Here comes your June newsletter - with a downloadable planning template!

Howdy! I am so glad that you liked the last newsletter - the first of the series on "How to plan a trip?" It was so heartening to see that the topic hit the spot for many of you and you were able to get some tips on planning your next holiday. Continuing on with this exclusive series written only for my subscribers, I will now take you through the next step. Keep an eye out for the free downloadable that I have included in this newsletter. You might find it useful for your trip planning!

You decided only on the country, what about where in the country?

More darts on an expanded map?

I decided on Spain for my family holiday but that was just the beginning. I now needed to plot the route and places that I would cover during my holiday. Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid, Costa Brava, Valencia, Granada, Seville ... my head started spinning!

Soooo...many options and limited time - how does one decide!

You cannot ignore the port of entry!

The first thing that I do is note down my possible point of entry for my destination country, state or region. For Bhutan, there was no avoiding Phuentsholling, as this is the first town after crossing the border from Bagdogra in India to Bhutan. This is of course, if I took a road trip to Bhutan. However, if I were to fly, then the destination that I would include was Paro. For both, I noted down the various attractions and how long I would require to stay there to cover the two towns. In my excel sheet, I also, added the possible costs of picking these two destinations as my port of entry.

As I discovered, flying directly to Paro was more expensive than flying to Bagdogra and then doing the road trip. Plus there were other considerations like the frequency of flights to each place from Bangalore. In every aspect, the road trip seemed more feasible and that was that.

Seems simple but what if there are more options and similar costs!

Add all the options, other than the ports of entry and then!

Larger countries like Spain and Australia will have your head spinning with the sheer number of permutations and combinations. Even states like Gujarat and Rajasthan in India become a little hard to figure out.

This is when I found it easier to start listing my other cities or towns of interest. In the case of Spain, we wanted to cover Granada and Seville. In addition to that, we wanted to see a coast - so either Costa del Sol cities like Malaga or Costa Brava or Valencia.

That itself will help you mark the uncompromisable places. There was no way I was going to miss seeing the Alhambra and for my Dottie, it was Seville. These became our two definite, must-visit destinations.

Add another column that also gives you the time you will require to see the attractions in a city. This will help you manage your vacation time better.

How much time are you going to spend on the road?

Next, in my excel, I added three columns - one on the mode of transport between the cities, 2nd on the cost of travel and 3rd time to travel. Clear routes started emerging. If I were to take Barcelona as my port of entry, I realized my two uncompromisable destinations required more time on the road or added more cost if I were to fly. However, if I took Madrid, all travel costs and travel time were well within the manageable range.

I could always enter from one and exit from another port, but that honestly did not fit well in my 15-day itinerary. I did not want to spend too much time on the road. I would rather use that extra time in a city - to either see something more in the city or take some offbeat day trips like this one that I did from Malaga.

Tada! Now you have a rough itinerary!

Next - apply for your visa! And now wait!

For the next monthly newsletter, where I will share tips on how to fine-tune and build your itinerary in each city! For now, you have enough information to submit an itinerary for your visa application, which is a must for a Schengen visa.

I will see you in July with more tips and tricks that I use.

As promised, here is the downloadable Excel template that I use for my vacation planning. ​​​​

Ciao and stay safe!

Here are my picks for a July holiday - if you are planning one!