You have a 9-5 office schedule to drain all strength and zest of your daily life. Occasionally, after pondering a lot, you decide to have a trip with family or friends. You don’t want to compromise anything and expect a perfect execution of all your efforts on planning and research. It is a common situation for everyone before going on a trip unless you are quite well-off to afford anything, anytime and anywhere.
A lot of people travel frequently and share their experience of planning and strategy for trips. I brief you a few steps to direct you on the correct path while planning so that you won’t waste much time for unnecessary logic.
1. Decide destination and purpose
Where do you want to go? Which place is perfect for your trip? It depends on the type of trip you want to experience. You may plan a trip with your family or friends. You may like to go on a solo trip or an adventure trip. Maybe you have a new car, and you need a road trip. Research for the best destinations according to your needs and the budget. You can google it and compare the images, reviews, and ratings of five to ten places. Many trip planner websites are available on the internet. Go for it!
You would like to have a map such as World map scratch especially when you are going for an impromptu or solo trip which allows you to record all your travels. Also, keep in mind that most of the travel destinations are more adorable in some specific seasons or months.
2. Length of journey and estimation of expenses
How long are you leaving your home? It is a pretty straight forward question for those who travel mainly on weekends. But if you are going with your family and friends for quite a long trip, then the precise duration of your trip becomes extremely important. Your expense increases dramatically with the length of your journey, and you certainly won’t like to burn a hole in your pocket.
An explicit calculation of all future expenses is impossible and not required also, but a fair estimation is quite feasible. There are three main areas to spend a large sum of money- food, hotel, and transport. Many websites like- budget your trip help you in modelling your budget.
3. Packing relevant items
Packing can be overwhelming and confusing. We need this and that, all the stuff that is unnecessary. If you follow some proper sequence, it becomes easy. You don’t need to think much and stress yourself for the whole day. Write a few things on paper like clothes, snacks, footwear, etc. which are necessary. Keep clothes that you can mix and match. Light packing is key to successful trips.
Snacks play an important role when you have kids with you. Also, you may feel hungry whenever you can’t manage the change in tastes of different places. Avoid keeping separate bags for every kind of stuff. A bigger bag instead of several small bags is convenient.
4. Transportation bookings
Flight bookings or train bookings emerge as a crucial milestone for the trip. Once you have booked the tickets, you have no uncertainty regarding your plans.
Many travel agencies and their exciting deals have flooded the internet. You should use them to save money but be careful about the terms and conditions. Skyscanner, Momondo, and AirTrek provide cheaper fare rates while last-minute deals are mind-blowing.
5. Accommodation bookings
You can be creative while looking for accommodation. You know that you won’t be staying in the hotel room for the whole day. After having all the fun activities, you will come back at night. So pay only for one night and book a separate locker for your luggage. It will reduce the charges substantially.
Look for the websites like Trivago, which compares hundreds of hotels for you based on hundreds of features. Hostelworld, Agoda, and Booking.com offer best rates while the OYO room is the fastest-growing budget hotel chain.
6. Save money
The most important part of planning and research is to utilize the money in the best possible way. There are so many ways to save money or earn extra money. You need to start saving money for trips quite early. You can limit the spending on shopping, sell unnecessary items in the households including old books, compromise with internet data speeds, reduce your coffee expense, etc.
While traveling, use no-fee ATM services, inform your bank about your trip, and avail an international travel credit card.
7. Plan your activities
Finally, comes your fun activities, for which you are planning a trip in the first place. Be it water park, jungle safari, or beach-surfing- they make your trip successful, memorable, and relaxing. For fun, you can overlook the magnitude of expenditure to some extent. Don’t miss anything to regret.
You cannot plan for everything, but proper planning and research for transportation, accommodation can not only save you a few bucks but also make your overall experience wonderful.