First time, big trip, traveller - Guide to planning
posted by sacah on
This is the method I have used to help me get a plan together, and de-clutter my mind on Europe.
First log in into either Bing Maps or Google Maps. I choose Bing as Google Maps had a bug with their Saved Places list and it took about 2 months to fix. Create a Saved list called 'Places to visit'.
Now you have somewhere to store all these places your interested in, so spend the next few months reading guide books, browsing websites and reading forums. When you come across a place of interest, do a search for it on the map, and save it to your 'Places to visit' saved list. Make sure you save notes with this place of interest, for example, how long you need to visit this place, how much it costs, transportation options to get there, opening hours, special events etc.
For me, I lurked on Lonely Planets Thorn Tree forums for months reading the many threads people would post asking various questions about Europe. When I would find someone mentioning something interesting I'd have a quick search on the item, and if it seemed like something I'd also like I'd add it to my saved list.
I borrowed guide books from my library on Europe, the Shoestring guides were really helpful too, most guidebooks have estimated budgets for cities, major festivals and sample itineraries, which really helped me add things to my list, and had lots of useful information I would add as a note on the item.
I also searched for 'x top 10', x would be whatever country I was interested in, so 'france top 10', or 'paris top 10' to find other peoples suggestions on the top places to visit.
After a few months you should have a map full of pins, and a much better idea about the places you're going too, you should have a good idea of the budget needed for each place, and time of year for different places if they are date/season specific.
Grab a map of the Eurail, I use this one http://www.eurail.com/planning, to help work out a general route I can take, figured where ever the Eurail goes is mostly popular, so there will also be other forms of transport from these places to branch out if you want to take a detour.
For me, I had a look at the Bing map, and could notice some areas that had a few pins in close proximity, so those became locked in places in my rough route, I then looked at the Eurail map and found a route between the locked in places that best included other pins along the way. Because each pin had a suggested time to see it, and an estimate budget, cost for travel between etc I was able to tally a rough budget to know either where to cut some things that didn't rate too high on my list.
Now don’t go off and book the itinerary you come up with, things will change, even while you're on the trip, so leave things open where you can. If you're attending a festival, or a city during peak time, most guide books/forums will have advised you if you need to book ahead, these are unavoidable and should probably be booked ahead to make sure you don't miss out.