As a pilot, I’m privileged to see a lot of the world. Lots of different cities with their own unique points. Often its difficult to plan a trip.
- To start you have to decide what you want to see on your trip. This is the easiest step. If you want to see the beach you can already cross away cities that don’t have a beach but its also the other way around. for example, if you want to go on a cultural trip than you don’t need a beach. So when you’ve done the easy part its time for the next step.
- Check when you can go and if the weather is acceptable for you at that time that you want to go. It doesn’t make sense to go somewhere for a swimming holiday and you find out later that it is winter and -10 degrees.
- What do I want to see and how much time do I need to see it? If you want to see Amsterdam for example, you could see everything in 1 day but you will rush everything and you don’t have time to go inside anywhere. So what I always do is trying to find on google if someone did a similar trip and how many days he/she needed. Believe me, you will find a lot of information on the net.
- Now you know how much time you need for your trip and you are ready to look for transportation. Don’t automatically assume that flying is the fastest way to get there. (read more here) As you decided how to travel to your destination you can book the tickets.
- Make a list of things you really want to do. museums, restaurants, parks, etc etc. What I always do is printing out a map of the place I want to visit and make a marking around the place that I want to visit. With this, you make it easier to find a routing to walk.
- Now you know where you all have to walk and in how many days so to divide it you can now spot an area for where you want to stay, I don’t like walking that much so I’m looking for areas with a metro or near the places that I want to visit. Book the hotels and I would advise to book them on 1 website. If you find one that you like, always visit their own website and websites like booking.com or Expedia.com it could save you a lot of money.
- Restaurants I find on 2 ways: google.com and type best restaurants in ….. (Amsterdam) this gives you a most likely a list of bloggers with personal bests. If you take 3 or 4 bloggers and see what kind of restaurants they advise or you have a particular taste like Italian or whatever you can compare this on TripAdvisor. Or tell your boyfriend/girlfriend to find them (that’s what I mostly do!)
Now you are well prepared except 1 thing a lot of people forget. PACK THE RIGHT STUFF and check your passport. some countries you need to have a valid passport for at least 6 months upon departure, make a copy of your passport and put this copy on a Cloud. Together with your driver’s license etc. in case it got stolen you can at least identify yourself somehow.
ENJOY YOUR TRIP!
