9 Travel Planning Tips By, K. J. Updated 2023
These 9 travel planning tips can help with almost any trip. Planning every vacation is unique and requires a different set of concerns when creating your travel itinerary, but some common practices in the planning process and during the trip itself can make a vacation amazing instead of a source of stress.
We love the whole travel process, from the early planning stages to the actual trip, but things never go exactly as planned. Having a skillset to help deal with different travel scenarios that may come up will help you enjoy the journey and not stress over the variations in details.
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9 Travel Planning Tips List:
No matter your vacation destination, these 9 travel planning tips for almost every trip can help you get the most out of travel and keep stress to a minimum.
Table of contents
- 1. Research the destination, research the activities, research the trip options (research is the key to a great trip)
- 2. Plan, Plan, Plan (or travel with someone who loves to plan)
- 3. Early on in the vacation, take a local food tour.
- 4. Like the above tip, we also take a craft cocktail tour, pub crawl (if this is your thing), or walking history tour pretty early on in the trip.
- 5. Take a hop on hop on bus tour (I know this sounds “touristy”, but hear me out)
- 6. Make a plan, but be open to change
- 7. Schedule a down day
- 8. Be respectful of local customs and traditions
- 9. Take lots of photos and videos
- What is the 1 thing to avoid on a vacation?
1. Research the destination, research the activities, research the trip options (research is the key to a great trip)
- The vacation research beforehand helps you find out all of the interesting things about the destination and it helps you learn the layout of the area or areas that you are visiting.
- Researching the destination will help you find out everything that is available to do during your trip. You don’t want to miss anything!
- The local tourism council website for your destination is a great place to start the research. (Louisiana Dept. of Tourism has a great example)
- It’s great to make a wish list of all of the locations within a destination that you would like to visit and plan out the logistics.
- I also usually read reviews on trusted travel sites just to get an idea of recent experiences.
- Next, find out about transportation options and schedules, look at holidays and if things will be open during the visit, and learn a little history or unique facts on the locations that you are planning on visiting. I also look for non-touristy things that are going on during the time of the visit.
- Local newspapers and blogs are also a great place to find out goings on in the city that are not only oriented towards tourists.
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2. Plan, Plan, Plan (or travel with someone who loves to plan)
- Having a plan is just a guideline for the journey and not an unchangeable script. It’s especially important (for me) for shorter vacations so that everything can be organized into a short time without feeling overwhelmed.
- I am the planner in my family and travel-friend group, and it is one part of the travel process that I love so I don’t mind doing it. I know others who just like to “go with the flow” and let experiences happen and that is a totally awesome way to experience travel too.
- A plan also helps evenly space the activities so that it doesn’t feel tiring or get boring. If this is not your style of travel that is okay! It is still important to plan out how you will get to your destination, hotel reservations, flights, and when you will go so even if you “go with the flow” there is still a level of planning that must be done to make the trip happen.
- Bundle when planning to take advantage of discounts. Flight + Hotel Deals Under $400
- We also have a Free Easy Travel Budget Calculator to help you find out how much you’ll need for your trip!
3. Early on in the vacation, take a local food tour.
- These 9 travel planning tips help you find local restaurants that you may not have otherwise known about as well as get a “lay of the land” so that you will know the location of places that you want to return to.
- You may also see other points of interest that you’re interested in trying out. Most tours also include some history about the area and there’s an opportunity to meet other travelers on your tour that you can meet up with to experience other places in the city later.
- My husband and I have met many other couples and families that we wound up going to other places together or sharing information on what we should try and do during the trip. Vacation collaboration is great!
This Key West Food Tour was great and we’ve done it twice it was so much fun!
4. Like the above tip, we also take a craft cocktail tour, pub crawl (if this is your thing), or walking history tour pretty early on in the trip.
- It’s a good way to meet people and have fun in the safe environment of a group in an unfamiliar city.
- It’s also a great way to find off-the-beaten-track places that locals frequent but might not turn up on pre-trip planning.
- In Key West, this Tiki Tour was so much fun and we met a great group of fellow travelers.
