You both seem to have this down to a science. From start to finish, what is your method?

It seems the more I look/read/search online the more overwhelmed I get.

At one time I loved getting info before a trip and enjoyed it. Now, I am tired before I leave my front door for a trip and feel more stressed than thrilled when I read my itinerary.

I feel like I need to have a step by step way to get organized and informed before a trip. I find myself reading endless hotel reviews, getting books I don't have time to read or don't get to reading before I go. I don't seem to see the forest from the trees, lately.

Is there a trip organizisng for idiots book?

I think I need one. At one time, I enjoyed this. Now with endless good info and worthless info on the internet, I'm drowning in sensory overload.

Anyone else feel overwhelmed by the process?

Any advice from anyone on how to do this well will be greatly appreciated.

LOL. Just came across your post and was surprised to see my name! Wow, tough question. I love travel planning, but you’re right – it can be so overwhelming. I’m lucky because I have a job with quite a bit of downtime so I can spend lots of time doing research. Also, travel and meeting planning is part of my job so I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with it.

I often start with a visit here (Fodors Talk) and just do a search on the place I’m going. After I’ve gotten an overview of the place I’ll do more specific searches and/or start asking questions. There are lots of people here who are experts on particular areas and they seem to enjoy helping people with their trips. So if you give them enough info as far as what you’re looking for in a vacation they seem to be happy to help you build an itinerary. I also visit tripadvisor.com to research hotels. Whenever I can, I use priceline.com for hotels, so that limits the hotel research I need to do. I always look at biddingfortravel.com before bidding. For airline reservations, I normally visit travelocity.com or expedia.com to find the best fare (but after doing that I usually book directly with the airline).

If you really find that you’re not enjoying the planning, don’t forget you can always just go to a travel agent and put it in their hands. Sometimes I’m tempted to do that, but I’m way too much of a control freak!

Pugsley,

Thanks for the reply.

I was so impressed with your NYC trip report. I want to have a perfect list of things to do like you seem to have.

As far as method goes, if you don't mind, do you have lots of PC files, a notebook with check lists of hotels, prices, things to do, a load of glossy sales info from travel companies, a library of travel books or a photographic memory?

Do you take a list of what to see, what to do, where to eat, how to get to the hotel from the airport (and alternatives) with you on your trip? Do you have a day by day itinerary? Or do you remember everything?

I am very picky on hotels - mainly on cleanling and hygiene standards as well as wanting something that looks nice and new, if possible. I will never be the person saying "the bathroom was mildewed and the chairs and bedding were stained, yet for the price, it was fine and I hardly spend any time in the room anyway." An ick room is never fine with me.

Do you get nice rooms with Priceline? I have read a few comments that people get the leftover, least desirable rooms when getting the great prices. What's the real deal?

I love Tripadvisor for hotel reviews. I read too many of them.

And I rely on Travelocity and Expedia for flights and vehicle info. Then I book directly (fellow control freak here).

I am amazed by people who are so good at the details of what to do once they get there.

That's my weak area.

By the time I read a zillion hotel reviews, book the hotel, flights and vehicle, I'm too tired to spend time on the what to do when I get there research. And that's the point of the trip.

I am going to do more Fodors searches. I tend to read over all the entires and get distracted by interesting topics.

Other than that, do you know of any great sources of info on what to do when you get there (wherever there is)?

Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my post.

I look forward to any other advice you might have.

The level of planning I do really depends on where I’m going. I know I sound like an obsessive planner, but I don’t do it all the time. There are some places, though, where you REALLY need to know what you’re doing. Number 1 on my list for that is Disney World. Having a plan there can be the difference between and miserable time and a wonderful time. That’s the one place where I can say I’m pretty well-versed, but that came from about 30 trips there and several years visiting a Disney-related website almost daily. That’s the kind of site where you hear about people planning every minute and every meal and taking laminated cards with them. I never go that far, but I have been known to take an excel spreadsheet that has a basic outline of what I’d like to try to see and do on a given day. Hahaha, I just re-read that last sentence and realized it was a total lie!!!! My spreadsheets usually show what park we’re going to each day, what rides/shows we’re doing and in what order, where we’re eating, park hours, show times, etc. I used to hide my notes from people I took with me so they wouldn’t think I was crazy! After one trip, the friend I took kept saying how she didn’t understand why other people say that Disney is so crowded, difficult, expensive. To her it went totally smoothly, we got every available discount and we saw everything we wanted to see without waiting in lines. I wanted to say, “THAT was NOT an accident!!!”

