Planning a trip, whether domestic or international, can be difficult even under normal circumstances. But what do you get when you combine my neurodivergent brain with my husband’s more technically focused one? The perfect storm for trip over-planning, of course.
Now I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I “overdo it” and that I should be more flexible when it comes to making and/or changing plans. I wish I was the type of person who could do things on a whim, or “go with the flow”. Or the type of person who can just figure it out when we get there, and pivot when something doesn’t go according to plan. Unfortunately that’s just not how my brain works. We all plan and travel differently, and that’s okay!
If you’re a chronic over-planner like me, or just want to get better at organizing more structured trips, then these tips are for you!
Make Reservations in Advance
To be honest I’m not sure how I survived during the early 2010’s, before things like movie theater seat reservations and restaurant reservation apps were readily available/widespread. The uncertainty of showing up somewhere without a concrete plan just does not work for me anymore, I’m 100% a reservations girlie.
Restaurants
I don’t even like going to dinner without a reservation on a normal weekend in Philadelphia. So who in their right mind wants to scramble to find somewhere to eat for dinner, in a foreign country, where you don’t speak the language? What a nightmare.
On a weekday, you usually can be a bit more spontaneous and get away with not making definite plans – especially for breakfast and lunch. It all depends on where you’re visiting and how popular the restaurant is of course. But on a Friday or Saturday night? Just save yourself the potential headache and make a reservation. I always like to play it safe and make one for every night of the trip. This way I have one less thing to worry about or decision to make. The main ways I make restaurant reservations are:
- Via Reservation Apps
- OpenTable
- Resy
- The Fork
- Quandoo
- Directly through Restaurant Websites
- Over the Phone
- I don’t know about you, but I HATE when this is the only option. Which means I usually end up making my husband call…
Attractions
Tickets to tourist attractions like museums and other historical sites are another area where I recommend booking in advance. Many places have timed entry to restrict the amount of visitors inside at one time, so waiting to buy tickets until the day of could limit when (or even if) you’re able to go.
There are often perks to buying your tickets ahead of time. In many cases, pre-booking allows you to jump to the front of the line. At the Colosseum in Rome for example, there were separate lines for advance ticket holders and those that bought the day of. The advance line was so much shorter!
Transportation
Unsurprisingly, I’m not one of those people that will wait until the last minute to book a flight or long-distance train tickets in order to save some money. Now I know reserving your train tickets in advance can seriously handcuff you time wise, because you won’t be able to be flexible the day of. But you don’t want to be stuck in a city with no hotel room because all the trains to your next destination that day are sold out! Also if you’re headed somewhere without great public transport or rideshare/taxi services, I’d recommend booking transportation from the airport either through your hotel or a private car service.
Keep Organized With a Spreadsheet
If you’re scatterbrained like me, you constantly worry about forgetting an important detail or letting something fall through the cracks during the trip planning process. What time does our flight/train leave? Did I finalize that group wine tour? What was the name of our hotel in Athens again? My solution – create a spreadsheet. Use it to keep tabs on things like your travel details, historical sites you want to visit, food/drink options, or really any other important details. If you’re going with a group, utilizing an online platform like Google Docs makes it easy to share the spreadsheet with everyone. My personal travel spreadsheet template has tabs for:
- Trip Totals
- Link the cost information from each individual tab to one place.
- Flights/Trains
- Hotel information
- Sites to Visit
- I like to separate this out by city and include details on what day/time I purchased our tickets for
- Food & Drinks
- This tab highlights dinner reservation information as well as research on different breakfast, lunch, and bar options.
While the spreadsheet is helpful with the trip planning process, it is less so once you’re actually out exploring. With that in mind, be sure to flag every place on Google maps before you leave. If you’re extra like me and took notes (what was recommended at a particular restaurant, if its better to go for breakfast/lunch instead of dinner, etc), there is even a field where you can add those details. If you’re traveling overseas make sure to download a copy of the map offline, so you can still get around even if you lose access to WIFI/data.
Raise Your Daily Step Count
If you expect to get around mainly by walking, be sure to increase your daily step count in the weeks prior to leaving for your trip. This may not be as important if you’re traveling within the United States, where unfortunately many places are car-centric and don’t have great public transportation. I live in a pretty walkable city, and I still struggled a bit with the 15-20,000 steps that we averaged per day while in Italy. If you’re starting off from a not so active place, here is a great 8-week pre-trip step challenge:
| WEEK | STEPS |
| 1 | 5,000 |
| 2 | 7,000 |
| 3 | 10,000 |
| 4 | 12,000 |
| 5 | 15,000 |
| 6 | 17,000 |
| 7 | 20,000 |
| 8 | 10,000 |
Learn Language and Culture Basics
Nobody expects you to know everything about where you’re traveling to, but doing at least a small amount of research into the language and culture of the country can make a huge difference. Some things I personally research before all of my trips include:
What are some basic phrases that may be helpful?
Knowing how to say things like please, thank you, excuse me, “Do you speak…*insert language*?” and “Where is…” can be pretty handy. Don’t automatically assume people will speak English where you’re going. While we haven’t had a problem in any of the European cities we’ve visited so far, they were all major tourist cities. There were a couple times in Italy that my broken Italian did come in handy though!
Is tipping customary where you’re going?
Tipping etiquette varies drastically across the world. In some countries it is actually frowned upon or seen as rude, but it seems that many countries fall somewhere in the 5 – 20% range. Visual Capitalist has an amazing graphic with a breakdown by country.
Is anything you’re planning to do cash-only?
For example: If you want take a bus on the island of Santorini, they only accept cash.
Personally, I like to always have some cash on hand just in case. I don’t want to figure out where to get cash once I’m in the country, so I pick some up from my bank about a week in advance.
Are there time differences for meals?
In some countries, meals are eaten much later than what people may be used to here in the United States. Many restaurants in Italy close at 2 pm after lunch is over, and don’t reopen for dinner until 7 pm or later. In Greece, especially during the summer, many people don’t eat dinner until as late as 9 or 10 pm! So if you try to go earlier in the evening in either country, the restaurant may either be closed or nearly empty. Dinner in Germany on the other hand tends to be a bit earlier, generally starting between 6 – 7 pm.
Have any trip planning tips of your own that you find helpful?
Leave them in the comments below!
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