Does having an itenerary matter?
 

I have been planning and planning and plotting courses on maps and getting ready for my trip to Manchester and London, then I thought why am I doing this? Does it matter? What if I get there and I want to do something totally off of my itenerary- thus making all my weeks of planning come to naught.....

Did everyone do a lot of trip preparation only to wind up doing something completely different once they go to their final destination?

I've not been to Manchester but I've been to London. Seems like a question that could apply to most trips though.

My "itinerary" consists of knowing where we're going to sleep. Some folks would rather not plan that either but if it's high tourist season, that's a gamble.

Anyway, as long as we have a place to sleep and are sure we can get from point A to B for distance travel, we don't schedule much else. I keep a lot of info handy on what we <b>could</b> do, but we don't plan the times and we already have more possibilities on the list than time. Then, we just do the &quot;so, what do you wanna do?&quot; thing and pick something. If it's busy, we might buy tickets to something for the next day.

An itinerary is a guideline, and is a very useful tool as long as you realize that it's not carved in stone. Without any itinerary, you're likely to waste time, backtracking around town or missing events you would have enjoyed.

The key is to remember that at any time, you can change or ignore it in favor of something that looks better. And IMHO any good itinerary includes some flexible or &quot;down time&quot; anyway.

Even if you abandon huge chunks of your itinerary, the effort wasn't wasted -- presumably that research informed the decision to abandon the plan after all!

Clicked too soon, but in short what I'd wanted to say was that on vacation, we want to relax and have fun. Itineraries are often tough to stick to and who wants to feel like they failed at vacation? :)

I think it's not completely necessary to have a detailed itinerary. I find it helpful to be aware of the different kinds of bus passes before arrival.

I also have a mental list or general list of places to visit. Upon arrival, I find that some places can be seen quickly, some take more time, some new places can be added that you didn't plan.

In short, I find it helpful to be aware of some of the tourist attractions, but I am not so rigid that I schedule &quot;appointment times&quot; and plan the exact route that I will take. Only Presidents and Royalty need to do that and their aides do the work. I am not a king.

I have never had an itinerary in 23 years of travel to Europe. Total waste of time. I think its like bringing your boss with you on your vacation.

Whether or not you have an &quot;itinerary&quot; depends on a lot of factors. (1)Are there certain things you really want to see in certain places? If yes, then knowing if they will be open on the days and times you'll be there really helps. (I am a victim of having been to Rome three times and never seeing the inside of the Parthenon - high on my list of must-sees - because I screwed up the dates and times or it was being repaired or whatever, and that's a bummer).(2) Are you more interested in visiting established sites or just wandering around getting a taste of a new environment? If the latter, an itinerary won't help much. (3) Do you have certain places you want to eat/drink? All establishments close down from time to time or have certain regular opening/closing schedules. If it's important for you to have an ale at a certain bar in a certain city, or a meal at a special inn, yes, you'd better plan ahead. Maybe the proprietor takes his vacation for the whole month of June or whenever you're going to be there.
My approach to travel before I had a base in Europe that allowed my much more flexibility than most travelers was to plan everything to the hilt, then expect to diverge from the plan as often as whim dictated. Now, I hardly plan at all, except when going to a country I'm not very familiar with. I think in general the best approach is to do lots of up-front planning but to be perfectly willing to cast it all to the wind if something unexpected comes up, as it most likely will. The more research you've done, the more resourceful you can be when confronted with the unexpected.

It sounds like you are talking about traveling between cities since you refer to a map and courses. I do not ever deviate from that kind of itinerary, meaning I plan on how many days in each city, because I book hotel rooms and perhaps buy train or airline tickets.

However, I don't plan daily itineraries that much within the places I stay. I always have a general idea of the main sites I want to see, but do that depending on weather or what I feel like when I get there. I do plan for specific events that need tickets in advance, such as ballet and concerts.

I don't think I spend quite as much time as it sounds like you have on my itineraries, though, except for the main routings and cities and hotels, as I said. I do sometimes plan some day trips that are particularly important to me for a certain day to make sure things are open, though. Other than that, I read my guidebooks a little to find out what museums, etc, are there, but don't spend hours at that. I don't plan restaurants and meals at all, hardly -- I know others do a lot, though.

We always have a list of As and Bs. If we end up at all Cs, we do not care. We have hopefully 30 more years of annual vacations before arthritis set in.

I always have a list of things to see and do prepared, as well as all opening and closing times. This can save you a lot of time and hassle, especially since your vacation time is limited and is likely to be expensive. It is not gospel however. Having an itinerary and ignoring it is far better than not having an itinerary and looking for something to do.

