Is it possible to over plan a trip ?
 

Does planning every detail of a trip down to each and every restaurant for each meal take away from some of the excitement of travel ?

I plan enough to hit sightseeing spots in a geographically logical sense, leave time for our 'wine:30' breaks, and have a list of dining options but rarely make reservations. I do like to have a good outline or plan so as not to sit around at breakfast, "what do you want to do today?" - "I dunno, what do YOU want to do?"..and so on. I never object to doing something fun that wasn't on the plan, and I have never always completed the 'list'.
I am always excited to go, every time, even with a plan in my hand.

I'm amazed at some of the over-restaurant planning. I wouldn't want to go on a trip and plan every lunch/dinner. I like the flexibility. Sometimes it's fun just walking down the street, looking at menus, and hopping into a place can be a great experience.

Then again, if you want to go to a very special restaurant, I would plan for that evening, but not for every meal. ((b))

I am sometimes guilty of overplanning. In fact, I've been on this @#$%'ing computer for 3 hours this evening planning our Hawaii vacation.

On that note, I will sign off now. :-(

I just posted a reply to a couple planning a trip to Vienna that sounds so micro-planned that reading about it made me exhausted. But, some people really prefer to travel that way.
I prefer to plan a major thing for the morning, and another for the afternoon, and if I can fit in more, that's fine.
For instance, in London I might allot the morning and early afternoon for the Tower, with a stop at Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's in the afternoon. I allow time to return to my hotel, shower, and change before dinner and perhaps a play. Other people might want to race through the Tower in an hour or two, fit in both the Abbey and St. Paul's, and dash into the British Museum before dinner and theatre. That's just too hectic for me. I'd rather see one site thoroughly and at leisure than see five sites quickly and in a cursory way.
Very rarely do I make reservations at a restaurant, preferring not to be tied into a specific time and place. There are exceptions to this, of course, when the restaurant itself is one of the highlights of the planned trip. For instance, on my recent trip to Vienna, I knew I wanted to have lunch at the Sacher Hotel and top it off with coffee and Sacher torte.
I think you have to allow for the unexpected sights and restaurants you run across on a trip--there is fun to be had in the discovery of new places.
That said, I don't think you should just arrive in a place and wing it all the way. You should have an idea what you really want to see before you leave, and allow time to change your proposed schedule with other opportunities arise that catch your interest.

One's temperment makes all the difference in the world in whether or not the end result is regarded as "enjoyable." Some folks are disappointed no matter what. Others are thrilled in spite of the things that didn't pan out. Making plans can build security to folks who need a lot of hand-holding. I think we all "plan" to our own comfort level... some plans work well; others don't. No matter the percentage of winners, have a good time anyway!

I'm a researcher/planner by profession and cannot help myself. I do it so others don't have to. If we choose not to go somewhere or change the plan once we're there..no worries. I just like to plan. My Dad still teases me about my budget spreadsheet for our family trip in Dec. '04...there were 3 different currencies on it spanning 4 countries..that was fun!

Worse than 'overplanning' is 'overdoing' once you're there.

spinesrgn,

Is this a rhetorical question? You sound like you've already got an opinion. Does it bug you other people do that? Why? Who cares how other people travel?

I'm always amazed when I see travel reports and people include pictues of their meals. I wouldn't do that, but I understand some people believe eating the best examples of the authentic cuisine of another country is really an important part of experiencing that country, and that is the excitement of travel for them.

Hooray. I'm glad when other people make themselves happy. It makes it less likely they are going to go out of their way to bug me.

I don't think it's possible to "overplan", as long as one has flexibility once one is at ones' destination. Face it, those who don't plan end up on a summer afternoon, standing in a 2+ hour line to enter the Uffizi, or show up at the Galleria Borghese without a reservation only to be turned away. If planning means knowing everything that can be known in advance about a location, you can't have too much knowledge. If planning means there is a strict, to the hour schedule that cannot be varied, then that is "over-planning."

I don't have a lot of "vacation regrets", but I do regret a few times when the kids were little and wanted to settle in watch street performers and I insisted on following "the schedule" instead. They still remember those living statues more than they remember whatever museum I hurried them off to.

Hi S,

It is not possible to overplan, as long as one realizes that the schedule should go out the window no later than the 3rd day.

On a recent trip with some of my family I discovered that, despite all of my weeks of careful planning that would give them the benefit of my experience, they didn't want to do what I thought they should do.

I cancelled most of our dinner reservations and rearranged the various walking tours.

They think that they had the best visit possible.

I am still sulking.

