Hello! Hoping to learn more about how everyone plans their itinerary and design an app that could potentially solve any pain points travelers currently faced!
[ Edit: Edited on 27 May 2023, 11:47 GMT by panndora ]
Main "tool" I use is talking to other people along the way. Locals or other travellers.
A lot of the internet blogs are just from people repeating what others have said on internet blogs which their got from other internet blogs and the result is a narrow view of an area that can often omit some amazing places. Talk to locals and they know about the amazing places that are often deserted (because all those who plan whilst sitting at home in another country are just going to repeat what internet blogs describe ...
Same with transport. Search on internet and you'll discover that a bus to <ancient ruins> runs twice a day and costs US$30. Ask a local and they'll tell you to go to the local city bus station and catch a bus that runs every 30 mins for less than US$1.
So for me it's very much a matter of planning as you go talking to other people.
If you use an "app" you'll be limited to those same blogs and that same expensive inconvenient travel.
Ian
Like Ian, I talk to people. If I use an app, it is too limited and too narrow in its search. I do a lot of research on the web but also on location. When I organise travel with other people, its the situation. An app would not provide the flexibility I need
We start with where we want to go and what we want to see. I plot it on a map and add and subtract to make it fit into the trip. We try to spend at least a week in each area so we can look around a little. We have been very fortunate in having people we've met along the way, local and other travelers, tell us about things they have found. If it sounds interesting, we find it too. We don't do day to day planning, just a list of possible interesting things to see and do and then check the weather each day, see what else is happening and figure it out from there. I've tried apps and travel planners and they are too constricting. I don't like having every minute or even every day scheduled. Getting lost is half the fun. Occasionally, taking a day off is very nice too.
I come from a 'before aps" era. When I was planning trips back then, there was no internet. You used a travel agent, or printed time tables and you phoned hotels for reservations or had the agency do it for you. Or you looked in guidebooks.
I do my planning in much the same way as I did then except I read the internet instead of guidebooks. Or in some cases, I have a daughter who is an airline pilot and she will tell me what great things there are to do in a place.
So for a trip to London in 2002, I had a tier of places to see and things to do, and a secondary set of places. The goals in no particular order were:
Ride the Big Bus for an overall orientation
British Museum - Elgin Marbles, Rosetta Stone and Magna Carta
Evensong at St. Pauls
Gilbert & Sullivan at the Savoy
A brass rubbing at St Martin in the Fields
Shop at Harrods
London Eye
See pictures of Salisbury by Constable and paintings by Turner
Have afternoon tea with clotted cream
Reduced Shakespeare performance
I managed to do all but the Evensong, Shopping, the afternoon tea (which we did later) the Magna Carta (which we saw latter) and the Reduced Shakespeare.
For a trip to Quito, my daughter gave me the name of a good guide, told me about going up the mountain and doing some swings, and about the equator museum.
Hi Rosalie. I hope you have since had a chance to do the Evensong. We loved it. They invited us all to sit up in the choir, gave us song sheets and let us sing along with the choir. It was glorious.
No that is one thing I never got a chance to do.