Planning a trip for 2013 is challenging but fun
By maximax8
@maximax8 (31042)
United Kingdom
September 18, 2012 8:18am CST
It is funny because I am burning to plan and book my trip in 2013 to Eastern Europe. I have to apply to the school to get time off for my disabled son or go later in the year. I will have to book each leg of my trip separately using loads of different websites. Some train tickets can be booked 60 days or 90 days ahead. I might have to book accommodation before my train journeys. I need to plan my route in detail and all I can go on is the current times of trains.
I hope to get a return from London to Amsterdam on Euro Star via Brussels on a Saturday. This is because I am more likely to get a cheap rail ticket to London from Somerset on the weekend. I would need to depart London at 10.57 so we could reach Amsterdam before dark. You see my kids are young and I wish to plan an easy journey for them. There is a train leaving Amsterdam to Prague leaving at 19.01 to Prague. The next leg of the journey would be Prague to Krakow. This could be another easy overnight journey.
It will be challenging to book the train tickets from there to Lviv in Ukraine. I wish to see a number of places in that interesting country. I intend to get a train from Kiev to Budapest. I might if I have enough money be able to visit Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia Herzegovina.
Do you think I should get an inter rail bearing in mind it is not valid in Ukraine?
Would you book the accommodation before purchasing the train tickets?
When you plan a trip which information do you look at?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@nezavisima (7408)
• Bulgaria
18 Sep 12
it's nice when you can plan things from earlier.
I can never plan stuff just because I can not afford it because I have so much money.
I'm glad for you that is so good I wish you all the best and a wonderful trip.
We just live healthy.
nice day!
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
18 Sep 12
I would choose to buy an interrail pass in your situation. You will not be able to use it in Ukraine and in Albania, but the other countries are all included in the interrail zone so I think that an interrail pass would be worth the money. I would not book the the accomodation before I had the train tickets, because it is my experience that you can't away get the tickets that you plan and sometimes you will have to travel one day later if everything is sold out. That is is reason why I prefer to buy the train tickets first. Of course it is also possible to book the accomodation first, but in that situation you might have to change the hotel reservations if you can't get the train tickets you planned.
When I plan a trip I look for information in my guidebooks and on the internet. At first I plan my transportation and I decide I am going to travel by plane, by car, by bus or by train or if I am going to combine different kinds of transportation. When I know how I am going to get from place to place, I buy the tickets unless I am going by car. When I have the tickets I decide if I am going to book my accomodation in advance or if I am going to find accomodation when I arrive. If I decide to book my accomodation in advance I book my accomodation through the internet.
@maximax8 (31042)
• United Kingdom
19 Sep 12
I like the sound of the inter rail pass that allows 10 days travel in 22 days. I prefer that to an inter rail pass that lasts for a whole month. I have looked at the Man in Seat 61 website and seen his suggestions of the ways to travel around Easton Europe. From he information I came across a German site which gives me all the train times. Moldova is hard to fit on my trip. I need help to get my son's wheelchair on board and that doesn't seem likely at a tiny train station. It would give me just 17 minutes to change trains then onto an overnight train.
Ukraine looks fairly expensive and I wish to get the cheapest prices. I am thinking of only booking those nights. It is no fun arriving when all accommodation is booked up.
Thanks for your wonderful response to my discussion. 
@GemmaR (8517)
•
18 Sep 12
I love planning trips, but at the same time they always cause me quite a lot of stress as well. I am trying to plan a trip around America with my partner at the moment, and this is meaning that we are having to think about how we're going to find enough money to get us over there, and whether we would have to get some kind of job or not while we were there. I would love to be able to find a bar to work in for perhaps a couple of weeks, and then travel for a week, and then work in another bar. But I don't know just how easy it is to work over there, I will have to look into it.
@maximax8 (31042)
• United Kingdom
19 Sep 12
I am glad that you love planning trips. Good luck planning the trip around America with your partner. I think doing some bar work there is a very good idea. A working holiday can be brilliant fun. The money earned can keep the journey progressing well.
