Vacation Checklist and Planning Tips

When choosing your accommodations, ask yourself:

• What is my budget?
• What type of accommodations do I want?

Often you will not be spending much time in your hotel room and that may help you make your decision, but if you do plan to spend more time in a restful and pleasant setting, here are some vacation planning tips.

Hotel Star Ratings

Be aware that hotel star ratings are different in each country and reading reviews is helpful, balancing out the positive and negative comments to help establish a reasonable conclusion.

• Try to stay at least 2 nights in one location.
• One of the most important vacation checklist tips is to ensure you allow plenty of time to get from place to place as unexpected delays can sometimes occur.
• Delays such as flight delays due to technical difficulties or bad weather.

Once you have decided on how many nights you will be staying at each location, and have selected the hotels of your choice and the distances from the train and bus stations, you are now ready to make your reservations.

Hotel Vacation Checklist Tips:

Usually email confirmations for online hotel room bookings are enough.

Occasionally a fax may be necessary, depending on the country and their preference of communication.

I have done this and have had no problems.

If you are booking your accommodations online, be aware that some websites add extra fees and taxes at the end when you have reached the checkout.

Review your order well before you click OK.

Often you can get a better price when you purchase your airline tickets or hotel accommodations directly from the airline or hotel website.

Air Travel Tips on Booking

If you are booking your own travel plans online, be aware that some websites do not add in the extra fees and taxes until you reach the checkout.

• Again, make sure to review your order before you click OK.
• Often for air travel booking you can get a better price when you purchase your airline tickets directly from the airline website so shop around before making your decision.
• Consider international travel insurance for your travel protection and peace of mind.
• Check in on-line for your flights if possible. This reduces your time in line at airports, and where there are extra charges for luggage, you pay less at on-line check-in than at the airport.

Vacation Checklist for Your Daily Meals Budget

If your budget is tight, save money by exploring local grocery stores for snacks, breakfast and lunches that you can take back to your hotel room.

If your hotel room does not have a small fridge (which is often the case in many 1 star and 2 star hotels)here are a few ideas:

Purchase foods such as fruit, nuts, croissants, bagels, boxed juices, or whatever you think of which can survive without refrigeration for a little while.

Depending on the weather, I have placed juice, milk, fruit and yogurt on the window-sill overnight and they were perfect for breakfast in the morning.

International Foods

Do make an effort to go to the local grocery stores because it can be a lot of fun to explore the international foods of other countries and chat with the locals or even other tourists.

When you are eating out, try neighborhood restaurants and bistros and enjoy some local cuisine and meet the locals.

On the other hand, if you are looking to treat yourself at an exquisite restaurant such as the restaurants on the Eiffel Tower, make your reservation 2 to 6 months in advance as they book up very quickly.

If you reserve by telephone, I would advise that you to follow up with a fax to confirm your reservation and bring your copy with you just in case.

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Book Special Events and Great Day Tours in Advance

Choose locations that offer great day tours.

• Book in advance to secure your reservation where possible as availability may be limited and tickets often sell out fast.
• For some events you could be standing in long line-ups of several hours.

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