PLANNING A TRIP OR GOING ON A WHIM, COMMON SENSE GUIDE

Should I plan my trip? Or should I just go on a whim? Well that all depends on a few factors. Duration, are you bring a family with kids, do you have budget, and where you are going on your trip. We have other factors but these I consider to be the most important. Having a family of four, you have a different slant on things. Then again I was single once so I have seen both perspectives. Let discuss….

Should I plan or go on a whim. Well it all depends, are you single then pretty much I could say go for it? You are your own boss and let the cards fall as you may you will be only disappointing yourself. But if there is more then one person and you want the relationship to last, let alone be fun. I would recommend that you plan down to the very last minuet point. Why you ask? Well ever have two kids constantly complaining about everything? Well if you can cut down the complaining by preplanning, why not! Also if its 10pm and you don’t have a place to stay and you have two young children, trust me it’s not fun.

Duration:

Now depending on how long you’re staying. If it’s a day trip or even just for a few days. Well that’s not rocket science. I am sure you have it planned in your head. No planning required! But for an extended vacation then its best to straighten out all those little details. Which include lodging, meals, entertainment tickets, spending money and oh you need to prep your Gps or map what ever turns your fancy!  And countless tiny tidbits of things you may need to-do. If you have booked with an all inclusive trip, where everything is done for you, think again. There’s still a few things you need to do like travel insurance, research on where you are going in case have a malaria scare  or other virus alert. You may want to know what the customs are or how the resort plans their day. It never ends. In my opinion you can never over plan.

Vacationing with family:

Well vacationing with a family it’s a whole new ball of wax.  Or should I say melted wax. If you don’t preplan that family trip you are going to do like every other family does yell at there kids and reverse course to home. Some of the complaints I used to get are, I am hungry, its too hot!, I have to pee. Trust me anything you can due to reduce the stress just makes it a better trip. Plus you want to make it fun not just for your family but for yourself also.

So in my opinion, have everyday planned on a worksheet trust me this is a lifesaver. From where you are sleeping what you will be doing. Just plan a lot for each day. Hey and if you don’t see that site, at least you have that option. Oh and my favorite plan with the whole family, I don’t care if the kid is 3 years old. At least they’re involved and excited. What I like to do is give my kids a scrap book, and a camera. That keeps them busy and at the end of it all you may get a few decent photos plus anything to reduce your workload. Now I am not the only photographer on our trip and planner that alone reduces the stress level. Another is plan you pee brakes and meals what a difference when everything is in sync. You actually see and do more.

Budget, money savings on trips

Ok got my frugal hat on now. This is my primary reason why I like to plan. It’s the amount of money you can save on flights, auto/rentals, meals, entertainment tickets, it never ends. You literally can save thousands, trust me you don’t want to get there and get hosed on an expensive crappy meal. I had one friend who saved 1500.00 dollars on flight just by changing his flight from direct to a two stop flight. Sure they lost 8 hours but they made it fun as a family. But the money they saved was enough to extend there trip and go to Euro Disney. Not bad the way I see it.

Now with time on your side you can see what discounts you can find on car rentals, flights, meals and entertainment so when you get there you are prepped and ready to use your discounts if needed.

Where are you going?

This is crucial in some countries when planning trip or non planning trip. There are locations in the world you just need to plan, it would be mere suicide. Especially if don’t know anything about where you are going. In terms of third world countries, if you don’t know their culture or present disease alerts and I should mention certain areas of a country is safe and which is not. These are things you need to research heavily.

Where to look for info on planning

Finally how do you improve your planning skills? Mine took time and a lot of reading. And a lot of world experience. So I would start on the internet and find some spreadsheets and try to locate some books on planning. Check your local library and book stores they have tons of info. What has happened during the years you build a sort of pastern when you go on trips so the spread sheet I use is adjusted to my families needs. I suggest you do some research and develop your own that suite yours. But I have to mention another tool I use quite frequently is my GPS its stores places and maps and I always prepare my GPS on any trip I go short or long. Its just takes the stress out of our vacation and makes it much more pleasurable.