Planning

How to plan your ideal trip

Know your own travel style

Your travel style, interests and budget will influence your choices.

Do you prefer beaches or mountains; cities or wilderness; lakes or jungle?
Do you want to focus on food and drink; clubbing and nightlife; museums and galleries; or outdoor adventures?
Do you like to stay in one place for a while, or be on the move?
Are you happy to fly or do you prefer to travel overland?

To plan a great trip, get to know your own travel style and preferences.

“Our travel style is busy and active. We like new places that intrigue us and keep us interested.

We love visiting cities with lots of things to do and people to meet, or being in remote areas with wilderness to explore.”

We prefer to organise our own trips and travel independently.

We like to make the most of our trips but that doesn’t mean we rush everywhere. Ideally we stay in one place for at least three nights.

That way we get to explore in-depth and learn more. For us, travel is not about checking off ‘must dos’ and selfie spots. Travel is more than just a photo-op.

Knowing our travel style means we can plan a trip that suits our preferences, interests and budget.

We aim to stay in basic hotels, youth hostels, or self catering apartments.

We walk, use public transport or hire small cars to get around.

We eat picnic lunches and one-course dinners, with occasional luxury meals to treat ourselves.

We take lots of photos as our main souvenirs and only buy small souvenirs such as postcards, patches or key rings.

We make the most of free and low-cost activities.

And we try to be ethical and sustainable consumers - making considered decisions about how we spend money.

Researching and gathering information

Before deciding where to go, we research costs, activities, transport, safety and climate in different places.

We read guide books, travel blogs and magazines. We talk to friends and family about their travel experiences. We read books and watch movies and TV shows about different places and people. We talk with our kids about what they would like to see, do and learn.

Deciding where to go

Choosing where to travel next is fun!
We are mindful of our travel style and preferences and consider the practicalities and cost of travel in different places.

For 2024 we dreamt of rugged wild isolated landscapes and walks with stunning views; historic cities with interesting architecture and great food markets; and travelling by train - efficient, relaxing and more sustainable.

From this wish list we decided to visit Austria and Paris by train; Scotland in our electric car; Belfast for an adults-only city break; and New York City and Philadelphia for the summer.

In 2025, we want to visit a part of the UK we’ve not been to before, relax together as a family, and revisit Japan.

In January, Harriet will hike along Hadrian’s Wall and visit the Northumberland coast. We will spend our summer at an Airbnb with a pool in the Dordogne in France. In October we will return to Tokyo.

Longer term, there are many places we’d like to visit one day including India, Jordan, Taiwan, South Korea, Montana, Bhutan, Washington, Quebec, and Malaysia. Closer to home we’d love to visit Ireland, Sweden, Norway, and Spain.

This all comes with a time and monetary cost of course, so we will have to be patient. In the meantime we can research and plan and dream.

Researching options and making bookings all takes a lot of time and effort.

And while this level of planning takes away spontaneity and flexibility…

…we are always excited to have booked experiences and places that we can look forward to!

Booking it

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the tourism industry.

It is necessary to book in advance to get a good choice of accommodation, to guarantee entry into key attractions, and to avoid peak and expensive dates.

When organising a trip, first we apply for any visas we require.

Dynamic pricing is used throughout the travel industry so it’s important to keep an eye on the cost of flights and trains.

We usually find flights are cheapest between 6 - 9 months ahead of travel. Train tickets get increasingly expensive closer to the departure date.

Once we have sorted out our transport to a place, we then book car hire and accommodation.

We take out comprehensive travel insurance, usually with World Nomads who provide cover for multi-destination and long term travel. It is important to have travel insurance in place as soon as you pay for any element of your trip.

We try to book tickets in advance for activities that we don’t want to miss. Sometimes this requires significant forward planning; especially for popular sights and activities such as Machu Picchu, Ghibli Park or Disney.