I am convinced that any person is able to organize a trip from A to Z.
How many times have they asked me “but have you organized everything by yourself ..?”, Or “no, no, it’s not for me, am I not able to organize a trip?” And my answer was always “Sure, but look at that it’s not difficult, that’s enough … “
Exactly, what is enough?
Maybe a few decades ago it was a bit more complicated (but it was still going around). Now, in the era of depopulation of internet and mobile, very little is enough and everything depends on us. Just inquire, have patience and good will.
How to organize a trip on your own?
To organize a trip it is necessary to prepare an approach in various sequential steps …
1 – Identify the destination and the type of trip
It seems a trivial step but in reality, it is one of the most important. We need to be aware of our traveler’s skills, aware of the difficulties that you might encounter during the journey and above all aware that these steps are the same for everyone but you don’t have to do the “longer leg step”. Organizing a DIY trip is not so simple.
Let’s analyze the first phase of the planning of a trip: the “dream” phase, the one where by chance you read an article in a newspaper about a particular country / place and you get carried away by the idea of already being there, of being already on that phantom beach or to live that particular experience already.
From here the idea of a journey starts, it is a combination of a need and a desire and the journey must be calibrated on the basis of these two elements, not always desire and need go hand in hand. You need to be able to understand if you have the strength to manage a certain experience, rather than that given year instead make a less demanding journey.
This greatly affects the result and the final perception.
So start putting your ideas on the table , don’t do everything yourself but share your ideas with those who will accompany you on the journey and start to make an analysis based on your time, time, budget, etc … Obviously it will be difficult to define it right away but, for example, it is objective that a 4-week trip costs more than one of 2.
In the article we will then go into detail on which aspects to evaluate, not least the relationship between budget and purchasing power that this will have in the place of destination (of course if it is different from the place where you start).
2 – Plan the trip and create the tourist itinerary
In this step, since we have already decided what will be our goal, it is necessary to plan the trip. It is also possible that the destination is more than one and therefore two parallel planes are prepared.
We need to define what will be the firm points of the journey on which the various experiences will then be defined in the subsequent steps.
It is a very demanding phase that involves a lot of time.
In organizing a trip we analyze …
– Interests: What you want to see absolutely and the emotions you would like to try
– Means of transport: What means to use to reach the destination and also which means of transport can be used in the place of destination.
– Itinerary: It must be related to two other factors, namely the means of transport and the times and times of the latter.
– Hotel accommodation and not: Decide if you want to stay in a hotel, tent, guest house, etc.
Each component described above must always be correlated based on the budget you have set up.
This phase does not end with the broad definition of these elements, during the organization of the journey it is also necessary to enter into the merits of each one and see which are the solutions that are right for us.
It is the main phase because it is the one where you have to collect all the possible information, then visit forums, blogs, visit sites where previous travelers have written their own experience and from which you can get many ideas.
In short, it is the phase that discourages everyone because it is the phase in which you have to “slam” a little, where you have to show your willpower.
But believe me, it is the phase that gives some smiles because it allows us to gradually realize that idea of travel that we had made in the first step. Being able to connect the various steps and to structure the journey is very satisfying.
3 – Plan a trip and make initial reservations
This step of organizing a trip is a little bit special. You will ask: “What do you want there to be particular in making a reservation?!”
Certainly, there is nothing strange; in some cases it involves stress due to some payment by credit card but nothing more.
The strange thing is that a reservation is not always necessary.
Often and willingly there are itinerant journeys that do not presuppose pre-established milestones, the itinerary is fixed but the accommodations or means of transport are purchased on the spot. Obviously this is a practice that is best used by those travelers who have some experience and know how to get around in these situations where it is necessary not to lose your cool and panic. Certainly, planning a journey lived in this way determines an even more interesting nuance of the experience that will be done, but the limit between success and defeat is very weak when adequate skills have not yet matured.
Furthermore the booking or not depends also on the seasonal aspect. If we travel to a place, where high season is at that time it is necessary to take precautions and book as the risk is high. If, on the other hand, we go during a low season, even if we haven’t booked, we will probably be able to find the same accommodation.
Attention: When organizing a trip, do not underestimate only the high or low season appearance at the place of arrival. It is paradoxical but it is convenient to analyze also the seasonality of the places from which we start.
Let me explain better: We have holidays only in August for work reasons; well we want to go to Thailand. In August it is not really high season in Thailand in fact you risk finding the monsoons and therefore rain; the point is that although it is not high season, on the European continent, it is and many have their holidays in this period. So even August, although low season in the place of destination still becomes a season of peak attendance.
Therefore, provisional reservations must be made (you will understand the meaning by reading the relative post) where, among other things, we will also see how to use the various booking systems focusing on airline and hotel reservations.
In addition to the classic hotel reservations, it is becoming increasingly important to find a way to reach any departure airport without having to incur additional parking costs. For some years, a very efficient service has been active which allows you to “forget about your machine”.
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4 – The search for more information
Organizing a trip, does not end until you leave home, or rather often even later? We are in the fourth step, in this case, we find ourselves having already set up destination, itinerary, means of transport, time, accommodation, budget, in short, the supporting structure of the journey is there and is felt.
To organize a trip, the hours spent in front of the PC are several.
Usually after the third phase follows a moment of rest where you leave everything on the sidelines for a short period in such a way as to sober up from the PC and above all not to go to too much information that would be deleterious because often too much information is worse than having few as they produce confusion.
However, the time comes to take it up again, take the travel program, try to find information that is more specific, and define them as well.
Let’s take an example: Always referring to Thailand, on which you can find several posts in the blogs … from Bangkok you planned, in the second phase, to move to Chiang Mai with a night bus so you save even a night. Well, you know that this nightly VIP Bus exists, there are several companies and you also know where they start. Several things remain pending: how to go from Bangkok to the bus station? The ticket can you already buy it online? What time do they leave?
This is all information that you do not collect in the travel planning phase (phase 2) because otherwise you risk having too much information. In this phase, instead, you have already metabolized the structure of your journey well and now you have to define them.
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5 – Organize the journey, the last steps
Of this phase there is little to say, credit card in hand you define all the steps to organize a trip.
From this moment on, if you have adopted the booking method, your journey is now fully prepared, you will already know what to do on day X, day Y, how much it will cost you to transfer from one place to another, etc.
You make your folders divided as you like and start the countdown.
There is also a small control phase.
I imagine that after a few months of searching for information in the maze of the internet rather than in the depths of the printed pages, perhaps, even in the definition phase, you have missed some small but important step, see: when does the plane check in open?
This is one of the many questions and doubts that concern organizing a trip and then the last step is just to retrace all the steps trying to keep the local mind if there is something wrong.
6 – Travel
It seems obvious to me that the last step to organize a trip is the best and most satisfying: with your bundle under arm, enjoy the journey you have organized that, from certain points of view, you have already experienced a little.