7 Travel Planning Tips

Organising a trip isn't easy and is definitely not for everyone. My boyfriend always leaves what he finds a "tedious" task for me, with the excuse that I will do it better. The reality is that I actually quite enjoy planning a trip, is rather exciting for me to discover ideas that might have not crossed my mind before visiting a place and always learning a bit more about the destinations I will land on. Here are some of the things that are in my to do list when I start dreaming of a new journey:

1) I am probably rather obsess with travel but I have a list on my phone with all the destinations I want to visit in the near future. I keep adding places to my bucket list as I discover new spots that never crossed my mind or that I didn't think I would be appealed by. So I would say that the first thing I always do before I start planning a trip is choosing a couple of "items" on my bucket list and start a research. I love bookshops and enjoy to get lost between the stacked up shelves. As much as you can find info online, I always like to take a travel guide with me. I am a big fun of Rough Guides over Lonely Planet, but either way you can't go wrong with them. Is useful to have the book with you and add notes to it as you go along.

2) Draft a list of the places that you don't want to miss and locate them on a map to see whether your expectations are realistic.

3) Search all connections you want to do by all means of transport, overland, train, air. Make your mind around how much and how long would it take from place to place. Is that time you can fit in? Often, going from A to B takes a fair part of your travel time. Think carefully, don't pack to much in one day, is better to see less and better than too much in a glance. Also, if you are not properly rested and fed you will not enjoy yourself!

4) Draft an itinerary. I tend to use spreadsheets and word in Google drive and share the file with my travel companion. That gives them right access to the files to comment, change and add info. Being organised is very important if you have little time for travel. Add columns beside each travel destination with transport links, price, travel time, etc.

5) Make yourself aware about the clima and best season to go to your preferred destination. Very often we have fixed dates to go on holiday, and this is why I find useful to have a second choice. Tend to line up a couple of destinations that fall into different parts of the hemisphere. We want to go everywhere anyway, don't we?

6) I always recommend to read a little bit about the history, food and cultural habits of the place I am visiting. Are these clothes suitable for the weather? Do I have to cover up myself a little more? Be respectful, we westerners are not used to being told what to wear and probably do not think much about it, but you don't want to be stared at or pointed, so be aware of the dress code. Most of countries in the world are quite open to foreigners but that might change if you are visiting more remote rural areas. Knowing a little about their history also may change the stereotypes you previously had about the country and will make you understand why they behave is such or such a way. And food, of course, why not help yourself by knowing some national dishes before hand? If you go to Asia for example, you will rarely get a menu in a street food stall, so is useful to know what the meal names are and how they look like, so you know what you are eating...although you can always get surprised!

7) Relax and enjoy. And if things don't go according to plan do not stress out! In the end, the anecdotes you will more likely remember about a trip were those that you didn't expect to happen!

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