Is an itinerary really necessary?
 

We have our flights and hotel reservations all set. (2 weeks in Italy, 4 cities, 3 nights each)It seems like so much more work to plan out where to go and what to do each day. I'm sure a lot of you out there feel the same way. Is it really necessary to plan out what to do each day? It doesn't seem like vacation if we feel like we are on a time table. We have listed out various sites to see in each city but I want to know if we should figure out where to go each day or just plan out the next day the night before.

You should at least look around enough to know which museums and sites are closed on which days.

It's very annoying to plan to see a museum, get there and find out it's closed on Tuesdays. By the time you figure out Plan B and reposition you can easily waste 2 or 3 hours.

We're leaving in a week. The big three in Italy. I have reservations for the first two nights in Venice. After that it's freewheeling. We'll see what we see. If there's a diversion, a road less travelled, we're on it. I'm going to cherish every moment. "It's the stuff that dreams are made of."

I love having a day that's unplanned, and if I'm in a city for three or more days, I plan two of them in advance and leave the third open. Then again, I've often chucked a day's itinerary when something better's come along.

When are you going? If it's summertime, you'd best be aware of what might be crowded at what times. In cities, in particular, you could waste a lot of valuable time standing in line for something you could have planned in advance to see at some time when there weren't lines - just as an example.

My feeling is always that the more planning, the better. I can always abandon the plan. I can't always come up with one at a moment's notice. Yes, it is a bit of work, but for me always pleasurable work, to get things sorted out in advance. If we ditch the plan due to unforeseen circumstances or just plain whim, so be it. It wasn't time wasted. Also, if I plan ahead of time I don't need to bring wads of information packets with me that weigh down my suitcase.

As far as it not seeming like vacation if you feel like you're on a timetable, it won't seem like vacation, either, if you show up at, say, the Vatican on a day when it's closed.

You don't have to plan every minute, though some people like to, but you do need to do some basic research about what you expect to do each day. If you deviate from that, that's fine.

Travel to Europe really isn't a chore, but it does require some planning to be enjoyable.

I never plan anything past the air ticket and hotels. It just depends on your personality, what style is more comfortable. I love to get up in the morning and wander, see what's around. Get a map and play it by ear. I'm never seeking particular museums or 'attractions' so this works well for me (Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Geneva). Sit in outdoor cafes, grab a sandwich from a bakery and eat it in a park. I don't even plan it the night before!... in response to your question.

I definitely think there's such a thing as over-planning and taking the joy and spontenaity out of the trip. For us an itinerary includes flight info and hotel/car reservations. Other than that we make a couple of lists for each city we are going to. the first is a list of sights we want to see with the best info we can find on closing days and hours. the second is a list of possible restaurants and shops (If we think there's something we want to buy in a particular place). As far as we're concerned that's pleny of planning. Who knows what the weather will be like each day ( indoor or outdoor stuff) or even what kind of mood you'll be in/how early you want to rise. We make what to see/do the next day a topic of dinner conversation - but frequently get half way through the day and change plans based on something nifty we want to do - or that fact that something we're doing doesn't seem worth the time we have. So far - in over 20 vacation trips we've never missed one of our must sees - and we've added on a bunch of things that we enjoyed tremendously. If you're going to plan every second you might as well be on a guided tour.

IMHO it's important to have a good idea of the history of the places I go. I want to know what museums aand attractions I think I'll enjoy and when things are open.
I don't mind having time to just sit and enjoy myself but I like to keep busy.
I rarely plan where I'm going eat. I like to leave that up to the universe. I've never been disappointed. Of course, I'm an adventerous eater. If someone is eating something that looks really good, I'll try it without getting a list of ingredients. There are some really tasty foods that are best left a mystery, like Tacos Lengua.
A translation I should never have pondered long.

Hi kct,

I always plan each day to the minute. I then abandon the plan.

The reason I do it this way is that it is much easier to drop something from the schedule than it is to figure out what to add.

For Rome, Florence and Venice you will probably want to make reservations for the big museums, unless you like standing on line.

See this link for helpful hints on Italy.


Helpful Information: Italy

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34443340

kct-

I think whether you need an itinerary depends on how long your trip is and how much you want to "accomplish".

You didn't mention which 4 cities in Italy you are going, or what time of the year you are going, or whether you have been to these cities before.

So, IF you have been to these cities before, then sure, why not just take it easy?

But, IF you've never been, AND the cities are the biggies (Venice, Florence, Rome etc), AND you only have 3 days per "biggie" - you might want to have a plan on hand.

IF you are going to the "biggies" during tourist season and want to visit the museums, you should reserve tickets in advance.

Perhaps travel style/timing is another thing to consider. Our attitute is that we have been her before (usually) and will probably be here again - and so can relax and enjoy. Also, we never do the 2 days in Rome must see it all plan - we never do fewer than 5 days in a major city (although we may do just most of a day in a small town when we're road-tripping). Also, we usually travel in May/early June or October - to get the best of the weather with minimal crowds.

