8 Steps How to Organize Your Trip
After you have chosen your trip destination, secured transport and booked accommodation, the next step is to decide on the activities and objectives you want to visit in that location. I recommend that you establish a plan for each day, an itinerary very well put together, to make sure that you will have the most beautiful holiday.
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How do you plan your trip?
1. Document yourself about the destination
Document yourself about the places you will visit. Get inspired by travel vloggers or travel blogs. I hope that the articles read on pinandtrip.com will help you here.
You can use social networks to inform yourself before your next trip. You can join different travel groups on Facebook, where you will meet thousands of other people who share information with each other, or you can follow different people on social media whose content is specifically focused on traveling.
As a source of inspiration, I often use getyourguide.com or tripadvisor.com, where offers of various activities and places to visit are posted for a location.
If you go there well-documented, it will be much easier when you arrive at your destination to guide yourself through the city, and you will already know information about the places you want to see. In addition, you would not want to get back home and hear afterwards about a place that you would have liked to visit on your trip, but unfortunately you missed it because you didn't find out about it in time.
2. Establish the places you want to visit
After you have informed yourself about what to visit on your trip, decide on those places and activities that seem interesting to you and you would like to see. Unfortunately, time is not unlimited, and most of the time you will not be able to check all the tourist attractions in one location, due to lack of time. That is why it is important to prioritize all these tourist attractions.
3. Create an itinerary for days
After you have decided which places you want to visit, outline an itinerary for the days.
Why to do this? Basically, you will always have a reference point to guide you. You won't risk losing a lot of time running around the city from one spot to another, because you didn't know that those two places are located in opposite directions of the city. You won't risk finding a certain tourist attraction closed, because you didn't know its schedule (for example, in many cities it is the rule that certain museums or tourist attractions are closed on Mondays). In addition, in this way you can book your tickets online in advance, and you will save time lost waiting in queues.
Of course, this does not mean that a little flexibility would hurt. It doesn't have to be a fixed program, because many times it can happen that what you decide at home might not match with what you find there. Maybe you will spend more time than you planned at a certain spot, maybe you will find a nice museum on your way that you will want to visit spontaneously, or maybe you planned outdoor activities but it started raining, so you have to rethink the program for that day.
4. Analyze the map and public transport
Study the city map and write down how you can get from one place to another: what are the means of public transport, how do you get from the airport to the city center, how can you get to locations further from the center?
If you have access to Google Maps, or other navigation applications, such as Moovit, it will be easy for you to move around the city. But it doesn't hurt to download the offline map of the city on your phone either.
If you are going to use public transport, search before how it is with bus / tram / metro tickets. How much does it cost, where do you buy them and if it is not more convenient to buy certain city pass/travel card or tickets with multiple trips.
5. Search for travel cards / city pass
Buy in advance the tickets to the tourist attractions you want to visit. Avoid waiting in line for hours, or worse, not getting tickets at all. In addition, often a ticket can be cheaper if you buy it online, than if you buy it directly from the counter.
6. Book tickets online
Cumpara din timp biletele la obiectivele turistice pe care doresti sa le vizitezi. Scapi de asteptatul cu orele la coada, sau mai rau, sa nu mai prinzi deloc bilete. In plus, de multe ori un bilet poate fi mai ieftin daca il cumperi online, decat daca il cumperi direct de la ghiseu.
You can buy the tickets directly from the official sites of the tourist attractions, or from intermediate sites, such as getyourguide.com. The advantage of buying from GetYourGuide is that usually the booking tickets have free cancellation, you can get your money back if you cancel up to 24 hours before.
7. Sign up for a Free Walking Tour
When I spend several days in a tourist city, with a culture and history that I would like to learn more about, I usually participate in a Free Walking Tour on the first day. There are guided tours through the city, they can be in English, they last around 2-3 hours, and the guide points out all the interesting aspects of the city, things related to history, culture, art, politics or gastronomy, and leads you through the highlight places of the city. The tours are free, but at the end you leave a tip to the guide, depending on how satisfied you were with the experience.
It is a pleasant way to get into the atmosphere of the city. If you start your trip with such a tour, you will notice that it will be much easier for you to explore the city on your own afterwards.
You can find such tours by searching on Google or GetYourGuide.
8. Look for places to eat
If you are a gourmand and you would like to taste the dishes specific to each destination you visit, I recommend that you take an early interest in the local gastronomy and make a list of restaurants that you would like to try. TripAdvisor and Google Maps can help you in this regard.
I hope that these ideas will help you in planning and organizing your next trip and that you will have the most beautiful trip.
