How to Plan a Trip in 15 Steps

Most seasoned travelers know how to plan a trip to make their trips as stress-free as possible.

For new travelers that want to get out and explore for the first time?

Planning a trip might not be simple at all.

As a traveler myself, I know how stressful and overwhelming it can be to plan a trip for the first time (or if you haven’t planned one in a while).

Since I’m currently planning a trip, I thought it’d be a good idea to write out my process.

So, here’s how I would plan a trip in 15 steps to minimize stress before, during, and after my trip.

Step 1: Make a Travel Budget

No one wants to start planning a trip only to realize that they can’t afford to have a good time.

I would recommend that you focus the majority of your budget on your flights, accommodation, ground transportation, and activities.

Also, if you want to get an authentic experience, most times you can get away with spending less on things like food and activities.

I didn’t say this, but most upscale restaurants aren’t nearly as good or as authentic as the local market/family business.

As you begin researching restaurants, activities, and accommodation, you might decide to increase or decrease your budget to fit your desires and needs.

Keep these questions in mind:

• How much are you willing to spend on the accommodation?
• What’s your food budget?
• How many activities do you want to do?
• Will you take a flight, bus, train, or car?
• How will you get to and from these places once you arrive?
• How much is your visa?
• Which immunizations do you need?

Need ideas for saving money for your trip? Read this post: 14 Life-Changing Ways To Save Money For Travel

To start your own travel budget sheet, open Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets and create these sections:

• Accommodation
• Flight/ground transportation
• Food
• Activities
• Travel Insurance
• Passport/Visa fees
• Souvenirs (shopping)

Once you’ve made your budget sheet, keep track of it as you research your chosen destination. By planning this way, your stress levels decrease and you’re able to have fun and look forward to your trip!

Step 2: What’s Your Destination?

You might know where you’d like to visit already.

In that case, proceed to the next steps below.

If you are having trouble choosing a destination, then think about these questions:

• What country or city fascinates you?
• What monument have you always wanted to see in person?
• What types of food do you like to eat? (Indian, Malaysian, French?)
• Did you study a language/culture in school that you want to learn more about?
• What landscape would you like to see? (mountains, city, beach, lagoons?)
• Do you have any friends from different countries? Maybe you can visit them!
• How do they treat people like you? (race, sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation?)

These questions can help you determine where to go and why you would like to travel to that country, city, or state.

Step 3: Figure out if you can travel there

If you’re an American, then you should definitely keep an eye out for any country that will actually let us cross their borders.

The American passport used to be one of the most valuable, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, our passport might as well be a regular piece of paper.

So, before you get excited about pretty hotels, zip-lining and food, you need to look at the country’s government website to see if you are welcome there.

Also, you need to figure out if you need a visa and how much it will cost.

Visas can be a headache to deal with since you may have to travel to the country’s embassy to have an in-person interview.

Every country does not require an in-person interview but prepare yourself just in case.

Basically, if you’d like entry into a country, getting a visa is very important.

How to check if a country requires a visa for entry:

• Search in google: Do I need a Visa for (country)?
• Click the link to the country’s government website or your country’s website

Sometimes, the website will look like this (Ghana visa for the US requirements):

Other times, the government will provide an “application” to check if you need a visa, like the French visa website:

Next, you want to look at the current climate in the country.

• Is the country accepting tourists? Some countries are very beautiful and generally welcoming, but you don’t want visit if the country is unstable.
• Does the country have political or social issues right now?

This is something that you must keep in mind since your rights as a foreigner are limited once you travel abroad. When I lived in France, my university was always watchful of the social climate because the “Yellow Jackets” protests were happening at the time. This was a dangerous time in Paris, especially since the protesters were known for vandalism and bombings.

Bottom line: you want to have a nice and relaxing trip. Don’t put yourself in danger.

Step 4: Research Flight Options

Ok, so we’ve figured out where we want to go and whether or not the country is safe to visit.

Let’s look at these websites to see how much it will cost to get there:

• Booking.com
• Expedia.com
• Skyscanner
• Agoda.com (for Asian countries)

Depending on how far away you want to travel, flight tickets can range from as low as $20 – $1500 or more for economy and main cabin. This will be your highest expense, so I’ve provided these websites to get you started.

