How do you plan/organise your thoughts on holidays?

[Acunningruse]

Currently planning summer 2026 and my head and phone are a mess of about 7556 tabs open with multitudes of options for accommodation (eg, eurocamp/sandaya/yelloh but also Air BnB and randomly hotels in the alps ) and travel in terms of different airports, different companies for flights and ferries...

How do you organise your thoughts? A spreadsheet? Lists? Journal? Struggling to see the wood for the trees at the moment.

Thanks

We watch tv, usually something inspires us. Currently thinking about Italy for May 26 having watched that Clive Myrie documentary, those hot springs look great! Jan 26 Caribbean as I want to go to the bar death in paradise films at, this year more chilled, Camino de Santiago

I think the problem is I have too much inspiration! Im always seeing sites/places I like the look of. But as 2026 flights and accommodation aren't available to book yet I am worried I will forget all the lovely places I have seen. maybe website bookmarks would be a way.

Your holiday plans sound blissful

Usually pick up some ideas from friends, social media, MN or wherever and then do a bit of browsing, home in on one and start with dates, then accommodation, transport etc.

Keep a reading list on your phone, or notes in a notebook if it's further away timewise. I have a page in my bullet journal for places in the UK I've heard about from other people and would visit if I was staying in the area at some point.

Personally I just go into jet2 to and type in holiday for 2 (ds and I) and then sort from cheapest. Select HB and AI and the few airports I’d fly from.

But there’s only us 2. It’s cheaper to do a package and twin room.

I list all the options I’d like, cost, flight time and destination.

Then I go back through and cross off any I don’t fancy (eg because of transfer time) and whittle it down that way.

I guess you could do the same with list to accommodate each option.

So all flights organised by destination and log times and prices.

Accommodation organised by cost and state destination.

Then re look and cross off any times and/ or prices you’d rather not have.

Cross accommodation off based on cost, distance from amenities etc

eventually you’ll have a small list you can cross reference (cross off any accommodation or travel that don’t match)

Hairdressers. We have been to several places suggested by then, and they have all been good.

I have a spreadsheet that covers the kids until post Uni, on it are all the holiday windows. I have then placed my wish list location on each.

When I’ve settled on a location, I focus on where and what. Usually we want to really see the country so top sights and experiences. I now get Chat GPT to scope me an itinerary, then refine it. Book it.

We are booked for Summer 2026, and 2027 I have the outline plan.

Travel is my main hobby after sports.

I don't have the capacity to organise any thoughts about holidays these days. They just sort of happen after a bit of frantic searching for destinations we can fly to from our preferred airport and a quick check of the weather for that time of year. Then a Google of things to do narrows it down. Then accommodation search.

We all love a bit of history, water, theatre, decent food so if I hear about somewhere I generally fancy I check flight prices and open a Pintrest page for the city or country and squirrel away ideas for specific attractions, restaurants, events whatever. Then I look on Trivago or whatever for accommodation within doable reach of what we want to see and do. Then I make a case to DH and whoever else is coming! Works for us.

OneNote - on my iPad.

Notebooks organised by country.

Fab as I can include links, digital photos etc.

We have lots of thoughts and ideas and then book a campsite in France because flights are expensive and the kids just want waterslides 😅

I have never had any organised thoughts about a holiday, ever. Typically we book flights and an Airbnb or hotel and just go -- once we booked about 9 pm one evening and were on the flight by breakfast time the next morning.

I don't really. I set a budget, go into local friendly travel agent in March and they recommend their latest favourite place. It's worked so far.😎

We find a location/part of a country first. Then we think if we want a hotel or self-catering.

Based on that decision we start looking. I often go to Booking.com to look at hotels and then search for a decent deal.
S/C - I start with Vrbo.

don't really. we have a month we normally go. I go into love holidays set my budget and dates and see what comes up. filter by must have (hotel breakfast included and outside pool) and then compare trip advisor and see what there is too do. my main thing is there must be heat. then stuff like day trips out that's all. found lake garda there last year loved it so might go again

Yes same

Until Ive made my decision and then Im on to the next one and the process starts again.

Oh I misread slightly. Well not vastly different to what I said, we only do airbnb but same thing with various options, various tabs of google maps open to track where the properties are and how far from things I want to be, various flight option tabs open.

UK holidays not that different but with various routes to the destination and ideas about lunch stops, various pub menus open all the time to check where I want to go.

notes on phone for random threads / recommendations

During active research phases I have a Spreadsheet dumping ground for all links etc with separate tabs for eg accommodation/ travel / admin eg insurance

Then start a comparison table of main points for each option so easier to remember which was which

Notes section of my phone for future inspiration but I let weather dictate where we go- avoiding rainy season etc.

We tend to be very prescriptive when we can go in school holidays- for example I discounted Turkey in Oct half term as all the flights were at stupid times so we are doing Tenerife instead.

My process is, roughly - I have a list of destinations I want to visit in my head.
I choose a destination. I think what are my non-negotiables with that destination; is it a relaxing holiday (if so - hotel is most important), is it a cultural trip-led holiday (if so, location is most important).

Then, I pick dates.
Then, I pick accommodation.
Then, I check flight prices.

(We usually book a couple of months before we go for long haul, short-haul tends to be one month in advance as is generally spur of the moment!)

Once all that is done, and booked, I will leisurely map out my plans for the trip.
I'll go over what it is it I want to do exactly, decide if we want a car, decide if we want to book any guides etc.