Whether you are preparing to leave for a whole new country for a few months or you are just preparing for a two week getaway, there is a lot to know to ensure your travels go as planned. This post will make sure you have all the tools needed to prepare yourself for any sort of traveling in your future.
How will you get there?
A good rule of thumb for planning any trip is to start with your means of travel, this could be booking flights, bus tickets, or setting out a road map if you plan on driving. This is something that should be done at least a couple weeks in advance for shorter trips and at least a month for trips lasting longer than two weeks. If you must fly to get there Skyscanner is a great website to find the cheapest flights as well as look at the cheapest days to travel. If busing, it is easiest to just use Google to search for a bus route between the two places and look through the results until you find the most cost effective option.
Where will you stay?
In regards to sleeping arrangements while traveling nowadays the options are endless. If you are traveling solo or with only one other person it can be the most cost effective to just book beds in a hostel (make sure to check ratings and reviews extensively before) or you can also book private rooms in Air Bnbβs. If you are traveling with a few more people or a larger group you should start looking at booking blocks of hotel rooms or an entire house through websites like Air Bnb or Vrbo.
What will you do?
This is when planning for a vacation becomes the most fun; here is where you can research all the cool and touristy things to do in the place that you are visiting. One of the best ways to find these places is to look at blog posts of people who have traveled to the destination that explain what they did and what they would recommend for anyone traveling to that place. Once you have a list of places and things that you would like to do on this trip my biggest tip of this whole post would be to create pins on a google map for each thing. On Google maps you have the ability to pin all of these places under a specific trip so that you can figure out what is close together and what makes sense to do based on where you are located.
This is an example of the map I made before I went to London, and it ended up being a lifesaver because London is so big. I was able to go to the map see where I currently was and see what of the things that I wanted to do was close to me or made sense to go to at that time.
What will you pack?
When it comes to packing for vacations I can honestly say I have consistently found myself to be an over packer, however, I have gained a few tips that help minimize what you are bringing and make you a more efficient packer. My first tip would be to invest in good packing cubes (these are the ones I have from Amazon and they have held up really well throughout my traveling). Packing cubes are so useful because they help you consolidate and organize all of the items you want to bring by separating them into their function; the way that I have found works to separate is to do one for tops, one for bottoms, one for dresses and skirts, one for workout clothes, etc. Another trick I have found that helps really minimize over packing is to focus on bringing basic pieces (clothing in simple colors like black or white that goes with everything) and then only adding in a few pieces that have interesting patterns or bright colors. This helps make sure that you are bringing items that will all match each other, allowing you to get multiple outfits out of one shirt or one pair of pants, instead of bringing all patterns that only go with one other item. I would also highly recommend looking into the climate and upcoming weather of your destination in order to make sure you are packing appropriately for the weather you are about to be in. My overarching tip for packing is to just be smart while packing, if it isnβt something that you find very wearable at home do not bring it!
Miscellaneous tips and tricks
Even if you do everything to feel absolutely prepared for your trip there is always something that you might forget or have to adjust to once you get there. Here are some tips that I have found useful based on my traveling experience.
Hope all of this information helps you feel a little bit better about preparing for a longer trip! Traveling is full of unexpected situations and learning experiences, just take a breath and roll with the punches and you will be just fine!
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