I know this is a travel dorum and of course people will publish iteneries but I've been wondering.

Just how much planning do you guys do? From the forums it appears everyone plans their trip in minute detail before stepping on the plane.

Does noone do the "buy the flight and just book the first night" kind of travel?

Just curious

When I was in my twenties I travelled around the world and never had reservations for anyplace until I got there. Now, I like to have hotel reservations before I go so that I don't waste time once I get to a city looking for a place to stay. I also like to know what sites are in a place so that I can prioritize what I want to see and if it's necessary to have reservations (such as at the Academia or Alhambra) to avoid huge lines, I like to get them in advance. But I also like to allow some flexability for those magical happenings that can't be planned and don't like to "plan down to the minute."

I'm too darn old to book a flight and the first night. I need my comforts. Having said that, I don't set an itinerary. I'm heading for Paris in about three weeks and I have a note book with lists, addresses, open hours etc. of things I want to do. I have no special order or time to do these activities. I also never make restaurant reservations. I just wing it. My whole life is scheduled and works around other people so when I'm on vacation I just don't like to be programed. That's just me.

we tend to travel like you said, but i like to have SOME idea of things to do, etc., and then at least we know what there is in a place. this last trip, though, was a lot like what you said--we just got in the car with a list of some hotel ideas (the first two nights booked) and drove up to Trieste with no set plans. It was actually quite refreshing, but it doesn't always work out so easily!

>>Does noone (sic) do the "buy the flight and just book the first night" kind of travel? <<

Yes... during the off season, needing only two rooms (or less) and having our own car.

When we've traveled with a larger family group (needing four rooms,) in the summer, and traveling by train... not having reservations is too risky for my taste.

fwiw

I like having hotel reservations because I can pick my accommodations in a leisurely way while I'm still at home and get the kind of places to stay that I know I will really like. I remember the last time I traveled without hotel reservations and how tense I became toward the end of the day if I didn't know where we were going to sleep.

I also buy tickets for concerts and plays if I know about them in advance so I can see the things I want without worrying about them being sold out. And I make reservations for sites that require them in advance. Last summer, for instance, in the Dordogne, I really wanted to see the cave paintings at Font de Gaume and reserved a tour there. I saw people turned away when I got there because they were booked up a month ahead.

Other than that, I generally have no itinerary but a head full of ideas and pages of recommendations copied from this forum and other places.

For me and my husband it's a strict, step-by-step process:

1) Narrow destination list. "Where do you want to go?", "I don't know, how about ____ or ___?", "That sounds great."

2) Buy/read guide and consult the forum to make sure the place we've decided on isn't prohibitively expensive and/or in the middle of a bird flu outbreak.

3) Buy plane tickets.

4) Ask for vacation time.

4) Maybe book hotels, maybe not.

5) Board plane. Discuss itinerary: "I really want to make sure we don't miss ____.", "Yep. And I think that would be cool.", "OK."

6) Land. Do what feels right at the time. Eat where the food looks good.

7) Come home happy.

Works for us, YMMV.

For me, a great part of the fun is the research I do during the 6 months leading up to the trip. Planning, booking, then changing everything time and again keeps me thoroughly amused and build up my anticipation. Every second of vacation time and time away from work is precious to me, just as every cent I spend is very dear. I like to make sure I get the best bang for my few bucks. I plan an hour by hour itinerary before we leave. However, anticipation and reality are two different things: restaurants go out of business, stores burn down, Europeans have holidays no one else ever heard of, and renovations are constant. We rarely experience a day exactly as I anticipated on paper. That's also what makes the whole experience so enjoyable.

Now this whole process goes out the window when I win the Power Ball...

sashh,

I imagine for most of us, the only planning is to buy airfare (far enough in advance to get the best price) and reserve hotels for entire stay (I know I have found particular lodgings I wanted booked more than six months out). As a result, we don't have many questions about the minutia of travel.

The few that do plan every detail are the ones that post most of the questions here which can give the mistaken impression that EVERYONE has a million questions.



Worktowander,

Did you perhaps switch steps 3 and 4?!

Everyone adopts a travel style that fits them best, and I can't think of any reason that planning ahead or winging it as you go would be determined by nationality. That said, I am American, and I do plan in depth before each trip.

For me, like Zeus above, part of the fun of the trip is in the anticipation; not only do I spend time searching for lodging in my budget, I also read a great deal about the history, culture, and offerings in every location that I visit. I make lists of key things I want to visit: museums, historic sites, markets, cultural events, etc., and plan a probable itinerary for my time. That doesn't mean every hour is scheduled, but that I have a plan to work from so that I don't miss something that is very important to me, or spend a lot of time backtracking.

Once the reading and planning are done, we set off with the attitude that everything is subject to change, including our mood and preferences on any given day. I can certainly say that we take time to "smell the roses" as we go, and don't have hang-ups about dropping something from our list if we feel so moved.

As Americans, we get only a modest amount of time off for holidays, and overseas travel takes a day off each end of the holiday, so it's important to feel we have organized ourselves to optimize our time once we arrive.

I book my air, hotel, trains if they're the type that fill up quickly, but that's about it. I have a small notebook that I jot down notations on nice cafes, opening hours to things I want to see, etc..but basically once I'm there I just wing it. I travel alone, so I get to do what I want when I want to do it! I don't have to see EVERY SIGHT, visit EVERY MUSEUM..I just do what really interests me. I spend a lot of time just wandering through neighborhoods, sitting in cafes..

