How To Plan an International Trip – Wanderbeer Style
Planning a trip in the internet age is easier and more difficult than ever before. The internet gives you access to everything you need to plan a trip, but it also provides so much information that it becomes difficult to filter through it all. It used to be that you’d buy a guide book from Lonely Planet, Frommers, or Let’s Go and hit the spots they mentioned and maybe a few they didn’t out of convenience. But, now Tripadvisor and other sites list hundreds of options instead of five. And that information overload has led to more group tours, not less. And that’s great. For tour companies. But there’s no reason you can’t still plan your own trip. It just takes a little work.
I’m an overplanner, but an underdoer. By that, I mean I research a ton, but don’t do half of what I research. I just like options. In this post I’ll walk you through how I plan a trip from start to finish.
Pick the Destination
I keep a top 10 list of where I want to go. And there’s a bunch of honorable mentions, too. This list is always changing based on reading something new or listening to a podcast. But, it’s good to have a list. Life is too short and you’ll never be able to go everywhere. So, it’s important to have that list so you make sure you hit the places that you really want to go. It doesn’t have to be in order, but if you have a consistent #1, why aren’t you going?
Once I’m ready to start the planning phase, I start checking out flights, mileage rewards to see if I can find any deals on any of the particular places. South Africa has been #1 on my list for years, but I haven’t been yet because I keep finding better deals on other destinations on my list. At some point, I will ignore those deals and just do it. But, you can’t ever discount the price. I had looked at going to Greece (#2 on my list at one point) in the summer of 2017, but the tickets there were over $1,000 and I found tickets to Copenhagen (#4 on my list) for $550. That was a no brainer.
Choose an Itinerary
After I know where I want to go, the next step is to choose where to go and what to see once you land. I tend to want to see as much as I can, but the more I travel, the more I enjoy slow travelling. Spending a few extra nights in each city gives you a better feel for the city and culture than constantly jumping from city to city each day. I pore through travel blogs to see what everyone says are the most sees.
I’m a very visual person, so I will also do a google image search for a country or city to see what pops up. When we were planning our trip in Croatia, I had read about daytrips to Mostar in Bosnia. The second I saw a picture of that bridge, I knew that I had to see it in person. And that gave us another place to add and it didn’t look out of the way at the time. I’m currently planning a trip to Portugal and saw pictures of Monsanto, which is a little village in the middle of nowhere. And now I have to see that.
After creating a list of the must sees and must dos, I then try to create a reasonable route to see it all in order. I used to make it a circle, but now with open jaw flights, you can start in one city and fly out of another for no additional cost. No sense in backtracking.
I try not to have any travel days exceed 5 hours unless it’s for a really good reason. And I always overestimate the amount of time it will take, because it’s easy to get lost or turned around in a foreign country.
After you know the route you want to travel, you have to figure out how many nights to stay in each place. Obviously, this will depend on the length of your trip. I try not to do have a 2 night stay in between each 1 night stay so that you don’t feel like you’re always packing. And lately, I’m moving to more 3 night stays. The longer the travel time to get somewhere, the more nights I want to book in that location.
Getting There
Getting Around
I love renting cars when I travel abroad. If gives you the freedom to roam, stop off in little towns on the way, and experience a country in way that using public transportation just doesn’t allow. When booking rental cars, I typically start with kayak.com. It allows you to do a search with their partner sites as well as run with concurrent searches on local sites. It’s a good starting point to get a base price. If the prices are equal, I try to book through one of the major carriers like Avis, Thrifty, Hertz, etc. But, price isn’t always equal. Sixt is a newcomer on the scene that offers significantly cheaper prices. But, make sure you read reviews of their service in the country you are heading to ensure they don’t gouge you with extra fees once you get there. Especially if you are dropping the car in a different place than you picked it up in.
However, some countries have fantastic train schedules and that can save you a lot of hassle. In Japan, for example, you can book a relatively cheap 7 or 14 day pass that lets you take the bullet trains across the country. Not having the stress of reading road signs or maps in Japanese would certainly be worth. When booking train tickets, do you research. Because you will find the cheapest tickets by booking directly through the train companies rather than using a service like RailEurope which charges extra fees for booking the same tickets you could get yourself directly.
