With September coming to a close, I thought it was time for me to create a travel itinerary for my upcoming trip next month.
Wait, you create a travel itinerary for your trips? I thought you just flew by the seat of your pants!
Most people’s reaction
And yes, while it’s true that I leave a lot of room for spontaneity on my solo trips and adventures, I try to have at least a loose itinerary to provide some structure. And even more so when I’m traveling with others.
My upcoming trip is with a travel companion that isn’t as experienced as I am, so I thought it would be helpful for both of us to create a travel itinerary.
Should you create a travel itinerary?
It would be too easy to just simply say “yes,” so let’s break down why you should create a travel itinerary and all the benefits that come from doing so. And I should add that you can create a travel itinerary for any location or adventure – both at home and abroad. The benefits are the same.
Benefits to creating a travel itinerary
I’m not going to lie – I wish I was at a point in my life where I could just show up at a location and see where the days take me, without having to worry about time, money, or anything else. Just going with the flow as an end-goal. But that’s not my reality.
Creating a travel itinerary provides structure
Sometimes where we have so many options, we become overwhelmed and wind up wasting time and essentially not making any decisions for our day. By having a travel itinerary, no matter how loosely set, we have some structure to build our day’s adventures around. It also helps with the planning process of your trip, especially if you aren’t an experienced travel planner!
Not everyone is comfortable with the unknown
I love the looks on people’s faces when I tell them my lack of set plans for an upcoming adventure or trip. I thrive in the face of the uncomfortable and unknown. It’s where spontaneity and true adventure can be found. But that’s not the case with most people. Most people like to know what’s coming. What to plan for. What to pack for. And that’s okay. When you create a travel itinerary, you have a set of expectations that you can prepare for.
It makes budgeting easier
When you create a travel itinerary, you know what items you need to pay for or book ahead of time, making budgeting a lot easier. If you create your itinerary ahead of time, you’re able to pay for those “big ticket” items prior to your trip. You can sometimes make payments on the adventures, hopefully alleviating the financial burden that can sometimes accompany expensive adventures. Some adventures might include tours, sporting events, or rentals.
Sharing itineraries can be a safety matter
It’s always a good idea to share your itinerary with someone outside of your trip or adventure, especially if you’re traveling alone. Although I never really have a set itinerary when I fly off on my solo adventures, I always give my mom a loose idea of where I’ll be. For example: on my trip to Puerto Rico in 2021, I let her know that I’d be in Ponce for 4 nights and then Viejo San Juan for 2, and that I’d be road tripping along the west coast and visiting El Yunque during that time. Just in case.
How to create a travel itinerary
Now that I’ve outlined the benefits to creating your travel itinerary, let’s talk about actually how to create your own. This section is designed with a few assumptions, in that I’m assuming you have already booked your flight and have a place to stay. If not, no worries. Just make sure to get those nailed down before you go.
Print out a map
Or create a digital one. But in my experience, having a hard-copy, printed out map of the area you’ll be traveling in will help create your itinerary. Plus, you can take it with you, use it during your trip, and then keep it as a little souvenir.
I have a journal that I use for my travel planning. I’ll print out maps, paste them into the journal, write out all my notes and appointments, and then I carry it with me during my trip. While I might not necessarily have it with me during my snorkeling adventure, you can believe it’s in the car for when I get back!
Schedule big-ticket items first
Like I mentioned earlier, when you create a travel itinerary, it helps getting the bigger stuff out of the way first. When I planned my trip to Chicago, the first thing I scheduled out was my pizza tour. It was a main focus for my trip and I wanted to 1. make sure it got onto my itinerary and 2. make sure that I had a spot reserved on the tour.
Other big-ticket items include anything that you need to reserve a spot for, pay for, or will take a big chunk of the day. Once you have those big-ticket items scheduled and taken care of, it’s easier to sprinkle in other adventures around them.
Check out this video that illustrates my point. Although the video was initially created to highlight productivity skills, it’s easy to draw parallels to a host of other applications. Start at 0:52.
When I went to San Francisco for a quick Labor Day 2016 solo getaway, my Raiders vs Seahawks ticket was the first thing I scheduled and purchased! Ugh, that was a terrible stadium. Can’t wait to go see them in Las Vegas!
Group adventures together
Now that you’ve got your big-ticket items out of the way, it’s time to start filling the rest of your days. Pull out that map you printed out and start highlighting where all the adventures you want to have are located. Once they’re all down on the map, you can see which adventures would make sense to do in the same day or around the same time. It doesn’t make sense to go from one end of the city to the other if you don’t have to.
Another tip for when you create a travel itinerary is to see if there are any group tours that would encompass a handful of your adventures on your wish list. When I traveled to Oahu in 2021, there was a host of things that I wanted to do and places I wanted to check out. When I was planning out my days, I started looking at group tours and found one that was going to hit about 5 of my wish-list items. An added bonus was the fact that I didn’t have to drive and could spend more time looking out the windows and talking with the others on the tour.
Leave a buffer when you create a travel itinerary
DO NOT book yourself with back-to-back adventures and expect to hit everything and come away unscathed. Things will go wrong, you will get tired, and there will be delays. When I was in Boston, I booked myself a whale-watching tour. Towards the end of the scheduled tour, we ran into a pod of Right whales and had to kill the engines on the boat. We stayed out for extra time…which didn’t bother me because I didn’t have something booked right after.
Something to also keep in mind is that we tend to use more energy when we travel and adventure. We’re so busy trying to enjoy everything, we forget to take time to relax. If you are used to sitting at a desk for 9 hours a day and then go to Disneyland for a week, you’re going to get tired. You’re not used to the activity and need some downtime. When you create your travel itinerary, purposefully and mindfully schedule in rest time.
It took Ashley and I 3 tries to get to the famous “Mormon Row” barn outside of Teton National Park. Since we left time between adventures, we were able to return and finally get the shot we’d been dreaming of!
Bonus: leave time for spontaneity!
One of the best parts of travel is trying new things and meeting new people. Especially if you’re traveling alone, make sure you leave some time for spontaneity when you create a travel itinerary. If you go on a group tour, leave a few hours free immediately after the tour. You might meet some cool people that invite you to join them!
Do you create a travel itinerary when you travel? What would you add?
Sharing is caring! Please show some love by sharing on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram! Thank you!
PIN ME
