A lot of people ask me how I plan my trips, so look no further than below for some of my go-to tips that I use when I plan a trip!
1. Website used to plan the road trip (only works for North America).
On this website, you can put in a few of the main destinations that you want to go to within North America, or you can select from one of their pre-planned road trips. What I like about this site is that after you have your main locations in, they will tell you the travel time between the locations. They also have different filters you can add on, and this will show you other things you can stop at and see on your way.
2. Website used to plan hikes.
Once I know the location I am going to go to, I use AllTrails to see what hikes are in the areas. They show the difficulty of the hike, the elevation gain, the miles, etc. I also like how people can review them, and also sometimes there are photos people take along the way. I typically stick with the Easy / Moderate hikes as I do not like to go for more than a few hours, and I have bad knees and they start to hurt after a while of going downhill.
3. Website used to look at reviews of hotels/restaurants/things to do.
I love Trip Advisor because so many people leave reviews for things to do / restaurants / hotels / pretty much anything travel related all over the world. I use this site to see the top things to do in a city / destination, but I also use it to check ratings and experiences and reviews from other people about things I have heard of or am potentially interested in checking out. One thing to note is that everyone experiences things differently, so you can’t take everything you read on there as 100%, but I like to get a feel for what people think and then make my own decision. Just because something is only rated a 3 does not mean I will not go there.
4. Website used to book cheaper hotels.
Since I travel for work so much, I would always prefer to say at a Marriott if possible to get the points. A lot of the destinations that are more in the middle of nowhere do not have chain hotels. I like to use Orbitz because they have a lot of promotion codes (do a simple google search for orbitz promotion code). Also, you can stay at some decent hotels for a really good rate. I figure for road trips, we are barley in the hotel, so I don’t like to spend too much, but I also want to stay at a place that is clean, so I always check the hotels out on Trip Advisor for their reviews.
5. Google docs/sheets.
https://docs.google.com/document
I always plan my trips using Google docs and/or Google sheets, and I try to list out the timing that everything will take so that I make sure that I have enough time in each location. I can also share the doc with my fiance, so he can make updates / tweaks as well. I have pasted a sample of a day below for reference.
EXAMPLE:
Saturday 07/01/17 – Arrive in Vancouver, Sleep in Whistler
- Vancouver, BC
- Land in Vancouver (5:20PM)
- Pick Up Car at Vancouver International Avis (5:30PM)
- Confirmation #22737465US2
- Drive to Whistler – 2 hours (5:30PM – 7:30PM)
- Whistler, BC
- The Whistler Grocery Store (7:30PM – 8:00PM)
- Bread/Bagels
- Peanut butter
- Granola Bars
- Apples and Bananas
- Water bottles
- Check into hotel and get ready for dinner (8:00PM – 8:30PM)
- Summit Lodge Boutique Hotel
- 4359 Main St, Whistler BC V0N1B4
- Orbitz Confirmation #7264138938252; paid in advance
- Summit Lodge Boutique Hotel
- The Whistler Grocery Store (7:30PM – 8:00PM)
Brianna's Bucket List 