I absolutely love to plan so when it comes to travel, I always have key things that I like to do for every trip we take. Today I will take you through my quick and easy planning process so that it can help your next trip go smoothly and optimize your time.
I am often asked how I plan our vacations, so I thought I would share the six key things that help me stay organized and remember everything that we want to do while there. When planning any trip whether it be a quick weekend getaway with my husband or an extended vacation, I always start with the same process by creating a list on my iPhone so that I always have it with me. This way, when I think of something I can easily add to it. Within the list I always categorize everything for smoother planning and make sure to cover the core categories below.
Where to stay.
Places to go.
Places to see.
Places to eat.
Activities to do.
Items to get.
- Where to stay: It can be easy to mix up which hotel you are staying at if you are planning a trip with multiple locations. I find this also comes in handy when planning and routing your days to see what is near by.
- Places to go: Places that you would like to visit and spend time at (i.e. Museums, Monuments, Historic Locations, etc.).
- Places to see: Anything from the Arc De Triomphe to a cute stretch of homes that you may want to take a walk by. I always put things in this category that aren’t going to take up as much time so when routing our day, we can route it to where we can pass through something that will only take a second of our time.
- Places to eat: Any place that you know you would like to try while visiting, and I include if I have made any reservations. When searching for places to try, I like to search instagram for local food bloggers. I find this helps to see reviews and pictures from local restaurants and gives you an idea of what to expect before going.
- Activities to do: Activities that you would like to do that take time, pre-planning, or booking (i.e. trail hiking, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, Rent a car or quad and tour the island, rent a jet ski, etc.).
- Items to get: I always make sure to make a list of anything that I may want to pick up as a memory, souvenir, gift, or something that I can’t get back home.
The list always adds up throughout the planning process and the best part about having it on your phone is that it comes in handy while you are out exploring, and makes it easy to see what is next on your agenda. As our trip gets closer we always sit down and go through our list together and route our days so that we can see and explore as much as possible. Many times with my husband’s profession it is hard for us to take time off during the work week, so we take a lot of quick weekend trips and these lists have always helped us stay on target to optimize our time in whatever city we are visiting. Using this method in a past trip to Seattle we were able to see more in 2 days than you could imagine. We still reminisce on how much we were able to cover and explore in such a short amount of time, which created a perfect and special memory.
Also, for our most recent trip to Euorpe we invested into new luggage. I wanted something lightweight, updated, but with a vintage vibe that contained some leather details. After investigating we came across Bric’s and were immediately sold. It encompassed everything that we both were looking for, had rave reviews, all with a great warranty. I would highly recommend if you are ever looking for new luggage to look into Bric’s, you won’t be disappointed.
I hope that this little tidbit on how I like to prep for any vacation can help you when planning your next vacation or weekend getaway.
XO
Claire B.
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