How to Plan a Trip in Advance
Travelling is an experience. People make long term plans for a trip to their dream destinations. Well, sadly due to the pandemic in 2020 all the plans and trips went for a toss. Although we are not able to make any international trips this year we can definitely utilise this time for future travel plans with bigger budgets and better planning so that we can avoid all the often overlooked situations and circumstances.
A lot of thought and brainstorming goes into planning a trip. So now that we have a little extra time and are able to save some extra money why don’t we plan a trip to a place where we always wanted to visit.
Here is a list of few things to remember that can come handy before planning your next trip to avoid any “unseen hurdles” on a vacation.
1. Choose your destination
Every now and then you scroll down your social media page, you might have come across pictures of beautiful cities around the world that you always wished to visit. Now is the right time to plan for such vacations.
Before fixing on a plan, make sure you have these questions answered.
- Are you planning a trip with friends/ family?
- Fix on a rough travel budget estimate that you are comfortable spending.
- Note down 3-5 nearby cities you would want to visit during your travel.
- Check out the best season to plan your travel. This is very important as the season plays a key factor in choosing the right destination.
2. Duration of your trip
The duration of the trip would depend on the kind of vacation you are planning. You can plan to visit different cities each day and engage in different activities or some travellers prefer taking it slow by witnessing and enjoying subtle nuances of places they visit. As there is no pre-defined duration of the trip, so one can decide as per their own convenience and choices.
3. Plan the budget
Always make sure you keep a buffer more than the estimated expense as your travel budget for the vacation trip. Although you would have planned your budgets according to the online research that you did and the expenses such as hotel bookings, flight bookings are standard but there is always undefined expenses during the trip. You do not want to stress out or spoil your vacation due to tensions about money. Therefore it is advisable to always budget your trip expenses towards the higher end so that you are prepared in advance.
It could be helpful if you have your major expenses listed down so that any additional expense can be managed with the buffer amount and it does not come as a shocker at the end of the trip.
4. Flight & Accommodation Bookings
- Do your online research. Depending on the kind of accommodation i.e. (luxury, affordable or budget hotels), you can pre-book the BnBs, hostels or luxury hotels from various booking websites.
- If you are certain about your vacation plans, you may book the cheaper non-refundable flight or train tickets. Otherwise, it is advisable to book refundable tickets if booking well-in-advance.
- Flight prices fluctuate a lot, you may expect a surge in prices especially during the peak season of the particular destination. So, it would be best to keep a track on flight prices by using Google Flights Tracker.
- It might be a good idea to use credit cards that give frequent flyer miles and points on every rupee spent on booking flights and hotels to earn great rewards and cash-backs.
5. Research for City Tours, Activities & Restaurants
6. Packing diligently!
It is best to pack light. Even though you might feel the need to pack everything, but follow a thumb rule “Less is More”.
Depending on the weather conditions you may pack your clothes but it is advisable to keep an extra pair of shirt, jeans or jumper if it is cold or rainy weather.
Since the weather and temperatures could be different, you might want to pack some basic medicines, sunscreen and essentials.
Hope we all can start travelling soon with all the safety checks in place and visit places that were once our dream destination✌🏼
The illustrations used in the article were self-made. If you like them, you can follow me on Instagram: @creative_within
