Building your own travel itinerary can be overwhelming when you don't know where to start and it's even more difficult if you've never been to the place before. I have a fool-proved step-by-step guide that you can follow to build your own itinerary.
Step 1: List down the places you want to visit
This includes the places of interest, restaurants, pubs, shopping areas, etc. The list length should be 5 places per day.
Step 2: Mark the places on the map
Many years ago, I would download the city map, print it out and put my mark on the map. But now, things are are easier now. You can use online map to do so. My favourite website is ZeeMaps. It is totally free and you don't have to register to use the service.
Step 3: Divide the map into the number of days
After you mark all the places, you can separate the map into the number of days. Distribute the number of places evenly - if you have more markings, divide the days based on the reasonable number of places you can visit per day.
Step 4: Determine your starting point
Your starting point is where you should stay. I will mark a radius of 5km on the middle line to determine where I should book my hotel. That way I can maximize my time and don't need to spend a lot of time to travel.
Step 5: Mode of transport
You can stop at Step 4, but I will go on further to decide which mode of transport to take. Sometimes I will start my day visiting the furthest point by taking Uber or train. If the locations are close by, I will be working from point to point and slowly make my way to the hotel at the end of the day. There are times that I will start from the nearest point first and at the end of the day, I will take Uber or train back to the hotel. It saves me a lot of money on transport with that method.
Step 6: Write down your itinerary
After all the plan, write it down in your notebook. You can keep it in your email or make a softcopy file, but I personally like to write it down. When traveling there's always tendencies that your phone run out of battery, or getting snatched by thieves. You shouldn't risk it by storing your information in your phone.
By the way, I have this super cool travelogue journal to introduce to you. It is a planner and also a documentation journal for traveling. There are few sections on the journal such as Itinerary, Checklist, Budget, etc. that helps organize your trip.
My favourite part of the journal is the mini scratch map where you can literally scratch off the map to reveal the countries you've been to. It is a new take on ticking off your bucket list.
You can purchase this travelogue journal on my little shop Wanderlust Things. It is a project that I am working on with Constance. Wanderlust Things is a trend label store that is inspired by travel and adventures. If you love to travel, there are some really good stuff which you can use. I hope you can click the link and go over to our humble e-store. Let me know what you think about the products and what you wish to see more on our store.
Travel safe. Go and see the world.