Where to Stay
You know where you want to be, so now it’s time to figure out where you want to sleep. I start by googling best neighborhoods or areas to stay in each city. There will be a ton of a travel blogs that will rank the neighborhoods and you can find the one that fits your travel style. I believe the neighborhood you stay in is the single most important decision you make when you are planning a trip. A sketchy neighborhood or a long commute can give you a bad vibe on the whole destination even if it didn’t warrant it. Don’t make the mistake of booking a hotel outside of a tourist zone just because it’s cheaper if you then have to spend time and money to get to back to the tourist zone multiple times a day. Make sure the neighborhood you book is full of cafes, restaurants, bars, and a few sights that you can walk to.
I start at hotels.com. They give you one night free for every 10 nights you book based on your average hotel booking. That’s basically a 10% discount. If you book 10 nights at $100 a night, you get a free $100 booking in the future. And if you book it with a travel reward card like Sapphire Reserve (like I do), you can get an extra 3 points for that purchase, too. That’s the double bonus.
Hotels.com is great in the US, but it’s a bit limited in some countries. So, then I check booking.com. it always has lot more options. I’ll lose that 10% bonus if I can find a better place at a better price. If I’m staying 3 nights or more, I will also check Airbnb to see what they have. Staying in an apartment can be awesome since you have a kitchen, etc. but be careful of where you book, because you could also lose a lot of money and time getting back to the places you want to be. Hotels are more often located in those spots. And Airbnb does a horrible job of letting you know where the place is until you book it. you have to read the reviews carefully to see what they say about the location.
Best Sights to See
At this point it’s back to travel blogs and tripadvisor to research on what are the can’t miss and off the beaten path things that you can see in a reasonable amount of time. I used to overbook my days trying to see every site, castle, and church. But, you don’t need to see everything. And sometimes by seeing everything, you actually miss everything else. You spend more time in lines with the other hordes of tourists and miss out on the vibe of the city. Now I just plan for a few big ones and schedule time to either relax or just get explore on my own and get lost. Helps make the trip more of a vacation than a trip.
Best Things to Do
Tourists always make their list of things they need to see, but sometimes they forget to look for things they should do. This includes outdoor activities and cultural activities. Just walking through a neighborhood, riding a bike through a park, or kayaking down a river. That might not show up in a travel guide, but it’s a far better way to get to know a city. Going to a local market, attending a festival, or ceremony is another way to connect. There are ways to do this without doing a guided tour and showing up some place where they make local natives dance for you. That’s awkward and horrible. Research this carefully if you are going to go on your own, but it will be so worth it if you do. And that’s not to say that all tours are bad. Many tours are small and the guides are engaged and are able to show you something you couldn’t experience on your own. But, in general, I avoid them when possible. As guided tours mean I won’t have direct contact with the local scene. That’s a comfort for many, but I find it more satisfying when I have to navigate that on my own.
Best Places to Eat
This is my favorite part of the research process. I like to eat. And drink. And eat again. And drink again. Travel blogs and local websites are the best source for where to go. I don’t trust Tripadvisor’s ranking system. It seems to rank the most popular places tourists go, but not necessarily the best. I do use it to confirm that a place is kid friendly, their hours, and look at the pictures posted by other travelers. But, I wouldn’t immediately choose a restaurant just based on their ranking system.
I like to find places that are close to my hotel or the sites I know I’m going to see. Because, most often, when you travel, you can’t control when you’re hungry. And it’s not worth trekking across the city just because that’s the place you read about, just to return to finish up your sight seeing. You’re going to eat when you’re hungry.
Tripadvisor’s recommendations are typically bad. Either touristy to just too generic.
Google – Best “specialty” Best terrace, best outdoor eating,
Search terms
Best hipster restaurant in xxx
Best dinner with a view in xxx
Best “local specialty” in xxx
Best Street Food
