How to Plan Your Next Trip (In Under 10 Minutes)
Discovering the Beauty of America's National (and other) Parks
Free Image provided by Erika Wittlieb at Pixabay.com
Wait, I think you misunderstood me there!
What I meant was, here’s a ten (or so) minute article on how to plan your next trip! Actually planning your trip is going to take much longer!
But let’s get you started by giving a quick example scenario using how my family typically plans our vacations.
What you will need:
A good laptop or tablet for research
A GPS or map for determining travel time and distances
Helpful articles and apps that you can use to plan your to do list
A budget
Lots of patience and planning
Flexibility and a sense of adventure
Step 1:
Decide where you are going!
Will you be heading out of the country, or will you be exploring stateside? Will you drive, or fly? OR hit the high seas and take a cruise? Will it be a day trip, or a week or two?
Mountains, or the beach? Amusement park, zoo, sight-seeing, or museums? Looking for relaxation, or adventure? Or perhaps you’re looking for a combination of all of these things?
All of these factors will play into the decisions you make in the following steps.
Example Scenario: Let’s plan a National Park trip to visit 4 National Parks in New Mexico and Texas by car in the month of September or October.
Free Image provided by asmuSe at Pixabay.com
Step 2:
Decide on a budget, and necessary time off.
Let’s face it, without money, and without time off from work or school, you’re not going anywhere very far.
Will the trip be a 3-day extended weekend? Will you go for a whole week? Week and a half, or two? Figure out how much time you can afford to take off, and PLAN ACCORDINGLY to maximize your time. It doesn’t make much sense to drive for thousands of miles several states away, only to spend a day there and then turn around and head home.
Will you travel to one destination and stay put? Or will you road trip to several destinations in one trip?
Create a “rough estimate” budget with the following items:
Expenses for getting there (Gas, Airfare & Fees, Rental Car, Renting an RV [if you don’t already have one], Toll Road Fees — Stuff Like That)
If flying, look for deals by being flexible with your dates.
By doing a simple internet search, you can obtain valuable info about the best day of the week to fly, best day to book, and how far in advance to book your flights in order to save the most money possible.
If only driving, selectively plan your routes in order to travel the fewest miles possible, and you can use tools like gasbuddy.com to estimate gas prices in the areas you will be visiting.
Renting an RV for a National Park trip could possibly “kill two birds with one stone” by taking care of lodging and getting there at the same time, but be aware that RVs typically get terrible gas mileage, and are quite expensive to rent. Still, this option can be a memorable experience!
Lodging
Hotels can be one of the biggest expenses (if not THE biggest expense) on a trip.
But there are deals to be found. Just make sure you always read the reviews!!
Another option is to try tent camping. (Tent camping has typically cost our family roughly $15-20/night, compared to around $120/night and upward, so this can be a great money saver!)
Food
Our family loves to eat out, especially on vacation, and we love to try new foods that we have never gotten to experience before.
Just be aware that food costs are driven up exponentially if you plan on going to restaurants the entire time (especially in the most touristy areas).
You can save lots of money by finding a good grocery store on your journey and stocking up on the essentials.
(An RV or a hotel with a kitchen comes in handy for saving money on eating out).
You might find it feasible to eat a sandwich lunch, and then go to a restaurant for dinner, in order to cut back on restaurant expenses.
Also, be aware that you can save a ton of money on drinks/snacks/coffees/etc. if you buy those things at the grocery store before the trip and store them in a cooler in the back of the car (as opposed to buying these things at a convenience store).
Recreation
Aside from lodging and “getting there” expenses, another big budget item will be what to do while there.
Amusement parks are extremely fun, and extremely pricey!
Touristy experiences like go-karts, mini-golf, horseback riding, boating, etc. are all quite fun, but pricey as well.
There can be some neat museums, zoos, parks, etc. in a lot of major cities that are often either very reasonably priced, or sometimes even free.
Our family loves to go hiking, which is totally free (minus perhaps a parking fee, or a fee to enter a National Park).
For that, look into getting a National Park Pass if the number of National Parks you are visiting justifies buying one!
Miscellaneous
Always plan for the unexpected.
What if you need vehicle repairs while on the trip?
Surely there will be a few “odds and ends” miscellaneous souvenirs you would like to purchase.
Stick back a few hundred extra dollars just in case.
Example Scenario:
Let’s say that you will be visiting White Sands N.P. and Carlsbad Caverns N.P. in New Mexico, and Guadalupe Mountains N.P. and Big Bend N.P. in Texas. You decide that the best time to go is the first week of October, and you will be traveling from Dallas, TX by car.
