Planning a trip out of the country can be overwhelming at first, so let’s break it down into a step-by-step process. My brain is very systems and type-A, so this is full of nitty-gritty details. Even if you don’t replicate this exact process, steal some nuggets to make your next trip overseas a breeze.
How to plan a trip abroad:
1) Book your flight first
I almost exclusively plan trips around flight deals. I keep a running list of places I want to visit and when I see a deal pop up for one of the spots I book it! If I know there is a particular time I want to be traveling (i.e. late May over Memorial Day) I set up flight alerts and/or have a weekly remind to check flight prices. Read more of my cheap flight tips below.
2) Figure out your priorities
What do you want to see and do? What are your “musts” for each area? What are your “would be nice, if there is time/logistically it makes sense” items for each area? I create a spreadsheet with columns for each location and make a list of all of the things I find that I want to do and then prioritize them.
For example, if I am visiting Argentina and Brazil my spreadsheet has one sheet for Argentina and one sheet for Brazil. On the Argentina tab I have 3 columns for each destination within Argentina—beers, eats, activities. So the first column might say Buenos Aires beers, second column Buenos Aires eats, third column Buenos Aires activities. Then I will skip a column to leave some white space before starting with Patagonia beers, Patagonia eats, and so on.
Within those individual columns I will make notations as I am researching—if a restaurant is a “must”, for example, I will italicize it. If it is a “maybe” I will add a question mark after the name. This continues for all three categories of beer, eats, and activities. If you have different interests your columns might look a little different—maybe you are a big museum person and you want to dedicate more time to those so you create a column specifically for museums instead of adding them to your activities column.
3) Make your itinerary
Now that you know what you want to do, plan out what makes the most sense to do when. You can make your itinerary as detailed or as loose as your style is—for me I like to plan out almost every detail, but leave some flexibility in case something else pops up that I hadn’t originally planned to do or I stumble across a delicious restaurant, for example. This ensures I actually enjoy my trip instead of spending my time researching what I want to do next or where to spend my time. There is nothing worse than being on a trip and spending your time on your phone or computer looking things up instead of soaking it all in.
I create a new google sheet that has each day at the top of the sheet and outline the day underneath. One example column would read from top to bottom: Monday—January 1st—Buenos Aires—Breakfast/Coffee ideas—Morning activity—Lunch ideas—Afternoon activity—Dinner ideas—Beer spots—Lodging. I include any travel in there as well (i.e. 2 hour drive from x to y or flight at x time). Then repeat this for each day of the trip.
Within your itinerary be sure to plan out the logistics as well—Do you need a rental car? Are there any ferry tickets, train tickets or in-country smaller flights to book? Do you need tickets or reservations for any activities or trails? Are there any restaurants you want to make reservations for?
I would recommend marking all of your itinerary items on Google or Apple Maps as you go so that you can then see what is close to each other and it’s easier to navigate once you land. I use different symbols for different types of activities—my method is: trailheads are the green flag in Google Maps, breweries that I must visit are hearts, breweries that are on my “if there is time or it is convenient” are starred, restaurants are the blue suitcase, activities are the teal icon for lists. This makes it easy for me to zoom out of an area and see what order it makes sense to do things in versus crisscrossing across town multiple times.
4) Book your lodging
Now that you know where you’ll be spending your time, it’s time to book where you’ll stay. Compare prices and neighborhoods for hotels and Airbnbs. If you marked things on Google Maps it’s easy to see how far away things are from your potential lodging spots. Make note of check-in and check-out times on your itinerary and if you will have a car what the parking situation is.
5) My Pre-Trip Checklist:
It’s almost time to go on your adventure! Here are the things I think through before leaving:
Schedule a mail hold (for longer trips)
Do you need a visa? Is your passport expiration date far enough out?
Double check flight seats are ideal
Confirm meal requests on flight (when needed)
Charge everything—phone, Airpods, Kindle, portable charger
Confirm phone plan details—what’s included, any potential extra costs
Download offline maps for each area
Download Kindle books, Netflix shows, podcasts
Confirm travel alerts on credit cards, get any needed foreign currency
Set your out of office—my favorite part :)
Hiking? Clean your boots and any gear to prevent spreading any pests/seeds
Bump up the air conditioning temperature or bump down the heat on your thermostat, season dependent.
Unplug most electronics around the house to save energy
Water your plants
Clean out your fridge
Take out the trash/recycling
Pack! I love packing cubes to stay organized. Don’t forget a plug converter when needed, plane snacks, and old-school wired headphones for long flights to watch movies.
