Tips and Tricks for Planning the Perfect Trip

Beach in Avalon

So you have a destination in mind, and have no idea what to do, how to budget, or how to go about creating your dream trip. Where do you start?

That's a question I wrestled with for years, but I've more recently taken an interest in planning, and using word and excel to create the perfect templates to make my future job even easier! I've begun to repeat this process using the same 5 steps, and it's worked well for me so far! In the next few minutes I'll so through my process step by step and hopefully by the end up this, by using your own future trip as an example, you'll be able to answer every question! This has taken me from spending hours upon hours trying to look into a trip and guess what what I'll be doing, to having a trip planned and ready for booking in only a few short hours (depending on how long or extensive the trip is)!

Step 1: Where do you want to go?

First and foremost, where do you want to go? If you already have a destination, you can skip to "Step 2: When do you want to go?"!

This is an easy question for some, but if you're struggling to find a location, you can use "Step 2: When do you want to go?" as a reference if you have a certain time of year you'd like to travel. I also recommend starting a travel bucket list. That way, any time you want to travel, you can head to that list to check off your next adventure.

If you're completely open, think about what vacation you want. Do you want the beach? The mountains? The cold? Relaxation or lots of activity? Learn the culture? Or even simpler, like do you want to stay in country? Fly to the other side of the world? Travel somewhere they speak another language? Answering questions like those will help narrow down where you want to go.

You can also think about what experiences you'd like to have. Do you want to see the country via railway? Take surfing lessons? Get to walk inside a pyramid? Ride horses through the mountains? Go shopping? Eat some good food?

You can also base your trip off something you love. Maybe you love Lord of the Rings and want to visit Hobbiton, or you watch Friends every week and haven't seen New York in person.

Once you know the basics of what you'd like to do on your trip, you can turn to Google to help find the perfect location for you. I find even just looking up "tropical destinations" can help narrow down the search.

Step 2: When do you want to go?

What's the best time of year to visit? That doesn't have a simple answer for any location. It always depends on what you want to do.

Take Iceland for example. If you want to see the Northern Lights, do a glacier walk, or visit geothermal pools while it's cold out, then winter would be the time to visit (October-April). If you want longer days or to see the midnight sun, warmer weather, greener landscapes, and spot some puffins, then summer would be the time to visit (May-September). The photo on the left, for example, was taken mid April. The Northern Lights are still visible, but you can see a sliver of light in the distance as the sun hasn't fully set. I took the photo around midnight or 1am.

If you know what kinds of activities you're looking for, look up when the best time to go for those activities are. If there are multiple with different things you want to do with different times of year, you can take a look to see if they overlap. If they don't, you may have to pick what you want most, and hope the other activity is still a possibility! I did this with Iceland, as I wanted to see the Northern Lights and puffins, so I chose mid April.

Step 3: What do you want to do?

Now we're getting into the meat of the trip planning! What do you want to do while there? I've cultivated a method that works well for me, so I'll walk you through how I go about planning my trips.

• Research

I'll research the location. For examples, I'll use the New Zealand trip I'm planning. I went to newzealand.com and looked into the highlights of the country. I looked at activities, draws, locations, etc. and figured out what interested me.

• Record

I created a word document where I could record all the locations I wanted to go in an organized manner so I didn't forget any, and so I could break down the locations and activities. If there's a specific restaurant or a specific time of day to visit, I'll include that information here as well. Nothing get's left off! The photo underneath shows my document. I separated everything by the island (North or South), then the city, then the activity in the city. I don't worry yet at this stage with listing the cities in any particular order — I just write down the city and the activity in order I discover them. Sometimes I go back later and re-arrange them, but it becomes too much work so I often don't, and leave the re-arranging for when I build my itinerary draft.

• Map

I'll then use this document to refer to and pull up my google maps, and create a new trip/list. Then, I'll look up every place and activity and add them to that trip to set the stage for building my itinerary. It will also give me a good sense of if there are any locations that are solitary and way too far from everything else that would make it a hassle to go to on this trip. At that point, if there are any I feel I should cut, I'll remove them from the map and cross them out on my document. I don't delete them so I still have record of them for any future trips.

Step 4: How much will is cost?

