How to plan a perfect day every day on your next trip should top your list of things to do when planning your holidays, after booking your flights and hotels. To help you do that, we’re sharing our 10 trip itinerary planning tips – the 10 essential elements to creating perfect one-day itineraries for your vacation.
We all travel differently. Some of us prefer to travel spontaneously and plan nothing; others prefer to schedule every hour of every day of their holiday. Some adventures are motivated by box office hits and bucket lists, other journeys are inspired by social media – and if friends’ socials and influencers’ feeds inspire your travels, check out the new trip planning tool called Hackglobe, which syncs your social bookmarks across platforms to create social media-inspired itineraries in minutes.
Whatever inspires us, and however we prefer to travel, nobody wants to waste a day on holiday – whether it’s because you get so few vacation days to start with, you’ve only got a few days in the dream destination you’ve longed to travel to, you’re on a 24-hour stopover in a city you’ll probably never visit again, and you simply don’t want to waste a minute in the place. A well-planned itinerary is the answer.
Trust me on this. Our one-day itineraries are some of the top posts on Grantourismo, particularly our one day in Ubud for a perfect day in Bali’s lush heart, but our itineraries for one day in Bangkok, one day in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Chiang Mai, Dalat, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur are also super popular. You’ll find one-day itineraries and multi-day itineraries in most of our Destination Guides.
If you follow my advice on how to plan a perfect day every day on your next trip then you’re guaranteed to have one truly great day on your holiday, and if you apply my itinerary planning tips to your whole trip, then you’ll have a perfect vacation, not just a perfect day. Just make sure to schedule days for downtime so your holiday doesn’t seem like hard work.
I’ve been creating travel itineraries since I was ten years old, when my parents pulled me out of school to embark on a yearlong road trip around Australia that turned into an epic five-year adventure. Other than buying a great big caravan and fire-truck red Nissan Patrol my folks did very little in terms of trip planning. They decided we’d be heading south from Sydney and would take a month or two to do a slow drive to Melbourne, then gradually make our way around the rest of the country.
Every day I’d spend hours with a map of Australia spread out on the back seat, switching between the Australian Road Atlas and Caravan and Camping Guide, as I decided on our next stop and where we’d stay. As for what to do, our first port of call would always be the Tourist Office for a stack of brochures, as this was before the Internet and Google.
Surprisingly, my parents agreed to every suggestion, I suspect to keep me happy and busy so I didn’t dwell on the fact I was already terribly missing my beloved grandparents, friends from the neighbourhood, and school mates, and was crying myself to sleep every night.
By the time we got to Melbourne – which I have to confess I hated after months staying mostly at beachside caravan parks, spending our days swimming and fishing between seeing the sights – I was already starting to research the onward journey to Adelaide and where we’d stop along the way.
When I wasn’t trip planning, I was reading and writing in my diary. And after my parents enrolled me in Correspondence School, listening to cassettes from my teachers, which they’d send to post offices on our route in enormous packages, with lesson booklets and books, so many wonderful books. It was like Christmas every week!
I put the French professor’s tapes on repeat and began dreaming of Paris. After that, it was the geography and history lessons I could happily listen over and over again. I guess it was inevitable I’d become a travel writer and guidebook author, and get to plan our own research trips, as well as create itineraries, walking tours and road trips for the guidebooks we wrote.
So trust me when I say I know how to craft a travel itinerary. I’ve been doing this for a while ;) Now before I share my tips to how to plan a perfect day every day on your next holiday, and the 10 essential elements to creating an itinerary for a perfect day, I have a favour to ask.
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How to Plan a Perfect Day on Your Next Trip – My Travel Itinerary Planning Secrets
Now before I share my tips to how to plan a perfect day on your next trip every day, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
Every Day Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect When You Travel
Of course, not every day needs to be a perfect day on holidays. Some of the best travel tales we find ourselves telling for years are tales of misadventure.
While it might not seem like fun at the time when things go wrong, I guarantee you it’s those stories that you’ll be telling for years to come.
Some Holidays Don’t Need Much Planning at All
Some vacations require very little planning, if any at all, such as island and beach holidays. All you’ll want to organise ahead is a shopping list to do some meal planning if you’re renting a villa or do some research to book some restaurants if you’ll be eating out. The rest of your time might be spent doing very little at all, except punctuating hammock snoozes with swims and walks along the water’s edge.
Make Sure to Plan Time for Downtime
When we lived in the Middle East, we’d often head to Europe for two weeks in winter (I know, right?!), the first week of which would include time in a ski destination so Terence could snowboard.
But it would be recovery time for me from a very demanding and very stressful job. The first week, I’d do very little at all except walks through the snow and read books by a fireplace – and plan the second week.
