beth23

Just curious to see how much advance trip-planning fellow fordorites do. I usually like to plan in advance, and recently went on a spur-of-the-moment trip that wasn?t planned. While I had a wonderful time, I felt I could have seen and done more had I mapped out a more specific itinerary beforehand. When planning a trip do you plan out a day-to-day and hour-to-hour itinerary? Do you map out routes, buy bus and train tickets in advance, have a back-up plan for inclement weather, etc?

rach

Planning is more than half of the fun! I usually start researching places and prices about 6 months in advance and narrow my choices every few weeks or so. The anticipation builds! I plan out a loose itinerary, trying to take advantage of certain towns on certain days, so as not to miss the weekly market or not to miss a museum when closed. But if inclement weather strikes, I just move around another day's itinerary. I usually travel with a country's flexipass (so many days in one month) for use on longer (read: higher-priced) trips and buy point-to-point tickets for shorter trips "over there." Most countries have their train schedules on the net, so I call up the journeys to have a better idea of length of travel involved and ticket prices. And yes, I do keep certain towns in mind (ex: Bern, Switzerland with its arcaded shops or Cologne for its many museums) for inclement weather. Being spontaneous enough that you can take advantage of the bright, sunny days for your outdoor hikes or mountain climbs keeps me happy. I NEVER plan hour to hour, but like you, I think a framework helps to maximize the sights seen and lessen the regrets of sights missed. (Of course a relaxing beach vacation is a different story!)

Singletail

I think an even better question would be, "After you do all that planning how closely do you end up sticking to it?"

highledge

when visiting a city I like to plot out the trip geographically and with must do/see at the top of each day. Weather is the one factor that I wish I'd paid closer attention to on some trips. Going to the Louve on a sunny day is fine- but not when it rains the next and most of my activities are outdoors.
When trying to plan a visit to the amalfi region I knew that a trip to capri and Pompii would mak emy visit complete. I didi not try to figure it out in advance as the weather would determine a good visit/wet visit.
I think I need to keep taking trips until I get the right balance of planning down- and then keep travelling to make sure.

Giovanna

I have started planning about a year in advance, but not always. It depends on where we're going, how many cities/countries we plan to visit and how complicated our itinerary is.

I enjoy the planning and we usually follow it pretty closely. We have found it's most helpful to plan to visit things of interest grouped together, so that you don't spent half your time traveling from one place to another. Additionally, you can save disappointments by knowing days open and hours. Nothing worse than arriving somewhere only to find it isn't open or is closing in 10 minutes.

We try not to be too restrictive and leave plenty of room to improvise. That's part of the fun and adventure of traveling.

mamc

The better I know a place, the less planning is needed. But, if we are going to a new place, we find that it is important to do a lot of research and planning to be sure we don't miss anything and make the most of our time. And, as many on the board have said, planning is a big part of the fun.