How to plan a trip – a beginner’s guide
A friend once asked me, “but how do you do it? Where do you start?” when talking about travelling and how she wanted to travel more but didn’t know how to begin. That’s a very good question, and I’m here to answer it to the best of my knowledge.
In this blog post, I’ll go over the steps I usually go through when planning a trip. A quick side note is that my husband and I are located in Denmark, so my experiences come from (if not a European then) a Danish, viewpoint. Plus, we are fond of budget travelling and camping, so my tips might be a bit influenced by that.
And remember: It’s okay to make mistakes. I actually encourage it because that’s the best way to learn.
One last note: the steps can be done in a different order than mine, this is just what makes sense to me.
Step 1: Where do you want to go

Everything starts at the beginning. Most of the time, the first step for me is to find out where I want to go. Some (read I) have a long list of dream destinations others need inspiration and careful consideration.
If you’re on a budget and the destination “doesn’t matter” (which of course it always does to some extent) then check out deals and low-fare calendars and let that guide you. If there’s a place you’ve always wanted to go, maybe now’s the time.
Step 2: What do you want to see/visit

If you’ve always wanted to visit London it makes sense to go to London and spend a week there. But if you have more locations you want to see in England you might want to consider a road trip or travelling by train and combine those with a stop in London (if that was your original thought).
The list doesn’t have to be complete before you move to the next step, leave some room for spontaneity. But the more places you want to visit the more time the trip requires.
This leads me to step 3 …
Step 3: How much time do you need

You want to avoid planning a trip that’s too short for all the things you want to see and do so you end up rushing yourself and not really seeing anything.
For train rides/road trips, I usually put all the destinations into Google Maps. What’s the travel time between the places? Do you need to rent a car or is public transport available? If you want to have a couple of days in a city, to explore a place, or maybe go on a hike you should take that into the calculations as well.
For cities, you want to consider how much there is to see. Do you want to use public transport, or would you rather take in the city on foot? Are there some attractions or activities that require whole days?
In my experience road trips and train rides with multiple stops deserves two-four weeks, while trips to cities can be done in five-seven days.
Step 4: How do you get there

When you’ve decided where you would like to go, have an idea of what you’d like to see, and how long you have it’s time to find out how to get there. There are plenty of options like planes, trains, cars, buses, or ferries.
If you’re going by plane start by looking at the airlines. Which airlines fly to which destinations? Most airports and airlines have lists of their destinations on their websites, and Momondo is also a helpful tool for checking that. I usually book directly from the airline’s web page.
For train rides, you want to look for campaigns or other offers like interrail tickets at DSB. Most train companies have some kind of ticket which for example lets you take four trips over the course of seven days.
No matter what, it’s a good idea to be an early bird, especially if you want to save some money. If you’re planning to go away for the summer holiday start looking for tickets and deals in spring or even as early as January/February. That goes for the accommodation as well.
Travelling on a budget? Get a few tips here.
Step 5: Where do you stay

For city trips: search for hotels, hostels, motels, or AirBnB whatever your heart desires, set your budget, and book it. I always start at Trivago, but there are other sites like hotels.com, booking.com, and hostelworld.com, the good thing about Trivago is that it gathers most of them, so you don’t have to have 50 tabs open (excuse me for sounding like an ad).
For road trips and train rides: don’t book too much ahead of going as it’s hard to predict when you’ll be where (unless you have the trip carefully planned out). Book the first couple of nights, take note of what’s on the rest of the route, and book on the go.
You can search for the same places as in the city, but camping is fairly easy when on the go because there are lots of campsites, they’re cheaper, and there’s often a site available (notice the word ‘often’ not ‘always’).
Small note for the city trip: If you plan to use public transport you should know that it’s often divided into zones and the more zones you have to go through the more expensive it gets. Consider if the money saved on accommodation is going to be spent on public transport instead because then it’s better to book something closer to downtown.
So, to sum up

- Think about where you’d like to go and what you want to see/visit.
- Jot down an estimate of how long you’ll need – do some of the activities require a full day and how much time will transportation make up?
- Decide when to go and for how long.
- Book transportation to your destination and transportation and accommodation during your stay – preferably as soon as possible.
I think that was about it. Fret not if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’ll learn as you go. There’s a lot of information here, but I still hope it was helpful.
All there’s left to say now is happy travels – maybe I’ll see you around!