Itinerary Building Made Easy: Time Saving Hacks for Full-Time Workers
While a big part of planning travel has to do with researching and booking flights and hotels, a HUGE part is planning out what to do there.
Building an itinerary of fun activities can be intimidating, but it’s not as hard as it looks. Here are my tips and tricks for finding things to do on your trips that are catered to YOU!
This is part 4 of a 4 part series on learning how to travel with a full time job via travel saving hacks.
Quick links to my favorite experience platforms:
Building an Itinerary Catered to You: Start by Searching Based on Intent
Using Search Engines to Find Unique Activities
To save time, before you dive head into research, figure out what you really want to do. Are you super into food? Do you want a rush of adrenaline? Into hitting things on your bucket list?
Starting with your interests will help you find exactly what you like instead of aimlessly searching. This might seem like common sense, but one of the most common searches is “Things to do in ___”. While this is a great place to start, you can actually save time and effort by specifying what you’re really looking for.
Try these queries instead:
- “Best restaurants for foodies in Tokyo”
- “Unique experiences in Paris” (I found a baguette making class off of this one)
- “Bucket list experiences in Mexico City”
The more specific you are, the more unique and personalized things you will find!
Searching via AI – To Use or Not To Use When Researching Travel Things?
AI can be a hit or a miss. While it can give a great summary of what’s out there and help you understand things fast, it’s also pretty impersonal.
I love to use it to get a lay of the land. These are some things I will ask AI:
- What is this city known for?
- What are the main tourist spots?
- What are some unique things to do there?
- 4 day itinerary for a foodie
- Adrenaline-based activities in ___
It helps me see everything about the city, but I don’t get someone’s view on it who I can relate to. So I use it more as a learning tool than a planning one.
One of my favorite ones is perplexity.ai – it summarizes things in such a fun way and also cites its sources. I love the interface, and it’s so easily shareable.
Building a Personalized Itinerary in Depth
Travel Blogs: More Personal Resources
Travel blogs are my favorite resources. You’ll find them through doing those initial queries I stated above. I’ll be honest – it’s time consuming to go through them, but I feel like it gives a way better personal touch than any AI could. It also gives me a ton more context than the summarized AI responses.
I’ll often follow along to the ones I can relate to. I relate to them based on destinations, their way of giving info, and more. Honestly, just start looking through some travel blogs to see which ones you like!
The Best Itinerary Builder: Your Community + Locals
Personally, I get the best recommendations from locals and friends who have been there. I recommend you text your family and friends that’ve been there or live there. If you don’t have connections that are tied to the destination you are visiting, there’s a great workaround to meet locals.
Expanding Your Community: Asking the Experts for FREE
How to meet locals if you don’t know any? Free walking tours.
Locals are the experts in any destination you go to. From culture to popping restaurants, they know exactly where to go and what to do. The one thing I do on every single trip is take a free walking tour. Not only is this budget friendly, but if you do this early on in your trip, you’ll get a lay of the land right off the bat. Locals will give you a short history of the city itself, but they’ll also add personal anecdotes and recommendations along the way. (It’s also another great place to meet people if you are on a solo trip.)
These are some of my favorite walking tours thus far:
Conclusion
By using these strategies, you can cut down on the time it takes to plan your trip and still build an awesome experience. With personalized searches, AI overviews, travel blogs, and the advice of locals, you’ll create itineraries that fit your interests without the endless hours of research.
Whether you’re working with limited PTO or managing a tight schedule, these tips will help you travel more with ease, even with a 9-5.
This wraps up my 4 part series to save time while planning travels, if you want to see the other parts you can find them here. Best of luck in traveling more without quitting your job!
