Planning your trip
By Porcospino
@Porcospino (31366)
Denmark
July 15, 2012 4:39am CST
Do you make a detailed itinerary before you visit a new place? Do you plan a few things in advance? Or do you make those decisions when you arrive at your detination? What do you prefer and why? What are the advantages and disadvantages about the different options?
I have tried all 3 things. I have gone on trips where I did a lot of research before my trip and picked out most of the sights from my home (via guidebooks and the internet) I have gone on trips where I knew the names of the a couple of sights that I wanted to visit and made the rest of the decisions when I arrived at my destination. I have gone on one trip where I planned nothing at all and started reading my guidebook on the plane. Most of the time I plan some things from home, but I don't make a detailed itinerary. Sometimes I find some interesting places by coincidence and sometimes I do spontanious things. I don't want to plan every single day from home, there has to be room for spontanious activities, too.
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8 responses
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
15 Jul 12
My last trip wasn't really planned at all. I went to Vienna, stayed a friends place, and decided the day before what I was going to do the next day. My next trip is quite well planned, mainly because I'm going to the Olympics so the two days we have tickets for are planned down to when we have to leave my friends flat and how much time it takes us to walk to the tube.
The two days in Edinburgh are also planned, as there's a few things I'd like to do and I might have to check for tickets first.
I like having something planned, especially if I go somewhere I haven't been before. I suppose that's the normal planning you do when you go to a new place, there must be reasons to go there :-)
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@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
16 Jul 12
My friend is going to the Olympics, too and she has also planned her trip carefully. She is very excited about going to London to watch the Olympics and she planned her trip in details many months ago. Edinburgh is a nice place, I used to spend my free time there where I lived close to Aberdeen, but I haven't been there for 12 years. I think it is a good idea to plan some things before we travel. There are usually something that we live to see and do at our destination. I have already made many plans for our trip to Asia. I didn't make a detailed itinerary for each day because I want to have enough time for spontanious activities as well, but I have picked out some of the major sights that I want to visit like Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
17 Jul 12
I'd love to go to Angkor Wat some day! Some planning would be good then I suppose, transport and things like that. Or I could bring my Finnish friend, she's in South-East Asia now, working as a photo-journalist. She's going back again in nov-dec and I'd love to go there for some weeks, but I think it might wait til I have a bit more money for the ticket.
She just went there for 2 months though. She did some planning for Vietnam, but for the other countries she's visiting she just goes there, talks to the locals (she normally manages to talk with them even if they don't have a common language) and then figures out what she should take pictures of, or which cases she might try to make an article about.
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@Dominique25 (9464)
• United States
15 Jul 12
The last trip we went on we planned things. I think for the most part it helps me save money if we plan what we are doing instead of having things be spur of the moment. I'm hoping that we will be able to go on a cruise sometime in the future and I think that would be fun because we can port in beautiful places and there will be a lot of things planned for the ship activities that we could do.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Jul 12
A cruise sounds amazing. Have you decided which part of world you want to visit if you go on a cruise? I have never gone on a cruise, but it is one of things that I would like to try in the future for instance a Russian cruise or a cruise in the Carribean 
It is not going to happen in the near future, but I might get the chance to do it one day. I think it is true that you can save money if you plan things instead of doing things in a more spontanious way. My husband and I are going to Asia this year, and before we bought the tickets we made a budget and checked the prices of flights and accomodation because we wanted to make sure that we had enough money.
It is not going to happen in the near future, but I might get the chance to do it one day. I think it is true that you can save money if you plan things instead of doing things in a more spontanious way. My husband and I are going to Asia this year, and before we bought the tickets we made a budget and checked the prices of flights and accomodation because we wanted to make sure that we had enough money.1 person likes this
@Dominique25 (9464)
• United States
16 Jul 12
I think I would like to go to Hawaii or the Carribean. I think we will probably take our first one to Hawaii. I think it would be neat to go on a lot of them to set that as a goal. I don't want to go on the month long cruises. But I think it would be great to go on the majority of the seven day cruises to different places.
That is awesome that you and your husband will be able to go to Asia. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. I'm planning to buy one of those large piggy banks that you have to cut open to get into.This will keep me from spending the money :). Mark on it cruise vacation. Then only put quarters, and bills in it. So by the time we get ready to take the cruise we will have a good size portion of money to go towards it. People have also told me that cruises allow you to make payments up until your departure time which I think is absolutely wonderful. We will look into that as well.
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@wilsongoddard (7291)
• United States
16 Jul 12
I prefer to be spontaneous in my travels. That way, I discover all sorts of things that I likely would not have found otherwise. Plus, I don't like feeling constrained by an overly tight schedule. I want to have the freedom to wander off the beaten path and explore as the mood strikes me. Actually, that is how I am even when I am just venturing out into the town and county in which I live.
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@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
16 Jul 12
I usually do a mix of both things. I plan some activities and leave room for spontanious activities as well. Before I travel there are some things that I know that I want to visit like some of the famous sights that I have heard about before my trip, but I don't like the idea of planning every day in detail. I need the freedom to do spontanious things, too. In the past I went on one trip where I didn't plan anything at all. I bought a plane ticket and just left and decided to make plans when I arrived, I had a great trip. Wben I am going to Asia I have planned some things, but not everything.
