Planning and budgeting your own trip in 7 easy steps

Planning a trip is something I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with. There’s a common overwhelming feeling of anxiety that comes with it, especially in the early stages when you have to look into a million things and the options at your disposal become, well, endless. Most people don’t even know where to start, which usually ends up in one of two ways:

1. You go to a travel agency and have someone take care of everything for you, for a pretty high price.
2. You end up spending a lot more money than anticipated because you didn’t plan ahead what your trip would actually involve.
3. You don’t travel at all out of pure laziness.

Option number 1 is fine, but travel agencies tend to send travellers to all-included experiences, where you don’t really experience the culture you’re travelling to, and it feels more like a bubble of vacation stereotypes, where your holidays are filled with free drinks, tourist buses, swimming pools, and the same identical hotel breakfast every time. There are agencies that allow for more personal experiences, which is nice if you have the money for it, but if you’re on a tight budget it simply isn’t an option.

If what you’re after is a more authentic experience, where you spend most of your time ambling down narrow pebbled streets and through off-the-beaten-path forests and mountains, you might want to plan the trip yourself. After all, that’s what travelling is all about isn’t it?

I’ve put together a list of 7 easy steps to guide the traveller in you in your quest to plan the perfect trip, which will hopefully give you that much-needed kick-off, or at least an answer to the question: “Where do I even start?”

Step 1: Cover the basics

The first step is perhaps the simplest of them all. You need to ask yourself and answer the following questions:

1. How many days can I/will I take off work for this trip?
2. How much money can I/will I spend on this trip?
3. Where do I want to go?

Once you have final answers for these very basic questions, you can move onto the next stage, and the most exciting part of all the planning process — the research!

Step 2: Research your destination

That’s right. In order to get to a place, you need to know where you’re going, when you’re going, and why you’re going. Seems pretty straightforward, right?

If you were to go to Scotland, for example, your experience would be completely different depending on if you go in the winter or in the summer. In Scotland, the days are longer and warmer in the summer, and you will need those extra hours of sunlight if you plan on doing some hiking. Hiking in the Scottish Highlands in the winter, especially if you’re not an experienced hiker, can be very risky, and your carefully planned trip could suffer some on-the-go changes due to weather conditions. Likewise, if you plan on visiting the islands, keep in mind that most ferries don’t travel during the winter months. However, if your trip to Scotland is mostly based in visiting cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, you might prefer to go there in the winter months and experience the incredible Christmas markets and Christmas-time festivities of the region.

Before you even start looking at flights, you need to look into your destination and figure out what you will be doing, and this will very much depend on the time of the year you plan on going. If your dates are flexible, you might want to have a look around some online blogs and YouTube videos from travellers who have been to this place to determine what kind of experience you want to have of the place, and when the best time to go to this place would be.

If you were going to Norway to see the Aurora Borealis, there’s a peak time frame within the year (usually November to March) in which your chances of seeing it are significantly higher. If you were to go on a scubadiving trip to South Africa to see the Sardine Run, you would need to be there between the months of May and July.

There’s a lot to consider, and it all depends on your destination. Make sure you look into the place where you want to go, and decide on the things you want to do there. Make sure there are no impediments to doing those things in your set time frame. If there are, you will either have to change your dates, or take a step back and decide on a different location.

Step 3: Start listing!

Here comes the fun part. You need to make a list, an exhaustive list of all the things you want to do during your trip.

This can include museum visits, hikes, meals at specific famous restaurants or cafés, or even day trips from your destination. If you’re going to be staying in more than one place, make sure you make a list of things to do and see for each destination.

If you’re going to Paris, you might want to include a visit to the Louvre, a hot chocolate at Les Deux Magots, or a day out at Disneyland, or maybe Versailles. If, instead, you’re going somewhere more exotic like Beijing, your list might be made up of specific foods you want to try in these places. In this case, make a note of the best food markets in your destination, and which days and times these are open.

If you’re going somewhere like Vietnam, you might want to experience local cultural events, such as lighting a lantern in Hoi An. If this is the case, make sure you check when these events take place in the year, and make sure it coincides with when you’re going. If not being able to do a particular thing on your list is a dealbreaker, you’ll either have to go back and change your dates, or choose a different destination.

But don’t worry! If you suddenly change your mind about the destination, don’t throw away that list — keep it safe for the future, you never know when you’ll have the chance to go, and when you do, it will be handy to have some of the planning and research already done!