((I))

I'm with Budman on this one. I like to plan a general itinerary, including places we want to see, but never plan restaurants. Sometimes I bring recommendations with me, but wouldn't work my itinerary around them. I find it fun to "menu shop" and decide where to eat. I've stumbled across some great restaurants this way.

Tracy

I'm in the Budman and Tracy group too.

As a family, we decide on the places we want to visit/include and make sure we know open days/hours. We also have a few "maybe" options. As for restaurents, we've never made reservations way ahead of time and so far, haven't had problems.

No, I don't think it's possible. No matter how many pictures I look at, or descriptions I read of a hotel, sight, site or restaurant, the reality is never quite like the mental image I've developed based on my research. And it's always better than I've imagined (or at least, that's what I remember)!

We don't plan every restaurant, but we select most restaurants for dinner ahead of time. We're real foodies, and don't want to "waste" our limited number of meals on indecision, or be "caught" on a business weekend in the midst of already-full restaurants. Often, I plan a variety of meals, so that maybe we're having a casual dinner one night, and formal the next. Or food from different regions or countries. If we were just wandering along, we wouldn't be able to come up with that variety. Also, by finding restaurants beforehand, we often end up going into neighborhoods that we wouldn't wander into if we didn't know we were eating dinner there!

That being said, while we have a short list of "must-see" activities (and our list doesn't always match Fodor's or Frommers, or other people's) for a place, other than that and any necessary reservations (i.e., Villa Borghese), we make each day's decisions at breakfast (or later), depending on our moods and the weather. And all other food (lunch, cafe stops and anything else) comes from a way-too-long list of places that I bring with me. The idea is that if we end up near a great-sounding bakery, we can stop by and partake! And of course, there are the other places we stop at just because they look good, too...

I thought it was obvious, but:

Insecure overplanner: someone who plans more than me.

Incompetent underplanner: someone who plans less.

These and other pearls of wisdom provided free of charge....

I do a lot of researching during the months before a big trip. I list the things that I must and want to do see/do. I try to organize my must-see/dos by neighborhood and plan for a couple of those a day - before lunch and after lunch. In between, I try to fit in a few of the want-tos. I don't like to be on a strict schedule but sometimes it is necessary - like if I am taking a day trip out of town I need to know the train times so I can plan accordingly. Also, I enjoy museums and need to plan around closed days. I generally get my must-see/do things taken care of and enjoy the in between times as a chance to explore and wander around taking it all in. I always plan some time to absorb and to "be there" - which to me is wandering or sitting at a sidewalk cafe with a carafe (or two!) of wine and taking it all in.

Everyone is different and I don't think there is a right way or wrong way to plan but we just know what works for us. I learn from everyone here and put some of the organization tips that others use to good use for myself.

I always leave room for flexibility. You just never know when you are going to stumble across somewhere special that requires more time. As far as dining goes, I may make a dinner reservation or two in advance if it is someplace that I just have to...Otherwise, I wing it. Some of my best finds have happened that way. Tad more fun to find them yourself anyway, don't you think ?

I wonder what the answer to the corollary question: "Be honest! Did you REALLY stick to all those "plans"?" would be.

Each person's answer to your question will likely be different. The amount of pre-planning people are comfortable with is based on personality types and preferences. There's no right or wrong way to do it.

I like the phrase "micro-planning" used by Maureen.

It's a personal question, coming down to comfort level and interest level.

My mom micro-plans her trips around restaurants she wants to go to (seriously!), but she is into that "perfect" meal in that perfect place with the perfect chef. She doesn't plan the "we have to be here to see this at this time" part, though, and leaves that part to the "let's see what turns us on when we wake up" category of travel.

If we're traveling at a time when there's a special event (such as birthday, anniversary, etc.), we might look at getting a reservation at a restaurant, but usually no.

Before kids, we used to be spontaneous travelers -- throw clothes and a toothbrush in the back of the Bug or in the backpack and hit the road or jump on the next plane to far away places. That was when it didn't matter if we stayed in hostels or rooms with no toilets, or we had all the time in the world to seek out a place to stay.

Even after we had a kid, we played fast and loose with a good portion of our itinery until one trip where I spent half my time calling all the hotels in a city trying to find a place to stay in the middle of summer.

I HATE wasting vacation time doing that. So our general plan is plan the dates, reserve the rooms, compile a list of places of interest with opening and closing hours, and THEN grab the toothbrush! If we do more than that, like Ira, toss it out after the third day!

I think it's good to have a list of recommended restaurants but you have to give yourself some room to be spontaneous. The longer the trip the more room I give myself to wander off the beaten track or to linger a little longer in places that capture my heart. I have often moved on from a place sooner than planned if it doesn't appeal to me. You have to be ready to go with the flow.