I like booking my hotel prior to leaving, no worries once I'm there and it's fun to research hotels and neighborhoods. I like the IDEA of planning, I visit travel websites daily especially when a trip is coming up--and a trip is ALWAYS coming up--but I don't adhere to any strict guidelines, not at all. I do like to know about time saving tips beforehand (like purchasing it advance for the Louvre and not using the pyramid entrance, etc..)

Concert and theatre tickets I sometimes purchase beforehand if it's something i REALLY want to see.

Having slept in the train station in Munich because all the hotels were booked -- I was much younger than -- I like to at least have my hotel space booked before I leave.

I plan quite a lot, about like Zeus, as I also enjoy the process. However, I'm not beholden to my itinerary by any means, but I want to make sure I maxmize my sightseeing time as much as possible, so I plan out museum vists to get the most time in each day, taking care of days with late closing hours, for example.

Like others before me (Joetro, Zeus, Barb_in_Ga, etc), half the fun is planning the vacation MONTHS in advance. It's all about research. The sooner the better. For the trip to Paris I took this past September, I'd already started planning in in January. One has to consider many factors when they know (as opposed to "my husband/wife has to go to Europe tomorrow and I need info now&quot that they will be going over to Europe (or some other location):

- actually knowing that you have the vacation time to take your trip. With my previous job, we had to submit on a form what days we wanted off and then wait for approval from the boss (which didn't come too quickly). With my new job, I don't have to do that - but, it pretty much depends on the time of the year.

- air fare. IMO, the sooner you book the better. I had my BA tickets purchased at least 6 - 7 months before we went.

- hotel. There was much researching on my part using various websites to find a hotel in the right area at a good price. I used Venere.com to book my hotel, but a few weeks before leaving for Paris I received an email notifying me that the hotel had cancelled my reservation! Of course, I hadn't, so I fired off an email to Venere stating I hadn't. Not content to wait for their response, I quickly search for other hotels in the area and found one in a much better location and for less money.

- rough itinerary. It's probably best to research where you are going, pick out some high points that you want to see, list what you want to do/see on certain days and go from there. I posted my ideal itinerary on here and was quicly brought back to reality with responses from posters on here. In the end, what my sister and I did really differed from what had been suggested.

- documentation. Make sure you have a valid passport and anything else you might think you'll need for where you are going (maps, addresses, etc).

Not me and my little travel coterie. We plan the essentials - planes and hotel reservations - but the rest of the trip - we take it as it comes. You have a much better time that way, IMO.

In my younger days, my husband and I used to rent a car, drive, and stop for the night spur of the moment in towns that interested us We never had trouble finding hotels in smaller cities or towns. We loved it! We never searched out restaurants in advance and had the best times.

However, I'll never forget the time we arrived in Paris in the middle of the fashoin show season (unbeknownst to us - where was Fodor's back then?!) and couldn't find a hotel for many hours. It was awful!

Now, I do think about booking in advance, but don't always do so unless it is high season, during a time when the hotels would be filled up, if I want a special hotel and/or view, or the kids will be with us. No way would I chance looking for hotels for hours with the kids! Way to spoil a vacation!

I like to plan in great detail and then throw the plan away.

I like to pay for as many things in advance as I can, so for that reason I like to buy tickets and hotel rooms early.

I love the anticipation part of the trip and good quality anticipation requires details, hence, planning.

Having said that, I have taken trips where I did not open a guide book or look at a map til I was in the air, en route.That works too.

For me, I want to have transportation and lodging taken care of before I leave. For the rest, I'm flexible.

I'm taking a 17 day trip (the longest I've taken in 22 years) to the UK during June, with 7 nights in London, 6 nights in the Highlands of Scotland, and 3 in Edinburgh (one day lost to transatlantic flight). I've managed to rent an apartment in London that is next to the St. James tube stop, and reserve a family style hotel room for my party of 3 in the middle of the Royal Mile in Edignburgh. I know where I want to stay in the Highlands, and will probably book those places in January, and will book train tickets from London to Edinburgh as soon as I can by the most discounted fares (seems to be about 75 days before departure). If that is obsessive planning, then I guess I plead guilty. I just wouldn't want to get over there and end up paying more than necessary or getting a lower level of accomodation than I might have if I had taken the time and trouble to make early reservations.

However, I don't try to make any kind of itinerary for what I'm going to do when I spend multiple days in the same city UNLESS there is an activity that has to be done on a day certain. So, when we get to London, we'll have a list of places we want to go (and info on when those places are opened and closed), and will just choose whichever one sounds good at the time.

Like most of you, I consider all the planning and research almost as fun as the trip itself. As for having an itinerary, that depends if the trip is a first one or not. For instance, when two friends and I traveled to Roma back in 2004, is was out first time there and we had a lengthy list of "musts". My very organized travel companion even had color-coded index cards for various travel categories such restaurants (my friends are foodies), sites and shopping, etc. we got to see/experience most everything we set out to do and had a wonderful time doing it.

However, when I return to London for the 7th time, I think it will be a very leisurely, itinerary-free trip as I have seen all the major sites more than once and will probably spend some time exploring paths less traveled by fellow tourists and maybe take a daytrip or two.

Use vs. user.

Those who fly by the seat of their pants aren't going to ask questions here and set a schedule.