So you’re travelling for the first time (hurray!) but don’t know where to start? I’ve been planning my own trips for the past 8 years and have collated a list of handy tips on how to plan your first trip.
Here it is in 6 easy steps:
1. Pick a country and check the weather
This is one that is often overlooked, when selecting a country always check the weather forecast for that month to ensure you’re not arriving during a monsoon or wet season (unless you want that of course). There is nothing worse than arriving for your vacation to find out that most attractions are closed due to bad weather or your flights have been cancelled. Do your research and plan ahead!
2. Use comparison sites to find the best flights
Once you’ve selected the country you want to visit, use comparison sites such as Skyscanner to find your flights. These sites scan a number of different airlines to find the best prices with affordable options. You could save up to hundreds by comparing first.
If you’re researching for flights over a period of time, don’t forget to also clear your history and caches – sometimes flight prices can go up in price the more you look at it. (Now I don’t have proof that this is 100% true, but it’s best to have a clean slate just in case.)
3. Research safe areas for your accomodation
Now that you’ve booked your flights, you’ll need some accomodation. Each country has so many places to stay – where do you even start? Well the first thing I do is research where the safe areas for tourists are. This is very important as a first time foreigner as you don’t want to get caught up in a dangerous situation while you’re alone overseas. A simple search on google, forums and blogs will do. Just ensure you find more than just one recommendation.
From then, you can look at reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor, Booking.com and Hotel.com to find at hotel you like.
4. Make a list of all the places you want to visit
Now that fun part, make a list of all the places you want to visit. Just list them all out.
I like to look on Instagram maps as well to see what looks nice in the area so I can add to my list. Don’t worry about where everything is located just yet, we’ll do that in the next step.
5. Go on google maps and drop pins on all the places you listed
Next you want to go on Google maps and create your own map. To do this log onto your Google account -> go onto Google Maps -> on the side bar menu select ‘Your Places’ -> select ‘Maps -> and ‘Create Map’. This will give you a fresh map of the world to drop pins to wherever you like.
From then, go through the list of places you made previously and drop pins to mark out where each is located. Make sure you also create a pin for your accomodation so you can see how far everything is. This map will then show you a visual of where everything is so you can group places together and plan your daily itinerary around there.
Example of what I did for my Tasmania trip below:
6. Check opening times and finalise your itinerary
As a final step, make sure you check the trading hours of the places you’ve added to your itinerary. Some countries don’t work on certain days of the week so it’s good to move items around your itinerary based on these working hours. Save yourself the disappointment of rocking up to a place to find out that it is closed!
And that’s it! You have your daily itinerary, and your flights and accomodation booked! Time for the best part, and that is to go and enjoy your trip.
I hope this helped! If you have any other handy travel tips, comment below.
