I am SO tired, guys. No amount of coffee is going to work today. Isla was up most of the night coughing and she is so congested. Seriously, what did people do before NoseFrida snot suckers? Those things are amazing. And gross. But amazing. Those old school aspirators are terrible and I’ve never been able to get them to work.

Anyway, let’s talk about travel! More specifically, let’s talk about how to plan a trip.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

I get many questions about the steps that I take when planning a trip because I tend to do everything under the sun and go go go while I’m on vacation.

I did a ton of research when I was just starting to plan and wasn’t sure where exactly to start. When I started planning my wedding, I had my dress picked out first because I felt like that would help me decide what kind of wedding I wanted to have.

That’s kind of how travel works except you have to first know your budget/ availability. Important things to ask yourself are, how much time can you take off work? This will help you decide if you go somewhere out of the country or stay closer to home.

You also need to decide how you’ll be funding the trip.

If you have money saved up, it’s a good idea to look at a card with no international fees. This was a huge lifesaver when we went to Scotland. We tried to stay away from getting money out of the ATMs because the fee was outrageous. The credit card that we used from our credit union during our trip was amazing because we didn’t have to worry about a 5% fee every time we swiped. Always look for “no international fees” for any credit card you think you will be using.

Where do you want to go? And when?

Picking a place and then deciding what time of the year to visit is the next step. Once we decide on a place, I head over to Google and search for the best time to go. Scotland is good year round but we chose October because we knew that it wouldn’t be crowded with a ton of tourists.

It was perfect. Most of the castle tours barely had anyone on them and we got a lot of really great photos. The air was crisp but not too cold and we didn’t get hot while we walked all over.

6 Months in advance

So now that you know how much money you’ll need, where you want to go and when, it’s time to look at airfare.

I do this a couple of different ways. I have a list of budget airlines to look at and I use the app “sky scanner” too. I also am subscribed to Scott’s cheap flights. They send great deal notifications by email. I try to book my airfare 6 month in advance, if it’s for a trip out of the country. That is usually when you can find the best deal.

I look for prices for a couple of weeks. They fluctuate day to day so I check often. Additionally, I always search using incognito because sites will remember you have looked for tickets and will sometimes increase the prices.

Now you’ll need to find some inspiration and fun things to do.

This is always the fun part. I use Pinterest and make a huge list of everything I want to do at my location. I don’t pay attention to specific cities just yet – that comes later. My list is usually huge and I end up having to cut a few things here or there but the list consists of what the activity is – like seeing a certain castle and the address.

Make your list as long as you want and pin all the things. I tend to make a separate board for a vacation that I am planning. Get your partner involved. Watch YouTube videos and pick restaurants to want to try.

5 months in advance

Use Google maps!

After I have my list complied of places and addresses I head on over to Google maps. I type in all the addresses one by one and favorite them so it puts a little star on the map. Once location has a star, I will zoom out a bit so I can see everything.

I knew that I wanted to see as much of Scotland as I could so my stars were pretty spread out. I deleted a few stars that were on their own in the middle of nowhere and tried to pay attention to where the star clusters were.

There were 3 main clusters in Edinburgh, Inverness, and the Isle of Skye. Those were the areas that I needed to find a hotel or B&B in.

We decided to go the B&B route so we could start everyday with breakfast and not have to spend additional money at a café somewhere.

I found the places to stay with a simple Google search. I chose places that were a little bit of a walking or driving distance to the city centers so they would be a little cheaper. Staying on the Royal Mile can get really expensive but walking half a mile every day knocks a few hundred bucks off the price. Not too shabby.

4 months in advance

Rent a car!

Since I chose places that were spread out and pretty remote locations, there were not a lot of options for public transportation so we did our research on the local driving laws and decided to rent a car. This is the best decision because it let us travel at our own pace and pull over at look out points or stop at little shops along the way.

We reserved our car 4 months in advance and then confirmed it about a week before we left.

Driving on the opposite side or the road and opposite side of the car were pretty scary for the first day or so but after that, we got the hang of it and it wasn’t bad at all. We only hit one curb and no people so I consider that a win.

Pro tip: Make sure the car you rent in a foreign country has GPS. Especially if you don’t want to use international data on your phone when attempting to use Google maps on a non-US phone carrier.

Passport if you don’t have it already!

Seriously. Don’t wait on this one. Get it ASAP.

3 months in advance

Book those tours for whatever sights you want to see.

I booked as much as possible in advance. I printed out or took screen shots of all our tickets and kept everything in one place.

I tried to pick 2-3 activities a day. This is where you might need to do some trimming and look at drive times to different places.

Even after I had typed up out itinerary, I knew I might have to cut a few things once we got to our location and sure enough, we did.

I knew we were flying into Glasgow and getting our car and immediately driving to Edinburgh. So I picked a few extra places to stop along the way.

I picked out restaurants I wanted to try and even looked at the menus ahead of time so I had an idea of what I wanted to order.

2 months in advance

Select what bag/ how many bags and start a packing list

For our trip we decided to travel with just a carry on back pack. More on how exactly to do that here. We used these Eagle Creek back packs and I absolutely love them. They have held up nicely and are our primary bags for travel. I like that the opening is facing your back when you wear it for added security.

I am a planner-as you can see. I researched packing lists based on what the weather would be like and created a list for myself and my husband.

I took this time to order any last minute items and decided who would watch our dogs while we were gone.

We also thought about getting an international phone plan for while we were gone but decided to just wing it. Thank goodness for WiFi everywhere – even a super remote castle and our rental had GPS so we got around just fine.

1 month in advance

Let your credit card company know. Get travelers insurance and confirm all reservations.

You’ll want to let the card company know where you’ll be and for how long. So that they don’t think someone stole your card and cancel it when you need it.

GET TRAVELER INSURANCE. Just do it. If you have it and don’t need it, then you’ll have peace of mind. If you need it and don’t have it, then you’re going to be up a creek without a paddle.

Email confirming all reservations. Car and B&B’s mostly.

1 week in advance

Start packing; make a plan for the airport

In the weeks leading up to our vacation, I had our bags open in the floor of our bedroom and would toss stuff in there when I came across it. This just makes it a little easier when going over your packing list. Most of the stuff will already be nearby.

Evan and I discussed how we would be getting to the airport – which was 3 hours away and where we would store our car while we were gone. Parking at the airport can be very expensive but luckily Evan’s friend let us keep the car at his house and we took an Uber the rest of the way. It wasn’t bad at all considering that we only had 1 bag each.

ENJOY YOUR TRIP!

If you’ve made it to the end of the post and don’t think that I’m over planner, then this system might just work for you. It really helps me to plan a little more thoroughly when I have steps to look at and these steps in this order make the most sense to me.

I also spread out the booking process because it was easier on our budget than booking every single thing at once. People often say they can’t afford to travel but it you take the right steps and pay for it a little at a time then it is possible. Just takes a little planning.

If you’d like to see my go to packing list for all my trips, please let me know. I really enjoy writing about this topic. We are currently planning our next vacation and I can’t wait to share the details with you all.

Have a great Tuesday, everybody!