I especially like Skyscanner, since they give you the option to choose the cheapest month to travel:

Step 5: Figure out your accommodation

I recommend that you use your usual sleeping arrangement as a guide for how, when and where you would like to sleep.

For example, if you like to sleep alone, then don’t plan to sleep next to your cover-hogging cousin…

Types of accommodations:

• Hotel
• Hostel
• Airbnb
• Vrbo
• Relative’s house
• Friend’s house

Of course, depending on your goals and budget, then your normal sleeping arrangement might not work. This is something to keep in mind when booking accommodation because you don’t want to be uncomfortable on your trip.

Find Accommodation:

• Expedia
• Agoda (for Asian countries)
• Booking.com
• Airbnb
• Vrbo
• Hostels: search in Google: “hostels in …”

Step 6: Make a List of Attractions and Landmarks

Remember the question above: What monument have you always wanted to see in person?

Think about it: what monument does every tourist pay to see in France?

What monument attracts Buddhists and tourists alike from around the globe?

Figuring out the monument or historic site that you’d like to visit is a good way to know if you’ll enjoy your trip.

You’ll be able to roughly plan out your days, which will help you plan out your budget.

Otherwise, you’ll arrive and waste time sitting in a room because you can’t figure out what to do.

That’s a lot of money to spend just to sit staring at the wall…

So, get on google, Trip Advisor, Yelp or a forum to research your destination’s top attractions.

You should make a Word or Google Doc to keep track of the places that you’d like to visit.

Step 7: Make a list of restaurants and their price ranges

I’ll admit that I’ve traveled to a specific place for the food.

I’ve eaten Peruvian food once, and now I want to visit Peru as soon as possible!

If I were traveling to Peru, I would look up the capital city (Lima) and search for popular restaurants. Once I arrived in Peru, I would then ask the locals in stores, restaurants, etc. for food recommendations.

Normally, people are very flattered and will give you so many recommendations that you can’t possibly visit them all on one trip.

Speaking with locals is also a great way to get recommendations for activities that can’t be found on Google, Trip Advisor, or Yelp.

Step 8: Research Ground Transportation Options

Believe it or not, in a lot of developing countries, the public transportation either doesn’t exist or isn’t ideal for tourists.

Depending on the country, you might have the opportunity to take public transportation, like in France, South Africa or China.

if you’re traveling between European countries, then I would highly suggest looking at cheaper options, like Flixbus, Eurostar, etc. These forms of transportation are very similar to the Megabus and Amtrak in the US.

Services like Uber and Lyft are also available in some major tourist cities. You can easily use these services in the same ways that you’d use them in the States.

Lastly, I would recommend that you always keep the country’s currency on hand. No one wants to be stuck in a foreign city with their American credit card and US dollars trying to take the metro…

Buying a ticket will cost more due to foreign transaction fees from your bank and/or you won’t be able to get on the metro without the correct currency.

Plan accordingly.

Step 9: Research Travel Insurance

Travel insurance is something that a lot of travelers forget about. I mean, I have medical insurance and I’m not bringing anything that I actually care about losing, right?

Wrong!

I’m sure that we all bring our phones, cameras, laptops, credit cards, etc. with us on a trip.

Travel insurance is very important depending on your traveling purposes but can also save you time and trouble should you lose or break something. The insurance company will reimburse you for flight delays, lost baggage, medical emergencies, etc.

Step 10: Make sure that your medical coverage is accepted abroad

Although I’ve never gotten sick or had to visit a hospital abroad, I can assure you that I was much more comfortable knowing that I had medical coverage.

Now, you’re probably wondering why you might need travel insurance and medical coverage. Normally, travel insurance policies don’t include pre-existing conditions, so you might need to get regular coverage too. Sometimes, you can also add pre-existing condition coverage to your travel insurance policy.

For those who have chronic conditions or who have to carry medications, please make sure that your medication is legal in the country to which you’re traveling.

Look at the CDC’s recommendations for traveling with medications to foreign countries: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/travel-abroad-with-medicine

Next, go to cdc.gov to find out what types of immunizations are needed to visit the country.

