How to Make a Travel Itinerary
If you have any plans to travel soon, having a travel itinerary can be a huge benefit. Planning ahead will save you a lot of stress and confusion once you’re away from home.
Written by Echo Wang | Edited by Bianca Versoza
If you have any plans to travel soon, having a travel itinerary can be a huge benefit. Planning ahead will save you a lot of stress and confusion once you’re away from home.
Avoid getting caught in a strange city without knowing how to get around or what your next step is. A proper travel itinerary will eliminate this strain so you can relax.
The benefits of creating one include:
- Managing your budget
- Maximizing your time
- Prioritizing your needs and wants
- Ensuring that you don’t forget anything
- Letting others know exactly where to contact you
How to Make a Travel Itinerary
If you have never had to create a travel itinerary, it might feel daunting. But don’t stress — even though this task may seem cumbersome, it does get easier the more often you do it.
Here are a few quick steps you can take to make your perfect travel itinerary.
Gather All the Necessary Information
The information for your upcoming trip can include bus or plane tickets, hotel reservations, and local traveling methods. Will you be renting a car while traveling or using local transit? The option for scooters or bicycles can increase your chances of getting around more easily while traveling.
Use a way to keep all of this information in order, whether on your computer, smartphone, or app. It is always a good idea to keep a hard copy of your travel itinerary with you when traveling. Paper copies are helpful if your mobile phone battery dies or you do not have internet service to access your information.
Some key elements will include:
- Passport or other personal identification, including health information for each traveler if your identification gets lost or stolen
- Airplane or bus tickets with arrival and departure times and any connections
- If driving, any mileage stops for gas to plan your route efficiently
- Hotel address and phone number with any country codes if you are traveling abroad
- Shuttle services, local transit information, or parking information
- The name of the travel agent or booking company if you used one
This itinerary should be available for your emergency contact at home in case of any issues that arise while you are away. Having these details accessible will cut down on any hassle later if problems occur.
Prioritize Your Needs and Wants
This section is the nitty-gritty step of your travel itinerary. Unfortunately, there is not always enough time to do and see everything you want when you are away from home. Create a list of items that you need to do or must see. Follow up with a secondary list of possible ideas that may fit into your travel plans.
Once you start planning your itinerary, some fun activities will fall within the same geographic area as your necessary items, making it easier to bundle them together. It may also become apparent how hard it will be to get to that one museum from your hotel before it closes.
If you are traveling abroad, some activities do not run during the off-season. Having a proper travel itinerary will help you determine what items will be open and running to explore.
Enjoy Your Time Away
By creating a travel itinerary ahead of time, you can relax while away from home. This way, you will get the most out of the experience. You are less likely to be waiting for a bus to get to the hotel or showing up late for a tour when you take the time to create a proper travel itinerary.
Your loved ones back at home can relax knowing that they can get in touch with you no matter where you are. They will also have copies of all your detailed information if you need it while you are away.
