Planning a trip where you have a lot of sites to see or activities you want to do?  Many attractions will be closed certain days of the week or have shortened/extended hours on others.  There are often best days or best times of the day to visit.  (For example the Louvre is closed Tuesdays, but very busy on Mondays because that is the day Versailles is closed.)

How do you keep track and plan accordingly?

Choose what you want to see

When I’m planning a trip, I usually start a document where I list places I want to visit.  I record in the document notes on the various sites and tours, for example their days and hours of operation, the admission fee, the best days to visit, and whether they can be booked in advance.  I’ve found that often travel planning websites have outdated information, so I gather details directly from the attraction’s or tour company’s website.  I prefer to type the list because it takes up less space on a sheet of paper and I know I can easily print it and take it with me when I go.  (And then it’s easy to share with friends or refer back to later!)

Plan what day to do each activity

To plan my days, I print out my list of attractions and cut the page into strips, with each attraction on its own slip of paper. I then make a heading for each day of my trip and arrange the strips under those headings.  I can play around so my days aren’t too full, arrange attractions that are close to one another on the same day, and make sure I don’t miss seeing something because it is closed on the day I try to go there.

The final product

Once I had everything laid out the way I wanted, I took a photo, and then created an itinerary that I could take with me on the trip.

I don’t view this as a set in stone itinerary, but rather a general outline of what I would like to do.  I don’t pack a full day’s worth of activities in my schedule (especially when traveling with kids), leaving plenty of time for breaks (gelato anyone?) and impromptu stops.  For this trip I also listed “extras” to the side – some more stops I thought we might like if we had time.  If we don’t actually feel like going to one of the attractions on our itinerary when that day rolls around, that’s fine.  But this way we know that we can IF WE WANT TO hit all these places that seemed important to us when planning the trip.