Hi wonkie,

I spend lots of time preparing a detailed, daily itinerary, which I then don't follow.

However, because of the research time (which is lots of fun), I know what I want to do if I don't find something better.

StCirq wrote:
&gt;I am a victim of having been to Rome three times and never seeing the inside of the Parthenon - high on my list of must-sees - .....&lt;

Dear St Cirq,

I fear that you will never get to visit the Parthenon if you keep going to Rome.

Lol Ira. Well I've been to Rome and seen the Pantheon, and not the Roman Forum. So I guess we all arent perfect tourists.

More lol's Ira, that reminded me of the time when I was on a bus in Athens and someone sitting behind me suddenly pointed at the structure on top of a hill and said in a very loud voice - Oh look, that must be the Colosseum!

I agree with the comments of &quot;Anonymous.&quot; I do a lot of research and planning before a trip and make an itinerary, as well. However, we mainly use the itinerary as a guideline, rather than something we HAVE to stick to. We also make sure to include plenty of &quot;wandering&quot; time in our itinerary.

The main reason I like to have one is to have an idea of what we want to see/do on each day, as well as opening and closing times for sights. That way, we don't miss out on one of those &quot;must see&quot; places during our trip.

I also feel, however, that itineraries are not for everyone. Some people prefer one while others don't. Everyone's travel personality is different, so it's not a matter of it being &quot;right or wrong.&quot; It's just a personal preference.

I often get in a mode in the UK where I walk out of a B&amp;B in the morning (which I found the night before by chance) get in the car, open the map and decide where I want to go on that day.

I too do a lot of pre-trip planning but more for the fun of it than anything else. I pick an area; Wales, Devon, etc. and a few things I would like to see and wing it the rest of the time.
I reserve lodging for the first and last day of a trip plus anytime I'm staying in London. Otherwise I'm not really sure where I'll end up in the evening.

Some of the unplanned stops have been some of my favorites such as Rug Chapel in Wales, members.cox.net/stump-m/UKMay2002/WalesFrame.htm, or the Church of St. Mary's in Tintern across from the abbey, members.cox.net/stump-m/UKMay2002/StMaryFrame.htm.

i did a fair amout of pre-planning and laid out an itinerary before my week driving tour of Kent and East Sussex, mainly because I wanted to see as much as possible and I didn't have the luxury of a navigator. ;)

It was stressful at times (got lost once in Ramsgate, then was late for a brewery tour in Faversham when I tried to squeeze in one more castle) but it was a big help to have some idea of where to go. (And with sky-high diesel prices, I don't want to do too much unnecessary driving). I did do some wandering off the track though (A-Z street guides are worth every pence) and enjoyed it.

If you're a big planner and like to be organized, you probably won't be happy if you don't have one. If you're a free spirit, just buy a good map. :)

Another reason for planning in bigger cities is that you can group the things you want to see into areas so that you don't waste time crisscrossing the city and back tracking yourself. But, then, I like to plan.

Pre-Trip Planning and Being Open For Adventures can make a lovely couple.

Thanks for pointing that out, Ira. Must've been a long day at work when I wrote that.

Actually, I have seen the Parthenon. Now, if only I could get inside the Pantheon!

Hi

For my first driving trip to Europe (c 1976) I planned each day, kms covered, each town, suitable hotels, average speeds, etc.

Of course, we were behind on day 1, and the next 6000 miles were uncharted territory.

Since then I've only worried about arrival &amp; departure tickets ...... everything else is as found. And I think its a better way to go ! Some of my best overnight stops were unplanned (low expectations are easy to be surpassed ?).

Holidays are better unplanned, I find.

Peter
http://tlp.netfirms.com

My advice---- relax your plans.

If there is a place or thing you &quot;have to&quot; see, reserve it. Leave the rest to chance. If you plan to be somewhere that is going ot be crowded, make a reservation or change your date. (My big mistake was Costa del Sol on the weekend with no reservations. Had I been thinking I could have just as easily gone mid-week.)

When you get into a city, find a hotel early. If you're traveling by train, leave your bag at the train station and come back for it later.

As far as the trip from London to Manchester I loved Stamford in Lincolnshire. There are limted toourist attraction there, but the town dates from the 1500's and is so pretty.

