How do you actually plan a holiday..

[Citygirlypop]

How do you actually book a holiday? And get enthusiastic Rather than terrified? I mean how do you find a place, a hotel, research the area? I find it incredibly daunting. It’s also not helped as DH is always too busy to think about it. Says I’m to sort it Then never likes the idea of wherever I’ve chosen.
help!
last year I REALLY put my foot down and got to visit a relative abroad and go away for a weekend - a milestone birthday. Now DS has asked if we can do something at half term. I could visit friend abroad but I know DH doesn’t get on with friend. So we will have the usual petulance. It doesn’t help that DH earns and I have a small small part time job.
DH has just announced he wants to go to Europe in the summer. How on earth do I begin to book that? I have a 15 yr old very nerdy son.
budgets are tight of course. I found the Venice lido a while back , but no. Can’t remember why now.
everyone else seems to love planning and are good at it. 😳

Some good advice on here!

I love the planning. My approach is to make a Google Map for the trip and add on all the places of interest- eg museums, attractions, restaurants, cafes, gardens, markets, shops. (Using guidebooks/ instagram/ travel blogs/ documentaries/ local tourist office)

Then you can see on the map where everything is, and you can either plan your time in advance according to areas, or just take the map and go with the flow.

I've also had some great finds on Airbnb Experiences - little workshops / tours. Gives more of an immersive experience.

If your DH isnt into planning maybe your DS might be! Give them a guidebook and they can pick some places.

Lastly, I wouldn't try to cram too much in. Slow travel!

You need to find out what everyone wants from a holiday before you start looking at hotels or even destinations.

We all are fed up with the heat in Southern Europe so a beach resort in Spain or Greece is out in July/August.
We also prefer sightseeing or activities to laying at the pool, especially since DD is a teen, she doens't mind the odd day but the amount of people is just too much for her.

So we are doing either a mix of city break and then a week somewhere where we can flop but also do things, this year in Germany. We also go back to either s/c or just bed and breakfast.

When you find out what you want to do you can research locations. Do you need an airport close to accomodation to reduce transport time, are you ok to hire a car? What is in the area outside a resort if you go that route.

I think you have a dh problem rather than a holiday planning problem, he’s asking you to do something you don’t want to do then criticises it….without inputting anything.

I sat down with my dh and had a word about that….so we were both on same page. Get involved or don’t whinge about the choices I’ve made.

we used a travel agent for our last holiday …. Highly recommend.

also nerdy teenager may like Berlin or Amsterdam and travelling by train…

By Venice Lido are you talking about Lido Di Jesolo?

Have a look at Lignano Sabbiadoro which is further along the coast. They have several camping parks and great beaches. It's a holiday resort for Italians. Use Google maps and you can see the main parks.

Be warned though - most of the beaches are organised and cost money to use, but they have toilets, changing places, loungers and parasols etc. But many camping parks have their own access for holidaymakers.

If you hired a car you could fly either into Venice or Trieste. Then you could also explore the towns around, there are some smaller scales versions of Venice which are really interesting to visit.

I love planning holidays - we're setting off to Asia this week and won't be back until the end of February with our 3 year old and I've planned every single thing myself!

Skyscanner for flights is amazing. Europe is incredibly easy as it has great transport links all round and cities are so much closer together.

I think narrowing down where you want to go is the first decision and then you can start your planning. I've decided Greece and after travelling in Malaysia last year and taking 6 flights in two weeks, I want slow and leisurely rather than panicked rushing through airports and I've decided on train travel from London to Kefalonia, booking a night in Paris and probably another stop on the way although only in the very early stages of booking. The trains look relatively simple and with it being just me and DH, it's a lot less stressful than booking with teenagers. However, I think mine might have enjoyed more train travel than being sat in airports for hours, something maybe to consider? He could help with the planning!

I usually just go on to ‘onthebeach.com” put all the filters I want from a holiday on but put destination as ‘anywhere’ and see what comes up that takes my fancy. Definitely do a package if you’re not confident it booking everything separately!

My question is how do you know the websites are legitimate?
Scammers are SO good and holidays are SO expensive, it’s a lot of money to lose.

@MrsNandortheRelentless you need to use the big company’s you see advertised on TV and radio or be prepared to research each individual website. I always stick to the big four companies to avoid a scam,
Jet2
British airways holidays
tui
on the beach

Only book with sites I’ve heard of. All accommodation booked with booking.com, AirBnB or direct with the hotel, and flights direct with the airline.

For packages, with the airline.

I love planning and I’m about 40 hours into planning our 2 weeks multi destination US holiday this autumn.

I set a budget first alongside a holiday type (beach, city break, road trip) and duration. Then I look at flights to see where is likely to be in budget and when is a good time to go. Ryanair, Jet2, Skyscanner, TUI all great for this.

Once I’ve found a good destination in budget, I watch a lot of YouTube videos on the area and start searching for accommodation (usually as a package if it’s a one stop holiday). I sort by TripAdvisor rating to see which are the best rated in my budget. Then I read TripAdvisor reviews to try to narrow down further.

Once I have a short list, I search them all on google maps to see where they are relative to each other. By this time, I’ve usually got an idea of what I want to do in the area from a combination of YouTube and looking and what there is to do on TripAdvisor forums and “Things to do” pages. Then I pick a hotel that is best located for these activities.

I then run it past DH to make sure he agrees. If it ends up being rubbish he shares the blame as he is part of the decision! But he generally doesn’t care, and would never blame me if it wasn’t as expected.

Then I start a spreadsheet to loosely plan days so I know we can fit everything we want to do in at a pace we’re happy with. Then lots of reading blogs, Pinterest, Google Maps, Instagram and YouTube searches to narrow down any hidden gems and to prioritise what we want to do and what we might keep on a reserve list.

I honestly think I enjoy the planning more than the holiday. I think by the time it comes round I’ll spend more hours planning than I will awake while on holiday.

I usually get inspired by a destination at some point, although how that happens varies. Then I think about what we need nearby - usually for us it's a lovely sea for swimming/snorkelling, and cultural sites. Nice local restaurants that we can walk to. I tend to book accommodation quickly on booking.com and choose ones that you pay on arrival and can cancel, in case I change my mind or find a better place. Later on book flights on Easyjet.

Italy was a good place for us, loads to see within easy reach.

This is almost identical to my process. The only difference being I don’t like to watch YouTube videos of places I plan to visit as I don’t want to spoil it for myself. I will happily read blogs & look at images though - just no videos!!

I do love to watch videos of places I have already been & reminisce about my times there 😂

Ha - I 100% agree with the not ruining it thing and I’ve only recently got into videos, but some of the “top things to do in X place” are a lot of generic stock footage of areas so I’ve found those to be a good balance!

Thank you everyone, for being so generous with time and advice. I actually have to steel myself to read this thread as I’ve got myself into such an anxious tizzy.
crazy huh. Will get a cuppa and calm down. I think past experiences have made me nervous also this year DD is away off, so just me DH and ds. I’d like it to be super fun. 😯