Planning the perfect trip sounds easy, but come day-of you don't want to be stressed when rushing from place to place. You're supposed to be enjoying vacation! Here are some of my lessons learned to maximize experiences but not exhaust yourself.
Centralize your travel plans
This can be in a Google Sheet/Excel, creative trip planning app (above), or even the notes app. This is going to be your source of truth for trip planning (and doesn't have to be pretty!) It's also super helpful if you're planning a trip with multiple people to keep track of everyone's plans. Things you'll want to put here:
- Flight info (confirmation #s, flight #s, dates/times, etc)
- Hotel reservations (confirmations, address, phone numbers, dates)
- Sightseeing activities (times, confirmations, address, hours)
- Restaurant plans (address, reservation time, phone number)
- Transportation info (reserved car info, train ticket times/info)
You'll definitely want all of your travel plans in one place for ease of access, and so that you don't have to load multiple web pages/emails on international data or if you have bad cell service/no wifi.
If you want a web-based trip planner app experience that's easy to share and navigate, check out my FREE customizable travel planning template for Canva! It's Europe themed by default, but you can customize it for whatever trip and destination you want.
It's not great looking, but even a spreadsheet like below will work for travel planning:
This is how I kept plans straight for a party of 8 people on an international cruise last year. Keeping everything in one place (and one screen) means you can screenshot these important items for later in case you don't have data or cell phone service.
It doesn't have to be fancy or aesthetic, but you'll thank yourself for keeping travel details in one, central place.
Planning Activities
Now, how do you properly fill out each day with sightseeing and food?
My first, most important tip is to not overload your day. You don't want to feel rushed, running from timed entry to reservation - you'll just get tired and grumpy.
Instead, plan 1 activity in the first half of the day, and another activity in the second half (with lunch/dinner inbetween). This will give you time to get from place to place but still enjoy what you're doing. I try to stick with only 1 meal reservation a day (lunch OR dinner) so I don't have to worry about shifting the whole day's schedule if plans change or if I linger somewhere. This gives you flexibility to try new restaurants you discover along the way.
For example during a trip to Amsterdam, one day's plans consisted of:
- Van Gogh Museum (Timed entry tickets - 10AM)
- Canal tour by boat (4PM)
This way, we were able to enjoy the Van Gogh Museum in a non-rushed way, and got lunch nearby. We had the chance to wander around and explore Amsterdam's different neighborhoods between the museum and finding a place to eat.
Then, we went to the meeting place for our canal tour. We were able to walk and enjoy the unique architecture, instead of rushing from place to place - stressed that we'd miss our reservation.
After the canal tour, we asked our guide for dinner recommendations, and he pointed us to Moeder's down the street (which was fantastic!) It was great to discover a locally-loved eatery instead of somewhere pre-planned from social media.
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I typically follow the 1 activity per afternoon and evening, with 1 meal reservation a day (or plan 2 smaller activities for one half of the day) to not feel overwhelmed and exhaust myself. Obviously, when planning your sightseeing a day at a time, keep those activities and restaurants close together / in the same area so you're not running all over the city.
- e.g. if planning a trip to Tokyo, visit the Tsukiji Fish Market in the morning, then go shopping in Ginza in the afternoon since they're nearby each other (8-minute train ride).
When plans go awry
If you're running late, don't panic. Everything is figure-out-able. Instead of taking the train, maybe you have to take a taxi to make up time. The sights aren't going anywhere, and you can try to recover the visit during downtime or if your travel plans bring you back to the area.
My trip cramming mistake was in Tokyo recently. We went to TeamLabs in the morning (0930) and had a Shibuya Sky VIP reservation for 1530 - Adequately spaced out by my personal rules. However, we decided to shop at the Mega Don Quijote in Shibuya after TeamLabs since it was around the corner from Shibuya Sky.
Yeah, we got distracted and I COMPLETELY forgot about our reservation while in the black hole that is the 9-story Mega Don Quijote. Guess what? It's ok. I'm out the reservation fee, but the viewing deck isn't going anywhere, and we plan to make good on the visit during this year's trip to Tokyo.
Don't forget to pack good walking shoes!
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