Planning 101: The Itinerary

I’ll just come out and say it: Brittany and I aren’t the sporadic, let’s-jump-on-a-train-and-see-where-it-takes-us kind of girls. We like plans. We like structure. Don’t get me wrong, we love adventure, we just like to have some sort of an idea of what to expect. This is why we started planning our trip in August… 8 months before our departure date. Since we know first-hand how planning a trip overseas can be a grueling task, we decided to give you guys some pointers.

First things first: The Itinerary! This is where it all starts. You must figure out which days you want to be in which countries, and for how long.

Some things to keep in mind when you first sit down to start planning your itinerary:

• National holidays and weekend dates. For example: a lot of museums are closed Sunday and Monday in Florence and May 1 is Labor day for the majority of the countries in the European Union, so pretty much everything will be closed.
  
• Don’t jump from city to city too much. Spend at least 2 nights in each place you visit so you don’t get overwhelmed and have a place that feels more like “home”.
  
• We decided to start with the English-speaking countries first so it’s more comfortable, and then slowly transition into the countries that don’t speak our language. Plus, if you start out in Greece where things are totally out of your comfort zone, things like high tea at Harrods in London just won’t seem as neat if you end your trip with it.
  
• Make sure you also have a few days in the middle of your trip as “rest days”. It gives you time to catch your breath and just relax so you don’t get sick on your trip. We’re spending two days on the French riveria as our “rest days”. We have no plans except lying on the beach and sailing on the Mediterranean (oh and of course probably some shopping knowing us!)