When I was thinking about planning a vacation for the summer, I realized that it had been so long since I went on a trip. Wanting to brush up on my vacation planning skills, I did some research to find out how to plan a trip the right way and get the most out of the experience.
How can you plan a trip the right way to get more out of the experience? In order to plan a trip the right way and get the most out of the experience, you will need to be realistic in your activity plans and total costs. From there, you should come up with a plan of action to reach your financial goals and achieve the perfect trip.
Depending on the budget that you have for your vacation, you will be able to prioritize the things that matter to you in order to create the ultimate itinerary that is full of fun things to do. Instead of worrying about covering all of these costs, you can relax and enjoy the moment, knowing that everything is paid for in full due to strategic saving.
Creating the perfect travel plan can seem like a very stressful and daunting task. With so many factors to consider such as flights, hotels, activities, food, and all of the money that will get you these things, it can get overwhelming quickly to think about putting all of this together while somehow enjoying the moment at the same time.
If you are like me and realized that you don’t really know much about planning the perfect vacation, you will benefit greatly from the information in this article. Keep reading to get some helpful tips and tricks throughout an outlined process of how to plan a trip the right way from start to finish.
How To Plan a Vacation
The task of planning an entire vacation all by yourself can sound very complicated. With all of the individual components from which flight you will board to reach your destination and which restaurants you will eat at when you get there, it can get stressful fast if you are not careful.
Luckily, I have put together a detailed set of step-by-step instructions to help you get through the vacation planning process without a single scratch. Keep reading through the rest of this section to gain an understanding of the basic travel plan steps that you should follow for any upcoming trip that you wish to take.
How To Plan a Vacation:
- Decide where you are going
- Come up with departure and return dates
- Compare flight deals
- Find a hotel or accommodation
- Browse activities to come up with an itinerary
- Plan for food costs
- Arrange your transportation
- Make a list of what you will need to pack / items to purchase (if needed)
- Calculate the total cost for your trip
- Proceed to make a plan for saving money to pay for everything
The first thing that you will need to do before you can proceed with any more detailed plans is to decide where you are going on your trip. The possibilities are endless for what you can choose from during this step, and it will require a lot of research if you don’t already have a good idea of which direction you will be headed.
A great way to narrow down your choices is to search the internet for any specific activities you might want to participate in or experiences you want to have. For example, a search for kayaking in the ocean might return the results of Hawaii and Thailand, while the query of a mud bath with elephants will take you to Indonesia.
Once you have made a definite decision of where you will be traveling on your next vacation, you will need to go even further to come up with the starting and ending dates for your trip.
At this point, you will need to check your calendar and plan accordingly with your schedule to find a place that your vacation plans will fit into. If you are traveling with friends or family members, they will need to plan accordingly as well.
With the exact departure and return dates decided, you will be able to easily search the internet for flights and even book them in advance to try to find better deals.
To compare flight deals, you can start by inputting your starting and ending airport into Google Flights. This is a great place to look, because the results will help you to compare deals on different airlines, with the opportunity for even more discounts.
If you are flexible with your time frames of travel, you might be able to find a deal that is very close to your desired date range after you press enter on the search bar.
When you finally locate the right flight deal for your trip, you might want to book it promptly to avoid a price jump the next time you look at it. Google Flights is known to raise the prices when you look at the same search multiple times on the same device, s ideally you would be ready to purchase as soon as you look the first time.
On the contrary, if you are willing to take the risk of waiting until the last minute, there is a huge possibility that the airlines might knock off a large portion of the overall price if you are taking the flight within the same day or night.
However, this method is never guaranteed to provide you with a lower discount, and you might even end up with an even higher price than you initially expected. So, you should proceed with last minute flight deals at your own risk.
When finding airline deals, it is best to purchase round trip tickets all at once, meaning that you will be able to fly there and back for the full price. If you choose a one-way flight, you can end up paying more than you would if it were the other way around.
After you have found the plane tickets that you will be purchasing for your trip, you will be able to move on to your sleeping accommodations. You can choose from booking a hotel room or an entire vacation villa on Airbnb.
