In the previous post, we spoke about what are the key things, for us, to travel more. In this post, we will go through some of the steps we take to plan a trip.
Our step-by-step guide to plan a trip - Part 1/2:
1. Number of days we will be travelling for. This is based on the number of days off work we want to allocate for the trip, plus the number of days that people usually recommend spending at that specific destination.
A quick and easy way to do this is to Google ‘How many days to stay in X’ and check different posts to see the recommendations. As we mentioned in the previous post, we have 9-5 jobs, so most of the time it’s not possible to stay as long as we’d like. Therefore, our biggest tip is to align your expectations and understand why you’re going to that place. If you have a specific sight or activity in mind, make sure you have enough days for it, and anything else is a bonus.
2. Flight + Hotel. To search for flights, we usually use Google Flights (highly recommend the date grid and price graph features) and for hotels, Booking.com (we always look for free cancellation options*). Most of the time, we decide on the travel dates based on the flight price, since it can vary greatly from date to date.
We always try to stay in the same hotel during the whole trip because we feel like we lose a lot of time between check-ins and check-outs.
Other sites we use sometimes are KAYAK and Airbnb.
2.1. Car rental: Some trips require a car rental, so we usually search for one along with our flight and hotel bookings. Our go-to website for this is Booking.com. Here’s a tip: book the car in advance with free cancellation, and recheck the price when your trip date approaches, as it can sometimes be cheaper. This has worked in our favour a few times already.
* Our typical filter on Booking.com includes free cancellation, parking (if it’s a trip that requires a car rental, check in the description if the parking is free), a very good rating (8+). Make sure to read the reviews, the hotel description, and check the location.
In part 2, we will talk about budget and itinerary.
