There is never a one size fits all method for planning a trip. The steps below are the typical process and timeline that I follow when planning. This method may work for you, or you may need to tweak a few things.
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Step 1: Pick Your Dates and Destination
Timeline:
- 7-9+ months for a large trip with multiple moving parts like flights, rentals, campgrounds/hotels, and activities
- 3-6+ months for shorter or more local trips
- Just remember, the closer to the date of your trip that you start planning, the fewer options you will have, and may end up spending more money than you would have. I have done all these steps in a week for a local 2-night trip, but it stresses me out and is not my favorite thing to do.
When planning a trip, you can either start with your date of the trip and then your destination or the reverse.
- Date first: Your trip may be defined by specific dates, like spring break, winter holidays, or an event like a wedding. The date is typically what I start with because our schedule revolves around the school and sports calendar. Once you have your potential dates decided, move on to the destination
- Destination second: Now begin to look for destinations that would be ideal to visit during your time frame. A lot of our trips revolve around National Parks, so I look at what National Parks would have ideal weather conditions during that time.
- Example: Your dates of travel are in January and you are not big on snow activities. Then looking at destinations in the south is going to be better than looking at destinations in the north.
OR
- Destination first: Maybe you have the flexibility to go on a trip at any point in the year. If that is the case, you can pick a destination first. Choose a destination that interests you, or throw a dart at a map.
- Date second: Now that you have a destination in mind, look at what dates will give you the best chance of your ideal situation. That may be: going when the weather appeals to you, or it is “off-season” for that area, or you can pick dates that give you plenty of time to plan and save for your trip.
Step 2: Pick the Main Focal Point(s) of Your Trip
Timeline: Right after you pick your date and destination.
By picking a main “focal point” of your trip, you will be able to organize your trip around those must-see or must-do activities. (Examples: National Parks, Concert(s), Festival, Sporting Events, etc.)
- Often our focal points are National Parks, but they have also been specific sporting events, or to “unplug” for a weekend.
* Pro Tip: DO NOT pick more than 1 focal point per day. If there is a long distance between focal points, give yourself 1.5-2 days there minimum.
Step 3: Start Mapping it Out…Focal Points, Start/End locations, & Arrival/Departure
Timeline:
- 6+ months for a large trip with multiple moving parts like flights, rentals, campgrounds/hotels, and activities
- 2-5+ months for shorter or more local trips
This will not be the final plan for your trip but will help you begin to see a rough outline so that you can make more finalized plans.
Focal Point(s) & Start/End locations
There are multiple road trip or vacation planning apps and websites out there, but I have found that making my own Google Maps works just fine.
*Pro Tip: Most of the planning websites like roadtrippers.com have a limited free version and/or will need to pay to get access to a version that will be adequate to plan a detailed trip. If you are willing to pay for the pro version, RoadTrippers is a great option. Use Promo Code: BTR5QTP for a discount
- Head over to https://mymaps.google.com/ and sign in with your Google account
- Click on “Create a New Map”
Once you have your new map, you can name it and start adding your focal point(s)
- Add focal points by searching for them in the search bar, then clicking “add to map”
Once you have your focal points on the map, you should begin to notice a pattern. This can help you identify your start/stop and maybe a pattern of movement.
- I try to have the same start/stop location if at all possible. This makes planning things like rentals and flights easier. However, if your trip is one way, make sure any rentals like a car or RV allow for one-way with different pick-up and drop-off locations
Arrival/Departure: Car, Plane, or Train
Now that you have a rough outline of where you are going, you need to figure out how you are going to get to your starting location and get home from your endpoint.
Car
If you are driving to your starting point, you obviously don’t need to make any reservations or get tickets. However, make sure you check the distance and how long it will take you to get from your home to your starting location. You may need to break up this part of your trip if it is a long drive.
Plane
Traveling by plane will obviously require tickets. Start monitoring prices 3-4 months before your departure date and plan to book 1-2 months in advance. For international trips, start monitoring prices 6-7 months in advance and expect to book 3-5 months in advance. I like to use Google Flights to track ticket prices.
