PLANNING AN ITINERARY

There is so much joy and freedom to be found in planning well!  For me, much of the fun is found in the anticipation.  I feel like a lot of the fun and excitement can be lost when I’m either sitting in my hotel room or driving in the car trying to figure out what I want to do next.

I love it when I take the time to research where I'm traveling to and jot down some places I’m interested in seeing. This saves me from having to waste time while I’m at the destination trying to figure out what I want to do.

Here are some things that have worked for me as I plan for a trip:

DUMP YOUR IDEAS

We all have things that we’ve “always wanted to do.”  If I am traveling to a new area, I will do a search for nearby things to do.  This will do two things:

1. Provide ideas for things to do.

2. Remind me of things I may have forgotten were in that area.

Then, I will either get a blank sheet of paper or start a new doc on my computer and dump all of my ideas into one place.  This brain dump will typically include:

• Landmarks

• Shops

• Restaurants

• Scenic routes

• Etc.

SET A BUDGET

I enjoy myself the most when I know what to expect and I know how much money I can spend.  I’m sure most of us already have a budget for vacation and traveling.  So you may not need to create a budget from scratch.  However, having a designated amount of money helps provide an ease of mind as you travel and keeps you from being stressed out each time you swipe your card.

When you think about budget, it can also help to look at some of the restaurant menus online.  You can get a good feel for how much it will cost and also give you a head start on selecting your favorite dish!

SCHEDULE YOUR TIME

Once you know where you’d like to go and how much time and money you have to spend, you can begin putting together an itinerary. Yay! :)

Here are some things to think about as you put together an itinerary:

• Plan for margin. Things sometimes take longer than you plan for (ex: feeding your baby, traffic, long waits, etc). Give yourself time to spare in between things on your schedule - even if that means cutting something out.

• Include helpful information on your itinerary. Next to the place I am wanting to go, I will usually put: addresses, website links, links to articles, etc. For example, when we visited San Francisco a couple of months ago we really wanted to visit Golden Gate Park, so I listed it in this way:
  

• Golden Gate Park

  • San Francisco, CA 94121, United States

  • https://goldengatepark.com

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Park

This allowed for all of the helpful information to be in one place and easy to access.

• Remain flexible. The thing that is helpful to remember is have flexibility with your itinerary. Hold it loosely. Allow yourself the ability to stay longer at a place you are really enjoying or cross something off that you decided you are no longer interested in seeing.

Hope this is helpful.  Now get out there and explore something!

I would love to hear of some places you have been and some things that have made traveling easier for you. Be sure and comment below. I can’t wait to hear!

|  Credits: Author and Photography - Jacintha Payne  |