Stopovers and Short Stays Demand Planning
A 24-hour stopover in a city en route to your ultimate destination is when you want to apply my tips to how to plan a perfect day on holiday. Because with such little time in a place, you don’t want any of it to go to waste.
Especially if you might be spending a chunk of it going through immigration and customs and getting between the airport and city. You won’t want to waste a second. I recommend planning itineraries for stays of three days or less.
Plan Perfect Days in Big Cities and Dream Destinations
You definitely want to plan some perfect days in your dream destinations – the places you’ve longed to go for a long time – and big sprawling cities such as New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City.
Because once again you don’t want to waste a minute. And because there’s so much to see and do in big cities that the choices can be overwhelming. The size of large cities, traffic gridlock, and the time it takes to get between places need to be considered when you’re planning your perfect days.
Always Plan a Perfect Day for the First Day
The first day in a place is when you want to plan a perfect day, because first days of holidays are often wasted – generally due to jet-lag, or simply not enough sleep, exhaustion from the busy period leading up to departure for your big trip, a lack of research due to a lack of time, or you thought you’d simply wait until you arrived to get organised.
But when you arrived, the last thing you wanted to do was spend time in your hotel room. I get it, but before hitting the streets, at least plan the first hour or two – identify a good laidback café in a local neighbourhood where you can linger over coffee and pastries while you plan the rest of the day.
Here are my secrets to how to plan a perfect day on holiday every day.
How to Plan a Perfect Day on Your Next Trip – My Travel Itinerary Planning Secrets
My tips for planning a perfect one-day itinerary on your next holiday every day.
See One Must-See Sight or Monument a Day
Seeing the top attractions top my list of tips to how to plan a perfect day on your next trip. Because many of us form travel expectations and turn ordinary cities into dream destinations based on iconic sights that capture our imaginations.
The star sights are the very reason that many travellers want to go to places. For first-timers to cities, it’s typically monuments such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Statue of Liberty in New York or Sydney Harbour Bridge or Opera House in Sydney.
I always recommend making a beeline for those spots and seeing them on the first morning of the first day you arrive, that way you won’t continue to build expectations during your stay and set yourself up for disappointment, and after you can relax and focus on absorbing the city.
If there’s more than one iconic monument or attraction, limit yourself to one a day so you’re not spending the whole day sightseeing, which can be exhausting and feel like you’re just ticking stuff off. The golden rule for creating great itineraries is to mix things up.
Do an Immersive Guided Tour or Short Course
There’s nothing like experiential travel to help you quickly get beneath the skin of a place – that was one of the premises upon which we built Grantourismo, developed our ‘slow, local, experiential’ mission, and embarked on the yearlong global grand tour that launched the site way back in 2010, so trust us on this!
Really immersing yourself in an activity and getting hands-on and learning things undoubtedly provides a deeper experience of a place.
Perhaps you don’t want to spend half a day doing a cooking class in Siem Reap if you’re only in the city for two days when you’ve got loads of temples to see, but a one-hour market tour with a chef is worth squeezing in if you’re a food lover.
You’ll find loads of classes and short tours on sites such as Get Your Guide and Klook while Luxury Escapes has everything from guided wine tastings to make-your-own gins under their Experiences section.
Allow Time to Absorb a Great Art Gallery or Museum
Art is sublime and museums of history, culture, ethnography, anthropology etc give us a deeper understanding of the places we’re visiting and the people in those places.
I don’t recommend scheduling a museum on the same day as you’re doing an intense tour or interactive class. Head to an art gallery instead and immerse yourself in beautiful paintings and sculptures.
Aside from the opportunity to engage in learning new things and absorbing exquisite art, museums and art galleries give your body and mind a break from the hustle and bustle outside, which can be especially overwhelming in big cities that you’re visiting for the first time.
Usually air-conditioned, they provide relief from the heat; seats give you a chance to rest your weary body and sore feet; and generally quiet, they offer space for reflection and time to revive before you venture out again, while provocative exhibitions can stimulate the mind and senses.
Plan Some Great Dinners and Very Good Meals
Naturally, food features on my list of tips to how to plan a perfect day on your next trip because who doesn’t enjoy eating and nobody likes wasting a meal. Plus, if you were underwhelmed by that iconic monument you’ve spent your life looking forward to visiting or overwhelmed by the crowds at that world-famous museum, you can at least look forward to lunch or dinner.
Research restaurants for special dinners in advance of your trip and book the Michelin-starred and World 50 Best-listed restaurants well ahead of time. Choose restaurants that are near those top sights you want to see so you don’t have to travel far.
Next, identify spots for breakfast and lunch, whether it’s street food joints in Bangkok or hawker centres in Singapore, bistros and brasseries in Paris, or cafés in Melbourne.
Make sure to have back-up spots if they’re closed, too busy, or the menu doesn’t excite you – along with a gourmet deli, market or supermarket identified.
