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 & 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 "have to" 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 "some information"? 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 "backpacking" 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&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 "middle of the road" 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 "peak season." 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.