The Art of Trip Planning: Planning to Travel (Part 1)

Buongiorno a tutti! Come stai?

Hi everyone, greetings from snow white Chicago! I hope you are doing well.

I have spent quite a lot of time lately trip planning and I’m happy to report that not only is the itinerary for my 3-month long trip already done, but I have also purchased my air plane tickets to, from and within Europe! Woohoo! You will not believe just how big of a relief having accomplished those milestones is! But the fact of the matter is that there is a lot more arrangements to be settled and a whole lotta more trip planning to be done.

Most of you reading this who have gone through planning a vacation, or even a short trip know that – to be able to plan it all – you need quite a bit of information and travel resources to help you along the way. I have spent countless hours researching online, reading books, listening to podcasts, watching videos and talking to other traveler friends of mine to get all the info that planning a 3-month backpacking adventure would require. By now, as you can imagine, I’ve become an expert on European travel.

Now, I believe that a big part of accomplishing your dreams is enabling others to accomplish theirs, so I would like to share with you all the information and travel resources you may need to plan a European trip of any length on your own. I will do so in a series of blog posts because frankly dumping all that information on you in one whole, huge chunk would be overwhelming not only for me to compile, but also for you to read. So let’s dive into the first part of the series.

“I have a dream” – My decision to travel and how I pulled it off

Traveling through Europe and exploring all the majestic sites, major cities and discovering the hidden treasures of the continent has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Since moving to the US six years ago, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make my way back to Europe – and I did. Twice. Both visits were incredible in their own right, but not nearly long enough to satisfy my hunger for traveling across the Old Continent. So, through the years I’ve been saving up some money and dreaming of my glorious European return.

Not surprisingly, when the opportunity to do just that arose I took it without thinking twice. Through good fiscal management (ok, I’m a college graduate, I’m supposed to use fancy schmancy terms, right? hahaha ) and careful time management I am able to graduate early and take a “Gap Year”… well, more like “Gap 8 Months” but still.

So why did I decide not to rush off to begin my career? To me it’s pretty simple – people make the time for the things that are important to them, and accomplishing a life-long dream was very important to me. So I took a pay cut, I busted my butt taking extra classes and saving money along the way, and I created an opportunity for myself – an opportunity that was hard not to take. So, I took it and I’m very happy being well on my way to accomplish one of my biggest life goals. Now let me help you do the same.

Planning to travel

(0×2g || !0×2g)? – That is the question!

For those of you who do not read hex, or speak geek the symbols above stand for – “To go or not to go? That is the question!” And how appropriate, isn’t it? In today’s unstable economic environment, it’s hard to imagine travel can be affordable, but it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. As a matter of fact with enough time and careful planning, you can go just about anywhere in the world for relatively cheap.

You’ve probably read and heard quite a bit of travel advice, so I won’t bore you with the same old stuff. Time is precious and I appreciate you taking time in your day to visit my blog and read this, so I won’t waste your time with all the advice you’ve heard before. Instead, I would like to give you something fresh and innovating along with some tips on how to creatively plan your next trip.

Budget

Travel always starts with a budget. Determine how much you’d like to spend and what you can afford. Rick Steves has a neat budget outline for European travel in his book Europe through the Backdoor and I’d like to share it with you, so you can expect how much you’ll need:

FOR budget and shoestring travelers:

Allow:

$700 – for a one-month youth Eurailpass (need to be 26 years of age or younger to qualify for youth pass)

400 – for sightseeing and entertainment

100 – for shopping and misc

+1,500 – for room and board ($50/day)*

__________________________________

$2,700

*$25 for a dorm bed or a bed in a private home with breakfast, $10 for a picnic lunch and $15 for dinner.

FOR regular travelers:

Allow:

$900 – for a one-month Eurailpass

700 – for sightseeing and entertainment

200 – for shopping and misc

+3,000 – for room and board ($100/day)

__________

$4,800

So there you have it, that’s how much you will need for a month long vacation in Europe. Note, those line item budgets do not take into account your air fare to and from Europe. Make sure to add it.

Shoulder and off season

If you are on a tight budget consider traveling in the shoulder or off season. Traveling during either is usually much cheaper and helps you escape the peak season’s massive tourists crowds. A caveat may be less pleasant weather. Consider what’s important to you and what weather conditions you can tolerate and weight those against the monetary savings and conveniences of traveling in the shoulder and off season.

Where in the world should I go?