@jricky1 (6800)
• China
16 Jul 12
Though having everything arranged is good.But sometimes really annoying.I love to arrange my trip before i go.It's really an exicting plan i can say,when after my work,i will budget my money and then decide the routine that i'm to.But honestly,itinerary routines are not my favourite.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
16 Jul 12
I like to arrange some things but not everything. I want to make sure that there is enough time for spontanious activities as well. Sometimes I find some interesting places that I want to visit when I arrive at my destination. Those places weren't mentioned in my guidebook or on the internet, I just find them by coincidence or hear about them from a traveller or a local that I meet at my destination. I would be sad if I didn't have time for those spontanious things as well and so it important for me that I don't plan everything in advance.
@farrukh593 (27)
•
15 Jul 12
yes of-course I am making my planning of any trip,firstly I plan the financial matters for example cost of fuel to reach at destination and food expenses etc..,and then analyse the weather conditions to decide the wearing plan,so after these sessions we manage our route plan and manage the visiting places and analyse the time which will be pay on different destinations...
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@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
16 Jul 12
It is important to plan the financial aspect of the trip so that we know if we will be able to afford the trip or not. I usually try to find the prices of transportation and accomodation first. If we are going by car we need money for gas and if we are catching a plane, a train or a bus we need money for the tickets. I also try to find out how much my accomodation is going to cost. Today it is easy to check those things online and that has made it easier to plan our own trips. You also mentioned the weather conditions, that is another thing that we need to check when we plan a trip. If we are travelling to a part of the world where the climate it is different from our local climate we have to take that into consideration when we decide what to wear.
@Raine38 (12257)
• United States
15 Jul 12
I think I only plan like half-way thru. I mean, I do plan all the logistics and getting there part, the places we will stay and the spots we will visit, but I never plan the activities on a day-to-day basis. Me and my travel mates have different interests and although it would be fun to do a lot of things together, I don't want the idea of some people missing out on what they will really enjoy doing. Usually when we arrive on our destination, we discuss what we plan to do over dinner of day 1. Then we get to know who among us would like to try the same stuff and we go from there. Half the time we end up doing our own thing and just get together again over dinner to swap stories of what we did.
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@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Jul 12
That sounds like a good way to organize your trips. When you travel with a group of people it isn't always easy to agree about the activities, so I think that it is a good idea to do dÃfferent things and swap stories over dinner. I have done the same thing when I travelled with some friends. My friends weren't very interesting in sightseeing and they wanted to spend the days on the different kinds of sport. They did that and I went sightseeing alone. In the evenings we all had dinner together. Today I travel with my husband and we spend most of the time together because we are both interested in sightseeing.
@Raine38 (12257)
• United States
15 Jul 12
Same here, my travel buddy lately is my husband and with just the two of us most of the time, we always do things together. Except when I go visit shops and do a "little" shopping; he makes a quick detour to a bar and declares that he will just wait for me there lol!
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@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
15 Jul 12
I read a travel guide book before I book my flight so I can get an idea of prices, whether I can afford the accommodation and make a list of sights I wish to see there. On my last trip I wished to see visit four different countries. I had a travel guide book for South America, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. The book for Argentina covered Uruguay as well. I looked for more information on the internet. I booked three nights accommodation for when we first arrived in Argentina. After a long haul flight it is nice to know where I will be staying for the first few days. On my trip I often add sights to see that I didn't know about the bird park in Brazil close to the falls. I know what you mean about doing some things at the time of the moment. I sometimes learn about something from another traveler like he or she might mention a castle worth exploring. It was ever so sad to learn all about Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island then for it to be canceled. I booked to go to Vancouver and then the airline had strikes. I didn't want to read up too much just in case. Three weeks before my trip in 2012 my disabled son broke his leg. I hate it when something happens like that. His consultant had the say whether our trip would go ahead the day before our day of departure.
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@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Jul 12
I also think it is nice to know where you are going to stay the first couple of days. That way you don't have to walk from place to place because you can't find a place to spend the night and you can relax after your flight. Sometimes other travellers inspire us and give us new ideas for our trip. In the train from Budapest to Bratislava I met a couple from South Africa, they had been to Bratislava in the past and they told about some of interesting places in Bratislava. Some of those places weren't mentioned in my guidebook, and I might never have found them if I hadn't talked to that couple. I made some adjustments in my itinerary and I managed to visit some interesting places that way.
@smilemoon (766)
• United Arab Emirates
15 Jul 12
I think it is important to plan our trip so we can know what could we cover from places and how much we are going to spent from money. The trip in this way will by enjoyable.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Jul 12
Yes, it is a good idea to make a budget and find out how much we are going to spend on the trip. When I am travelling in Europe I have a pretty good idea of the costs because I have travelled in Europe many times. When I travel outside Europe it is much harder for me to estimate the costs and when I started planning my trip to Asia I chose to find the prices of flights, accomodation, insurance etc online in order to find out how much money I needed to save up for the trip. It is nice that I know the prices, I don't have to worry about running out of money and I will be able to enjoy my trip 
