Tips for Stress-Free Trip Planning

Book International Trips without the Overwhelm: My Step-By-Step Process for Stress-Free Trip Planning

When you travel as frequently as I do (while working full time) a routine is critical so that planning and booking trips does not get overwhelming. In fact, I get asked pretty frequently how I manage to plan and book all of the international trips that I am taking. So in this blog post, I am pulling back the curtain and telling you my step-by-step process for stress-free trip planning.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST

BOOK THE FLIGHT (PREFERABLY VIA FLIGHT DEAL)

STEP 1: Every single trip I take nowadays starts with a Flight Deal (either through a cash sale or points or mile saver fare) that I get through with Flight Deal Alert. You can read more about the Free Flight Deal Alert tools that I use to find most of my flight deals here.

STEP 2: Next, I will generally also upgrade my seat if I book in economy initially (usually with points or miles). I teach more about strategies to upgrade to premium seats in my course Secrets of a Travel Expert: Luxury Travel Edition. You can learn more about the course here.

STEP 3: I will then double check to see if I need a visa or vaccinations and will complete whatever visa and vaccination requirements.

ACTIVITY RESEARCH

STEP 4: Next, I try to figure out what I’ll be doing when I actually arrive. I am a culture-phile who likes to also do some very mild hiking so my travel itinerary is usually centered around learning about local history, customs and food and seeing waterfalls, cliffs, oceans, lakes or any other unique natural scenes worth taking in.

My favorite ways to do activity research are to look at top-ten lists for the vacation destination and Viator listings. I also like to poll my social media followers to see if they feel strongly about visiting any particular place. Once my activity research is done, I have a sense of where it might make the most sense for me to stay and move onto reservation accommodations.

FIND CENTRALLY LOCATED ACCOMMODATIONS AND BOOK (PREFERABLY VIA AN ACCOMMODATIONS DEAL)

STEP 5: My strong preference is to stay in hotels that are rated 5 stars or higher so I don’t normally spend a lot of time searching for hotel deals. Instead, I normally use two of my favorite Low-Cost Luxury Travel Financial Strategies (i.e., book using friends and family rates or points rates). If you want to know more about these Low-Cost Luxury Travel Financial Strategies and others, check out a Masterclass I recently held on that topic here.

LOCAL TRANSPORTATION

STEP 6: Next, I try to figure what the best way to get around is from a cost and efficiency perspective. This usually ends with me renting a car and downloading an offline map so I don’t get lost.

STEPS 7, 8 AND 9: After that, all that is left for me to do is Pack for the Trip (need tips? read this), Take Lots of Pictures and Videos (need help with that too, read this) and Enjoy!

RECAP OF MY STRESS-FREE TRIP PLANNING PROCESS

Here is my step-by-step process in short:

Book the Flight (preferably via flight deal) and double check visa and vaccination requirements
Map out your itinerary
Find centrally located accommodations (preferably via accommodations deals)
Figure out local transportation
Pack
Take lots of pictures and videos
Come back with travel stories that last a lifetime.