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I will be taking a 5 week trip to Europe. During this trip, I will be visiting 8 cities, which means 8 hotel reservations. Not to mention the event reservations such as a concert in Vienna. What is the best way to tackle this and keep track of everything? Any help or suggestion would be graciously appreciated.

mclaurie

It depends on which cities & countries you'll be visiting. venere.com is often recommended as a website for "shopping" Venice hotels. You can put in dates & indicate * level to find what's available. This website also has listings for many other cities both in Italy & elsewhere. I don't know whether their selections in other cities are as good.

If you're really overwhelmed, you COULD ask a travel agent to do the work for you. People on this board are usually do it yourselfers, but a good travel agent can be very helpful on such an extensive trip. You can always double check the agent's recommendations here by viewing rants & raves, posting for reviews from others etc. Tripadvisor.com is also a good place for getting reviews.

Otherwise, you can read up on each of the cities, pick a few places that sound good to you & post here for more info.

ira

Hi

I make a list of the reservations that I have made.

dln

I have two systems: high and low tech. Low is a plain old manilla pocket folder for each section of my trip, very clearly marked. High is the same info, but stored on the computer, labeled "trip" and ready to print out, or easily amend. I also use a highlighter on the paper file to spot things quickly. Truthfully, I like my good old fashioned paper pile better.

AAFrequentFlyer

ira,

jenviolin

I keep all the 'potential' hotel info for each city together, in order of preference. When I've made a reservation, the hotel info (with the name of the contact person there) plus print-out of map of the city with hotel location, schedule of events of the city, transportation info, and any other city info like restaurant suggestions or activities, goes into a clear plastic folder that fits into a ring binder or two-holed file folder (yes, I love European office supply stores). I keep the plastic folders in itinerary order and keep adding info to each folder as I get it.

At home my motto is "Function in disaster, finish in style" but somehow I managed to appear well-organized when I travel. It baffles me.

I always plan to throw away the material after I leave each city so the folder will keep getting smaller, but it never works - I always save it for my files and travel journals at home.

Beatchick

Jenviolin,

That's a great motto! I've never heard it ~ is it your own?

sec

Thanks everyone for your help.

jenviolin

Yes, Beatchick, it's mine - but I didn't make it up!

Mary_Fran

Jenviolin!

You take my breath away with your organizational skills! Just when I dejectedly begin to think there's no further obsessing and compulsing to do, no further plans to make, no more internet searches to do, along you come with these great ideas!

For myself, what I do is create an E-mail folder in Outlook titled, "Reservations," and then a subdirectory under that for airfares, car rental, and each city. As I send and receive e-mails, I move them to the appropriate folder. Otherwise, it's easy for me to loose track of which hotels I've already e-mailed and whether they responded and/or confirmed. Just before we leave, we print out the confirmations and take them with us in a folder.

I also create a spreadsheet with the city, hotel, rate, address and phone, and transportation connections.

Like I said, obsessive and compulsive, but the planning for me is a big part of the joy!

djkbooks

I have a wonderful desktop calendar program "Anytime" with day planner, address book, notebook, and "to do" lists. It is positively invaluable for keeping track of my daily life, along with travel reservations, intineraries, notes, and so forth. AND, it syncs with my Sony Clie!

I print everything (you can print beautiful, "customized", of all) just ahead of leaving home (the daily itineraries are perfect for recording your journal notes).

When reserving hotels, I'm careful to record the date/method (fax, e-mail, with confirmation copies/numbers printed of same) reserved, address, phone number, cancellation policy, the credit card with which I confirmed, room type designation, price, etc. (same for concert, dinner, etc. reservations).

As for hotels, I always record a back-up possibility or two just in case, upon arrival, the place is just not suitable or as expected, or they've (and this does happen) overbooked (though you have a better chance of a room, the one you reserved, if you have your faxed/e-mailed, with a re-confirmation, along) or attempt to assign you to a less desireable room at a higher price. Printed copies of your confirmations come in real handy once in a while! (Sadly, Americans have a terrible reputation for booking and either not showing up, and not advising, or reducing the number of nights stay.) Be advised that, in many European countries, a faxed confirmation is a "legal contract" (though the local laws have not yet included e-mail confirmations).

Keeping track of everything with a good software program is essential! Once, when we were halfway driving to NYC, my husband had left the tickets on the fridge (we stick them there with magnets) to THREE Broadway shows. But, I had the source of the tickets (Telecharge, Ticketmaster...), confirmation numbers, credit card used, 800 number for customers service, for all on my Clie, and printed out, and was able to arrange, while driving, on the cell phone, within minutes, for duplicate tickets to be printed and left at the "will call" offices of the various theaters for us.

More often than not, all this "attention to detail" is totally unnecesary, but every so often it is positively essential AND invaluable.

By the way, a PDA is incredibly useful. For currency/temperature/time/size/distance calculations.

And, it is best to have all your printed confirmations organized as well. I always travel with a notebook, divided into sections. Destinations - then, Confirmations, restaurants, sights & attractions, shopping, subway maps, bus maps, tours available, etc.

There are just SO many "contingencies" involved with overseas travel. You may not encounter any "problems" or you you could. But, the better you "keep track of everything", the less likely you are to run into seriously inconvenient difficulties, and the better you will be prepared for handling them.

RufusTFirefly

I also keep separate email folders for my trips--transportation, lodgings, sights, etc. For non-email info, I keep accordian files labeled by topic.

I also record all the information on finalized flights, reservations, phone numbers, addresses, etc. in a small (3-1/2" by 5-1/4&quot weekly planner book that fits in my shirt or jacket pocket.

So the book contains everything I need to know. Then I use it to note items of interest as they come up each day on the trip. Helps me when I write my travel journal every night.

jenviolin

Mary Fran - glad to help you obsess & compulse some more. Don't wait until just before you leave to print out everything you have confirmed or saved. What if you have a virus or a crash and can't get to it? I print it out as I go along and try (...) to concentrate on one city/area at a time; that way I can 'close the book' on one place and not worry about it anymore. Also helps to have things already printed out if you get new decisions to make..."shall we go to that exhibition, restaurant, hiking trail? Where is it in relation to where we'll already be?"

Travelnut

I store details on an Excel file, different tabs (sheets) for different topics. I periodically upload to Yahoo!briefcase to save it online, rather than only on my hard drive.

suze

I think the "best" is what you are most comfortable with. I'm not a palmpilot kind of person! Personally I use paper & pencil, with computer printouts for information off the net or hotel confirmations.

I use multiple pencil cases (this tip from another travel BB years ago, the plastic ones with a zipper like you'd put in a 3 ring binder, different colored backs and clear fronts) one for each city. Put your info in, then when you are there use them to collect business cards, postcards, ticket stubs. You arrive back home with neat little packages detailing each place you visited.