Our Travel Planning Process + Our Favorite Resources

Planning a trip can be stressful and overwhelming.  Once you’ve decided on where to go, you have to figure out all the details-how to get there, the best time to visit, where to stay, things to do-the list goes on and on.  We’re going to share our travel planning process along with some of our favorite resources to make planning your next trip a lot easier!

We’ve done a lot of traveling over the last 4 years, and the beginning stages of travel planning are still overwhelming at times.  At the beginning of each year, we make a list of all the places we’d like to visit.  Once we have a list of destinations, we start planning.

Step 1: When to Visit

The very first thing we do with our list of destinations is decide when to travel to each one.  Because of our work schedules, we have certain times of the year that we are able to travel-spring, summer, holiday weekends, the week of Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas, and the week of New Year’s.  We use Google to find the best time to travel to each one of our destinations based on weather, the kind of trip we’re going for, (for example, we would normally choose a warm and sunny destination for the spring travel season, something cozy for the fall, etc.) and low season/high season.

Step 2: Rough Planning of Things to See and Do

Next, we create a rough draft list of things in the area that we would like to see and do.  This includes national parks, state parks, hikes, restaurants, coffee shops, activities, photo locations, excursions, etc.  This helps us determine how many days we will need before we book flights and a place to stay.  This step is very important for us, because we often travel to multiple destinations on each trip.  (Check out our travel guide tab for a list of places we’ve been.). Our favorite resource for this step is Pinterest.  Pinterest makes it so easy to search a destination and find the best guides to a particular destination.  We often read travel guides/blog posts from The Mandagies and Renee Roaming.  We also normally begin searching for places to stay during this step as well.  The Notes app is a great place to create a quick list.

Step 3: Book Flights

If we are visiting a location within reasonable driving distance from us, we’ll obviously skip this step.  Once we’ve determined our destination and when we’re traveling, we will book our flights.  We love using Google Flights to find the most affordable flights for our desired dates.  We typically fly out on a Tuesday, as it tends to be the cheapest day.

Step 4: Book a Place to Stay

At this point, we probably have a good idea of where we would like to stay.  If you’ve been following along with us for awhile, you know that we prefer to stay at Airbnbs most of the time.  If you haven’t stayed at an Airbnb before, we have an entire post on the pros and cons of Airbnb stays.

When booking a hotel, we love using booking.com to find the cheapest nightly rates.  We have only had an issue with a reservation made through booking.com once, and it was resolved once we showed the hotel our confirmation number.  When we’re booking an Airbnb, we take the extra step of using the map feature to figure out the approximate distance of the Airbnb from the point of interest.  For example, we booked an Airbnb that was listed near Glacier National Park, however, upon arrival we found out it was actually an hour away from the nearest park entrance.  Exact addresses are not provide until after booking, but you can normally find the city in the listing.  We also love Airbnb’s new feature where you can display the total price of your stay, so you’re not shocked by the price when you book.

Step 5: Reserve a Rental Car

Reserving a rental car is one of our last steps in the trip planning process.  We love using Kayak to find the cheapest daily rate on a rental car.  We usually opt for a fuel efficient vehicle, and we don’t mind booking with a surprise agency as long as it is at the airport and not off site.

Step 6: Create an Itinerary

This last step is optional, but I am very Type A and need an itinerary for each trip.  We find an itinerary to be helpful especially when we’re trying to see and do everything in our list of ideas. You can use the Notes app to create an itinerary, or you can use Canva to create an aesthetic itinerary. Just search “travel itinerary” and some templates will pop up for you to use in the free version of the app.  If you’d rather use your laptop, Canva has a website version as well.

Travel Hacking

We are relatively new to travel hacking, but we do use our travel cards to book flights, stays, and rental cars.  We do travel on a budget.  Earning points on everyday spending like groceries and gas helps us earn points to be used on travel expenses.  Last year, we booked over $2,500 in free travel using our points from our favorite travel cards.  For more info on travel hacking, check out The Points Guy.

We hope our travel planning process makes your trip planning a little easier!  Feel free to drop one of your favorite travel planning resources in the comments below!