Several times per month, I get asked “how did you plan that trip?” “What travel agency/group did you use?” “How did you pick where to go?” WELL, friends, I’ve decided to write a post for y’all :) What’s my secret for keeping my itinerary organized? I have a pretty nerdy spreadsheet I created (which I’ll share an example of in this post.) I’ll try to break it down, but there are many moving pieces to planning international travel and ways to organize!
My best friend - The Spreadsheet.
When it comes to travel (and basically everything in life,) I truly enjoy being spontaneous. It does help to at least have an idea of what area you’re going and when, so I created this spreadsheet to help organize flights and sleeping arrangements. I use Google Sheets so that it’s readily available on my phone and I can reference it whenever. This is just the way I prefer to organize my itinerary, so if it helps you a bit, great! I’m open to answering any questions you might have via email as well.
I usually do a bit of research on areas I think I might be interested in. For example, I’ll Google “best neighborhoods to stay in Athens,” then browse different articles to get the low-down on these places. Once I’ve figured how many days I want to spend in each place, I start to look up places to stay in each area and go through booking/fill in the info down my itinerary list. I honestly just kinda guess how many days I’d like to spend in each city - allowing more time for those where I’d like to take a day trip by boat or train somewhere relatively close by. There is also a cost column I include to track how much I’m spending overall. You can run a total at the bottom by selecting the entire “Cost” column, then select Insert > Function > SUM. Same goes for the sleeping arrangements portion. Here is the example of my spreadsheet:
In terms of what type of vacation you’d like to take, I highly recommend looking at hostels if you are traveling solo. I use www.HostelWorld.com - you can look up hostels in just about any city, see tons of detailed reviews and photos. When staying in a hostel, you most likely will get the cheapest room if you are sharing a multi-bunk dorm. There typically is a bit of privacy with curtains at each bunk and a little locker for your belongings. I made friends from all over the world when staying in hostels and I loved it.
If you’d rather have your own space/privacy, AirBnB is also a great option. Travel doesn’t have to be unaffordable… if you budget & plan things the right way and act as your own travel agent (with semi low-maintenance expectations) then you can get a lot of places much cheaper than you thought. Just for an example… May 2019 I went to Croatia, Montenegro, Greece (Athens and Santorini,) Turkey + a stop in London with a friend. We split the cost of all of the AirBnB’s and each spent about $395 for SEVENTEEN nights!
Hopefully this helps a little bit, but if you have any questions, I’d love to answer via email! avoryallmand@gmail.com