travel planning:

adventures

Once you’ve chosen your destination, booked your travel and your stay, you need to decide what you want to do! I tend to prefer “adventure” trips over “relax” trips. Here are some of my most helpful tools when planning out my travel days.

Finding ideas

  • There are so many ways to find good activities when you travel! The most simple of which is just to type into Google “things to do in [your destination]” and see what comes up! You’ll likely find recommendations from other travelers through Google reviews, Yelp, TripAdvisor, online blogs, and more. You can look for things that interest you, are “top recommendations", or are free.

  • You can also use Pinterest, Instagram, or similar sites to search for ideas of things to do with accompanying photos of the activity. As soon as I have a destination chosen, I like to follow pages in that destination and save ideas when I find things that look interesting to me (I have an Instagram board titled “NYC” where I’ve been saving ideas for YEARS).

  • Of course, TV shows, books, and travel magazines will also give you some great ideas (when we took a very last-minute work trip to London I KNEW I wanted to do the London Eye Ferris Wheel because I had just seen it on TV so many times). Some destinations have their own app (checkout Go Hawaii for events and island-specific ideas). I also have found many activity ideas from watching history, nature, and travel documentaries.

Follow the Stars: Finding Food and Narrowing Your Options

  • Food is VERY important to me when travelling. Partly because I’m always hungry, and partly because I actually don’t like a lot of cuisines. While I’ll try almost anything, I’m not likely to eat enough to be full on anything I would deem “yucky” or “weird food.”

  • My top recommendation for travelling is to “follow the stars.” I’m a pretty committed Google-user, and whenever searching for almost anything I narrow my search to only options that have received 4+ stars from users. To really find the best places, I also like to look for places that have 4+ stars and over 100 user reviews.

  • Usually, I actually pull up Google maps and will search “food near me.” Or if I’m looking for something specific, maybe “pizza near me” or “burgers near me.” I also like to browse a few photos and the menu before making a final decision to make sure there’s something I want. I’ve found some GREAT dining options this way - follow the stars, they will not lead you astray.

  • All of my actual favorite food finds are listed on this website in their respective areas. However, some general rules apply:

    • Texas has the best food. Hands-down, I don’t know why, but it’s true. If you find a place that’s highly rated, it is probably edible gold.

    • Florida has not-great food, and not-great service. Again, I don’t know why, but even places rated 4+ stars will likely require you to lower your expectations.

    • Ohio (my home state) has the best pizza. I’ve seen ratings across the web that Ohio has great pizza, and lots of different types of pizza, and it’s all true. I have some favorite pizza places in other states, but anymore it takes a lot of convincing for me to try a new pizza place when I travel because it’s often just not as good as what we have back home.

Keep Track of it All

THIS is where your real planning skills will be tested. How do you keep track of all the activities you want to do?! I have two really helpful methods for planning out each day while travelling:

  • Google Maps

    • As you find ideas and things you want to do, save it on your map. I’m a Google Maps user, and when you click on a place you have the options to “save” that location to a list. I create a list for each of my destinations, and make sure all my adventure-locations are saved in there. When I’m out and about on my trip, this makes it really easy to see what’s nearby so I don’t miss anything that I was RIGHT next to and just didn’t see.

    • If you visit a destination again, this also makes it really easy to find what you enjoyed last time and visit those spots again. Just be sure to always save your favorites to a list for that location!

  • TripIt

    • The second really helpful tool is an app called TripIt. It’s free to download and use, and it makes it super easy to keep track of your itinerary. Download the app and follow the simple instructions to connect it to your email account. Whenever I have something that’s a must-do, or is at a specific time, I make sure it’s in my TripIt. You can also share your list with a travel companion to keep everyone on the same page.

    • The app is really pretty intuitive and can separate different trips automatically. This app is ESSENTIAL when I’m planning trips that have multiple destinations with different lodgings, multiple flights, and several car rentals (see the photos below of my TripIt from Hawaii, for example).

Planning adventures is probably the most fun part of travel planning for me. I hope this site will help you discover optimal fun as you plan your adventures!