I downloaded a blank calender that allowed me to slot in exactly where I was staying and what I was doing each day. I got completely lambasted by my friends for doing so, but it allowed me to carve out an acurate budget and helped me be sure I would arrive at a site on a day it was open etc.

Yet within such a plan there was always room for flexibility. I had a sense because of all of my planning which "sites" were most important to me and which would be the first to get tossed if things changed.

I loved this way of planning and will do it again. Everything ran quite smoothly for the most part. I find without a plan I have to battle my own laziness too much and I waste time getting organized.

I don't plan restaruants at all though - I leave that to the foodies :D

Good Travels,

Murphy

I love to plan but it can really stress me out if I go overboard with too many details. The best advice I ever heard on this was plan all you want before you go and then be spontaneous when you get there.

&gt;&gt;On a recent trip with some of my family I discovered that, despite all of my weeks of careful planning that would give them the benefit of my experience, <b>they didn't want to do what I thought they should do</b>.&lt;&lt;
LOL, Ira -- been there, done that. :-)Got over it...not going there again!

Planning and anticipating a trip is half the fun for me. If I hadn't found the great help of all you fodorites, I don't know what I'd have done when venturing to Europe for the first time. This board is the best for hotel recommendations, and special travel tips no one else would think of. So kudos to Travel Talk!

I usually plan doing one special activity a day. The rest is left up to serendipity which has led us to some of our best travel experiences.

Just planning one activity a day also gives us the feeling of really being on vacation.

We tend to spend lots of time just wandering around- how lovely to wander through the side streets of Venice or Rome or a small town in England.

Yes, it's possible to overplan. I think if you're planning every single meal, it's too rigid a schedule. After all, it's not the army, it's a vacation! Of course, if there's a restaurant you want to go to and it's only open a certain night, then by all means reserve.

What we do is a make a list of restaurants that would interest us (we're foodies, so this is understandable ;)) and we keep the list in our bag. Depending on where we are in a city, we'll consult the list and see if anything is close by, and if not, we'll just walk around and find something that looks alright.

I've even started being more leniant with sightseeing. You can't possibly see everything unless you spend weeks, so why kill yourself trying to? I realized that we weren't making our travels enough of a vacation.

We usually plan about 75% of the restaurants ahead and leave the sightseeing pretty much ad lib.

The 2 times we've planned every step of the way, some major disaster cancelled the trip and both times we were going to Italy.

2001 it was 9/11. 2005 we had just evacuated for Hurricane Katrina.

Now we don't plan so much. And we're doubly afraid to plan a trip to Italy.

I enjoy the research (and the anticipation) but don't assign specific activities to specific days. Instead, I keep a list of possibilities. Then we pick according to the weather and our mood. But it helps to make longer stays and have several days to see a place. (Of course, some tours, etc. have to be scheduled.)

You must seek out Melissa5 if you want to see some classic over planning. I would guess that between this and the irelandyes board she wrote enough to publish a long novel. Topics like &quot;will my highlighters explode on the plane&quot; come to mind.

Bill

Bill, that is HILARIOUS.

Me, I like the IDEA of planning, and I will research on-line and read and
re-read guidebooks and it gets me excited about my trip, but when it comes down to it: I basically know what I want to see. I don't need or want to visit EVERY SINGLE SIGHT in every city I visit. I only see what interests me, and allow plenty of time for not-sightseeing interests such as visiting foodshops to learn about the cuisine, visiting record shops, etc..

Sometimes if I'm bored, I'll make a list of what I want to see each day I am on holiday--but do you know I have never not once followed it? It's more to see if I'll have time for things and gives me a rough idea of how my day will break down, but in the end, I just don't care. I go, I see things I want to see, I eat well, I meet people, get to know the culture, and that is it.

She needs something to keep her biologist husband occupied. :-) ((b))

It all depends on your personality, some people like to plan every minute, some don't even bother with hotel reservations.

I always wonder what happens when something goes wrong, like a museum got closed a week before my arrival, and I didn't know. What would happen in this situation to people who plan every moment? Or maybe a road got closed and a village is not accessible?

I like to &quot;dream a plan&quot; but act accordingly to the moment, like do I feel like walking around or people watching today?

Yes, it's better to know which restaurant is nice, which place is worth a long hike, but be flexible when you get there. For example, you walked out of a museum at lunch time, wouldn't you like to know that the restaurant across is overpriced, but the one around the corner is a real find?

I like to plan because I would hate to get home and read an article only to find out I had been just a block away from something I really would have loved to have seen. Also, it is neccessary from a budgetting perspective for me. I even slot in restaurants so I can estimate the cost. However, 90 per cent of the times we won't eat at those restaurants. But at least I know that even if every other restaurant costs 10 times as much, I have accurately budgeted enough money to eat somewhere.

