This girl is going on a little trip soon! Well, it’s not all fun and games as I am going to take care of family matters but I managed to book 2 free days so I am also a bit excited for this trip. Planning trips is something I really like doing and I don’t only mean going on trips. I mean the planning and organisation part of it as well. As I have travelled a lot and have taken many flights, I know quite enough in regard to planning a trip. I thought, why not share my usual planning routine for traveling?  In this post you will find the things I usually do before traveling. I also wrote a post on packing tips last year should you be interested in reading it. Thinking of sharing an updated version soon.

Hope you find it interesting to read!

1. I always set a budget. I don’t like to recklessly start booking something and therefore perhaps overspend. For me setting a budget also structures my booking and helps eliminating lots of options that are not of my choice.

2. Book the flight first. For me the flight is more important than accommodation. Yes, I like a nice accommodation but there are countless hotels in every city so I never really stress about that.  I tend to book my flights on a either Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s said that flight prices get more expensive on the weekend. The reason for that is that websites know that more people have spare time on the weekend to check flights and raise their prices. I once checked this and it can actually save you money.

Pretty plane views ❤ From one of last years flights

3. With the money left after booking the flights, I start looking at hotels. I always have certain criteria when looking at hotels. Price, comfort, transportation, and if it’s my first time visiting, I also like a quite central place. I can spend the rest of the budget on this but that doesn’t mean I always do so.

4. If I don’t know the city/country that I am visiting I always do a little research. For instance, things as visa. Example: I live in Europe and have a European nationality. When I travelled to Istanbul a few years ago, I thought I was fine as Turkey belongs to the EU. After a bit of research I came to the conclusion that I still needed a visa and that it was supposed to be arranged online before departure. Luckily this could be done quickly but imagine if you don’t investigate these details.It only takes a few minutes of your day.

5. Research restaurants. I am happy that we live in a time where everything is being shared, including where we eat. If there’s something I don’t like when travelling, it’s eating at the most touristy places. When I have done so in the past, the quality of the food would be mediocre to bad and the prices would be too high for why you’re getting. Thats why I like saving restaurant locations on Instagram and blogger recommendations.

I found one of the best places I ate at in Copenhagen on Instagram (Mother)

6. Many people, including me, might think too easy about packing and the weight of the suitcase. I always thought this was not strictly checked and have been lucky many times. Until last summer when I visited Copenhagen. I was carrying, no joke, one kilo too much. ONE kilo. The lady behind the check in desk started preaching about this one kilo and that I should pay for this one kilo. The times that I travelled with too much weight it has been more than one kilo and nobody made a remark of it. Now this lady was being a pain about one kilo. I didn’t give in and she got her supervisor, who laughed and said: ‘’seriously just one kilo? Come on it’s fine’’. So long story short: pay attention to the weight, you might not always be lucky.

7. Currency. When I travel to a country with another currency, I often change some money at a currency exchange office in advance. This saves up time upon arrival as many people will want to withdraw money from an atm at the airport or will queue up to change money. Especially if you arrive in the evening, all you want to do is get a taxi and go to your hotel instead of standing in an endless line.

Some coins I have left. It’s money from Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, UK and Denmark.

How do you usually plan your trips? Did this post remind you of something that you will think of next time you plan a trip? Also, if you have any questions about this, ask them in the comments 🙂

xxx Valerie

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