How to create a day by day holiday itinerary
Most itineraries fail in the same way. They are written as a list of everything you want to do, then distributed across the days at the last minute, and turn out to contain about twice as much as fits.
Building from the days instead makes the overambition obvious while you can still fix it.
Start with the days, not the list
Write out every date you are away before you write down a single activity. A week is seven days, two of which are travel days and are effectively half days.
Seeing five usable days before you start allocating anything changes what you allocate.
Anchor the fixed points first
These are immovable. Everything else arranges itself around them.
- Flights, with the leave time you actually need
- Check in and check out times
- Anything already booked, with its reference
- Anything with a fixed date, like a boat with one departure a day
One big thing a day
A day trip is a day. A large museum is a morning. A beach club is an afternoon and most of an evening.
Two big things in one day works occasionally and fails often, and it is always the second one that gets rushed.
Work backwards to the leave time
For anything with a fixed start, do the subtraction while you are planning rather than on the morning. Boat at ten, twenty minutes to the harbour, ten minutes to park, group of six who are never ready on time: leave at nine thirty.
Write that down as the leave time and the day organises itself.
Leave gaps deliberately
An empty day is not a planning failure. It is the day people will remember most fondly.
Put at least one in and resist filling it, particularly on trips of five days or more.
Record what future you will need
The test is whether someone who was asleep during the planning could run the day from what you have written. If they could, it is a real itinerary.
- The reservation name and reference, in the notes
- The address, and a map link
- What to bring
- Whether it is actually booked or only intended