Trip Planner

Following are some questions which might impact your travel decisions and often need to answered when planning a trip. If you are not sure about an answer, fill in your best guess or go to the next one and come back as you get a better idea and start firming up your plans.

Note: the moment we provide you some inputs to write notes. Currently notes are not saved, but in the future we hope to add utilities to help you plan your trip.

When

Sometimes start with a length of time you want to travel, other times you already know the specific dates.

Dates:

Do you have a fixed set of dates (eg, school holidays), or do you have the flexibility to decide when your trip will be, perhaps taking advantage of off peak deals?

Public Holidays and Events

• It is a good idea to know your own holidays to make the most of your free days off.
• It is also useful to know any holidays and events that will be happening in places you want to visit. You may want to attend or avoid certain areas during these times.
  • Google Calendar users may find it useful to add other country public holidays to their calendar.
• Unfortunately many other people often take holidays around the same time, so this may mean things are sold out, very crowded and more expensive.

Length (Days, Weeks, Years)

Do you have a fixed time, or do you need to decide how long your trip will be? Do you have a hard deadline (e.g., you are required back at work or face consequences)

Why:

Your holiday may have a pre-defined reason, or you may be searching for inspiration. You can have multiple reasons to travel. Setting goals for the trip can help you plan other aspects of the trip.

Who's Coming?

The more the merrier... well not always, but there can be perks :) More people can bring the cost per person down (e.g., rent a large house and share the cost).

• More people can mean compromise or limited choices and having to meet on common ground, or split up at times during the trip.
• Older or disabled people may prefer countries or activities that cater closer to their needs.

Figure out who needs to come, or who you want to invite on the trip.

Type:

• Depending on where you call home, international travel could make your trip cheaper, or more expensive depending on the strength of your currency and what it can buy you.
• Are you looking for a change of scenery, or something more familiar?

Climate:

Depending on what you want to do on your holiday, you may need to work around the climate. It is not that enjoyable swimming at the beach if it is freezing cold and hard to ski if there is no snow.

Budget:

Is money no object and it 5 star hotels all the way, or are you on a tight backpacker budget? If you stretch your budget by reducing your daily spend, perhaps you can extend your trip or take in more locations?

Try to figure out approximate costs of flights, how expensive your meal tastes etc.

A very important feature of your budget should be your contingency. This means the part of the budget you save for unknown or increased costs.

If you are not happy with your savings versus what you want to spend on your trip, perhaps you need to start looking into ways to put away some extra money before your trip.

Where:

You may have a place in mind from the beginning, or perhaps by answering other questions you can narrow down possible locations for your trip. Location can have a huge effect on your trip, eg: budget, travel time (there and back plus ease of getting around taking into account the quality of transport options and geographical challenges), activities available etc.

Traveller Ages:

Travellers of different ages might have to compromise on aspects of the holiday, or incorporate different itineraries to meet their goals for the trip.

Age can have implications for travel insurance, or provide discounts. Babies and children may need minders etc.

Advice From Others:

Get ideas from others for your trip, they may have been there or heard good feedback about destinations. If you are struggling for ideas, they can help you decide. New travellers, or experts can still benefit from good advice. Just remember that everyone is different, so weigh up how you think the advice will work with the knowledge of the personalities involved.

Work

• Are you planning to work while you are away?
  • Will you be working your current job, or looking for one?
  • Are you interested in volunteer work?

Travel Agent?

• Do you like to figure out the details yourself, or get a professional involved to help you out?
  • You can also use a mix of planning yourself and getting help on certain areas you would prefer to outsource.