Travel Planning | Sherry Lachelle Travels

There’s much to do to plan an 11-week trip through five European countries and being organized makes your trip so much more enjoyable. Here’s a fairly complete outline of how I did it.

First, I had to decide where I wanted to go. I began planning in November 2021. I read Rick Steve’s info, blogs, Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, ManinSeat61, and chat forums. I’ve watched lots of Anthony Bourdain, Rick S. and read fictional and historical fiction books based in Europe. Once I decided on the destinations I wanted to visit, I did more logistical research: Which places should be my home base and for how long; what day trips (via public transport, usually train) could I do from those bases; how would I get from point A to point B; which order of travel made sense; and then more micro research: What sites did I want to see in each place, etc. I chose the order of my travel based on the weather…warmer climate first (since I began April 2nd) and cooler climate last (since I flew home on June 20th)

Before I left home:

I made sure all of my bills were set up for electronic auto payment.

A friend agreed to watch my cat and she fell in love with him.

I had my doctors call in 90-day supplies of my medications.

I lined up a neighbor to do a weekly check of my condo and bring my mail in.

I signed up for the STEP program: Alerts about what’s going on in the countries I would be visiting and they would have record of where I was.

Made a timeline of when I had to purchase train reservations (especially for the scenic Switzerland trains), booked shuttle bus tours for the France Chateaus, transfers, ferry, other transport.

I messaged the 21 accommodations to let them know of my approximate arrival time.

I paid $100 extra per month to Verizon for 5 gigs of data, 250 talk minutes, and 1000 texts.

I purchased trip insurance thru Squaremouth (a search engine to compare the insurances (Tin Leg is who I chose).

Made photocopies of my passport/Charles Schwab debit card/driver’s license/Capital One credit card/extra debit card from home bank/extra Chase credit card for my backpack and checked bag and had photos of them on my phone and backed up to the cloud. Took photos of my passwords and stored in the cloud.

I’ve had four Covid shots (2 Pfizer/2 boosters)/made photocopies of them, took photos with my phone, and stored in cloud.

Downloaded regions from Google maps that I’d be visiting for offline use onto my phone.

Put my 40 page Itinerary onto my phone’s home page for easy access (packed a hard copy).

I developed Google Map walking routes for 95% of the 40 destinations I’d be exploring and had them on my itinerary. I had the itinerary on my phone’s home page so that I could easily look at it and click on the route the morning of my walk.

Some of the apps I had on my phone: Rail Planner (train travel was made much easier with this), DB Navigator (great for knowing ahead of time which train platform), SBB Mobile (Switzerland) (for platforms), Free Now Taxi service (for Italy and France), Rome2Rio, Google Lens (which was already on my phone – came in handy for translating menus, instructions, etc.) An example is shown below of before and after…

Google Translate (I used this quite often), Libby and Kindle for audible and other books

I made folders on my phone home screen for the apps – Airlines, Lodging (Airbnb and Booking.com), Embassies (Covid), Transport, Get Your Guide (for a couple of tours I was taking).

I’ll go over what I packed and shouldn’t have in another post.

p.s. If you’ve just began reading…I planned an 11 week, 5 European country, 21 accommodations solo trip from April – June of 2022. Photos were taken with my LG Velvet Android phone.

Image via Pinterest

I am sure many of you that read my blog have gone on long international trips in the past. By long trip, I mean more than 10-14 days. But, likewise, some of you haven’t. I’ve been preparing for my 40 day trip to Africa, leaving at the end of April 2012, and thought it may be helpful to list the many details that one has to attend to before departure. Because most of my trip is through an adventure travel company, G Adventures, there isn’t as much research involved. Certain tasks take priority over others, so I will list them in order of urgency.

Decide upon trip and airline travel — and purchase.
Purchase travel insurance same day. I secured mine through World Nomads for $129 for six weeks and it covers everything from baggage delay to emergency evacuation! I learned my lesson last year after booking a trip for three weeks in Turkey–then flying to five Scandinavian countries for another three weeks–and had planned on purchasing insurance–but a week after I booked the trip, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Delta Airlines was kind enough to refund my money, so I only lost a few hundred dollars on another flight.
I had to order a new passport. Although mine was still good for 4 more years, I didn’t have enough visa pages left for the countries I would be traveling through. Get photos for passport and visas. Apply for Visas if required . I can get my two Visas at the border.
Make appointment for travel shots and any other doctor appointments. I went through a local county health department (rather than a travel clinic) for my shots and only spent $150.
Order travel accessories or clothing. I ordered a new rolling duffel/backpack, hiking shoes, and a lightweight/compressible sleeping bag.
Pack. I start this early so I can see what I’ll need to purchase as far as clothing, toiletries, etc. and to see how much it weighs. Then, I unpack the things I’ll need before the trip or that will wrinkle easily.
Research hostels/hotels and book. I decided not to rent a car in Cape Town (where I’ll be for four days before the group trip begins).
Notify credit card companies and bank of your travel plans.
Set up automatic bill pay if internet connections are questionable.
Research things to do and book. For some activities, I wait until I arrive and decide upon. For example, I’d like to hike Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, but I’m not sure what the weather will be like, and am confident I can book it when I arrive, to hike a couple of days later.
Type up itinerary to include contact information, time changes and currency conversions and leave a copy at home for family.
Make photocopies of travel documents (e-ticket/health insurance/credit cards/debit card/passport/vaccination record/itinerary). Leave one at home and pack a copy in your suitcase. I also e-mail a copy of my passport and credit cards to myself.
Download books to Kindle or other device.
Update I-pod with music/books.
Make appointments for hair and nails (I’m a girl)!

When you work full time, it’s important to get started on everything early, so that you don’t feel rushed at the end. You want to enjoy your trip and pre-planning puts your mind at ease!

I’ve had a request from a fellow blogger to list my expenses because he would like to eventually go on this trip…so here they are–

Tour (20% off – Last Minute Special) $2879

Airfare (Cincinnati has some of the $1768

most expensive air travel of anywhere)

Food/wine (Most food is included) $ 400

Trip Insurance $ 130

Hostel in Cape Town $ 209

Visas $ 150

Optional Excursions (approximate) $ 350

Transfers from/to airports $ 50

Total $5936

Don’t forget that I won’t have some of my usual expenses at home…food, gas and entertainment. So, I can take at least $750 off the total!

Of course, there were other expenses…passport update and pics $150, shots $150, luggage, $70, sleeping bag, $112, hiking shoes $68, clothing (fleece/2 shirts) $110, toiletries/misc. $50 = $710. But, I can use these things for other trips.

I may have left something off of this list…so much to do…if you can think of anything, let me know!