Once you have your definitive list of things you want to experience at your destination(s), make sure to re-order them, placing the highest priority ones at the very top (the deal-breakers), and the tentative ones at the bottom. Once your list is done, you’re ready for Step 4!

Step 4: The itinerary

Now is the time to start fleshing out the list of things from Step 3. What you want to do here is flesh out as best you can which activities you will be doing each day. Remember, this could change later, so maybe use a pencil if you’re doing it by hand.

Make sure you look into each activity on your list and how much of your time these will realistically eat up. For example, if you’re visiting a big museum such as the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, or the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, make sure you give it a slot of at least four hours, plus the time it will take to get there. It doesn’t matter where you place it right now, because it will depend on the reservation slot you get later (in Step 6!).

As you finish your tentative itinerary, you will find yourself in the difficult position of having to cut off some of the activities you had initially planned for. This is why we re-ordered the list with a priority filter. Hopefully, you’ve managed to slot in most (if not all) of the absolute musts of your trip. Now, it’s just a case of deciding which of the less important ones you’re able to let go.

If your destination is a place where the weather can be uncertain (so basically anywhere within the UK, for example), keep two options for each time slot. For example, if I was planning a trip to Cambridge, I would slot in a river tour or a bike ride — and alternatively, a visit to Kettle’s Yard art gallery if it’s raining.

In any case, keep a note of the activities you’ve discarded. Plans always change. One of the museums could suddenly close down for renovations, your day trip to Versailles might need cancelling if there’s a transport strike, and you never know when you’ll have to swap one of your activities for a new one.

At the end of it all, your itinerary should look something like this:

Day 1:
Morning: Departure from Madrid
Afternoon: Walk around Trocadero and Champs de Mars, lunch in a local brasserie
Evening: Hot chocolate at Les Deux Magots and dinner at La Petite Chaise.

Day 2:
Morning: Coffee and Croissant at local cafe. Visit Louvre.
Afternoon: Walk around Cimetiere Pere Lachaise / (if raining) visit Palais Garnier
Evening: Stroll around the passages of Paris, dinner

Day 3:
Morning: Take the train to Versailles, visit the Palais de Versailles
Afternoon: Lunch in Versailles, and train back to Paris
Evening: Dinner cruise on the Seine

Day 4:
Morning: Departure from Paris.

(Extra activities: list of museums, Jardin de Luxembourg, Invalides, Galleries LaFayette, Paris Catacombs)

Your rough draft should allow for some extra time to allow travel from one place to the other, as well as for resting or going back to your accomodation in the middle of the day should you have to.

Now that you have a rough idea of what you will be doing and when you will be doing, it’s time to start locking things in.

Step 5: Reservations

This is perhaps the most crucial part of the planning process, and the one that will take the longest. You will need to take care of three different aspects of your trip:
1. Transportation
2. Accommodation
3. Activities

Let’s jump in with the most important one: Transportation. This refers, of course, to how you’re planning to get to your destination. Whether you’re travelling by plane, train, or bus, you need to spend a while taking a look at different websites and the prices for each trajectory. The prices of these can vary depending on a variety of factors, such as whether you’re travelling in high or low season, which days of the week you’re travelling on, and even what time of day. If, on the other hand, you decide to go on a roadtrip, you need to decide if you’ll be taking your own car, or renting one, and budgeting in the costs of that option (such as rental, gas, etc.)

It all comes down to your budget for the trip (which you already decided on in Step 1) and how much of it you are willing to spend on transportation. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Would you rather pay more to travel more comfortably and arrive fully rested at your destination?
2. Or would you rather spend as little as possible and travel at odd hours in order to have more to spend on activities and meals during your trip?

Your decision will depend on how far you’re travelling, and how much money you will need in your day-to-day activities wherever you’re going. If you were going to Paris, for example, you might want to spend as little as possible on the flight, as Paris is a very expensive city, and you will need some money in order to enjoy yourself. However, if you’re going somewhere far away such as China or Vietnam (assuming you’re travelling from Europe or the US), you might have to spend more on your flight as this will most definitely be the most expensive part of your trip, and the money you will need in your day-to-day will be significantly less than what you’d need in a European city like Paris.

Once your flights are taken care of, you should start looking into how you’re going to move around. If you’re going to be staying predominantly in the city where your accomodation is, you’ll only need to look at the prices of public transport, and maybe even purchase a special deal ticket. Cities like Paris, Barcelona, or Berlin have special 3-day tickets, or week-long tickets, for tourists. However, if you’re planning to travel across the country, or take some day trips from the city where you’re staying, you need to look at how you’ll be moving around, which trains or buses you will take, and wherever possible, try to book these tickets in advance.

