Planning is Everything

I remember when I was a little kid, my mom and I would sit together in the kitchen table or dinning room and we would start "planning the day". We would make a list of all the task we had to accomplish for that day only, and at the end there was always a reward, my favorites being the trip to KFC's or McDonalds playground (which obviously includes the happy meal), ice cream, or a movie. 

That ritual is so ingrained in my personality that it has been my north my entire life. If I don't plan in a piece of paper, I plan in my head, and I try to not to give myself too much freedom to finish tasks later because I know myself, and they'll probably won't get done. Everything I have achieved so far has been planned in some way using the resources I had, and often the results are completely different from my expectations, usually for the better, even if it doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.

How I managed to plan a 1-month trip to Italy for us? Thanks to this philosophy, and my new tool: the spreadsheet.

• First, we've been wanting to make a trip like this since we got married in 2019, so we opened a savings account called "Travel Fund" the second after we got married, in which we always contribute up to this date. 
• Around September 2021, we sat down together and looked at our work calendars. We picked a random date that was within our vacations window. Nick is in education so, summer trips are more convenient for us. 
• Why July 12th, 2022? I don't know, it felt right at that moment - right after July 4th so we can be with our family before leaving, and traveling on a weekday is usually cheaper.

We laid down the entire month starting with July 12th. We figured that our main two large time-sensitive expenses were going to be:

Plane tickets and car rental.

The car was easy because we had the choice to pay in the counter the day we pick up the car, but the plane was tricky. We decided to apply for a travel credit card offer that was apr free for 15 months. We got it, and luckily for us, the tickets were still showing off-season prices, so we bought them in a heartbeat. 

We didn't give ourselves the chance to back out or make excuses. We would be starting to live and making plans around the trip from that moment onwards. Fortune favors the bold.

I would never suggest anyone to get into debt to fulfill a dream vacation, but sometimes it's worth it, and if you're committed to pay it off before the promotional apr expires, it's more than ok in my book. By that time, we also had saved enough in our Travel Fund that we were confident of having enough to pay for at least these major expenses. 

This is how our spreadsheet started to look like once we started to plan everything around our travel dates: what cities were we visiting, what sites, shows, and museums, etc.

Was it scary? Yes. We didn't buy travel insurance so we'll probably going to lose what we paid if one of us got sick or the sort, so it was a bit of a gamble. Was it smart? No, so get yourself travel insurance if you're booking well in advance. Sometimes buying peace of mind is totally worth it. 

Second - accommodation. As soon as you know in what city you're staying on what days, you can start making those hotel or Airbnb reservations. The picture I have displayed in my homepage is from our Airbnb in Siena, the last leg of our trip. A wonderful accommodation with a breathtaking view:

Siena, August 2022

Please, make sure to schedule some free/resting time. Yes, you want to make the most of the time exploring, but we're human beings and our energy is limited. Take care of yourself and you'll see that you'll have plenty of time to do everything you planned to do ;)

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Hopefully it has given you inspiration and courage to book that dream trip.

If you would like a free copy of my spreadsheet, please comment below or send me an email!