I am amazed by these answers. I thought when I saw the question that it would be a mixture of yeses and nos. I think my knee jerk reaction is that you guys aren't taking holidays, you're doing the Grand Tour in bits!!

Surely it's diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks? And indeed at diff'rent times. I've been to Cyprus and Spain with nothing but the flight and one night's accommodation.

I've NEVER done an itinerary. I carry guidebooks and maps, and go with the flow. If I pick up when I'm somewhere that's there's something worth seeing, I may organise to see it. Then again, I may not.

I have done holidays where we've sat at dinner and planned the next day's outings. But I'd hate to be following a route march.

I vote with the folks who acknowledge that different people have a different definition of an itinerary -- and a different need for a complete minute by minute plan. I'm guessing from your statement "It doesn't seem like vacation if we feel like we are on a time table" that a detailed plan will NOT work for you. This is a personal thing and must give you what YOU need for your vacation.

I personally vote for the get your tickets and make your hotel reservations itinerary. I make a list of things I might do while I'm there and have them rank ordered in my mind (but that rank order changes regularly). I do the research on the major items such as days of operation and background but other than that, I decide what I'm going to do when I get up each morning. And I've been known to change my plans after I start out. I really like to walk in London and Paris and some of the most enjoyable days have been spent doing something totally different from what I "planned" to do when I left the hotel in the morning. This works for me. I know that it would not work for some other people but each of us needs to take OUR OWN vacation, not someone else's vacation.

We're in the camp of Shiela and Carroll and don't plan an itinerary. We do carry a guide book, usually the Michelin Green Guide, and a map and because both my wife and I are voracious readers we are aware of what we want to see and do but what we actually do is flexible.

Our first trip to Scandinavia was in April, 1967 when our boys were 7 and 1. In those days, you could make numerous stops if they were within the fare schedule of the most expensive and had only one class. My wife flew to Scotland with the children a week ahead to visit her parents and got back on the flight to Bergen I was on, leaving the kids. A travel agent I knew had given us a list of hotels and restaurants. We got off the plane in Bergen and asked the taxi driver to take us to a hotel on the list. It was available (nice traveling off season) and we stayed a few nights. Then we flew to Oslo and stayed one night. We decided to go to Copenhagen for the May 1 opening of Tivoli. Stayed 3 or 4 nights and flew to London for 3 or 4 before flying back to Scotland. We had no reservarions other than back and forth to Boston.

It was a wonderful holiday and we still reminisce about the fun we had, even about the hotel(?) in London where the door to the bath was about 5 1/2 feet high and was just at the perfect height for my forehead.

Since you have the essential reservations, you can play it by ear. Just take a good guide with you. I like the Michelin Green Guide for basic historic sites, but it generally has little or no information about shopping or theater, although it now includes some restaurant and hotel recommendations.

I frequently don't even have (Gasp!) hotel reservations! Not having an intinerary doesn't mean not knowing what's going on and having ideas about what you want to do or see. I research the heck out of everything. Then I decide what I want to do when I get there. The worst thing I can think of is having to move on when I'm still enjoying a place, or having to stay when I'm not.

Few answers are right for everyone.

I follow a middle road in the pre-trip planning, sort of. I collect scads of information on things I think we might want to do, and lists of interesting-sounding restaurants in places we're likely to be. I try to make a least a mental list of where things are in relation to each other, so if we're going to Notre Dame, for example, we might want to visit Sainte Chappelle while we're in the area. We usually have a "short list" of places we really want to see, and don't want to miss.

Armed with all that information, we make our decisions the night before or at breakfast that day, including the weather in our decision-making.

Do I end up with information I never use? Yes. Could we possibly miss something we wanted to see? Yes (though not our top must-sees). While I want to have a framework for our trip, I don't want every moment to be pre-ordained. It works for us. (Oh, and when travelling with the whole family, including kids, we do it pretty much the same way, except everyone gets to name several "must-dos.")

I do usually work out a plan and book trains and hotels, but sometimes for the first few days only. I carry the guide book (s) and the Thomas Cook European Timetable. What I do spend time on is evenings, by hunting Google for festivals and concerts of classical music.

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To me a good itinerary should be like shipping glass - you should have lots of padding around the items of specific interest.

For the cities, I divide each day into four sections of roughly 3 hour lengths, schedule 1 of those sections for a 'major' item like a big museum, schedule a second (never back-to-back with the first) for lighter items like a church or whatever. I leave the other 2 sections free for wandering/resting/whatever. I have such an itinerary mainly because as others have mentioned, it is not much of a vacation to find oneself staring at the locked door of a museum.

If planning doesn't feel like part of the vacation to you, perhaps you are only lukewarm about museums, etc. In that case I agree, why not just 'ad lib' it.

I have a much better time if I'm not beholdant to some itinerary. Get to your planes and trains on time, and just let the rest come naturally. You might find a thousand things you'd rather do than what's on your itinerary.