Row 1: Flight schedule clutch from simbiosisbyjulia; I Love to Travel necklace from wingandwendy; Vintage Train Case from LovelyVintageEtc
Row 2: Plane photograph from emporium51; Cloth napkins from girlscantell; Biplane t-shirt from ecozuzu
Row 3: Fly Away With Me necklace from yellowgoat; Orange Blaze passport case from tinymeat; Biplane photo from PhotoNode
Row 4: Airplane earrings from laurenanabela; JFK stationery set from jetsetpaper

But planning a trip doesn’t have to be the source of constant anxiety and overwhelm! Through the years, I’ve perfected my trip planning process, and I’ve got it down to a fine science. Er, well, maybe not a science, but sort of like a general step-by-step outline.  Breaking down each of the steps to planning a trip helps me cut through the confusion and  tackle stuff in a practical, down to earth way. Plus, it makes me feel like the most organized person on the planet, which is VERY good for my ego.

At the end of my planning process, I end up with a big ol’ document containing all of the information I need for my trip: everything from where I’m staying and how to get there, to what to eat. I take that document with me and refer to it constantly during my trip. And then I come home and turn it into a blog post, for you! It’s like recycling in the digital age.

I’m going to teach you ALL of my travel planning tips, and by the end of this massive guide, you’ll be ITCHING to plan some fabulous vacation.

By the way: I’ve fully tested this entire process on Jeremy. I actually don’t plan most of our travels anymore – he does! During our year-long honeymoon, I downloaded all of my travel planning knowledge into his beautiful ginger head, and he completely took the task off my shoulders, bless him. We both use the exact process outlined in this post.

Sometimes you know you want to go somewhere, but don’t yet know exactly where. This is step 1 of how to plan a trip! Browsing for travel destinations  with an open mind can be really fun (and a little addictive)! Here’s how we figure out where to go when we plan travel.

• We scour pictures on reddit or Pinterest for destinations that look incredible, and then google that location for more information.

•  We shop on AirBnB like we’re browsing for clothes, making wishlists of places to visit. Once we find an amazing AirBnB, we’ll Google the town it’s in. We’ve planned a lot of trips to places we’d never heard of before using this method!

• We search on Googe Flights, which can show you the cost of flying everywhere in the world from your home town on the dates you specify. We’ve scored some great deals on places we might not have otherwise visited! There are many different ways to travel in Vietnam

Once you’ve figured out where you’re going and booked your trip, the fun part starts!

One thing to do in Quito, Ecuador? Visiting the awesome Basilica del Voto Nacional in the Centro Historico. Research done.

PLANNING WHAT TO DO & WHERE TO GO

This is always the most fun part of planning for a trip: finding all the amazing things we’ll do once we arrive!

This is the second step of our planning process. We compile a list of things we’re interested in for our destination: a few museums, a couple of cool neighborhoods to explore, a few food recommendations, some walking tours, that sort of thing. We open up a brand new document – like a shared Google Doc that we can each contribute to – and just start dumping them all in. We’ll go back and edit it down later.

The hardest part of this step is finding things to do.  Sure, you can always Google “best things to do in [insert destination]” but that can take a lot of time to sift through, and it doesn’t always get us off the beaten path, which is our preferred style. Instead of generic travel advice, we prefer first-hand suggestions from travelers who’ve actually been there before – it’s why we like travel blogs so much!

One of our favorite places to search for travel tips? Pinterest! Pinterest is my favorite visual search engine and it’s full of fantastic travel articles and travel tips. Just search for your destination and you’ll find loads of travel articles that will help you plan your trip! I like to compile a Pinterest board for each destination I’m planning to visit, so even if I don’t have time to copy/paste stuff into my document, I can at least save articles to look at later.

Here are our other go-to resources:

• WikiVoyage is super helpful for planning for a trip. It’s basically like Wikipedia, but for travel! Compiled by travelers and frequently updated, you’ll find everything from where to go and what to do, to how to get around and other useful information.

• I like using the /r/travel subreddit or Trip Advisor to pull suggestions. Again, search for your destination and see what comes up from other travelers. This can be a gold mine of specific, first-hand experiences and suggestions. You can find some real gems here if you dig deep enough!

As you find things that sound interesting, throw everything into your travel document. Literally just copy/paste it all in there.

At first, your list will be enormous, but eventually you’ll go through it and remove everything that’s repetitive or doesn’t pique your interest now that you’ve found other cool stuff to do.