The problem with planning is not overplanning, but not showing flexibility when following the plan. However, I would hate to be like the people whose video of Rome I saw last week: &quot;There we are by some old building&quot; (the Colloseum). &quot;We saw this nice palace in distance all lit up at night&quot; (The Vatican). Sure, they had a good time, but were they reall ygetting everything they could out of the experience?

My final thought on this topic is: I love to plan. I'm always planning for trips even though I'm not going to take them (well, not anytime soon).

Does anyone else just plan for fun?

I really enjoy planning all the details, often including where to eat. I'd hate to spend time wandering around w/o knowing where to go or what I wanted to see, when those places are open, etc. I do often like just wandering into a place to eat, but I am a budget traveler and eat based on price and how fast it takes.

I dont think it's possible to overplan. I just think sticking to that plan might be a mistake.

I love planning my trips. As a matter of fact the ratio of plan to trip time MIGHT be 20 to 1. It sure is when it comes to thinking about my trip anyway.

When I went to Dingle I looked at the street and knew the way I had seen so many pics of it, etc....

I LOVE great food. I would rather over plan and have 10 possiblities of where to eat for that meal than not really know and HATE where I ate. I do it all the time tho.. end up in a crappy tourist trap and say damn- I wish I considered we were going to overnight here.

But I LOVE planning so for me it works and I hate sticking to a plan so OVER planning is great for me because I consider all the possibilities.

I think you can over plan for a trip. We (myself, husband and 2 teen sons)returned last week from 3 weeks in France and Italy. We always have our car and accommodations booked before we leave home, but never plan out restaurants ahead of time. I can't imagine doing that as for us half the fun is strolling around and checking out the different restaurants and pizzerias.

As for sightseeing, we do know what we want to see but you do have to be careful and not push it too hard as it is hot in the summer. There were days that we did go local and take a siesta in the afternoon. As for prebooking popular museums, etc. that would be a good idea, although we have never done this and been lucky to miss the lines.

This was our family's 5th trip to Europe and I think we still want to see the sights but we also enjoy just being in the moment. We spent a week at an agriturismo in Tuscany, doing unplanned daytrips around the region, and it was so relaxing. Shopping for groceries at the local Co-op grocery was even fun!

Nothing will ever top walking each a.m. to the local bakery in Provence for croissants and baguettes, sitting on the harbor in Vernazza at dusk, enjoying the countryside of Tuscany sipping wine and eating parmigiano-reggiano cheese with the scents of jasmine in the air, and being in Sorrento, Italy, when they won the World Cup! See the sights but remember to slow down and just enjoy the moment!

<i>My name is kswl, and I am an overplanner.&quot; </i>

Hiii, kswl!

My answer would be yes and no. I plan our trips and sometimes may go overboard, but it's surprising how often some detail I came upon in my planning has been of great help in our travels. On the other hand, I currently have a file folder about 2&quot; thick which contains all the print-outs and other materials I've gathered for our September trip. The November trip file is thinner, but growing. Both of which must be sorted through and reworked. I guess for us it really depends on where we're going and how complicated it might be (multi-city, tons of sightseeing, very popular destinations) whether or not lots of details or very few are preplanned.

However, I can't remember ever having picked &quot;each and every restaurant for each meal&quot; in my plans. We enjoy good food, but can't really say we are &quot;foodies&quot; and that dining is the most important aspect of our travels. I agree with the others who enjoy strolling about, checking menus and then deciding on a place to eat. Likewise we have had some terrific meals at places suggested by our hotel personnel (for example where locals eat).

After dates are picked, air comes first, followed by train info if that's part of the trip (but usually not reservations), hotel(s) are reserved (don't want to spend precious vacation time searching for a place to stay, lugging luggage, etc.). If museums and other sites usually have lines, then reservations are made.

I think the most reservations and specific things to see on certain days were preplanned for our trip to Washington, D.C. and it worked out extremely well. Arranged tours through our Congresswoman; reserved tickets for Kennedy Center and Ford Theatre plays; boat trip to Mt. Vernon; had reservation for dedication of the WWII Memorial. We usually don't have that much set up in advance.

Now my preplanning problem is going through the 2&quot; file folder and condensing down and picking out the info I want and need, and coming up with a file to take with us. Air reserved months ago, also hotels. We still need to reserve a car. I'm reasonably certain it will all come together; at least it always has in the past. In fact, I ended up with long files for a couple of our trips that I've saved and have been sharing with other travelers. Will probably do the same thing with the September trip info.