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Original poster

Do you make an itinerary for holidays?

65 replies

winterpastasalad · 26/01/2023 04:56

We are budget travellers but try to travel as much as we can so every day counts. I bring a book with me with the itinerary in it and we tend to stick with it. I'd feel we were wasting time (and money) if we just went with the flow. I appreciate this isn't everyone's idea of a good time but just wondered how many other people do it?

OP posts:
olympicsrock · 26/01/2023 05:12

God no !
for me the point of a holiday is to be flexible and to do as the mood takes me.
If there was something special I wanted to do I would check opening hours abs schedule that in but otherwise - no!

pjparty · 26/01/2023 05:14

Yes we do with the big things and to think of some possible other things to do or see each day before we go but it isn't planned to a tee. With limited holidays we like to make the most of every day too

chatw0o0 · 26/01/2023 05:19

I have a list of things I want to do / places to see, and will sometimes group them if a few are close together. But don't have a day by day itinerary, mainly because I am quite lazy and will always overestimate how much I think I will actually do, vs reality!

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Holidays
Changingplace · 26/01/2023 05:19

We tend to have one planned thing per day if we’re doing a city break and go with the flow apart from that, I don’t like to have too rigid a schedule on holiday and wouldn’t plan so much for a beach holiday.

Augend23 · 26/01/2023 05:21

So I'd have a list of the things I want to do before the holiday and some would be big whole day things and others would be smaller things that might take an hour or two. Those are the things I know I want to do. Then the rest of it is just go with the flow.

I'd have a bit of a plan of which of the smaller things I might want to do in one day if I have millions of things on the list, but it would be flexible because I don't want to have to hurry anything. E.g. I don't want to have at gallery X two hours and then I have to hurry round it when actually when I get there I love the art and want to spend 3-4 hours there.

And I always add in plenty of time for seeing a fab looking thing I wasn't expecting.

So essentially the most I might plan is the night before: good look at weather. Given weather, morning do thing X, let's leave at 9:30. Afternoon Y thing". Will quite often leave whole afternoons empty - just putting a morning's worth of visiting into a day so there's no hurry to set off or leave etc etc.

WandaWonder · 26/01/2023 05:45

A rough one yes and we pick places to eat, we don't always end up eating at them all but we get sick of wandering around where one of us says 'nah not this one'

But say on a week's holiday we have 4 main things to do we pick the days to do the 4 main things then just do what we want around that

We don't do 'right it's 11am we have to be in that gallery in 20 mins' type thing

Allthegoodnamestakken · 26/01/2023 05:51

Depends on the type of holiday, one where we have a week or more in one place no. I might make a list of things we could do but we'll decide what to do on the day.
Shorter trips or trips with multiple locations (we love a road trip) then yes as if we only have 1 or 2 days in a place I'd rather not waste half the morning figuring out what to do or realising the activity we've chosen, restaurant etc is booked up.

TerfOnATrain · 26/01/2023 05:56

Always!

We probably wouldn’t if we had lazy holidays where you spend you’re days lounging on the beach or by the pool but we have doing holidays. Last one in Tuscany included visiting Florence, Pisa and Luca with two games of golf and two lazy pool days with nice restaurants in the evening in San Gimignano and Cortaldo.

I can’t do all that without an itinerary 😂

TerfOnATrain · 26/01/2023 05:57

*your

Rainbowqueeen · 26/01/2023 05:58

I have a list of things we want to do and how long they take.
Then I try to mix things up so we don’t have 2 full on days in a row.
So we might go to an attraction in the morning and spend the afternoon in the pool for 2 days then have a full day out and follow that with another morning outing and afternoon by the pool.
It’s very much weather dependent and if something crops up it’s subject to change but yes I do like to look back at the end of the holiday and feel like we got to know the place we visited as well as relaxed and had down time.

CeeceeBloomingdale · 26/01/2023 06:02

It depends on the holiday. I do a rough itinerary for city breaks, especially if some things need to be prebooked but not for a sunshine holiday. Any itinerary would have a lot of flex in it though incase the weather or my mood changed.

Joytotheworld88 · 26/01/2023 06:02

I've been known to make a spreadsheet for my holidays before 😂. Not for a beach holiday, but for sightseeing city breaks I do. I love planning it and researching what to do when etc, but once on holiday I'm flexible if things change or I don't feel like it.