Alternatively, you can try to save money by renting out a bed in a hostel or even sleeping on someone’s couch for free by using a website that will help connect you with hospitable locals.
When the flight and hotel costs have been established, the activities that you will be participating in will account for the remainder of expenses. You can locate some activities such as guided tours, hikes, and outdoor adventures on places like TripAdvisor and Airbnb.
With the help of these websites, you will be able to see photographs of the activity, read descriptions, guest reviews, and reserve your tickets online for your desired trip dates.
In order to plan for food costs, you will need to consult the internet to find out the average prices for foods in the area that you will be traveling to. You will most likely be able to find a travel blog offering advice on your choice destination, giving you a general estimate of how much you can expect to spend in one day in that area.
If you are trying to make an effort to save money during your travels, you might account for some grocery shopping and eating in for most of the nights on your trip, including these savings in your total expenditures.
When you actually arrive to the location where you will be traveling, you should already have a concrete plan for how you will get around the city. This can be anything from walking or renting a car to taking Uber rides and boarding the public bus or train.
Regardless of which one of these options that you choose, you should be prepared for how much you will be spending on a daily basis and add it to your total.
With all of the above factors considered, you will be able to come up with a list of essential items that you will need throughout your travels to this destination. Depending on what you already have access to, you might need to make an additional shopping list to purchase some specific things that are missing.
Now that you have strategically planned out all of these components, you will be able to start adding up the total cost of your trip, creating a budget for your upcoming travel.
(Learn how to travel on a budget in this amazing article!)
At this time, it will be very important to be realistic about how much money you are making as well as how much you are willing to throw away on a vacation. If any adjustments are needed, you might need to sacrifice something either on your trip or at home in the time leading up to your departure.
The process of saving money to pay for your vacation budget will be discussed throughout the next sections of this article, as well as some tips for how you can cut down on costs during your trip.
How To Travel For Free
While it is true that you can look for some budget hotel options or even a shared room on AirBnb, you would save even more money if you were able to stay somewhere for free throughout your entire trip.
So, how can you really stay somewhere for free if nothing in life is supposed to be free? The answer lies with the people that you know, from family to friends, that live in the area in which you are traveling to.
If you have someone that you know in your destination city or country, it would be a good idea to ask them if you can crash on their couch or stay in an extra bedroom while you are visiting.
This will be a great way to find a balance of spending time with the people you love and experiencing the place that they live. You might even be able to get some helpful tips and suggestions of things to do in their town while you stay with them.
Although this will work in the places where you actually know people, there will be a lot of places where you are completely alone, especially when it comes to traveling to other states and countries that are unfamiliar to you.
How To Travel For Free:
- Find free accommodation
- “couch surfing” with locals
- House sitting job
Websites For Free Accommodations:
- CouchSurfing
- The Hospitality Club
- Global Freeloaders
- MindMyHouse
In these cases, you can consult the internet for a free place to sleep at night. There is a popular website called CouchSurfing, which lists places that you can find a couch, bed, or empty space on the floor to sleep while you are passing through the area.
Additionally, you can check The Hospitality Club and Global Freeloaders for locals in the area who are prepared to give you a place to sleep at no extra cost, as well as show you around the city.
Another great way to score a free place to stay on your vacation is to find a housesitting gig. There are certain websites where you are able to connect with people who own homes everywhere, and are in need of someone to look after their homes while they are traveling as well.
One of the best places to look for one of these opportunities is MindMyHouse. With the small payment of a twenty dollar annual membership, you will be able to create a profile and start looking for a temporary job.
While this option will usually require caring for animals during your stay, you can’t really complain about having an entire hours to yourself for free on your vacation.
To go along with the idea of housesitting for someone else in order to get a free place to stay, there are ways that you can make up for the money that you will be spending during your travels.
If you own your home or apartment and are planning to be away for several weeks to months, you can list your place on sites like Airbnb and Trip Advisor so others can stay there while you are gone.
The best part about this concept is that you will be getting paid for that other person to stay in your home. So, while you are enjoying your vacation, you can rest assured that you have a little bit of extra money in the budget for eating and entertainment.
