Ever felt like you wanted to travel but still can’t make it while other people just leisurely do it like it’s not a big deal. We’ll bet that most of those backpackers carefully planned an itinerary before making tough trips; it’s either by gathering information online with the help of websites and mobile apps. However, making a near perfect or seamless itinerary requires more than research. Considering you already had your things prepared for a trip, booked great airline deal, and snagged a nice place to stay, there are still things that we need to ponder which is equally important to make a near-perfect itinerary. With that being said, let’s go ahead and uncover all of the important factors and strategies that will make things easier for you.
Knowing what you can and cannot do
I’m pretty sure that you wanted to do everything on the first day as much as possible by scheduling a full day’s worth of activity, but is it a great idea? It’s all exciting when you first step into an unknown territory but always consider your fatigue level from the long trip, as well as, the time difference. Traveling should not feel like a military boot camp, so take things easy and cut off some of the activities on your list. If you really want to do a lot of things, consider extending for a day.
Visiting multiple places can be a lot of challenge, so let’s be realistic and reasonable. Know the negotiable and non-negotiable places that you wanted to visit or activities that you wanted to accomplish. Familiarize yourself with the events and festivals in the country or place that you will be visiting, and plan accordingly. It’s either you may want to join those events or festivals or avoid the hassle since it’s crowded most of the time, transportation, and hotel accommodation can be a problem as well. Estimate how long you will be staying in a certain place and include the activities as well, guidebooks, travel websites, and forums can give you the whole picture.
Ensure to get the right base
Sounds pretty basic right? It may seem a simple idea but having the ideal place to stay after a long day of adventuring is really important. How will we know if it’s the most ideal base? In my case I normally ask myself a few questions; is the hotel, house, or room that I will be renting adjacent to stores where I can get all my daily needs? Is it located somewhere in the middle of places I wanted to visit? Is it safe and clean and have all the amenities that I need? These are just sample questions that you can ask yourself when looking for a base.
Searching online can make it easier for you to look for the right place to stay, and websites like trip advisor and Orbitz can really help you out if you are looking for a nice hotel to rent. However, if you wanted an inexpensive alternative to hotels and get a homey feeling then I highly advise you to visit Airbnb.com. With Airbnb, you can make an easy decision by narrowing down the list of places to rent. You can make a filtered search results by price, location, and even amenities from washing machine, aircon, bed size up to getting a pool.
A little side note
With all of my experiences in travel, what I can say is that, the most flexible itinerary is often the most successful and enjoyable ones. There’s no such thing as perfect plan because things just don’t always go as what we expected it to be so take it in consideration when planning your itinerary.