If you’re traveling to a country with a warmer climate, you might have to get a yellow fever vaccination or something similar. I can tell you from experience that this particular vaccination is not easy to find nor is it cheap to get in the US.

A yellow fever vaccination in the US can easily cost over $200 since most offices that offer it don’t take regular health insurance.

Step 11: Finalize your travel budget

Now that you’ve done some research on accommodation, food, activities, etc., you should finalize your budget. Remember these questions:

• How much are you willing to spend on the accommodation?
• What’s your food budget?
• How many activities do you want to do?
• Will you take a flight, bus, train, or car?
• How will you get to and from these places once you arrive?
• How much is your visa?
• Which immunizations do you need?

Finally, print out any ticket confirmations/reservations. You never know if you’ll have access to a printer abroad.

Step 12: Currency Exchange

You can exchange currency in a few different ways:

• Your bank
• The post office
• The airport
• A currency exchange store

I recommend going to your bank to exchange US dollars for foreign currency. It will take 1-2 business days, but the bank won’t charge a fee.

Depending on your situation, you might not have to time to go to your bank. In that case, the next best place would be the post office. Post offices in other countries offer foreign currency exchange too, so keep that in mind.

The worst places to get foreign currency are the airport, a foreign ATM, or one of those currency exchange stores. Their fees are ridiculously high since they know that you need the money.

Take my experience: I once paid a $34 fee to take out 100 pounds in London…. imagine that happening every time you took out money! Generally, US banks charge a 3% foreign transaction fee plus the other bank’s fees.

Again, plan ahead!

Step 13: Register your trip with STEP Program

OK, so you’ve booked your flights, drooled over some food pictures, and made sure that you won’t be arrested for carrying illegal medication.

Let’s talk about pre-departure essentials.

Quick Note: You most likely won’t have to worry about these steps until a few days before your trip. If you’re planning last minute, then let’s get down to work! You have some things to do!

Another Note: This section requires your Passport number, so you’ll need to get or renew your passport before registering with the STEP Program.

Regardless of your travel experience, I highly recommend that US citizens register every trip with the STEP Program: https://step.state.gov/STEP/Index.aspx

Basically, you’re telling the US government where you’re traveling and where you’re staying abroad. During your stay, the government keeps track of any problems in the country. If something happens, then the government will evacuate all American citizens back to the states.

How To Register for STEP Program:

To register for the step program, start by searching: STEP program in Google.

This is the STEP Program homepage. Click “Create Account”.

Once you accept the privacy policy, then you will fill in your personal information:

The next section is very important, since the government will use it to contact you in case of an emergency. If your accommodation changes, then you can edit the section later.

Finally, you’ll have to fill in your emergency contact information:

Step 14: Make color copies of your documents

When you’re traveling, you should always carry some form of identification. When you’re abroad, the most important form of ID is your passport.

Before you even think about boarding a plane, train, car, etc., you need to scan and print color copies of these documents:

• Passport (the second and third page)
• Immunization records
• Hotel/Airbnb reservation

I would recommend that you carry these color copies when you’re out exploring. Some people carry their passports around, but I don’t.

I’ve rarely had a problem showing an official the color copy of my passport rather than the actual passport.

Trust me, you don’t want to lose or have your passport stolen abroad. Just stick with the color copy!

Step 15: Learn the language basics

If you are going to a foreign country, take the time to learn phrases like:

• “Hello/Goodbye”
• “Thank You/you’re welcome”
• “Yes/No”
• “Please”
• “Where is the bathroom?”
• “This is very beautiful!”
• “I would like to order the/a…”
• “May I have the check, please?”
• “Where is the US Embassy?”
• “Where is the nearest hospital?”
• “Can you give me directions to…?”

Most of these phrases help you throughout the day and the other ones should be used in an emergency. Also, locals really appreciate it when foreigners speak to them in their language first. In some cases, they will switch to English but feel flattered that you’ve learned a few phrases.

Conclusion

Learning how to plan a trip is a skill that travelers have to learn, or else they will dread it every time. I don’t want you to be overwhelmed about planning a trip when you should be having fun!

How do you plan a trip? What would you do differently?

Share your thoughts below!

Be sure to look at other posts here.

thanks for reading,

Paris