How to Build an Itinerary
Some people are thrilled by the idea of stepping off the plane with no plan and just seeing where the winding alleys of Europe take them...I am not one of those people…
While I enjoy a good wander as much as the next person, I also want to be sure I make the most of my time during my trip, and that starts with a good itinerary. But before we start nailing down the details, a few reminders:
This is YOUR trip. Do what YOU want.
You can find endless lists of must-sees and you-can’t-miss-this sights in the cities you will visit, but if you couldn’t care less about Spanish military history, then don’t dedicate an entire afternoon to visiting a museum about it, even if it is the #1 rated attraction on Trip Advisor.
Prioritize.
As you build your itinerary, think about which attractions are most important to you, and give them priority. You can add in a B-list of other sights you would like to see, but always think of them as optional. If your day is getting away from you, drop something from your B-list and move along to your next A-list sight. You run the schedule, don’t let it run you!
Get out of the city!
When you go to Spain, you have to visit Barcelona. It’s a non-negotiable, I get it. But if you stay in the big city, you will miss out on some of the best experiences Europe has to offer. Small towns often hold the culture and character of a country better than it’s big cities, which are usually more susceptible to globalization. I think most of us would agree that NYC is not representative of the US as a whole. Get out of the big city and go see the country you came to see!
Hold your itinerary loosely.
Sometimes the fates conspire against you and the Queen of England is visiting the Edinburgh Castle when you were planning to visit. While this is super inconsiderate of her (I mean, she has like 15 castles. She couldn’t stay in one of them during your only days in Scotland?), you can adapt and still have an incredible visit. While I like to have a general order for my days in a city, sometimes unexpected holidays or visiting dignitaries can throw off your plans. Swap the order of your day schedules and keep on rolling!
By the way, the whole Queen of England crashing our trip thing actually happened. Check out the vlog here!
Plan for rain. It will almost definitely happen.
When I am going to spend multiple days in a city, I try to plan at least one “Rain Day” in which the majority of the activities will take place inside. You can set your Rain Day based on the forecast, or plan for it to be your last day in the city and move it up if unexpected weather arises. Believe me, it’s much better than stubbornly sloshing through a downpour with your city map dissolving in your hands.
Setting the Days of Your Trip
To visualize the path of my travels, I like to open a tab in Google Maps and plot out my route. You can add and remove destinations, move them around, and build the most geographically logical plan of attack. Remember, YOU WILL COME BACK. If a city you really want to visit is too far off your route, you will lose a lot of travel time by adding it into your itinerary. Set it aside for another trip, and keep going.
You can refer to travel guides, like Rick Steves, to see how many days their tours spend in each city. Generally, I like to allow at least 3 days in big cities and 1-2 days in smaller cities and towns. Also remember that repacking your bag several days in a row can get tedious. Try not to move cities more than three nights in a row.
Consider making a city your home base and making day trips. This works well for cities like London where you can visit several other locations by an easy 1-2 hr train ride. It saves you the hassle of repacking your bags every night, and you’ll have less accommodation reservations to keep straight.
Check to see if there are any holidays or festivals happening along your route during your trip dates. You may want to avoid holidays, since many attractions will be closed, but festivals can offer you a unique cultural experience that you would miss visiting at any other time. Sometimes you will luck into a festival, but there’s nothing worse than arriving the day after and seeing only the clean-up from what could have been an amazing experience.
Once you have the order of your days set, Rome2Rio can help you decide on the best way to get there, whether by bus, train, or plane. As always, remember that time is money, so while the 6 hr bus ride may be cheaper than the 2 hr train ride, it may be worth the extra money to spend more time in the city. Many things are more romantic in Europe, but a long bus ride is not one of them.
Daily Itineraries
Visit a City is my favorite daily itinerary planner. It has several suggested itineraries to choose from for most cities based on the number of days you are planning to spend there. I usually pick one of their itineraries, then personalize it to my preferences. For each attraction, it gives you a brief description, the operating hours, and the cost of admission. Also, it calculates the best route to hit all of the sights on your list without criss-crossing back and forth across the city. This will save you valuable time and transportation costs. If you enter the dates of your trip and your preferred start time each day, it will tell you if an attraction will be closed during your visit, which can save you a lot of headaches once you arrive. If you find another attraction from other resources (Pinterest, Trip Advisor, travel guide, etc), you can enter the information using the “Add Attraction” feature, and it will calculate where it best fits into your itinerary. Bonus - If you download the app, you can download your personalized itineraries for offline use, including the descriptions of each attraction. I loved using this feature while waiting in line at different sights to help give me more context for what I was about to see.
