Planning an Itinerary on Your Own: A Step-by-Step Guide
Going on a trip and hoping to plan everything yourself without having to pay for an agency, or stick to a tour? It’s a piece of cake! If you have the patience and mad research skills, you really don’t need someone else to plan for you. In fact, to some travellers, planning a trip brings so much joy. That’s why we’re here to tell you all about planning an itinerary from scratch on your own.
Planning an Itinerary from AtoZ
#1 Decide your travel dates
First things first, you need to decide when you’ll be travelling. Are you travelling in the summer or winter? Are you travelling during the holidays or the high season? How many days are you dedicating to your trip? You need to answer all of these questions to be able to pick a destination and plan your trip accordingly.
#2 Pick the destination(s)
Once you figure out your travel dates, you’re one step closer to picking your destination. The weather is a great factor – some destinations are great all year round, while others are perfect in specific seasons. You should also bear in mind that your summer may be rainy in other countries and your cold winter can be blazing hot elsewhere on the planet.
The number of days will also help you determine if you’ll be visiting a single destination or multiple ones. Maybe you have enough time to visit several countries on one trip or travel around a single country. You might also consider slow travel instead and spend all your time in one city.
If you’re travelling to a single destination, then your itinerary will be day by day, focusing on the activities you want to do and the attractions you want to visit. On the other hand, if you’re visiting multiple cities, then you’ll be planning an itinerary for each one. In addition to a bigger itinerary for your entire route from one city to the other.
There are many other factors that influence your choice of destination and not just your travel dates. These include your budget, travel style, interests, and much more.
#3 Research destination(s)
After deciding where you’ll go, you have to do some destination research. Through this research, you should aim to learn about the culture and customs, what to expect, the do’s and don’ts, and of course, the activities you can do and sites to see.
#4 Make a to-do list
Based on your interests and your research, you’ll have an understanding of what the destination offers. This will help you create a list that covers all the things you wish to do and places you want to visit on your trip.
This is also the stage where you can adjust your travel dates, according to your to-do list. For instance, if you’ve dedicated 2 days to a city and you found out that there are 4-days worth of activities, you can edit your itinerary accordingly.
#5 Figure out your route
After settling on the final number of days and destinations, it’s time to open Google Maps and figure out the most logical route. Just put into consideration that you might find it wiser to start from your last destination, in the case of a multi-city itinerary, due to financial reasons. We’ll go through this in detail in the next step.
#6 Start booking
Before you get too invested in planning the itinerary day by day you’d better start booking your tickets and accommodation before prices increase. Remember, the closer you get to your travel dates, the more that prices increase.
If this is a multi-city trip and also not a local one, then you’re buying flight tickets. In which case you need to compare flight tickets not just between flight aggregators and airlines, but also between airports. So, let’s say that the route you decided on would be flying to Milan, Florence, then Rome. You need to check flights from your hometown to Rome as well because it might be cheaper to fly to Rome first and end your trip in Milan instead.
It’s also worth mentioning that you need to have some sort of flexibility with your travel dates while looking up flights. You might find it cheaper to travel a day or two earlier than when you’d initially planned due to better deals.
Also, don’t forget to book transportation from one destination for multi-city trips.
#7 Plan each day
Now that you’ve booked your transportation and accommodation, it’s time to plan day by day. Researching the weather is necessary – for instance, if your to-do list includes surfing or hiking a mountain, then you’d better save them for sunny days rather than cloudy ones.
It’s also important to calculate the distance between locations of attractions and places on your list. Highlight each place on the map, see what makes sense, and group them accordingly.
On a side note, it’s important to leave some room for spontaneity as well – don’t rigidly plan every single minute of every single day. You’d be surprised what you might stumble upon while randomly exploring a new city.
#8 Digitize your itinerary
After planning the itinerary, compile it all in an excel sheet. Create a digital calendar that you can access via your smartphone, with not just your itinerary, but also any important information. Add details like your hotel’s address and contact information, as well as internal transportation details such as departure timings and stations.
BONUS TIP: Print out your itinerary so you’d have a hard copy just in case anything happens to your phone.
Now that you know everything about planning an itinerary like a pro, it’s time to put use to what you’ve just learned. What are you waiting for? Put together an itinerary for a trip and let us know how it goes.