Schedule Downtime and Time to Do Nothing – Or Very Little at All
One of my best tips to how to plan a perfect day on your next vacation is to schedule time to do nothing – or to do very little at all. Call it ‘downtime’ if you like. But I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to have time to rest, to reflect, and to revive.
If you’re going to wake in the wee hours of the morning for sunrise at Angkor Wat and spend half a day scrambling temples, then you need to schedule time in the afternoon for a snooze and, at most, a massage or spa treatment to restore your energy so you can get out again in the evening.
If you’re on a stopover in a big city, return to the hotel for a cat nap at the very least, and don’t feel guilty! That short respite will give you the energy to get back out there again to experience more of your dream destination.
Spend Some Time in a Park or Botanic Gardens
One of the best places to spend some downtime is at a local park or botanic gardens as you not only get to escape the bustle of a big city, you get to enjoy some serenity amidst nature while still being able to take in local life.
Put the phone away and take a book of fiction to read set in the destination you’re in – or non-fiction, or even a travel guidebook if you still use one. Or call into that gourmet deli, market or supermarket you marked on your map to pick up some nibbles or snacks or even picnic supplies for a proper lunch.
Nature is restorative, so you’ll feel twice as refreshed spending your downtime in a park or garden as you would lying by a pool or napping in your hotel room.
Identify a Local Neighbourhood to Wander
Do some research before you leave home to identify an interesting local neighbourhood to wander that you can make a beeline for once you’re feeling refreshed.
Exploring local neighbourhoods is a cornerstone of local travel and was something we did every time we landed in a new destination on that grand tour of the world we did that launched Grantourismo.
Some aimless wandering is good for you. A relaxed walk to nowhere will really make you feel like you’re on holidays. Ambling a local neighbourhood also gives you an insight into local life that you don’t get in the tourist centres.
Seeing residents doing a spot of gardening, kids playing in a park, locals returning from work or heading out for a late afternoon walk is comforting. It shows that despite our differences that we’re all inherently the same, and that realisation is partly the point of travel.
Allow Time to Be Spontaneous
I strongly recommend building some time for spontaneity into your itinerary after your neighbourhood saunter. That allows you to stop some place for a while if you stumble across something that intrigues you.
Perhaps it’s to watch a local neighbourhood game of football or join in on a game of volleyball, or call into a cool local café or lively corner pub that you might spot on your stroll that wasn’t on your radar.
The problem with short stays and tight schedules is that there’s not much time to return to a place that intrigued you. I can’t tell you how many times we said “oh let’s go back to that place, that looks interesting!” when we first started travelling, only to not find the time to return and leave disappointed.
But the times that we did do something spontaneous and change our plans to do something we hadn’t scheduled, we had some of our most memorable travel experiences.
Schedule Time for Sundowners and Reflection
I never tire of sunrises and sunsets. For me, part of the joy of travelling is being to rise in the darkness to trundle on a tuk tuk to Angkor for sunrise or climb the Golden Mount Temple in Bangkok to watch the sunset over the Old Town.
But I have to confess to a fondness for sundowners and watching a sunset with a cold glass of something in hand. Perhaps it’s because after a busy day seeing the sights and discovering a new place that you can finally sit and catch your breath and as you sip a chilled white wine or icy cold beer.
It’s a chance to truly focus on the pleasure of the event, of watching that sun go down and the sky changing colour, cycling through shades of tangerine and crimson. Then in the darkness you can reflect upon your day and the different experiences you had and how they affected you.
And then you can begin to get excited about the prospect of another day of new experiences, insights and adventures.
Make Time to Linger at a Local Bar, Pub or Café
When it comes to evenings, there are a few tendencies for travellers who are only in places for a short time, in my long-term experience as a people-watcher as much as an itinerary maker.
There’s the kind of traveller who likes to pack their evenings with as many activities as they can – sundowners or maybe a food tour, perhaps an early dinner and a show of some kind, and maybe dessert or a cocktail or even a late night supper.
There’s the traveller who likes to plant themselves in the one place for the night – generally an all day dining sort of spot, where they can sip some drinks before ordering something to eat; usually it’s in a tourist centre where the focus of their people-watching is typically other tourists.
Then there are the travellers who are satisfied with dinner and drinks, whether those drinks are at a neighbourhood bar or pub or coffee and cake at a café. Lingering at a popular local spot offers an opportunity to strike up a conversation and engage with locals in a way that’s next to impossible in the tourist centre.
Do the tours, see the shows, but make sure to schedule time to linger on at least one evening. Because, as we’ve long said, it’s the people you meet rather than the places you go that makes travel more meaningful and more memorable.
Image used with permission of our affiliate partner Luxury Escapes
Please do let us know if you follow my tips to how to plan a perfect day on your next trip as I’d love to know if my advice made a difference to your holiday.