My husband is the opposite and usually doesn't even know which airport we are flying from nevermind anything else so I think we balance each other out.

eurochick · 26/01/2023 06:03

olympicsrock · 26/01/2023 05:12

God no !
for me the point of a holiday is to be flexible and to do as the mood takes me.
If there was something special I wanted to do I would check opening hours abs schedule that in but otherwise - no!

This. I don't want to be scheduled on holiday!

MrsSkylerWhite · 26/01/2023 06:04

Yes, we tend to do city breaks/road trips and we’d be wandering around clueless and miss things if I didn’t. Also plan public transport in different cities.

notmaryberry · 26/01/2023 06:51

Depends on the holiday. Some I treat like a military operation (USA/Disney) and others are a bit more relaxed, but always with a rough plan. I can’t stand sitting around not doing anything. We went to Spain once with family and didn’t have a car so we didn’t go anywhere or see anything and I just felt frustrated - I might as well have stayed at home!

ComeTheSpringLobelia · 26/01/2023 06:55

I make a list of 'must dos' and a list of 'nice to dos' and then schedule those in with flexibility on the nice to dos. Then the rest is come what may.

So, we recently went to paris and the must dos were the Louvre and The Eiffel Tower and we booked those and then the rest of the time did what we felt like that day.

Aposterhasnoname · 26/01/2023 06:57

Weekend breaks or city breaks yes, but longer holidays no.

TeenDivided · 26/01/2023 06:57

On occasion, yes.
We did 4 days Paris, 4 days Disney and I made a detailed itinerary for that.
Otherwise, if going to a new place I'll make a list of possible places to visit but not a day by day.

LlynTegid · 26/01/2023 06:58

I have sometimes booked things to see/do, especially now there are some museums and other attractions where you cannot be guaranteed entry if you just turn up. Other than that, an idea of what I intend to do and see, not necessarily on a specific day.

Sgtmajormummy · 26/01/2023 07:02

Absolutely! Planning a holiday is half the fun. Lots of things need pre booking nowadays and just rolling up without a clear idea of what you’re seeing means you don’t get the full experience.
So yes, I like to have at least one activity a day and an idea of meals out/at home.

Fran92 · 26/01/2023 07:07

Yes we do, we don’t if it’s a pool holiday as that’s all we want for a week unless diving whilst away but that’s more to do with leaving time for flying etc but for cultured holidays we plan what we want to see, a couple of free days or afternoons to do as we please etc or see what else there is. The only one we planned to the day and times was Japan as we did as much as we could in two weeks not knowing if we’d go again.

We even have a list of local foods to try so we look beforehand what the area is known for etc and have a list we tick of before we leave - adds a bit of fun to it and makes sure we eat locally as we can. Also makes sure we plan a nice lunch to sit down in say one of the European squares etc. highly recommend if people don’t do it , it’s my favourite part 😂

Lastarse · 26/01/2023 07:09

I have a rough idea in my head what I would like to do but otherwise, no. The point of a holiday (for me) is to leave the structure and organising behind for holiday time. I’m never bored as I’m away somewhere different and just enjoy the change of scenery. We do what we’d like to do that day/feel like doing.
My mother used to extensively organise holidays and whilst I appreciate her effort spent doing this, I didn’t fully enjoy them as I could never just relax and chill.

Missingpate · 26/01/2023 07:20

I get terribly obsessive but also totally love the planning! I’d hate not doing a thing we would have loved because we didn’t know it was there or didn’t plan how to get there and what was needed in advance. We do it independently and on a budget too and I have previously had spreadsheets, like when we backpacked round south east Asia. This year we are going to Italy and I have planned something for each day we are there but the order of days is up in the air and we have down time planned in as well. I love the planning and like another poster have a husband who barely knows where we are going so it all works out well.

Doingmybest12 · 26/01/2023 07:44

W plan a destination because there are places we want to see or something to do but that is as far as it goes. I find forward planning stressful but afterwards can be annoyed with myself for missing out for lack of planning.

thecatsthecats · 26/01/2023 07:57

A weekend break - maybe, if it's to a place with a lot to do where we don't want to miss a thing.

Regular holidays - no.

If it's a hot holiday, I aim to swim for an hour every day, and we go out about 50% of the days, otherwise just go with the flow.