Next up is your accommodation. Again, you will need to decide how much of your budget will go into this, and also decide whether you’d rather stay in a smaller placer in a nicer, more central area, or a bigger, more comfortable accommodation further out of the city, or further away from the places you want to see. This is entirely up to you, but I suggest you go with the first option.

Remember that you will barely be at your accommodation, and will likely spend most of your time exploring, so it will make more sense to choose a place closer to everything so that you don’t have to spend too much time (and money) on transport to get to where you want to be. As a note, I highly recommend you stay away from the dodgy areas of wherever in the world you’re going. Locals can smell tourists a mile away, and it only takes a moment of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for you to find yourself alone and in danger. Above all else, remember to stay safe. Money is not worth risking your life.

You can choose to stay in a hotel (usually pricier) or in an apartment/house. This is entirely up to you, but staying in an apartment is usually a lot cheaper and more comfortable, and you can save some money by buying groceries instead of eating out every single day.

You can also go to hostels, but unless you’re under 21 and have a high tolerance for lack of higiene and sleeping in a room with at least ten other strangers, I don’t reccomend it.

If your budget won’t allow you to rent an apartment for yourself, consider renting a room in someone’s apartment. This is tricky, and I have only done this a couple of times, because you need to make sure that the place is safe, as are the people who live in it. Airbnb is a fantastic place to find such places. If you opt to rent a room within someone’s home for the duration of your stay, make sure they have Airbnb’s Superhost badge. This usually means that they are known for impeccable conditions. There are thousands of Airbnb hosts out there that go out of their way to make their homes as comfortable as possible for travellers, and many will even enjoy getting to know you. If you’re looking to get an insider’s view on the place you are visiting, there is no better way.

Once you have your transportation and accommodation all booked and ready to go, you’re ready for Step 6!

Step 6 — Research, research, research.

Congratulations! If you’ve reached Step 6, it means you’ve successfully planned a trip as concisely as you possibly can, and are about to embark on an epic adventure.

We already covered research in the early steps of the planning process, but this is where you really start digging in. This is where the fun comes in. The weeks, or months, leading up to your trip, need to be filled with you burying your head in as much information as possible about your destination. I’m not talking about making notes of what to see and do, or making lists of places you feel like you really ought to go to as a tourist.

You need to look into the culture of your destination, especially if it is one extravagantly different to your own. Find out about its history, about what the people you will encounter are like, and how to appropriately interact with them. Learn some key words and phrases in their language, and make sure you know if there are any habits or customs that, however normal they may seem to you, could be offensive where you’re going.

Make a note of sketchy neighbourhoods you should avoid, as well as the tourist-overpopulated places where you will most likely be mugged if you’re not careful. As I’ve said before, staying safe is paramount, so find out as much as you can. Find out if it’s safe to get a taxi, and which kinds of taxi cars you should avoid. Carry a bag that you can hold onto firmly, and that can’t be easily opened. If you’re carrying a lot of cash (which you really should avoid), make sure you don’t keep it all in the same place. I used to store it in three different places: The inside of my left sock, my right sock, and my bra. You think it’s too much? I think I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Always be safe, no matter how exciting a situation may seem to be. Especially if you’re travelling alone, and especially if you’re a woman. I hate to say this so bluntly, but no matter how feminist we all are, the reality is that in this day and age travelling is still more dangerous for a woman. So stay safe.

If your destination has a different currency to your own, make sure you exchange your money weeks in advance. Have a dig around different exchange shops and find the best deal. Don’t exchange your money at the airport if you don’t want to get ripped off. For some countries, you might not even need to exchange your money.

If you go to China, for example, you won’t need to exchange your currency because you’ll be able to pay with a card almost anywhere (even markets). However, you do need to phone up your bank, not only to make sure that your card will work over there, but to let them know that you are travelling, so that they don’t block your account when they suddenly register a payment being made halfway across the world.

If you’re an avid reader, find some travel novels on your destination, or travel articles, to get a feel for the place you’ll be visiting. Watch documentaries. Find some online blogs, forums, channels, or social media accounts and reach out to some locals to find out more about your destination, details you might not otherwise find in a tourist guidebook.

Step 7

Once you’ve done all of the above, there is only one thing left for you to do: Get excited!

Oh, and pack. You definitely need to pack, but we’ll leave that for another time.