- If you visit New Orleans we have a free self-guided cocktail tour.
5. Take a hop on hop on bus tour (I know this sounds “touristy”, but hear me out)
- It’s a great way to further get a feel for the layout of the city and have the freedom to jump off and see the places you want to see while having transportation if it’s a little outside of walking area.
- On a short trip to New York, this was a great way to get around and hit so many attractions that were not in walking distance to the hotel. (this is the one we used in New York: NYC Sightseeing Pass 1 Pass to 90 NYC Attractions – We used the 3-day pass version and the hop on hop off bus was included as well as tons of attractions so it definitely saved us money.
- We used this in Paris as well and covered so much more ground than just walking the center.
- Another thing to consider is that the hop on hop off bus services have many pick up and drop off spots so it’s a good idea to look at this before choosing a hotel to make finding a close stop easier.
6. Make a plan, but be open to change
- For example; the weather may be forecast to be rainy on a day you planned all outdoor activities.
- When planning, make sure the activities have a flexible cancellation window as well just in case.
- Even the most well-planned trip has some deviation from the plan and that can be a source of some unexpected great times.
- I get it, planning is really hard work and once it looks like everything falls into place and you’ve thought of “everything”, put it on the spreadsheet, dreamed of how the trip will go, etc. some unexpected thing occurs and adjustments need to be made. Being open to this will help your sanity and keep things going smoothly.
- Lastly, keep some backup plans ready to go just in case things go off track so you won’t have to stress over it.
Explore hotels with FREE CANCELLATION options!
7. Schedule a down day
- If you’re going for more than three days you’ll probably need at least an afternoon of some downtime or a late and easy morning just to relax and re-energize.
- Vacation meltdowns happen usually because someone is too tired or gets a little cranky because of always being on the go (it has happened to me as well). Your body also needs some rest after going all-out on the sightseeing for a few days.
8. Be respectful of local customs and traditions
- This is a good practice whether you’re traveling in the United States or abroad.
- Make researching local customs and traditions a goal during the initial vacation research on your chosen destination.
- Knowing what is expected or the “norm” of the area helps you avoid looking like the rude tourist.
9. Take lots of photos and videos
- The best way to remember everything about a trip is to take photos so that you can look back at the things that made your trip great.
- You don’t have to be a professional photographer or have an expensive camera. Most phones now have great photo capability.
- I like to organize them after the trip so that I kind of have a flow of the way the trip went so if I ever return it’s easy to know what places I loved and want to revisit or things that weren’t the greatest and don’t want to revisit.
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What is the 1 thing to avoid on a vacation?
- The one thing to avoid on any trip is not being flexible when things go wrong or deviate from the trip you dreamed about.
- Travel catastrophes happen, plans get cancelled, people in your group may not all be on the same page and not cooperate, and many other unplanned things may appear.
- This is where the “go with the travel flow” attitude will help and being flexible as well as having back up options when things don’t go as planned will save a ruined trip.
These 9 travel planning tips may not work for everyone because everyone travel style is different, but they do make it easier for me and hopefully there are others out there who this would make it easier for as well. A little preparation takes the stress out of travel so that you can enjoy the journey and find happiness in traveling!
Travel Resources
- Getting around New York City is much easier with Big Bus Hop on Hop off Tours and I really got to see things that otherwise would have been out of walking distance.
- In Austin, the BBQ and Wine shuttle tour was the only way that we got to visit this wonderful area. I also want to return to the winery for a B&B stay next time.
- The Tiki cocktail crawl tour was one of the best activities we did in the beginning of a Key West, Florida trip and really gave us some great places to return to on the trip.
- If your travels bring you to Louisiana, check out our new article on the Best Haunted Places in New Orleans
- We also have a Self-Guided, Free DIY Cocktail Crawl if you plan on visiting New Orleans
- More tips in our post on what to do in Key West if you only have a day.
- If you are looking for travel tips on Napa Valley wineries we have a great new article!
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These are some other great examples of highly rated food tours and anything booked via these links (it costs you nothing extra) help us bring more tips and travel content to you. I also only recommend activities that I have actually tried and loved.
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