A few weeks ago I met up with my friend C--- for a cup of coffee and as I waited for her to arrive I sat with my Brownline jotting down an itinerary. During this evening I'm breaking down my Austria trip. I write down the dates: Sat: Aug 20, Sun: Aug 21, etc. Then I start writing down possibilities for locations on each day, like I may put "Alps" next to Mon: Aug 22 and etc.
My friend C--- arrives and sees what I'm doing. She gives an exasperated look that says "What are you doing?" not in shock or surprise but to say "Of course you're doing this." Of course I'm doing this. Even if it was February and I wasn't leaving until August I was still doing a rough itinerary.
This love of itineraries receives backlash from people because on the surface level it appears that I'm weeding out any opportunity for spontaneity. The purpose of traveling is to run into random happy accidents, particularly ones where heavy interactions with locals happen. I quite agree. I also agree with my friend C--- that February may be a tad early to plan for a trip that isn't happening until August.
So why? Why am I in love with the process of planning and itineraries a la Leslie Knope?
I will discuss my process but first let me explain why I do what I do in travel planning.
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To retort to the backlash of my itinerary love, let me first state that any proper trip abroad should have some reasonable if not superficial planning. I quite agree that clinging to an itinerary is too rigid and is something I never do. When I went to South America I did not plan to stay in Valparaiso more than 2 days but I loved Valpo so much I stayed in the city for 4 nights. I also did not plan to embark on the Inca Jungle Trek but after so many people I met in hostels recommended the journey I immediately set my sights on doing it. A 2 day rail and road excursion to Machu Picchu became a 4 day hiking trek which created memories that have remained golden.
I didn't have those specifics down in my itinerary. If I planned on just 2 days in Cusco in a rigid itinerary I wouldn't have had this opportunity. That being said what I had planned was to stay in Cusco (as a base) for around 6 days and having planned this I was able to do a 4 day Machu Picchu journey with no rush.
In terms of just having a pure itinerary, it's extremely useful if a trip involves traveling to multiple locations. For Austria I'm not just staying in Vienna so I want to have a ballpark of the places I want to go so I can adequately set myself at a home base. An itinerary with locations enables me to have a recipe, essentially. I can add or take away from a recipe or I can go by ear (or taste in this metaphor). That being said, if I grow uncertain of what I'm doing it's nice to have a recipe to fall back on.
Why am I planning and creating an itinerary now, though? Because of money, duh! I'm not planning an itemized itinerary but I want to know what my options are so I can create a financial plan to get me there. I have the plane ticket but I want to know what it would cost to get me from A to B or how much hostels are. If I can start saving name then when it comes I'll be in good shape, right?
Plus I enjoy doing itineraries because I enjoy travel window shopping. This process acts as a sort of escapism before the escapism. It's a way of getting excited for a trip. The possibilities are endless and as the plans became grittier and as possibilities lose to reality there lingers a wonderful feeling of how real the trip is becoming.
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So where do I start?
What I like to do is to create an itinerary of home bases. Where am I going to principally stay? For instance I stayed in Mendoza as a home base for exploring the Andes in Argentina because it was in the center of most any destination I wanted to visit in that region such as Aconcagua or the wine country.
The first thing I do then is write out a list of things I want to experience. Let's take my trip to Austria for instance. While waiting on my friend I was writing down a list of things I truly want to see. I knew that I want to split the country and my trip destinations into Vienna and the Alps so I divide the list.
First, I write a list for Vienna:
- St. Stephens Cathedral
- Hofburg Palace
- Schonbrunn Palace
- Belvedere Museums (particularly the Klimt artwork)
- ALL THE COFFEHOUSES (CAFFEINE HIGH!).
- Salzburg
- Innsbruck
- Hallstatt
- Zell Am See
- Konigsee (in Bavaria, Germany).
What I was considering while waiting for my friend was what home base to use for the Alps. I listed two major cities in the region: Salzburg, capital of Salzburg, and Innsbruck, capital of Tyrol. Both have a similar reputation as touristy yet beautiful cities. On the one hand Salzburg is an UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its Baroque architecture and on the other it is smothered in The Sound of Music tourism. Yet I haven't thought of any major destinations in Tyrol but Hallstatt and Zell am See are in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Plus Konigsee, if I so choose to go across the border, is closer to Salzburg so I decide that Salzburg will be my home base.
Rather than staying at each destination I'm choosing Salzburg to be my residence. I've seen that Salzburg is connected via rail to all my Alpine destinations within a reasonable distance so I can venture to these places during the day, have a nice picnic, walk around, whatever then come back to Salzburg and sleep.
Where do I go to first? Since my Vienna ticket is round-trip I know I need to end up last in Vienna. I won't be arriving from Atlanta until 10:30PM so I won't really be able to do anything in Vienna so I decide to just take a train from Vienna to Salzburg that night and start the trip in the Alps.
Now I haven't planned on anything I'm doing within the city. I could go to Hallstatt and Zell am See the same day or I can go separate days. What I have now, in my arsenal, are locations that I can start financially planning the trip.
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There's no definitive way to fully financially prepare for a trip but having a ballpark has been useful. When I went on my backpacking trip to South America I decided I would have $3000 in my bank account as soon as I arrived. Did I? Nope. I had around $2700. That being said, because I had a reasonable plan for my trip I was able to come home with $900 in my account.
With Austria, I wrote down an approximate of what the trip would cost excluding airfare. Knowing my home bases enables me to plan on accommodations. I'm staying in hostels so I get a ballpark figure in U.S. dollars--$35--and just to be safe I plan for $40 a night. At 8 nights I can plan for $320. Then I factor in food at around the same cost per day--this means $320 so thus far a total of $640. Knowing how many nights I'm planning to use the rail I can get an idea about much rail prices are. Eurail offers multiple day packages such as 4 days for $220 so I can plan that as a rough transportation budget not including local transit. The good thing is, however, that local transit is often covered in city passes. So for Vienna I can get a 4 day Vienna pass that includes sites plus local travel for $111US and just for safety I'll plan for $200 for sights to include Salzburg and other stuff.
So let's break it down:
Hostels -- $320
Food -- $320
Rail -- $220
Tourist Fun -- $200
TOTAL -- $1060.
Now will I spend all of that in one week? Maybe. Will I spend more? Probably. But it's a blueprint to work with. It's important to know what the trip might cost and also know how much I need to have in a bank account when I come home--an important consideration people forget to consider. So if I want to have $1000 when in my bank account then I need to have $2060 in my account when I leave. If this is March and I leave in August I'm going to pretend I have $1000 in my account now. Through this planning I can start saving now for my trip, with the idea of saving at least $200 per month or since I receive two paychecks per month saving $100 per paycheck to go toward my trip.
Now if I waited last minute I'd probably be fine but having this knowledge allows for flexibility...at least to me...
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There is a larger point to be made, however. My trip planning, while useful, is useful for me. It may not be the way my friend travels or how Joe and Jane travel. This is how I travel. This amount of in depth thinking and planning works for me because I know that this isn't rigid. I know that I will have spontaneous moments. For others, however, this is too much maintenance and it is too rigid. I can't argue against it.
Even the most flexible traveler, however, knows that planning is the key to avoiding most of the pitfalls. There will be pitfalls, however, and it is better to embrace them, no matter how much one plans.
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