The year was already long and hart and you are ready for a vacation. If a short trip or a long journey, here are a few tips how you can plan your perfect get away and recharge you’re body. Important is to understand what do you want out of a trip.
What kind of vacation are you looking for?
- Group Travel or Individual Travel
- City trip, beach get away, road trip, boat trip, hiking/biking vacation, outdoor adventure
With whom you want to go?
- With family, friends, a partner, a travel group or solo
What is your budget?
- Low, medium, high
- some higher price destinations e.g. Norway, Iceland, Patagonia needs to be planned carefully in order not to run out of money in the middle or money needs to be saved for a longer period
When can you go?
- Are you flexible when you can take your vacation or are you bound to a certain time in the year
- be mindful of the travel time for the destination you want to go to e.g. raining season in India or contrary seasons Germany vs. New Zealand
How many languages do you speak?
- Even that in most part of the world English is the language to get really far, there are certain places where you need to speak the local language
- Be mindful that some destination e.g. China, Bangladesh, Mongolia, South America, La Reunion and others do not have English all around and it can get though with not speaking the local language
Is your passport still valid?
- For long distance flights it is necessary to have a passport valid for the next 6 months
Do you need an international drivers license?
- Some countries require an international driver license e.g. South America, South Africa, New Zealand
What kind of travel type are you?
- Relaxing at a pool with an all-inclusive band around your arm
- A person who want to sit in a bus and have a guide tell you what to do
- All about the adventure and no idea what is next
Do you want a vacation or travel?
- At the end it always comes to this, are you on vacation or are you on travel
- Vacation is mostly lying on the beach with a book or being in a resort with a nice beach
- Travel is about a city trip where you fully get to know the history of the city; a road trip to see a part of a country
How spontaneous are you?
- You want that everything is planned ahead or you want to stay flexible
How much new are you willing to get to know?
- Are you flying half around the world in order to be in a nice resort?
- Or are you open to get to know a new culture, country, the local food and get connected to the people in the country itself
Do you need a visa?
- During planning your trip keep in mind that several countries have a visa restriction
- Depending on where you come from it can limit you to go to your travel destination
How long can I stay in a country legally as a tourist?
- Some countries, especially the once with a visa restriction, have a time limitation how long a tourist can legally stay the country
Is it required to have an accommodation/flight back precooked?
- Be mindful that some remote location e.g. Fiji or Cook Island require pre booked accommodation on the island you are flying in otherwise you will not be able to get out of the airport
- Also, a couple of countries e.g China and New Zealand want to see that you have a return flight booked when entering the country
Get some inspiration
- I mean you are here, for that reason you are getting already some ideas of great places to go
- In general: go to travel fairs, read blogs, read a book over a country, what documentaries about a place
How I plan your trips
How to start 🙂 I mean I have a bucket list for a lifetime. Nether the less here some facts.
- We travel in the low seasons – mostly never in the high seasons of a certain place
- I try to find destinations that are not completely touristy or overran by people
- We mostly only book the flight and the car, may the first accommodation – the rest we leave open to be flexible
- We avoid group travels, in case we go to a country where you need a driver e.g. Mongolia we book the tour only for our self
- Less is more – we like to do longer trips instead of short get away’s. Having more time in one place is more worth than hopping from one place to another
- We aim for the small places instead of the easy to access touristy places
- As we usually not book all ahead we speak much with locals in order to get insides: where to go, what to do, where to eat etc.
- When on a camping trip e.g. New Zealand and Norway we do completely self-catering by going grocery shopping and cooking
- We use open street map to find and plan hikes
- I use open street map to pre plan a road trip by adding favorite’s
What trip is for you
Try to answer the questions above and the right vacation or travel adventure will come to you. Find out what makes yourself enjoying a certain trip. Was it the new things, the food, the cities, the activities, the beaches, the locals, your travel companions. Whatever it was try to get this in the mix for finding a new travel adventure or vacation.
