over 5219 mi², which is vast and impossible to cover a whole park in one day. The few spots famous among the visitors are Dante’s View, Zabriskie Point, Badwater Basin, The Race Track, Artist’s Drive, Devil’s Golf Course, etc.
Step 4: – Find out how much time you have.
Suppose I am planning to spend only one day in National Park. So obviously, I cannot visit all attractions in the park. I have to prioritize and identify which attractions I want to make the most of and how much time is required for each attraction. I also need to find out if any of that spots have hiking to do because hiking takes additional time. If you plan to reach the park by 9 am, and in winter, sunset is around 5 pm, then you have 8 hours in your hand to explore the park.
Step 5: – Check if any place requires hiking.
Before you decide to hike, know your capacity. For example, I am an excellent hiker in the summer, but winter is not my thing. When the air is thin and cold, I feel tired quickly, So I require extra winter hiking time. Keep all conditions in mind before deciding the time for each activity.
Step 6: – Add all places on Google Maps and find how far they are from each other.
Open google maps and your list of attractions that you made. Now start entering attractions on google maps one by one. It will show you the drive time from one spot to another. You can also drag and drop the spots, changing the drive time. Figure out the route so that you can spend less time driving and more time exploring. Hence, save time, save money, and explore more.
Step 7: – Calculate the required time for a trip, including the drive.
According to the google map shown above, you can see the drive time to the spot and calculate how much time you want to spend on each site. Don’t always keep the pressure to visit all the places on your list, but try to spend a little more time where you love the view.
Step 8: – Make sure what to take according to your location.
Don’t just pack and go on vacation. It’s not fun if you don’t have suitable things. A swimsuit doesn’t work to go hiking, right? Not just clothes, but you also have to be prepared with your electronic gadgets, chargers, hat, sunglasses, etc. I had written a post on “Hiking at Charlie’s Bunion,” in which I mentioned a few tips for hiking. If I am going to Miami, sunscreen, Sunglasses, and Swimsuits must carry. Hence, When you do packing, keep in mind to check the weather and list your needs.
Such a great resource for those with wanderlust like myself. I love to create itineraries based off of the places I’d like to photograph the most!
It’s definitely important to prepare. Albeit, things don’t always go as planned, but it’s always nice to have a skeleton!
This is so helpful! I’ll have to keep this in mind when we travel. I hope we can over the summer!
Fantastic tips. I never plan this far ahead. Lol.
Great tips, especially the one about mapping out your drive time to attractions. This helps a lot with any trip, and helps avoid spending too much time driving.
As someone who is a total planner, these tips were great!
http://alpluslex.com/
The google map idea is a smart one!!
Lauren
http://WWW.TheZenFashionista.Com
These are some great tips! There is so much more to hiking and traveling then people think.
I’m 100% planner, needs to know every last details and day needs to be jam packed. My husband on the other hand…
Makes trips difficult! But I can always take this little list and put it in my pocket 🙂
These are some fantastic tips! Google Maps makes it pretty easy to save places and create an itinerary online saved to your gmail account too! We are planning for 4 vacations this year with 2 being full weeks and 2 being more like weekend trips! I will definitely keep these tips in mind while planning them! Thanks!
Oooo so many helpful tips!! Planning the perfect itinerary really can be tough!!!
This is awesome tips! I don’t usually plan that far when travelling. Kinda stop at #1-#3 but this is helpful info for our next future trip.
Wow! These are some great tips for making itinerary. Checking if the place requires hiking or not is must.
Thanks for sharing such helpful post!
This a good guide to itinerary building. One other thing we consider when choosing a destination is visa requirements for international travel. The ease and expense of visas can make one destination more attractive than another.
This is a great post. I will definitely be using it for my next trip! Especially because my husband loves to sight-see. Perfect for him!
Kaitlyn
http://www.mypostpartumlife.com
What are the nice tips you shared!:) I’m the one who never back packed with an itinerary ? Probably have to try doing that for the next adventure.
These are great tips – I like to make sure I hit all the highlights, especially when I travel overseas. You never know when/if you’re going to get the chance to go back somewhere!
Great tips these. We’re planning on going somewhere this summer to celebrate my husband’s 40th birthday, so we’ll put them into use, thank you! 🙂
To create the perfect itinerary it is definitely important to finalize your destination and know where you are going first good idea! Mapping out drive time is a good tip x
That’s awesome planning right there. It’s good to have an itinerary when you travel so that you won’t get confused about what to do or where to go and you can also maximize your time!
These are fantastic tips! I am always so bad at planning an itinerary, we almost always wind up going around in circles! Thanks for the help!
This is all great advice. I definitely try to plan everything out as much as I can when it comes to taking a trip.
Sometimes we tend to leave out the little things. You definitely have them all listed out here!
Lovely advice for travelers! I do my research a lot especially when we’re going to a place for the first time. These are tips that I’ve done ever since I started traveling. You can never be too prepared!
I also get tired too easily when the air is thin at cold places. That said, everything on this list looks comprehensible and practical. I might just plan mine soon!
Thanks,