tips for planning an itinerary

Imagine this: you’re on your first trip or vacation in a long time. You’re feeling giddy and excited for the activities you planned for the day. You open your suitcase and see that you ran out of underwear for your trip.

Welp. 

As a planner lover, I’m a huge fan of itinerary planning to avoid unnecessary stress during vacation. The last thing I want to worry about is running to the store to grab things that I forgot to pack. 

I recently shared on my Instagram stories that I made itineraries for every trip I’ve taken over the past year. Some of my favorite itineraries so far include this one for a recent trip to Toronto and this massive planning experience for a trip to Los Angeles. I’ve made PLENTY of mistakes when making my itineraries but each time is better than the last and I’ve learned a lot along the way.

Here are some tips for planning an itinerary for your next trip:

Research the location

Start planning your itinerary by researching the city you’re visiting. I know this feels odd to start by Googling the location, but this step helps you to find good resources for activities, restaurants, best locations, and more. 

Here are some questions to consider: What’s the city like? What will the weather be when you’re visiting? Are there any fun activities, like concerts or festivals, happening during the time you’re traveling? 

Now is a good time to check in with anyone you’re traveling with to see what they want to do as well.

Research Activities and Restaurants

The hardest part about planning an itinerary is finding activities and restaurants. To be honest, I spend the most time on this step. I read endless blog posts and reviews to make sure I have all the information I need for an informed decision.

Don’t forget that there’s so many things you should consider when researching activities. For example, when will you have free time in your schedule for these activities? What are the hours of operation? Is one activity closed one day but open the next?

The key here is to STAY ORGANIZED! I use my planner to write down my research and take notes. You can also create folders on your Internet browser to stay organized as well.

Find Your Hotel

Now that you picked some activities and researched the location, the next step is to find a hotel to stay (if you need to)! Finding a hotel should be easier now that you know the location of your activities, restaurants, etc. Perhaps you’re a loyal fan to one hotel brand over the other. Find the best hotel that works for your pocket and loyalty points!

Don’t know where to stay? Here are some things to consider when choosing a hotel: Will you use public transportation or will you have a car? How long will it take you to travel from the airport to your hotel? Is the hotel safe and does it have decent reviews? Are there any locations that are closer to your planned activities and restaurants?

It’s time to plan!

The most important step in this entire process is drafting your itinerary. 

Grab your planner and write it out. After you write down all of the activities, food, etc., double check to make sure that (1) the places you want to visit are open during the time you have planned, (2) tickets (if any) would be available on those days, and (3) you can get a reservation during that time.

This step was the hardest to plan when I made the Los Angeles itinerary. Certain museums were closed on certain days or had odd hours. I also had to take LA traffic into consideration and not plan any ticketed activity on the day we would be in Santa Monica.

So my advice is to take your time! Plan the itinerary over a couple of days. Don’t move forward to the next step until you are sure that everything in your itinerary above checks out.

Here are other things to remember when creating your itinerary:

Travel Time

For the LA trip, I made sure to look up the travel time from one place to the next during the time we would be traveling. For example, when I was planning our excursion to Disneyland, I checked the average commute time around the time we would be traveling. We wanted to arrive at Disneyland at 9am Pacific time. So when planning the itinerary, I checked Google maps for the travel time on a Saturday around 12pm eastern time so that I know how long it would take on a Saturday morning.

I recommend checking travel times when you are planning your itinerary!

Don’t forget to add a Packing List 

Remember the underwear example from above? A packing list helps you create a checklist of items you’ll need to pack.

If you’re struggling to make a packing list, a helpful mental exercise is to “walk through” your day. Start by thinking about what happens when you first wake up. You might grab your phone off the charger, which will remind you to pack your chargers. You might head to the bathroom to brush your teeth and wash your face, which reminds you to bring your toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and your face products. 

This exercise is tedious but will help you remember the things you need to pack. 

To pack your clothes, think about what you would want to wear to the activities and always pack layers. ALWAYS pack extra underwear and at least one extra outfit because you never know!

Buying Tickets

After you checked and double-checked that your draft itinerary works, it’s time to buy tickets for your activities! Use the same email address to book everything for your trip, from the hotel to reservations. Forward the confirmation emails to anyone else you’re traveling with in case anything goes wrong with your phone.

Create the Itinerary 

Now it’s time for the fun part! 

Have you heard of Canva? Canva, the Adobe for dummies (aka, non-designers), is an easy-to-use website tool to help create graphics, like business cards, resumes, and more. 

I use to Canva to create all of my itineraries. They have plenty of templates you can use to enter your information or use as a starting point. I like to add a little personal touch to my itineraries by creating a color palette (using a website called Coolors) and adding photos of the destination.

Bonus Tip

Add everything, from the hotel, to activities and restaurant reservations. to your phone calendar! I even add the confirmation numbers to the notes in every calendar event for the trip.

What’s your next trip? Comment below!