10 Necessities for planning A Trip 04 Mar 2020 – Posted in: Blogs
We know that travel planning can be overwhelming and time-consuming, especially for overseas travel, and especially if you are travelling with kids. Whether you are travelling alone or planning a family vacation, you deserve to go away and create priceless memories without stress in the trip planning process. Don’t know what to consider when planning a trip? Hopefully, this guide will save you some time, money, and your sanity! So if you don’t have a travel plan or know how to plan a trip, this guide is for you.
1.1Choose Your Destination- Where do you want to go?
Your first step in how to plan a vacation is to choose a travel destination that meets your interests and travel budget. The whole idea of taking a trip is to have a memorable time, to have fun and relax, without having to worry about money. You might want to consider the following points when you’re making this crucial decision:
How much time do you have?
If you have 1-2 weeks of vacation time per year, don’t waste too much of that time traveling to and from your destination. You can be smart about your decisions in that you can choose a destination where you spend maximum time at the location and not just in the interim. Plan your trip accordingly. But if you have 2-4 weeks or over a month you can look at taking an overseas trip or traveling further away within your home country.
With Whom are you traveling?
When you plan your trip, your destination choices can be affected by your traveling companions. Discuss with the others in your travelling group about everyone’s interests. Nobody should get disheartened because their ideas weren’t considered.
When to Travel?
Weather and crowds play an important role when you plan your trip. Do you know how the weather conditions are where you’re planning to go?
If you are fortunate enough to be flexible about deciding your vacation time, good for you! Avoiding seasonal locations which are bound to attract a huge crowd will help you plan a vacation better. (For e.g., you can expect large number of tourists at hill stations during the summer.)
1.2 Booking Flights for Your Trip
Once you have chosen your destination, step two in planning a trip is to book your flights. And learning how to find cheap flights will help you to reduce one of your biggest burdens.
Searching for flights- What websites are helpful for planning a trip online?
Some of the best websites you can refer for planning your flights well in advance are:
Go directly to the airlines
After you have used the flight search engines suggested above and found the best flight suitable for you, go directly to the respective airline’s website and see if you can get it for cheaper prices. Many airlines have lower fares available only on their own site.
1.3 Search Accommodation Deals
We recommend booking hotel rooms/staying quarters months in advance to get the best deals possible.
The famous accommodation websites are Trivago, GoiBibo, and Oyo (although we would recommend seeing the reviews of other users before opting for any of these).. They have properties worldwide. Besides listing all major hotel brands, you find a variety of low cost, independently-owned hotels that can be difficult to find elsewhere. The best thing about booking hotels via online website is, they provide free cancellation on most bookings and a best-price guarantee. You don’t have to worry about your plans getting changed/cancelled last-minute.
1.4 How Will You Get Around?
Another thing to consider when planning a trip is to find out the transportation options in your chosen destination. Will you need to book a rental car or purchase any transportation passes online? Is there a public transport service? Are noteworthy destinations and emergency services within walking distance?
During your travel planning, you must first become comfortable with the transport options for your chosen destination. This will save you some time and stress once there.
1.5 Things to See & Do
When you plan a trip, you’ll want to know about the must-visit tourist attractions and the best things to do while there. As much as we like to just show up, some planning is a good idea especially if you are visiting a popular destination in peak season. Search for the famous places to visit including:-
- Famous restaurant.
- Things you must do.
- Best scenic routes (for window-shopping, culture, nature etc.).
- City tours.
- One-Day trips.
For ideas on things to do in your destination, use these resources:
- Travel Blogs.
- Ask for recommendations from travel-savvy people you know.
- Social Media
- Travel Books
1.6 Places to Eat and Drink
You can learn a lot about a destination through its cuisine. If you are a die-hard foodie. You can even plan your trip around food habits of a place. For some people, trying out new dishes and tastes is their favorite thing about travel. Research ideas for:
- Coffee shops.
- Street food.
- Food trucks.
- Picnic spots.
- Famous local dishes.
1.7 Check Your Passport and Know the Visa Requirements
If you are planning an overseas trip and don’t have a passport yet, give yourself enough time to apply at least 6 weeks before departure and preferably as soon as you have booked your flights and accommodation. And if you already have a passport, what is the expiration date? Most countries require that your passport is valid for six months beyond your date of stay and it has enough empty pages for stamps.
Do you know the visa entry requirements for your destination? Do you even need a specific visa and how do you get it?
Each country and nationality will be different, and again, don’t leave this till the last minute as it could take significant time to organize. If you are worried about how to plan an overseas trip because of visas, you can learn more about trip because of visas for all countries and passport holders at Project Visa- then double check with each relevant embassy’s website!
1.8 Make Copies of important Documents
When you are planning a trip sometimes your important documents get misplaced. Companies can lose your booking reservation or there is a communication breakdown between the price you paid and the expected service. For safer side make the copies of following documents.
- Passports
- Visas
- Flight tickets
- Hotel reservations
- Tour bookings
- Address proof and identity cards
1.9 Accessing Your Money
We all want ease and convenience when traveling, especially when it comes to accessing our money. We also want to reduce our bank and transaction fees. The more money we keep in our own pockets, the more we have to spend on travel. International transaction fees can be hefty when using the WRONG credit cards and checking account cards. When you first plan an overseas trip and you don’t know how to carry your money, one of our best travel tips is to have more than one option! When we travel use a combination of:
- Debit Cards
- Credit Cards
- Travel Money Cards
- Cash
1.10 Pack Smart
Thinking about packing can be stressful when you are planning your trip, but the best thing to do is pack the bare minimum because you can always buy it there! Encourage your kids to choose and pack their own clothes to minimize complaints and to teach travel planning skills.
Top 5 Travel Packing List Tips:
- Know the weather of the destination you are visiting, which helps reduce over-packing.
- When flying take a change of clothes in your carry on just in case your checked in luggage doesn’t arrive with you.
- Know the types of accommodation you will be staying at. If you are staying in hotels you won’t need to take things like towels, hair dryers, etc.
- Charge your electronics and load up all your tablets and portable devices with things to read, play and watch.