How to Make A Travel Itinerary - 7 Steps to follow

For me, the most difficult part of planning a trip is creating a custom-made itinerary to suit your needs and to cram in everything you want to see in a short span of time. Sometimes it feels like it's so much easier to just book a tour. But creating your own itinerary frees you up to explore a city from a unique perspective and enriches you.

Everyone has their own methods of creating an itinerary. Some people book tours, some copy friends' itineraries or travel agency itineraries and follow it to a T while others opt to have no itinerary at all. My process is a combination of all of these.

Here's my itinerary making process.

Determine the Theme
I usually read a brief background of the city and find out what it's well known for. Is it well known for its food? Is it a place brimming with art? Is it famous for historical landmarks, architecture or culture? After finding this information out, I work around that theme and start to do my research.

List down all the places you want to go to
After the theme, I research on the tourist spots via my travel best friends Trip Advisor and  The Lonely Planet. I pick out the places I want to go to, check the reviews to see how accessible they are, see if it's worth going to.

Map It Out
I then map out the areas using either Google Map or an actual store bought map and find out which tourist spots are close to each other.
Shortlisting
Now that you've mapped it out, it would be easier for you to categorize places as "Must See", "Optional", "Delete from your list"
Determine the Dates
After shortlisting the places you really want to visit, it's time to add a schedule. Plot out which areas should be visited on which day of your travel and check if it's feasible. Feel free to move things around.

Research and Book a Hotel
Once you know which areas you'll be visiting, it would be much easier to find a hotel (I use Trip Advisor to research and Agoda to book it) or to know if you need to stay in different hotels during the different days of your trip.

Some of my considerations when looking for a hotel

• Budget
• Proximity to Train Station and Tour Area
• Proximity to Restaurant or Grocery (to make sure I NEVER go hungry)
• Has to have a clean bathroom
• Reputation and reviews

Transportation Options
Now that you've booked your hotel, it's time to find out how to get to each place you shortlisted. I use google maps for that or ask in various travel forums.

Other Tips:
If you need to find out where best to sleep at an airport, visit Sleeping in Airports. This was so useful during our red-eye flight to China and we needed to find out where we can comfortably stay for a couple of hours until the train stations opened.

Good luck in making your itinerary and do let me know what other sites are helpful for future travel preparations.