I really felt like I needed a solid plan for NYC too since without it I felt the city might be a bit intimidating (even though I’ve been there a few times). I wanted to fit so much in and just didn’t want to be in the position of us looking at each other and saying “now what?” I took a Streetwise map (which include bus & subway routes), an itinerary with our flight, ground transportation and hotel info, and some notes on what I thought would be the best timing for everything. I also took a list of restaurants that I’d seen recommended online and different sights I’d like to see if we had time. I also bought a box of cards with maps and instructions for different walks throughout the city and that worked well.

One more source I’d recommend is the local chamber of commerce or visitor’s bureau website for wherever you’re going. Or go to Fodors destination guide here and look for top attractions, sample itineraries, restaurants – you can just print them and take it with you. I just went to my internet “favorites” travel folder to see what kinds of sites I have bookmarked and I’m embarrassed to say that there are at least 100 of them! Maybe I AM a bit obsessive.

As far as Priceline bidding, I’m a huge fan. I’ve probably used them for hotels around 20 times, have gotten amazing discounts and have never been at all disappointed. If I’ve been treated differently or gotten a lesser room as a Priceline customer, I didn’t know it. I will say that I normally only bid on 4-star and up hotels so it could never really be a BAD hotel. And I always review biddingfortravel.com to learn what hotels could possibly come up in a zone I want to bid. If any of them get really bad reviews, I won’t bid on that zone.

My next major vacation is Yellowstone in September. I’ve made the airline and hotel reservations, but I’m leaving the rest of the planning to my husband this time. It’ll be nice to sit back and let someone tell ME what to do!

Pugsley,

Thanks for the second reply.

I want to go on a trip you have planned.

I know exactly what you mean on that moment of looking at each other and thinking or saying "what do we do next?"

I went to Yellowstone last year. I am far from an expert on it at all. However, I have two bits of advice you are free to take or leave.

If you are going in cool weather, stay in the park. The drive back and forth is long. The Snow lodge is the newest in park hotel. If you stay at **** hotels, I don't think the other park accomodations will please you, if clean and modern bathrooms are important to you.

It does not have a/c and the rooms have one small, high, window that does not open completely. I went in the fall and it was jacket weather several days. Still, it was a little warm at night. We took an extension cord and set the fan (provided by the hotel - in every room, I think) on top of the far wardrobe to get a little air moving. WARNING - do this at your own risk. It didn't fall on anyone's head. We were very aware of the cord and had no children in the room who might trip over it.

I don't reccommend it in hot weather except for the real heat lover. I don't love heat and also, am not easily overheated - I tend to feel cold when others feel hot. So, if I felt hot, I think most people might find it too warm in hot weather, if they don't like heat.

Be very aware of wildlife when driving in the park. We saw them and they strolled into the road at all times day and night.

It's easy to get impatient with the winding roads and low speed limits in the park. However, hitting an animal, maybe a large one that will damage your vehicle and you, is not a reasonable risk to take. They seem invisible when on the side of the road.

My SO saw several deer, etc. on the edge of the road that I never saw when I was driving. And I was on my best behavior driving and thinking I was really looking. The roads were winding and narrow and I had to watch where I was driving to keep the vehicle where it belonged.

Lastly, on driving after dark, we did a good bit of it. The roads were very lightly trafficed by vehicles, more trafficed by animals, poorly lit or not lit and very tireing to drive after dark. In the fall, when we were there, we wanted to get back early, and often didn't since we were enjoying seeing things and lost track of time.


Okay, one more than two bits of advice. The food was good, edible and ick at different park eateries. Do not expect fine dining.

Think something to keep you going and it will be okay, not great.

A few exceptions are huckleberry ice cream at Old Faithful Inn - the old one, not the Snow Lodge. It's in a snack area off the lobby. And dinner at the Old Faithful Inn dining room - the food was good, the service was very basic by a very nice girl from I think Sweden - I didn't ask. These are not highly trained fine dining servers. Think college kids who try hard yet are not sophisticated servers. I liked the salmon, SO enjoyed the pork chop.

I even ate some of those pre-fab in the plastic triangle sandwiches avail at a lot of little gift shop type places in the park. I didn't get sick from eating them, they were ick (soggy bread on one edge). This is not a place to go to eat. It's a place to go to see amazing wildlife.

All that said, we had a great time. I loved Yellowstone. I read lots of good info here and on tripadvisor, also the Xanterra website (the official NP booking website). Xanterra is a little hard to navigate, yet has lots of great info.

Have a great trip to Yellowstone. It is amazing.