Is picking a destination an art or a science? Well, the debate on that one is still going strong, but whether you use scientific formulas, financial calculations, or just the power of your imagination to select your travel destinations, there are a few creative ways to discover little pieces of heaven around the world:

• Talk to travelers and search on the Internet

This is a slightly more conservative option, but don’t limit yourself to just Internet sites and talking to your friends. Go to a coffee shop near you and strike a conversation with people who seem interesting, or with those who are reading a travel book. Not only would you learn something new, but you may also gain a good friend. Additionally, you may want to consider attending travelers’ meetings and gatherings. Those usually happen more often in larger cities, but give it a try even if you live in a smaller town.

• Use the magic of Flickr to discover new places

Yes, you did hear me right – use Flickr (www.flickr.com/places). When you go to the site you can choose to explore places, the world map, interesting photos… Choose places, and type in the city that you wish to visit. Click Search and voila! You will discover an interactive map of the place with lots of pink dots. The pink dots indicate a place where a picture was taken and if you click on it, the picture will pop up. The site is very intuitive and presents an innovative new way to approach destination hunting. Thus, you can discover whether you like a place or not just with a few clicks before you have even left your home! In the very least, you would enjoy some amazing photography from people around the world! How neat is that!

• Travel from the comfort of your living room with Netflix

I stumbled upon this randomly as I was updating my Netflix DVD queue. As it turns out, Rick Steves, Samantha Brown, the National Geographic and countless more produce DVDs of their travel shows and documentaries. Movie rental services such as Netflix offer those as part of their selection, so in addition to renting a movie you can rent the show DVDs! Brilliant! Now you can discover the world from the comfort of your couch with the help of Rick Steves and Co. and jot down some notes on what things are a-must to do and see in the place you are visiting on your next trip. Isn’t that cool? I wish I thought of it sooner.

• Books:

If you are heading to Europe two books that are must haves are Rick Steves’ Europe through the Backdoor and Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring. Traveling around Europe really doesn’t need to cost a fortune.

The first book does an excellent job of walking a traveler through the process of planning a trip and does a marvelous job of answering any and all of the questions you may have about European travel – from transport to lodging to overcoming the language barrier and even cultural, political and other circumstantial things about Europe you need to know before you get out of the door to catch your flight. Rick Steves also gives many mini-itinerary suggestions for each part of the Old Continent and dedicates about a third of the book to exploration of  the major European countries and the destinations within them you should consider visiting.

Europe on a Shoestring does not and will not teach you how to plan your trip, but apart from that it is truly an ENCYCLOPEDIA-sized bible for the European traveler. The book lists every single country on the continent and breaks it down into regions, major cities and towns worth visiting. A brief description of each country’s geography, currency, transportation system, how to get in and out of the country is given. For each city there are recommendations for sightseeing, entertainment, eating, places to sleep and day trip suggestions. And that is just scratching the surface!

Overall, a very strong book, but if you are looking for a lot of in-depth materials and information I would recommend supplementing this book with one of Rick Steves’ country guides. You could also consider other well-established and reputable travel guide publishers such as the Frommer’s Guide series and so on.

• Tour itineraries

So when you are considering your next big trip and how much it would cost and where you should go– why reinvent the wheel? I mean most of the information is out on the internet already anyway, right? So go ahead, search for reputable tour operators who have guided tours to the places you want to visit. Check out their itineraries – that will help you:

§ Learn what sites in that destination are a must-see

§ Structure your itinerary better.

I used this method to structure my visit to places like Dublin and Amsterdam, for which I didn’t know much about or just didn’t have a ton of time to research.

• Tourist offices

In Europe tourist offices are very common and can be found in each town. While the concept of a tourist office may be unfamiliar to you, those places are full of information regarding accommodations, things to do and see while in town, cool events and many more. They also can provide you with directions and free tourist maps. If you have a question or need advice do not be shy or hesitate to pop into one of the tourist offices on the way – the people working there would be glad to help you.

Summary:

This has been a pretty long and information-intensive post, so if you  can take away only a few things from it, those should be these:

• Get Rick Steves’ Europe through the Backdoor and Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring to learn anything you need to know about travel to and within Europe.

• Leverage Flickr (www.flickr.com/places) and Netflix (www.netflix.com) to discover destinations you may want to visit around the world (Flickr) and find out more information about them (Netflix).

• Go to the coffee shop near you (or cafe if you are reading this from Amsterdam ) and strike conversations with travelers and interesting new people. Use that network to exchange travel tips, stories and recommendations.
• When you consider your itinerary do a “competitor research” and check out the itineraries and sightseeing stops of reputable tours to your destination. This would give you a good clue of how to better structure your trip and utilize your vacation time.

• Tourist offices are your allies abroad. Visit them if you need information, directions, a tourist map or advice on local sights to see and things to do.

• Consider traveling in the shoulder and off seasons.

Thanks for reading and happy travels!

-Krassi

PS: Next time I will talk about the first steps of trip planning and share some of the links and resources that helped me plan my trips.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.