Train
In the US, we often don’t think of trains as a means of travel because our passenger rail system is not as extensive as those in other parts of the world, like Europe. But trains are a viable option depending on where you live and where you are going. Typically a train trip will take just about as long as driving, but is a cheaper way to travel than a plane. Amtrak is the main passenger train in the US.
Step 4: Planning Transportation and Accommodations
Timeline:
- 6+ months for a large trip with multiple moving parts like flights, rentals, campgrounds/hotels, and activities
- 2-5+ months for shorter or more local trips
*Pro Tip: Look into reservation timelines for your accommodations
- Reservations for campgrounds at most National Parks open up 6 months prior to the date of stay and can book quickly.
- I have found state park campgrounds reservations range from 1-6 months prior to the date of stay
- Privately owned accommodations (Vrbo, Airbnb, campgrounds) vary greatly
Once you have nailed down your dates, location, focal points, start/stop point, and maybe a pattern of movement. It’s time to figure out transportation and accommodations. I typically start with transportation and then move to accommodations. I add possible accommodation options to my Google Maps so that I can visually see where they are located in relation to our focal points.
*Pro Tip: If you are planning a road trip, check the distances between your focal points to see if that drive is doable for you in a day, or if you will need accommodations at a midway point.
Transportation: RV, Car, Public Transit?
We have traveled a multitude of ways and have our preferences, but how you travel is up to you and what works best for your family. But here are some factors that help me decide what mode of transportation to select
- Centralized “home base” location that we will return to each night: A car is my preference for these types of trips, or if we are staying in a large city (like New York City) with great public transit, we will choose that. We would also consider a pull-behind camper.
- Only changing “home base” once or twice in a trip: Our choice is 50/50 car or RV. Mostly depends on what we are doing and where we are going. We would also consider a pull-behind camper.
- Changing “home base” every night or two: As this is typically a “road trip”, RV is our family’s choice. Road trips can be done very successfully via car, but it is just not our preference right now.
Accommodations:
In my mind picking transportation first makes sense because that will dictate where you stay, but you can also pick accommodations first and then transportation.
- Campground: Accommodation of choice when traveling by RV, or tent camping. Some campgrounds have cabins if you don’t want to camp in an RV, camper, or tent.
- When deciding on a campground, I typically start with a search on thedyrt.com. I like The Dyrt vs Google search because I can filter the results based on what I am looking for in the campground. Is it for a tent or an RV? Are power and water hook-ups a must? Laundry room? Wifi?. Expedia also has a search tool for RV spots.
- We prefer staying in defined campgrounds, but if you are really trying to save money and don’t mind “boondocking” (camping off the grid with no power or water), check out freecampsites.net.
- Vacation/Short-Term Stay Rentals: Accommodation of choice for centralized home base or only changing home base once or twice.
- Vrbo.com or Airbnb.com are my go-to’s for finding this type of accommodation. However, a Google search can help you find rentals that are managed by larger rental management companies.
- We prefer rentals over hotels in most cases because they support a local owner in most cases and sometimes have more amenities and home comforts than a hotel for a similar price.
- Hotels: Accommodation of choice for overnight stays near the airport, or short trips.
- I use hotels.com or expedia.com website to search for hotels because of the filter and sort options.
- To save money, I always try to find a hotel with a free airport shuttle and breakfast included.
Step 5: Booking Transportation and Accommodations
Timeline:
- 6+ months for a large trip with multiple moving parts like flights, rentals, campgrounds/hotels, and activities
- 2-5+ months for shorter or more local trips
*Pro Tip: Look into reservation timelines for your accommodations
- Reservations for campgrounds at most National Parks open up 6 months prior to the date of stay and can book quickly.
- I have found state park campgrounds reservations range from 1-6 months prior to the date of stay
- Privately owned accommodations (Vrbo, Airbnb, campgrounds) vary greatly
This is the point that my spreadsheet comes out. I find spreadsheets are the easiest way for me to compile and track information.
