It's easy to make mistakes when planning a big vacation. But even if you are a first time traveler, you can plan like a pro if you just prevent yourself from making these 5 avoidable mistakes.
Mistake #1: Trying to do too much in too little time.
I see this most common mistake being made all of the time. It’s an understandable one. I still struggle with this myself from time to time. It’s tempting to cram in more and more to our travel itineraries because our vacation time is limited. We believe that this is the one chance we will get to go to this area, and if we skip certain things, we will never be able to see them.
Here’s an example of an actual two-week itinerary for Europe that someone posted on Reddit:
“London > Paris > Amsterdam > Berlin > Zurich (with a trip to the Alps) > Venice > Marseille > and finally Rome”
That’s 8 cities in 14 days (less than two days per city), plus a trip to the Alps.
I come across itineraries like this all of the time. People want to “see” each city in a day to check it off of their list and move on.
This is a problem for numerous reasons. First, it’s exhausting. Not to mention the fact that you will be dealing with jetlag on top of it. Secondly, with the transportation factored in, your time in each city is cut down even more. You’ll spend your entire trip in transit (see mistake #3).
How to prevent this mistake:
Set a few rules for yourself to help prevent this mistake.
Rule 1: Devote one full day (so two nights) for every one to two sites you plan to visit.
Here’s why. Let’s say you plan to visit London, and want to visit the Tower of London. This takes multiple hours to see. It’s a complex of buildings, and if you want to see the Crown Jewels, you’ll need to wait in line for at least 30 minutes. You’ll be standing on your feet for hours. You’ll get tired and hungry. It’s the beginning of your trip, so you’ll be fighting jet lag. It would be difficult to find time to explore much more of London on this one day.
If you give yourself a full day for every one to two sites you plan to visit, you’ll actually have the time to see it. So for example, let’s say you have seven tourist sites that you want to see in a city. Give yourself a minimum of four full days to see them, which would mean five nights.
Rule 2: At a bare minimum, stay at least three nights in each bigger city and two nights in smaller towns.
With three nights in a big city, you have two full days to explore. With two nights in a smaller town, you have one full day to explore.
Rule 3: The longer the trip, the slower you travel.
If your trip is two weeks long, you might have the energy to get through a full itinerary. However, for trips longer than two weeks, you will be exhausted if you don’t slow down.
Mistake #2: Not organizing a strategic route.
I have seen some interesting zig-zag type routes over the years. This makes for extra unnecessary time spent in transit.
How to prevent this mistake:
First, look at a map to determine what looks like a reasonable route. Then, use a website like Rome2Rio (my favorite transportation resource) to see the travel time distances between each location. Find the shortest, fastest routes possible. You might be surprised about how long or how fast certain distances are, depending on what transportation options are available.
It’s also generally a good idea on a multi-city trip to fly “open-jaw”. This means to fly into one city and out of another. Depending on flight costs, this could save you a ton of time.
Don't forget anything!
Use this time-based travel planning checklist to help you plan your international trip.
Mistake #3: Not considering transportation.
This mistake goes with #2 about a strategic route. Without a strategic route, distances can be long, eating up entire days of your trip. For example, on that sample bad itinerary I showed you in mistake #1, this person was traveling from Venice to Marseille. By train or bus, that’s at least 12 hours. He could fly, but then would also need to consider the time it takes to get to and from each airport, as well as the time spent arriving early to the airport. Even by flying, this trip would take a minimum of about 4 hours, if there are even flights available on the day he wants to go. He wants to follow that by then going to Rome, which puts him in the same situation - 12 hours of trains, or 4 hours to fly. In this trip, Marseille should be cut out of the itinerary because it is not conveniently reachable from his other cities. Actually, he should cut out half of this trip. He could do either London > Paris > Amsterdam, or a Switzerland > Italy combination. Either of those options would be much more reasonable for his two week trip.
How to prevent this mistake:
When you decide on your strategic route, you also need to decide on your mode of transportation. Write down how much time your transportation will actually take. Unless you have a very short route, do not plan on getting to do/see much on your first day of arrival into your new city. Count transportation days as separate transportation days - not sightseeing days.
Prevent wasting a ton of your trip in transit by slowing down and spending more time in each place you visit. And always try to keep your distances short.
Mistake #4: Hopping from big city to big city.
This is really common in European itineraries. Many people’s European bucket lists are primarily made up of famous cities. Because of this, I see many travelers flying from big city to big city in an attempt to check off their lists of the great cities of Europe.
Why is this a problem? While many of these big cities are amazing, they are also exhausting, crowded, expensive, and difficult to get in and out of.
How to prevent this mistake:
Instead of making a list of cities, I would suggest deciding on a region to explore. Do some research for other amazing places to visit that you may not know of off of the top of your head. I have had some of my best travel experiences from doing just a bit of research.
Just make sure to start and end your trip in a big city with a good airport. Make your trip your route from one place to the other, including smaller villages, beaches, or mountains.
Mistake #5: Not paying attention to opening hours/days.
If you decide to travel to a specific destination because you really want to visit a specific site or museum, wouldn’t you be disappointed if it was closed during your trip due to opening hours or a holiday? Many museums are closed on Mondays and/or Tuesdays. Cathedrals are generally closed to the public on Sundays.
How to prevent this mistake:
Before finalizing your itinerary, do a quick check of opening hours of museums and sites that are important to you. Make sure that your days in that city align.
Have you made any of these itinerary mistakes? What was your experience?