Essential Travel Planning Advice for a Stress-free Holiday

Deciding to travel, whether it’s for a weekend away in the UK or 6 months travelling around the world, requires planning. I’ve worked in the travel industry for 20 years in various roles and capacities and have been lucky enough to go on lots of trips. I’m here to pass on my knowledge and offer you some travel planning advice to help make your next trip go smoothly.

Where to start

First up, let’s decide where you’re going to go. Whether you have narrowed it down to a small resort in Greece or something a lot broader such as South America. Choosing a destination is the first place to start. Sometimes it’s hard to choose where, I often have people asking me to price a holiday but say they don’t know where they want to go. I like to use a few steps to narrow it down.

• Where DON’T you want to go?
• How far are you willing to travel?
• Is there anything in particular you want to see?
• What would you like to do on your trip?
• Do you have a budget in mind?

The last one is important. Let’s face it, travelling to Greece and travelling to Australia are on totally different budgets!

Setting a Budget

There are quite a few parts to the travel budget. It’s important to decide as a whole how much you can spend. The total budget can be split into 4 parts:

• Travel
• Accommodation
• Food
• Extras

Extras are a broad spectrum covering all kinds of things like days out, shopping, souvenirs, airport parking or transport costs etc. For instance, if you have narrowed it down and know that you’d like to go to Sydney in Australia and do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. It’s important to know the cost of the climb and factor it into the total budget. Otherwise, it’ll end in disappointment if you manage to make it all that way but miss out on the last bit!

Getting the right travel documentation in place

So, you’ve decided where you’re going but now you need to make sure that you can travel there. Preferably before you go, check out the FCO Travel Advice page. The amount of times I’ve had someone ask me about a fairly last-minute trip to the USA, choose a holiday and then find out that they aren’t eligible for an ESTA and need to apply for a full Visa which can take months and months to be processed.

The same goes for passport validity. Post-Brexit EU travel rules have changed and are no longer as simple as having so many months left on it. Numerous newspaper articles have shown disappointed travellers who have turned up at the airport and been turned away. Don’t let that be you!

Travel Planning Advice For Those Travel Extras

Getting to the airport

You’ve booked the holiday, checked your passports and got all of your documents in place, the next bit of travel planning advice I have is to sort those extras. There are very very few of us who can leave the house and walk around the corner to the airport. That sounds like a dream and a nightmare in one to be fair!

How are you going to get there? If you are planning to drive yourself, make sure that you know your route and how long it will take. Make sure that you pre-book your car parking. Planning ahead means that you’ll guarantee yourself a space and will save you money. Some sites claim you can save up to 70% compared to driving in and paying at the gate. In general, the earlier you book, the better the price.

If you aren’t planning on driving, how are you getting there? Train? Again, pre-booking is essential to get the best price. Train fares tend to be released around 90 days before travel, this will vary with individual companies. Ensure you know your route and the distance from the terminal to the station. Allow yourself plenty of time. How about a taxi if you aren’t driving or on the train? Pre-booking again is essential. Ask around for recommendations or check reviews to make sure they are reliable. Compare prices to make sure you aren’t paying over the odds.

Travel Insurance

Do not forget your insurance. With any luck you won’t need to use it, but trust me if you do you will understand its worth. There are hundreds of insurance companies out there. check out a few comparison sites and find one that suits you. Check that your holiday costs and personal possessions are covered. Make sure that any extras that you intend to do are covered too. For example, Cruising holidays and skiing holidays require specialist insurance. Also, some watersports aren’t covered under standard policies. If you are likely to travel on a few foreign holidays it might be worth comparing the cost for an annual policy.

While you are arranging your travel insurance if you are a UK resident apply for a GHIC (previously EHIC) card too. It’s a free card that lets you get necessary state healthcare in EU countries. There may be scam sites out there that try to charge for this. Use the NHS link to ensure you don’t pay. Make sure you allow a few weeks to apply for it. If you have had one previously check the expiry date before you travel.

Airport Lounge

One of my favourite bits of travel planning advice is: If you like to be at the airport early and spend time in restaurants eating and drinking whilst waiting for your flight, a lounge might be for you. I love a lounge. It’s good to have a reserved seat and all the food and drink are paid for upfront. For us, I think it’s good value, but check out the opening times. I know for our next flight we fly at 6 am and the lounge doesn’t open until 4.30 am so we won’t get the full benefit this time.

Travel Excursions

If you are heading somewhere new, the chances are you want to do a couple of excursions and see the place a bit. You might not, you might want to lie horizontally on a sunbed for a week and no one could blame you, but if you want to explore plan ahead. As part of my travel planning advice, I recommend checking out the excursions you want to do. I love to spend ages researching where I’m going and what I want to see before I travel. It’s good to get an idea at least of what you want to do, some excursions can be booked in advance too so you can ensure you are on that trip.

I think you are good to go. If you can think of anything else that you think I’ve missed, let me know and I can add it to my travel planning advice list.

Thanks for reading, have a wonderful holiday!

Becky x