This will help you save tons of money, especially if you have chosen to find free accommodations somewhere listed above during your trip. You could also think of this option as being paid to travel, in a way.
How To Save And Pay For a Vacation
Now that you have learned the general process of how to adequately plan for a vacation, the outstanding factor that is left to discuss is how you will be paying for the plans that you have just created.
When it comes to traveling across the world to different places, all of the costs can start to get quite expensive, especially if you are not careful.
While most of us might immediately jump to taking our credit cards out and swiping them for all upcoming travel expenses, there is a much better way to achieve your vacation goals without accumulating bills and ruining your credit score.
Instead, you can follow the simple process that is outlined in the list below in order to be able to effectively save money for a vacation.
How To Save And Pay For a Vacation:
- Assess and consider the total calculated budget
- Prioritize your expenses
- Create a goal for when you will reach your target
- Make changes in your life to save extra money
- Find additional income where you can
- Keep a close eye on your travel fund
Initially, you will need to assess and carefully consider the total budget that you calculated following the steps outlined in the previous section. While it is true that you can save up any amount little by little, it will not be realistic to splurge on a twenty thousand dollar vacation if that is half of what you make in a year.
While being very realistic with your financials and your vacation expectations, you will be able to prioritize what is really important to you for this trip in particular.
If you have found that your total budget is a little too high and unrealistic within a short time frame, you might need to make some compromises in certain areas. If your flight is looking really expensive, you might consider downgrading to a lower class seat or a cheaper airline.
Even though this flight might be long and uncomfortable with several hours of suffering, you might choose to put the bulk of your budget into a really nice hotel with a plush bed that you can sink into when you finally arrive.
Contrary to popular belief, compromise doesn’t have to always be negative. In order to do this correctly, you will need to choose what means themes to you and cut out the things that you can live without.
If you know that you will be out and about in the destination that you are traveling to because you have booked a fully stacked itinerary for every day that you will be there, you won’t need to pay too much attention to your sleeping accommodations.
After all, what use is an expensive luxury hotel room if you will be gone all day and will only visit it for a few hours at night to sleep before you get ready for the next day of adventures?
This particular situation would give you an opportunity to save some major coins on your hotel expenses, allowing you to go out and participate in the experiences that you would like to have to the fullest extent.
By prioritizing your expenses effectively, you will be able to come up with a clear plan of how you can reach this amount within a certain period of time. As an example, if your vacation will cost two thousand dollars total and you are planning on going within two months, you will need to save about one thousand per month to meet your goal.
Your plan for meeting your target vacation fund amount will, however, include a few sacrifices in your everyday life in order to get the money together as quick as possible.
Some of these changes that you might have to make include spending less money on your weekly grocery shopping, limiting restaurant spending and eating out, springing for the generic brand at the store, and even cancelling your gym membership temporarily.
Basically, anything that you cannot live without can be cut from your lifestyle until you are able to reach your financial goals, and will be sacrificed for the greater good.
You can even try to save on some of the bills that are not optional, including your utilities. In order to do this, you can stop using your air conditioner or heating unit while you are away from the house.
When you are away all day at work or school, there is no reason to be paying for wasted air when no one is around to feel the temperature changes. The same idea goes for your lights, which can be turned off whenever you are not using them.
While showering, you can make it a habit to be inside for less time, which will directly correspond with lower water costs. This can also be applied to when you are brushing your teeth to save some extra pennies at the end of the month.
When you are trying to reach a specific financial goal for your upcoming vacation, you will need to do things in order to make extra money along with trying to save what you already have coming in.
A helpful suggestion for something that you can do on the side for additional funds is to sell some household items that you are no longer in need of. For instance, if you have a whole closet full of old clothing that you haven’t worn for years, you can start to list them online to get some extra cash.
Furniture items, kitchen appliances, and other household decorations can be listed on Craigslist or OfferUp to be advertised to locals in the area who are ready to come pick them up and take them off of your hands.
Throughout all of your efforts to save the money that you have and make some more on top to get to your target amount faster than usual, you should be actively keeping track of how much you have made and what is left.