I start each spreadsheet with an “Overview” tab. On this sheet, I lay out our dates of travel, focal points, and accommodations. This helps me stay organized about where we are going and what we are doing as I start to make reservations.
Transportation:
- Rental Car: If this is your chosen method of transportation, you can typically wait a while before reserving a rental car. However, once I know I am using a rental car, I begin to look for discount deals and make the reservation as soon as I can so that I can mark it off the to-do list. Hertz is one of my favorites for rental cars. If I am looking to compare prices and then rent, Expedia is my go-to.
- Public Transportation: This method of travel does not typically require reservations, but research payment methods. It may be cheaper to get a daily/weekly/monthly pass than paying for each ride. Also, some public transportation has better deals if you purchase online or through their app.
- Renting an RV or camper: My preference for renting an RV or camper is outdoorsy.com. The earlier you make a reservation, the more options for rentals, amenities, and prices are available. We have used commercial rental companies like cruiseamerica.com as well. These rental companies are a viable option, just not my personal preference.
Accommodations:
Once again, it makes sense to me to decide on your transportation first, especially if you will be using an RV or a camper. Most campgrounds will need to know what type of site you need (RV, tent, electricity or water needed? etc.) as well as how long your RV/camper is and if it has any slide-outs. They need this information to ensure that your RV/Camper/Vehicle will fit.
Again, the earlier you book your accommodations, the more options you will have in location and prices.
Step 6: Fill in the Details
Timeline: 5 months up to the start of the trip
At this point, you have all of your main details planned out and it is time to start flushing out the details. For me, this is where research comes into play.
*Pro Tip: Save anything you are interested in doing to your Google Maps. You can add notes about the activity or save the website with more information. This keeps everything located in one location. You can also see where the activities are located in relation to your “focal points”.
You can always remove activities/locations later.
Secondary focal points and alternate activities:
Secondary focal points are additional “must-do” or “must-see” items. Maybe spending the day at a National Park is your focal point. GREAT! But what are you going to do there? Hike, ride bikes, horseback ride? Is there a certain landmark you want to see? Now is the time to start flushing out those details.
- Make sure you pay attention to the length of time these activities will take to complete and how long it will take you to travel to each location. You don’t want to pack in so much that you feel rushed to complete it.
Alternate activities are your time-fillers or backup plans if something else falls through. Maybe it rains, or there is a road closure, or someone gets sick. You never know what may happen when traveling, throw kids or other people into the mix and something is bound to not go quite as planned.
There is a very good chance that you will not need or get to your alternate activities. Don’t put anything on this list that you would be very upset about not doing or seeing.
Research:
Start looking at blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Google search, etc. You can be as general as searching where you are going (ie “things to do at ______ National Park) or get very specific (ie “day hikes at ______ National Park with young children”).
Here are some of my go-to’s:
- AllTrails: AllTrails is an App and website used for outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, and climbing. The service allows users to access a database of trail maps, which includes crowdsourced reviews and images. Depending on a user’s subscription status, these resources can be used online and offline.
- Tripadvisor: I use Tripadvisor when I am looking for hotels, things to do, or places to eat. I like the filter options on the searches and seeing other people’s reviews.
- National Park Service: The NPS website will have the most up-to-date activities, weather and road conditions, programs, and resources for a trip to any NPS location.
- Your Accomdation’s website: These websites will often have links to nearby activities and restaurants.
- Google or Pinterest: Other blogs and websites are a plethora of information. Just remember the more specific your search, the closer to what you are looking for you will find.
- Instagram or Tiktock: The more you start researching for your trips, the more similar things are going to show up on your social media. I have a whole Google Map of interesting things I have seen on social media. I’ll save the post and routinely go and add those items to my Google Maps. That way when I am planning a trip, I can look and see what I have already found nearby and I don’t have to search through hundreds of saved posts to find what I was looking for.
Step 7: Food
I preface this section with, WE ARE NOT FOODIES. If you are a “foodie”, a particular restaurant may be one of your focal points, and that is totally ok!