Now you know where you're going, when you're going, and what you're doing. Next, is the part you're likely dreading — budgeting. How much will all this cost?

First, I create an excel spreadsheet. I started by using a template that excel provides, but tweaked it to suit my needs more. I'll take a look at my funds, and come up with how much I'm able to spend on the trip. I put that number in the "budget" category, then, I'll start with the activities.

I'll go back to my handy word document, and look into every activity that costs money or may have an entrance fee. I'll write down the activity and the cost in the sheet and it will calculate the total for me. This can be time consuming, but if you see a cost when you're building your list of things to do, write it down there! It will make your budgeting so much easier.

Next, I'll look at the locations on my map. Are there any areas you think you'll be spending a night? Two nights? This is where I'll do a rough estimate of how much I'll be spending on hotels. I'll pick specific hotels later, unless I've found one I really want to stay at through the planning process. I'll also look into car rental costs if I'm planning on travelling via car. Or, if I'm renting a camper van for the trip, this is when I'll look into camper van rentals and get a price point with how long I'll be renting it, how nice or cheap of a camper, what insurance might cost, and the approximate on gas per day. That one is typically a lot trickier, and I won't worry so much about it, and just add a bit of funds to the "misc." category.

After accommodation, I'll look into flights. I first go to Google Flights to see what the options are, then I'll tend to book either through Expedia or direct with the airline depending on what's cheaper. At this point, I'll typically only make note of the cost, mark it down, and keep an eye on the prices to see if they go up or down.

• By keeping an eye on flights, there were a few days where roundtrip flights to Reykjavik went down to just over $600 instead of over $800. As soon as that happened, I booked, and two days later they went back up again. However, when I was booking a one-way ticket to Australia, I waited too long and the prices only went up, and I ended up spending about $200-300 more.

Finally, I'll do a quick google to see how much people typically spend on food per day. I'll multiply that by the number of days I'll be there, and plunk that in.

After all the estimated costs are in, I'll take a look to see if I'm over budget or under budget. If I'm over, it's time to see what I can cut. Are there cheaper accommodations I can work with? Any activities I could pass on? I'll remove what I cut, and take them off my Google Maps trip. You can also cross them off on your things to do list, but not a step I always take.

At this stage, I'll only use the "estimated" column to give an estimate on how much the trip will cost, then once I start to book I'll add those amounts to the "actual" column to see if I'm spending more or less, and how the money can move around.

*Important note to keep in mind while budgeting! Are the amounts you're looking at in your currency, or the currency of the country you're visiting? I tend to use my currency in budgeting, and any amounts I see that are in the local currency I'll look up what it would be in my currency.

Step 5: Build your Itinerary

Final step — the fun part! Building your itinerary! I'll start another word document, and write down where I'm going and the dates at the top, then a list of all the dates down the side. After that, I'll consult my Google Map trip to see where I'll by flying in and put that as my first destination. Then, I'll work my way through the locations one by one and put them in. I'll also go to Google Maps and see how long it takes to drive from point A to point B.

On the left is my first draft of my itinerary for my New Zealand trip later this year. At this stage, I don't have any accommodation, tour info, or flights confirmed, so I've left that blank. I also don't have set dates, so those are left vague until I include more detail.

On the right is my itinerary for Fiji. I have a 27 hour layover in Fiji on my way to Australia, so this one is a lot smaller, but I still wanted to build an itinerary. I have everything I've booked in there already, but am still deciding on how I want to spend my one day. There are too many options!

*Note: As this is an upcoming trip, I've blacked out the dates and accommodation I'll have there for safety. I typically add my flight number and details too, but removed those to post it here. Once I return, I'll remove the censers.

I'll continue to work on updating every time I book something, and firm up the locations for each day if things move around. By the time everything is booked, the itinerary will be ready to go, and all you'll have to do then is get ready for your adventure of a lifetime!

If you'd like to skip past many of these steps, check out my Travel Guides to help you plan your dream trip! I have many activities, restaurants, and hotels as recommendations for locations along with reviews, gluten free food recommendations, some history and information on some of the locations, and photos of those locations! They are shown on a map that can help you navigate from one location to the next.

Grand Canyon