How to Plan a Successful Travel Week
Written by Mallory April 5, 2017
I will rep the buffs every day of the week, especially with a cool background! (I even saw a CSU Ram while I was at this look out point (SKO BUFFS!!))
We spent the day 10 feet underground in Budapest walking through different caves! Highly recommended if you don't like small spaces but still want to experience something cool and local!
My friend Michelle and I getting ready for bed on our overnight train from Prague to Budapest!
One piece of advice, don't pass up the opportunity to eat something authentic and NEVER pass up the opportunity to take a photo as proof that you did!
Did anyone really go to Amsterdam without taking a photo at the I Amsterdam sign?
While in Amsterdam, my love of flowers drew me into the Tulip Museum where I got to see tons of different types of flowers! It smelled absolutely amazing in there!
By now, most of us have mastered the art of planning a travel weekend. You figure out where you want to go, then all the rest seems somewhat simple.
Planning an entire travel week has many more moving parts and is often more difficult to execute without mistakes, BUT with these tips, you’ll be sure to plan one of the most successful and fun travel breaks ever!
- Locations! When planning a travel week, you will want to make sure you are spending the least amount of time “traveling” in the airports and train stations in order to get the most time out of the cities as possible. You should take into consideration the geographic location of the places you would like to go and make sure where you want to go makes logical sense and that you are not backtracking. For example, I spent my travel week in Amsterdam, then Prague, and then finished in Budapest!
- Traveling! The next part of planning would be how you are getting there! There are many options to figure out how to get from one place to the next. Rome2rio.com is one of my favorites when looking at all the possible ways to get from point A to point B. I can now say I think I have traveled almost every way possible between locations and some of the best memories I have had didn’t come from the actual places we traveled to but our journey to those places!
- Entertainment! After figuring out where you want to go, the next thing to plan is what you want to do while you are there. Hopefully, if you’re interested enough to go to a city, you will have some idea of things to do while you are there. However, it is important to make note of where those activities are located within the city. It is also a great idea to check if online tickets are available; this will save you time standing in lines and will also guarantee you a spot! (When I went to Florence, ticket sales to go to the top of the Duomo sold out for the entire weekend!)
- Accommodations! Once you figure out where you are going and what you’ll be doing, the next step is to figure out where you’re staying! Airbnb vs hostels vs hotels! It is important to look at the location of the activities and entertainment you’ve planned and stay close or relatively close to there. This will cut down on the amount of time (and money) you will need to spend on transportation between places you’re going.
- Transportation! Speaking of transportation, it is important to figure out how you are getting around within the cities. The most common option would be public transportation, but that isn’t always the most feasible depending on what your plans are. For example, taking the metro or subways around would have taken so much more time for what all my friends and I planned on doing. Instead, we opted to take a Bus Tour that took us around the city and allowed us to get on and off wherever we wanted. Some other cities have Uber, which has been so nice since most of us already have the app downloaded and are familiar with how it works. Worst case scenario: taking taxis everywhere will definitely get the job done, however, it can become pretty expensive!
The last thing I would recommend about planning a travel week is to take a lot of pictures and live in the moment because it goes by a lot quicker than you could ever imagine!
Happy travels 🙂
Mallory
