In this travel planning overview, we describe the major components of selecting destinations, designing trips, and optimizing experiences.
Travel Ideation
The starting place for travel is to decide the places you want to go. No big surprise there. However, there is more to it than random thoughts about romantic, stunning, relaxing, challenging, or fun destinations. But those adjectives are a great place to start.
Having a bucket-list is helpful within the process of selecting destinations for near-term trips. I have found that several categories of bucket-lists are useful. Sometimes you need a short trip. At other times, you need an exciting trip. Sometimes, just a break. Yet other times, you want to go to that place you have always dreamed of going but thought might be out of reach.
One list that I actually maintain is the list of US National Parks. I would like to visit all of the NP’s but that will take some careful thought and effort since some are not easy to access. On the other hand, some we can get to over a weekend. Some we can hit as a group on a week-long vacation.
Currently, waiting to be selected and planned, is a trip the Southwest USA (TX and NM) to see Big Bend, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks. I have a “my maps” route saved in a cloud folder to remind me of this future trip as we are plotting the next year’s travel.
The Itinerary
Developing your itinerary and making the needed reservations is the core of trip planning. To build a solid schedule for transportation, accommodations, and activities, you will tackle five basics: 1) a scope for the trip 2) a rough layout 3) booking the key elements 4) adding details/routing and 5) review/solidify.
Constructing your itinerary begins with scoping your travel, by deciding the specific places and activities you want to include. For a general destination, such as a country or region, you need to decide the cities and sights that are priorities. At the same time, these priorities must be balanced with constraints, such as costs and time you are able to spend.
With the scope and constraints in hand, you can then devise a rough layout of your itinerary and book the important (usually expensive) reservations such as flights or hard-to-get accommodations or activities. With these new bounds, you can then route further transportation and detail your schedule of activities and accommodations. The last step in constructing your first complete itinerary (not necessarily the final) is to review, tweak, and solidify. In this review, you are looking for problems or conflicts. For example, perhaps you planned for a visit to a museum the day it happens to be closed.
(For a more detailed description of this core planning process, see our Building an Itinerary page.)
Improving your Plan
Finding Gems
Once you have your solid and complete itinerary established, there are then improvement you will want to consider, as time allows. In so many cases, we find that we may have missed some amazing sights or experiences. These oversights might be due to an activity being new, underrated, otherwise mostly undiscovered. More research and reading can uncover additions or alternatives, allowing you to update your travel plans.
Considering Contingencies
In some cases, you might find new possibilities for your trip but may hold them as contingencies, rather than changing the basic plan. As you travel, your priorities might shift due to weather, unexpected delays, etc. Some of these changes might be anticipated but not all of them. Having alternatives at the ready can help you to turn lemons into lemonade!
One example contingency item, that also turned out to be a gem, was the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. We were traveling around the northern and central parts of the state and had looked for a few possibilities for the drive between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Although “Tent Rocks” was a bit off the route, we kept it as a contingency, in case we had time. There was not much information on the sight but we decided to make the effort. Tent Rocks turned out to be a highlight of our trip and we could have easily overlooked it whist planning.
At the conclusion of this travel planning overview, it is important to note a critical ingredient: enjoy planning your trip!
Please leave comments with your thoughts on the information that is helpful to you. What are we missing? What do you like? The suggested itineraries? The routes? The photos? The descriptions and hints?