Determining that you will be doing a mix of hotel stays and tent camping over the course of 6 nights, and you will be cooking many of your own meals, with a few restaurant meals mixed in, and your leisure activities will mostly consist of free and low cost activities like hiking, museums, parks, etc., you decide on the following budget:
Getting there expense — $350
Lodging for 3 nights (hotel) and 3 nights (tent camping) - $500
Food — A Wild Guess of $550 (This expense varies greatly because of vastly different costs of different kinds of restaurants vs. groceries, etc. You can always over-estimate this one if you are more comfortable with that).
Recreation — Hiking (totally free!), zoos, and National Park fees — $150
Miscellaneous — $300
That’s a very rough estimate of $1850. Honestly, with unexpected expenses, I usually tend to undershoot our expected expenses by a few hundred dollars. You might want to raise this to at least $2000 just to be safe.
Step 3:
Plan your routes.
Here’s how I do it!
In our fictional example of driving from Dallas, TX to the 4 National Parks mentioned above, figure out the route that makes the most sense to maximize travel mileage and times …
For this trip, that looks to be …
Dallas, TX —> White Sands N.P. —> Carlsbad Caverns N.P. —> Guadalupe Mtns N.P. —> Big Bend N.P. —> Dallas, TX
Figure out your total mileage, and then factor in the MPG of your vehicle. Then multiply the expected number of gallons of gas needed by a rough estimate of expected gas prices per gallon …
607 miles + 182 miles + 28 miles + 233 miles + 532 miles + 250 miles (for extra driving around) = 1832 expected total miles.
Take expected miles and divide by your vehicle’s average miles per gallon:
1832 / 23 mpg = 79.6 gallons of gas.
Take the expected gallons of gas and multiply by an average expected price per gallon:
79.6 gallons X $3.79/gallon = $301.88 expected fuel expense.
Good news! That’s within budget!
(But keep in mind that we used only the shortest recommended GPS routes. Actual road conditions may vary. You may spend some money on roadway tolls, and you may use a lot more “drive around” mileage than the 250 that we calculated for).
Factors that will affect this include …
How far your hotels/camp sites are from anticipated recreational activities, restaurants, stores, etc.
How you plan your activities to best maximize your drive time & mileage.
Unexpected detours due to construction or roads out of service.
Etc.
You just never know, so plan accordingly!
Step 4:
Finalize lodging and recreation plans.
Check out sites like hotels.com, expedia.com, vrbo.com and airbnb.com to find not only the best places to stay, but the most affordable rates as well! You might consider creating an account on some of these sites, and receiving points for every dollar you spend to eventually use on further hotel stays down the road.
At this step in your planning process, you might find that adjusting your travel dates by a week or two could save you a lot of money.
Factors that could greatly affect this include holidays, things like Spring Break for local schools, local festivals, etc. So plan accordingly!
(By the way, don’t forget about factoring in those pesky taxes and fees as well!)
I’ll leave this part of the process mostly up to you! Your individual taste in places to stay will have a great impact on the budget here, but for example’s sake, let’s say you decide on …
1 night hotel stay in Alamogordo, NM for $129.
2 nights hotel stay in Carlsbad, NM for $339.
3 nights tent camping for $57.
Total Expected Lodging Expense = $525.
Looks like you’re slightly over budget, but not too bad. It happens!
Step 5:
Plan the best part — Recreation!
You decide to visit the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Carlsbad, NM. Looks like admission for a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids over age 6) = $19. Not bad!
It looks like all 4 National Parks on this particular trip charge an entrance fee, so you will want to purchase an America the Beautiful National Parks annual pass for $80 in order to save a little money.
Bonus Tip:
You can share a National Parks annual pass with one other household and save even more! Go to the America the Beautiful Annual Pass site for more information!
You also decide to go hiking at each of the various National Parks that you will visit on this trip, for the extremely low-price value of … FREE!
Check out the All Trails website or app to find out the best trails to hit for all experience and activity levels!
Step 6:
Revise budget as needed.
Again, this will vary greatly depending on your actual travel routes (and the more specifically you plan your routes, the more accurate an estimate you’ll have), and as always, things will come up!
You’ll find neat places to visit, advertised on the side of the road, so you’ll pay an unexpected entrance fee here and there, but the most important thing to remember is …
Step 7:
Have FUN!
Go out there and explore everything God’s beautiful creation has to offer!
Well, there you have it! An under ten-minute read on how to plan your next trip! I hope that you will take this advice and fine tune it for your family’s needs, and most importantly, be thankful for precious time you get to spend seeing the world with your family!
“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
As always,
Keep exploring, friends!
— Chase