Nothing is worse than having a kid (or adult) that is tired, worn out, and hungry. I plan our meals out for several reasons:
- I can purchase groceries accordingly and not have to find a place to pick up an item I forgot.
- We don’t have to have the “What do you want for dinner?” “I don’t care, you pick” conversation.
- I can make sure the meals fit into or around our activities.
- I can make reservations at popular restaurants so that we are not waiting for long periods of time.
Here are a couple of ideas to help keep meals simple and easy:
- If camping (whether RV, camper, or tent), your cold food storage will be limited. Try to plan meals that have limited “cold” items.
- We typically do sandwiches, chips, fruit, and trail mix for lunch since we are typically hiking or on the go for lunch.
- We try to keep breakfast quick and easy so we can get our day started quicker.
- Home Chef: We use Home Chef during the school year when our schedules get crazy, but I also love it for RV trips and vacation stays. Home Chef is a meal delivery service that sends you the recipe and everything you need to make the meal. The only ingredients you need to have on hand for the meals are water, oil, salt, and pepper. I love Home Chef for trips and vacations because I don’t have a bunch of leftover ingredients taking up room in the fridge and don’t feel like I am wasting money when I throw them out.
- When using HomeChef for a vacation, I just change the shipping address for that week to our hotel or campground. Call ahead to make sure having a package delivered is ok. I have not been told “no” yet. The boxes are insulated and have ice packs in them, so they do not need to be refrigerated when they arrive as long as you pick up the package that day.
- HomeChef only delivers Tuesday-Friday, so make sure you take that into consideration when planning.
- Oats Overnight: This is another product our family uses throughout the year, but that I really like for travel as well. Oats Overnight is an overnight oat shake that takes seconds to prepare and is ready in the morning. We also love that it is spoon-free and travel-friendly. The packets take up no space in our bags and don’t have to be refrigerated until they are prepared.
- Use the code EMILYGADDY for 15% off
Step 8: Finalize Your Plans
Now that you have everything laid out, it is time to finalize and make any tweaks necessary. For me, this step mostly involves my Google Maps and my spreadsheet.
Google Maps
I make a layer on my map for each day or two. (I also color code because it is visually and mentally appealing to me.) This allows me to keep all of the locations and activities sorted by when we are going to do them.
Next, I add direction layers to my map. To do this click “add directions” (the split arrow at the top) This allows me to determine what order we are going to make our stops so that we are not backtracking and crisscrossing all over the place. You can drag and drop to reorder your stops as often as you need.
- If you click the 3 dots on a direction layer, you can get step-by-step directions that also include how many miles and the estimated time to make the drive.
* Pro Tip: Make sure you download offline Google Maps to your phone prior to your trip. I do this anytime we will be driving in a new area. We prefer Waze when driving, but you need cellular network access to start the trip and if you happen to be in an area with no cell phone service (like most national parks), you are out of luck. If you have downloaded maps, you will still be able to get directions to wherever you are going regardless of cell phone signal.
Spreadsheet:
At this point, I have a tab on my spreadsheet for each day. This allows me to keep all the important information for each day in one location. I can also download the spreadsheet for offline access as well.
What I track:
- Accommodations (including address, check-in/out times, room or campsite number, and important amenities (bathrooms, laundry, etc.)
- Drive times to activity locations
- Activities and the estimated length of time to complete the activity
- Activity reservation times, special instructions, confirmation numbers, or special items needed (basically any info in an email or website that I would need to know just in case I do not have a cell signal or internet access).
- Food plans for the day
- I also have a tab for grocery lists and packing lists.
Step 9: Don’t Stress & Panic, Embrace Unplanned Adventures
Regardless of how detailed and well-planned your trip is, surprises (good and bad) still happen. If an unwanted surprise pops up, take a deep breath, it will be okay. You have backup activities or you can pull up your map and see what else is around, or just enjoy some downtime as a family. Maybe you discover an amazing surprise along the way. Embrace it! You now have the option to explore this unplanned adventure or continue with your planned trip, but just don’t immediately write something off just because you had not planned for it.