We all love to travel – or else you wouldn’t be reading this blog, right?! Ensuring you set aside the time to travel is key to making sure those vacations actually happen. Because we all know vacations make us happier people!
It seems, however, Americans are pretty good at letting lots of vacation days go to waste, according to research by Project: Time Off. It’s time to get some travel planning tips!
Here are eight steps for you to start planning your travels right now!
8 Top Travel Planning Tips
1. Determine How Many Vacation Days You Have
If you work full or part-time, you’re probably going to have to take vacation days for your travels. One perk of working for yourself, like me :), is that you can travel whenever you want, BUT I usually have to work when traveling, too.
Here are my tips to make more time to travel.
Total the number of vacation days you have available this year and write it down.
2. Block Off Your Vacation Dates
Once you know how much time you have off, you can use Alamo’s Family Vacation Planning Toolkit, which has a free tool that lets you plug in that number.
Then it provides a calendar so you can block off the days of your travels and then share with friends or family via a link or exported calendar file, so they, too, can mark off the days.
3. Decide Where to Go
Now to the fun part: Where to go?!
Alamo’s Family Vacation Planning Toolkit also has some fun games like Travelopoly, Travelgories and Vacranium, which you can play as a family to help guide where everyone wants to travel. Gauge everyone’s interests and try to find a destination that works in at least one thing for each person.
4. Start Collecting Miles and Points
If you want to travel for less – or even FREE – this is the stage where you need to begin collecting miles and points. Once you know where you want to go, you can pick a favorite airline and hotel to help accumulate miles and points to reach your goal.
The quickest and easiest way to earn miles and points is to sign up for one of the airline or hotel’s credit cards, or register for a flexible travel card (like this one whose points can be transferred to numerous airlines or hotels – my favorite!).
5. Research Your Destination
Once you’ve determined where you will travel, start researching things to do at your destination. Maybe you can snorkel at the beach, hike in the mountains, ride bikes or visit local attractions.
Alamo’s Scenic Route website has a collection of travel guides for various destinations from the Grand Canyon to Cape Cod to help spark ideas.
You can also check out my guides on:
6. Book Airfare, Hotels & Car Rentals
It’s important to book your airfare, hotel and car rentals early in order to score maximum savings. For example, Alamo is offering 10% off weekly base rates when you book a rental from now until February 6 for rentals between March 1 and August 31, 2018.
Once you’ve earned all the miles and points you need, go ahead and lock in that room and flight, especially during busier times of year like spring and summer break when families are traveling with kids out of school.
7. Schedule Activities
Now that you have travel logistics confirmed, it’s time to book any activities you want to do at your destination – whether it’s a special character breakfast at Walt Disney World, a snorkeling excursion in the Caribbean or a whitewater rafting adventure in Colorado.
The whole family can get involved in this process, and it helps to make sure everyone gets to pick at least one activity.
8. Pack Your Bags!
All the hard work is done! Now it’s time to pack your bags!
For more vacation inspiration, be sure to check out Alamo’s Scenic Route – it’s full of travel stories, videos, guides and more – designed to inspire travelers to make the most of their vacations. Happy planning!
