How are you planning your coming trips? Do you have any special tips? Let me share mine and I would appreciate your ideas if it might make some planning easier.
- Budget.
First thing, which I usually do is budgeting. I am trying to figure out how much money I am ready to spend. It affects the location of your trip, duration, etc. No any additional tips here, but I believe that it's a very important exercise to make sure that you can afford this particular trip.
- Timing.
Usually, I am scheduling my trips for the long weekends. Sometimes I am required to book some additional days off to extend the vacation period. As you know, long weekends are the busiest time - everyone wants to book the good quality hotel for the affordable price, tickets or rent a car. So tip #1 - think in advanced - make a reservation 4-6 months in advance. Expedia and booking.com allow making a refundable reservation, which you can cancel if you've changed your minds and don't have a chance to still have this trip. So why can't you just book a hotel and then cancel if? But the early booking allows getting top-rated hotels (which usually booked first) for the reasonable prices.
- Planning
Learn "things must do" or "things must see" in your vacation area. For some crowded places avoiding lines preferable to buy online tickets (tip#2 for all popular museums). It can save a lot of your time and mood! I hate to waste my vacation time staying in the lineups. So some online purchases or online reservations don't hurt at all.
Tip #3 create your top list things, which you want to do in the vacation area. Use a TripAdvisor for it. Open a google map and make a quick research learning what interesting places are located there, how to get there, does it worth it. Sometimes just going through the google images helps to understand if you want to go there or it's just popular location without any worth for you.
Tip #4 - are you planning to spend your vacation in the busy place? Book the table for the dinner in the restaurant in advance. It helps to get the guaranteed table, eat in a good place with local cuisine, learn more about the food in the menu and make sure that they have something suitable for your current diet and nutrition plan.
- Expectations
Tip#5 - be always positive. Even if you have a detailed plan of your trip some unexpectable things happen a lot. Be ready for that! You can miss the ferry, late to the train or the reservation of the table in the restaurant might be failed for the tech website issue. Don't allow such things to mess up your vacation! Just enjoy time relaxing and being with your family or people you love.
What's your planning trip tips?
P.S. All photos were made on the Bowen Island, BC, Canada, last weekend. It was well planned weekend!