How I organize and plan my travels
If you follow me on Instagram or are subscribed to my YouTube channel, you already know I love a boujee trip. When I travel, I am not simply showing up to see the tourist attractions and leaving. I want to fully immerse myself in a culture and enjoy it like a local.
I want everyone to be able to experience amazing travels which is why I am sharing my personal recipe for creating the perfect trip.
Ingredients:
Unique stays
Google maps
Car services
Pre-booking
Variety of Activities
Instructions:
Set your browser to incognito mode.
1. Research luxury and boutique hotels as well as Airbnbs in the area you traveling to. If you don’t find any, store bought is fine.
You may be wondering, what is a boutique hotel? These hotels are smaller and offer a more personalized experience rather than a run of the mill, large chain hotel experience. When I travel, I don’t want just a place to rest my head at night. Where you stay can really affect your overall experience!
When booking my hotel stays, I like to mix it up between luxury hotels, charming boutique hotels, and locally hosted Airbnbs.
If I am traveling for a special occasion, I always opt for a night or two at a really fancy hotel. For example, I spent my birthday at the Palace of Versailles but spent the remainder of my trip staying in boutique hotels.
If you want to be up-close and personal with the culture or a near a famous spot without the price tag, go for an Airbnb.
2. When planning a trip, Google maps is going to be your best friend. I always take the hotels address and search how long it will take to get to certain restaurants or monuments I want to see. This helps me determine if I can walk, need to drive, or if I should find a different hotel location all together.
This may be my type A personality, but I use ‘street view’ tool on Google maps so that I can walk around a location beforehand. When I arrive places, I already recognize where I am and can easily get around. I think this also helps you determine the safety of a neighborhood ahead of time.
3. Speaking of getting around, I don’t want until I am somewhere to figure out how I am going to get from the airport to the hotel. I didn’t grow up in an area with public transport and I don’t even have Uber downloaded on my phone. If you are like me, order a car service ahead of time through your hotel or Airbnb host.
I like to know that when the wheels of the plane touch down and I have my luggage in hand, I can officially start relaxing. I don’t need to worry about if the taxi driver is ripping me off going the wrong way or if I gave them the right address. The price ends up being about the same, so why not start your trip off the right way?
4. Don’t skip this step! Always, ALWAYS pre-book anything you can. From car rentals to dinner reservations, if you can pre-book, do it!
For example, the sooner you rent a car online, the cheaper it will be. You don’t wait until the day you need to fly to get a plane ticket, do you? Well, maybe if you are in a cheesy rom-com and need to profess your love to someone at the gate of the plane. But this is real life!
If there is a restaurant you are dying to try, make that reservation. Don’t wait until you arrive to be told “sorry we are all booked” or the wait is four hours long.
I pre-book everything and anything ensuring my trip goes smoothly.
5. Spice up your trip with a variety of activities.
One of the things that helps make my trips so memorable is that I don’t do just one thing. If I am hiking one day, the next day I am lounging by the pool. Mix your activities up between relaxing (check out the spa or relax by the pool), art and culture (visit a museum or try a local class), dining (plan a mini foodie tour), high intensity (like hiking), adrenal pumping (ATV rides, jet skiing, biking).
Let me know in the comments below if you would like me to go more in-depth on my travel planning process!