The best way to keep track of your earnings is to keep them all in one place. By choosing whether you want to keep all of it in cash or make a dedicated savings account with your bank, you will be able to easily see all of the total amounts that you have accumulated.
While you check on the status of your savings on a daily or weekly basis, you can keep in mind your total budget and subtract to find out what you have left and to make sure that you are still on track.
If you fail to stay on top of how close you are getting to your goal, you will quickly lose motivation and will be very likely to miss the targeted date for hitting the target.
For some tips and tricks on how to cut down on vacation costs while you are actually there, keep reading to the next section for a detailed explanation. With the help of the information that will be outlined below, you might be able to save some more money in your overall vacation fund budget.
How To Cut Down On Vacation Costs
Along with saving some money when it comes to choosing what kinds of activities and other things you will be spending on before departing for your vacation, it is also important to be able to keep your daily vacation costs to a minimum.
Take a look at the list down below to get a general idea of some things that you can do in order to cut down on your vacation spending.
How To Cut Down On Vacation Costs:
- Pack light (to avoid airline fees)
- Eat in when you can
- Walk or take public transportation when possible
- Find online coupons for activities/plan free ones
- Stay in a cheap/free accommodation
The first thing that you can do to save some money is to pack light for your flight. Since airlines will usually charge extra fees for additional baggage beyond what is included, you will want to keep all of your things as compacted as possible. Learning how to travel lite could be a huge money saver.
While you are in your travel destination, you should plan to eat in when you can. This will include doing some light grocery shopping and opting to cook your own food in your hotel or vacation rental instead of spending at a restaurant.
Although you don’t have to miss out on all of the authentic foods that exist in your destination city, you can save on at least a few nights out of the week, and maybe even plan to only eat out for one meal in a day.
Whenever you can, you should walk around the city or take cheaper public transportation to save some money that you might be able to spend elsewhere.
As far as the activities go, you can try to find online coupons for some of the guided tours or other experiences that you are planning on participating in to get a discounted price. Additionally, you can plan activities that are free such as swimming or hiking, instead of depending on an expensive tour experience that you could do yourself.
Lastly, if you are able to find cheap or free sleeping accommodations somewhere, your travel budget will definitely thank you.
Basically, the savings for your vacation do not have to stop once you actually depart to your destination. For those who are worried about breaking the bank on their actual trip, there is more than one way to execute your dream vacation plan.
By following some of these frugal tips for saving on your travel plans, you might even be able to come up with an even lower budget with a quicker turnaround time for when you will be able to achieve your vacation goals.
Top Vacation Destinations Around The World (Plus More Tips)
With all of this talk about vacation savings and plans, you might be thinking about some of the places around the world that you might want to test your new skills on. Keeping this in mind, I came up with a list of the best vacation destinations around the world, along with some more tips for international travel, in particular.
Top Vacation Destinations In The World:
- New York
- France
- Italy
- London
- Mexico
- Hawaii
- Australia
- Thailand
- Indonesia
- Japan
- China
Some of the best places to visit all around the world include New York, France, Italy, London, Mexico,Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and China.
The destination that you choose to visit will depend on the types of activities that you plan to participate in and the foods that you want to experience. If you are an avid sushi lover, you should definitely plan a trip to Japan.
On the other hand, if you want to have a complete outdoor adventure in a lush green climate, you should try Hawaii or Thailand. Indonesia is also known for beautiful forests and its tropical water climate, with beautiful wildlife such as elephants walking around in nature.
Tips For International Travel:
- Make a copy of your travel documents
- Purchase travel insurance
- Bring personal safety equipment
For international travel specifically, you should always make a copy of your travel documents and send them to your email in case you lose them in passing. Additionally, you should have some kind of travel insurance for any unexpected costs.
In the event that you lose your luggage or suffer from a surprise injury, your travel insurance will cover the costs.
When you are in a foreign country that you have never been to before, you should always have some kind of personal safety equipment such as pepper spray while walking around or a door block for keeping your hotel room secured at night.
Now that you have learned everything that you need to know about what goes into planning for a vacation, you will be ready to get started on the plans for your upcoming trip right away!