Is this a trick question? There are only two types of travelers -- those with an itinerary and those who THINK they don't have one. You go someplace and think about what you would like to do and/or see, you find out what's available when, where it's located, etc. You then recognize that two of those things are near each other and available around the same time -- does that give you an itinerary, or just &quot;some information&quot;? Before you say you really don't have one, I would ask: How did you choose France over Kenya or St. Thomas? Must have been some draw to get you to pick your destination -- figure it out from there.

Wow, such interesting answers you got to your question, policywonk! My vote for nail-on-the-head award goes to St. Cirq; it really does depend on whether you want to see a lot of established sites, with all of the associated logistical hurdles (opening hours, location, etc.) If you enjoy mainly walking around, etc., then of course you don't need to be concerned with all this.

We've almost never deviated much from our itineraries, but then we are careful to leave a sizeable percentage of each day 'free' so we never feel like we're sitting an exam. The final draft of our itinerary usually looks a lot different from our first one, though, since by planning we force ourselves to commit to what we really, really want to do - and then let the rest go.

This may have been stated above (I haven't carefully read every post), but as a general rule there is always a tradeoff between time and flexibility. You can increase your flexibility by not having hotel reservations, show tickets, etc., but you will have to sacrifice time to make arrangements once you arrive. In peak travel times, the amount of lost time could be substantial. If you are a student spending an entire summer &quot;backpacking&quot; across Europe, you can probably afford to be flexible. If you are like most visitors, with only two or three weeks and the desire to maximize your ability to see the sights, it is probably wise to sacrifice some flexibility to save time.

we like the unplanned schedule as something unexpected will blow the plans away, like once in Mexico City, we met someone we knew in the thieves market and ended up in the most beautiful house I had ever seen in the Beverly hills of Mexico City. I met one of my best friends who lives in Provence in a post office there while looking for a B&amp;B, Both events changed our plans but we prefer people over monuments.

I dont really plan every details of the trip.. usually i know what sites I want to explore or visit.. After seeing all the most important and famous sites of the city or region that i am visiting, then i let my feet do the walking, and enjoy just wandering around, browsing, window shopping or just sit on a park and smell the roses:):)

bench...:)

I guess I'm sort of in the &quot;middle of the road&quot; camp. I enjoy researching what's available in the place I'm going to, so start with just gathering information. From there I do a basic itinerary - usually making reservations for where we'll stay. That's mainly because for years we've been locked into school calendars, so have had to travel in &quot;peak season.&quot; I didn't want to waste time looking for or worrying about where we were going to stay, when I could be enjoying a picnic lunch or an extra hour in an art museum. Once I have the places picked, and maybe tickets to one or two highlights (The Ceremony of the Keys, for instance) the rest is pretty flexible. We do enough research to know what's possible within a given area and then make final decisions each day based on whim and weather.

I always plan an itinerary, because it gives you a starting point and ensures you at least list the must-sees (even if you end up forgoing some of them). As I travel around I'm flexible and open. If I see an interesting road sign or hear of an interesting place from a fellow traveller I meet along the way, I'll weigh it up against my itinerary and maybe change it. Ditto if I find my-self in a place I want to linger longer in. I never pre-book accommodation because this locks you into being at a certain destination each night - an absolute turn-off to the adventurous traveler who wants the spontaneity to respond to new temptations! (There are exceptions of course e.g. traveling by ferry from Ireland to Wales I was due into Wales at 1 in the morning - in that case I did book ahead, by 24 hours.

WOW! Thanks everyone for your replies. This was wonderful information!!!

I was just getting frustrated with drafting all sorts of itineraries and jotting down people's recommendations of where to go for this and that and it hit me, what if I get to London and change my plans and everything gets moved around- I may forget to go somewhere or miss something I really wanted to see.

So, glad to see there are other trip planners out there. I don't feel like I wasted all my time digging around for places I wanted to see.

Thanks everyone.

JKinCALIF, that was a good suggestion about leaving my suitcase in the train station, never thought of that. I am sure that advice will help those folks who arrive in a large city in the middle of the day- saves them the trouble of losing a full days' itinerary...good point!

PW

I always create a detailed itinerary. I do a lot of research and make sure to include all of the hours/days open etc for all of the sights we may want to see. Creating the itinerary helps me to understand what there is to see and is my way of doing my homework before the trip. I then plan out our days and it is up to us to follow it or change plans as we feel inclined on that particular day. However, we have information at our fingertips that will let us know that if we decide to forego a museum or church today, whether we will indeed be able to see it tomorrow. We were recently in Italy and many churches are only open limited hours and limited days. I think is it wise to plan it out, then you can always change plans, but you will be aware of the consequences if you do.