[custom_adv] The "Dareh" mountain range and location is located in the northwest of the capital and is one of the popular hiking trails in the capital. This place is one of the most important and old resorts in the city, and the pleasantly lush mountains are easily accessible at the foot of the high mountains of Alborz. [custom_adv] Which brings us to our topic, How do you plan a sightseeing trip? Time: When to go should be more than just the luck of airline ticket prices. Last fall, for instance, I decided I wanted to be in Berlin for the 25th Anniversary of the Wall coming down. [custom_adv] Places: Early in my life, I was a flitter -- trying to hit as many places as I could in long or short trips. I still do that occasionally but have established several rules of thumb: No stays shorter than three nights. A two night stay only gives you one night in a location -- no location worth visiting is done in one day. [custom_adv] 2. Location in relation to the site I want to visit is everything. Nothing is worse than going to a wonderful city like Florence and needing to take a bus into the historical center every morning. I always map out my locations before I reserve a room. [custom_adv] Sidetrips: Whenever I decide on a locale, I ask myself what is in the specific locale that will allow me to do day-trips while establishing residency in a larger city for some time. For Berlin, that involves Dresden, Wittenberg, Leipzig, Goerlitz, Potsdam, all great secondary locations. [custom_adv] Airline Hops: Once I decide on a city like Berlin or London, I look at the discount airlines to find if there are any great deals that would allow me to spend up to three days somewhere else. I found a great flight from Berlin to Istanbul and spent four days there in the fall. From London, I have taken flights to Glasgow and Dublin, for instance, with very little luggage. It is cheaper and quicker to fly from Paris to Prague, for instance, than to take a train there. [custom_adv] Creating the perfect travel itinerary template might seem like a lot of work. You have airline confirmation emails, hotel reservations, rental car information, restaurant reservations … you get the idea. There are a lot of parts to your trip that need to be organized. On top of that, you need to pick out and schedule all of your activities and sightseeing. [custom_adv] Don’t feel overwhelmed. Planning your travel itinerary is actually quite simple. Start with an upcoming trip you’re taking and follow these steps. After you how to make an itinerary, planning future travel will be a breeze. You know where you’re traveling to, but the destination is just the beginning of your journey. There’s such a wealth of information online to help guide your planning, so create an inspiration board to keep it organized and in one place. [custom_adv] Now that you have your inspiration board populated full of ideas and all of your essential travel information locked and loaded in TripIt, it’s time to add some activities to your travel itinerary. Viator is great for finding tours, sightseeing adventures, shows, excursions and more. Trover is another great resource to discover off-the-beaten-path gems and can’t-miss sights. Forward any tour confirmations to TripIt, or, for any activities or stops without confirmation emails, you can simply add it in yourself. [custom_adv] Just because you have everything scheduled doesn’t mean you have to follow your itinerary to a T. Your trip will be much more rewarding if you give yourself some room for flexibility. So you didn’t make it to Empire State building on Wednesday. No big deal. Maybe you stumbled across a cool art gallery that wasn’t on your inspiration board. [custom_adv] what if you missed your noon reservations at the swanky café you booked months ago. Perhaps you got a recommendation from a local you just couldn’t pass up. The lesson is your travel itinerary is there for you when you need it to keep you on track, but it definitely isn’t meant to constrain you. [custom_adv] Travel planning shouldn't feel exhausting. It should be exhilarating! … But when your inbox gets cluttered with ideas and requests from tripmates, your browser's bursting with bookmarked hotels and restaurants, and you've lost track of your notes from perusing piles of travel mags — it can become a burden to keep it all straight. [custom_adv] That's where Planapple comes in. A web travel binder of sorts, Planapple helps you collect your ideas, possibilities, and plans — and saves them all in one place, organized and manageable. Bookmark or email your favorites right into Planapple — capturing the details that you'll otherwise forget to jot down (like hotel addresses and restaurant contact info). [custom_adv] Pretty simple, right? Creating a travel itinerary doesn’t have to be a painstaking process, and now that you’ve done one, you can follow it for each trip you take. Happy travels!
