5 Simple Steps for Creating a Travel Itinerary on Your Own

While creating a travel itinerary for an international trip seems daunting, with a step-by-step approach this overwhelming task becomes very simple. With so many travel blogs and YouTube videos showing you lots of travel experiences, it may seem very complicated to you, but it doesn’t have to be if you start small and add more details as you go. In this article I will show you step-by-step how I create a travel itinerary for all my trips. Since I have been travelling internationally for the last 20 years, by myself and with my family, I have been able to simplify the entire process to a few simple steps. So, read on and find out how to create a travel itinerary for your own trips.

How do you create a travel itinerary? Creating a travel itinerary on your own, especially for the first time, can be a daunting task. This is especially true when you have a long list of Pinterest and Instagram ideas scattered all over. It may seem that there are too many places you want to see and too many things you want to do and too little time and money to make it happen. In this article however, we will walk together through a few simple steps for creating a travel itinerary. We’ll take it step by step as we move from your travel dreams to having your own travel itinerary with specific days and

1. Keep Your Travel Itinerary in One Place

What is the best tool for creating a travel itinerary? Should I create my own travel itinerary map in Google Maps? Or maybe in Excel or Google Docs? Unfortunately many people spend countless hours trying to find the best tool, or phone app to organize all their ides.

Many years ago, I fell in that trap also and wasted a lot of time and energy trying to figure the best app for my travel itinerary. What a waste of time!

The reality is that, in order to create travel itinerary, you should pick the simplest tool you’re already familiar with.

A simple Microsoft Word document or Google Doc works best especially if you’re traveling with multiple people and you can simply share the document with everyone.

When it comes to creating a travel itinerary I usually use Google Docs. I start a new file and simply start typing ideas. This Google Doc file becomes the one place where I create my travel itinerary.

In addition to one Google Doc, I create a separate folder in Google Drive for all my travel itinerary documents: attraction tickets, rental car agreements, etc.

2. Add Dates to Your Travel Itinerary

Start with a rough idea of how many days you plan on traveling. Are you planning to travel for one week or two weeks or a month? How much vacation time do you have available from work?

At start of travel planning start only with a rough estimate of travel time. Don’t get tangled in maximizing your travel time. Figure out a rough number of days when you could travel.

In addition to the number of days for creating a travel itinerary you also need a rough time of year when you can travel. This is a more complicated question especially if you have a family with kids in school.

Don’t focus on specific dates but rather a rough idea like: “I would really like to spend 1 week in May in Italy“.

While this is a vague answer it has enough details for a starting point: a time frame for your travel. Thinking of your travel time goes also a long way in creating a simple travel budget.

3. Add Places to Your Travel Itinerary

The second step on our list for creating a custom travel itinerary comes adding a list of places. Start with a country, a region and a few cities you have in mind.

The focus here is to start somewhere on the map. Not a random place, but a place that you’re interested in visiting. At this time, you should be able to say something like this: “I would like to travel for 1 week to Venice, Italy“.

Then, pull up Google Maps, type Venice Italy in the search bar and look around the places you have in mind. If you go to London maybe you want to also see Cambridge or the Cotswolds.

Take your time to explore places for your travel. Many people miss really easy day trips to super cool destinations. For example, if you want to visit Venice you should also consider visiting Verona and Lake Garda. Or if you want to see Geneva Switzerland, consider visiting Annecy, Chamonix and Yvoire across the border in France.

As you find interesting places grouped loosely around your main places you want to visit, put them together in a your travel itinerary document. Don’t worry about the format at all, as long as you can easily access it and change it as you work on turning your dreams into reality.

Remember that at first you should not focus at all on adding too many details. Just write a list of places that look appealing to visit.

As you refine your list though try adding a note next to each place in your list. Your note should describe some reasons why you want to see a particular place. Why did you add this particular place on your list.

Here is an example of starting a SMART travel itinerary.

As you can see, this travel itinerary is very general at this point, but it captures places and some important reasons why these places appeal to you.

4. Add Distances to Your Travel Itinerary

The third step in creating a travel itinerary is to add some rough distances between the places on your list. Forcing yourself to add distances takes you much closer to making your travel itinerary a reality. Looking at travel distances brings your dreams down to earth.

Our rough list of places starts to get more details.

The idea is simple, right? Adding physical distances creates a clearer travel plan for what you want to visit in you mind.

Creating a travel itinerary map in your mind goes a very long way in making your dream a reality.

For example, having a mental map of Venice and surrounding areas will help you add more details to your travel itinerary. They clearly are even though you start to see that Lake Garda is a bit more difficult to reach by train.

5. Bring Your Travel Itinerary Together

As you can see, your travel itinerary is very rough but it does contain some details but not a lot. There are no details about train schedules or parking lot locations…at least not yet. However, as you keep working on creating  your own travel plan, you will be adding more and more details as you refine your dates and places.

The most important principle in creating a travel itinerary is not to get tangled in trying to figure out every detail at once.

Rather, you keep adding and changing details as you find more about the places you want to visit. You keep zooming into details like train schedules and attraction tickets and then you zoom out to the list of places in your travel itinerary.

As you can see, creating a travel itinerary with some dates, places and distances brings it closer to making your travel dreams a reality.

Here you have a simple  one week travel itinerary to Venice Italy with a couple of great day trips. Yes it is true that you need a few other essential things for your trip to Europe, but this is a great starting point for a travel itinerary that can keep growing as you add more details. During the next travel planning stages, this travel itinerary, together with a realistic travel budget will form a great foundation for an amazing travel experience.

Should You Create a Travel Itinerary for Your Next Trip?

You can definitely create your own travel itinerary that you will love. Remember that this is your travel plan, with your places to see, chosen specifically by you because they appeal to you. This is your own travel itinerary not someone else’s itinerary. Yes, sure, you can find inspiration by reading and talking to other people that have visited this particular area, but this is your list which means that it will be your own travel experience, the way you like it.