Planning a trip to a new country can be daunting, even just to a new city, it can be hard to know where to go, what to eat and where to stay. We are constantly being shown pictures of dream destinations online but when we arrive, reality can be quite different to the highly edited, enhanced and colour corrected versions we see through social media. These images also don’t tell us how to fill our days and it can hard to overcome the feeling of missing out on something. When I travel I try and leave as much up to the moment as possible. I allow time to explore streets as I come across them and make sure to not be too caught up in the idea of ‘the image’. In saying that, I do like to have a list of cool places to see and eat when I’m in the neighbourhood. And I like most millennials, crave accomodation that aspires to a greater ideal than homogenous hotel rooms of big chains. So post booking the flights, here are the steps I take to planning my holiday.
Airbnb
Without a doubt, I will always start my accomodation search on Airbnb. I am a huge fan of the site and have been using it for five years with no hassles, disappointments or dangers. I have met some amazing people through being a guest in someones house and stayed in some truely cool places full of character and style. Staying in a locals home (whether they are there or not) allows you to experience a (normally) more residential part of town with great local restaurants, shops and parks. Hosts are often willing to give great tips about the community and what to see and do that might not be in the latest version of Lonely Planet. Through hosts I’ve discovered the best wine bars in Prague and a hidden speakeasy in Paris, all things that were on the doorstep but I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
Having your own space like this also means you can cook for yourself, cutting down on the costs of eating out while also allowing you to sample all the delicious things you see in the local markets. This is a major plus for me, as going to food markets when I travel is a big part of experiencing life in a city, and something I look for when I travel. Staying in a hotel limits your ability to be able to buy the in season figs or rounds of crumbly goats cheese; you just can’t buy loaves of bread and store them in your hotel closet!
From a parquet wooden floored suit over a garden absinth bars in Budapest to an apartment with views of the piazza in Florence, I have had nothing but love and joy from my Airbnb stays!
Tablet
If Airbnb isn’t an option (which is rare) or I’m in the mood for a little luxury and turn down service, I head over to Tablet, an app that allows you to find the best boutique hotels in town. These hotels are often either not on regular websites like booking.com or are found here at lower rates. The benefit of this website is that all the hotels really are one of a kind and exceptionally beautiful and stylish. This is by no means a cheap option, but even if the lavish hotels are out of budget they might give you ideas on where to have drinks as many have wonderful bars. For example, Brooklyn 1 Hotel has an amazing bar on its roof with views of Manhattan which doesn’t cost the same as a night in the hotel!
The app is free if you just want to use the basic booking options, however Tablet does offer a membership program that will entitle you room upgrades, complimentary wine and mini bar credit and guaranteed late checkout for $90 a year. These exclusive membership deals are also available free of charge on your first booking so go ahead and treat yourself!
Who does not love a good Pinterest board? Pinterest can be a great way to find cute cafes and sights in a city, and cupcakes! There seems to be a lot of cupcakes on Pinterest. I like to make a board for each new place I go just to get an idea of whats around and more than anything where I can get a good cup of coffee. There can also be links to great blog posts and ideas for self guided walking tours, as well as helpful tips (like how much to tip!). Pinterest boards also allow you to get a feel for a place in images before you arrive and which helps me to pack appropriately and understand the general vibes. Just remember that Pinterest is not always the most realistic, so be prepared and don’t feel you have to do everything just because there is a great picture of something on a perfect day.
I use Instagram more when I have arrived in the place already. Scrolling through general hashtags and geo-tags such as ‘Los Angeles’ will give you a whole lot of crap and nothing of interest, but looking up certain cafes or more specific tags such as ‘The Polo Lounge’ or ‘Santa Monica Pier’ are going to give you a much better representation and allows you to see what its like on the day. I like to look up a cafe or restaurant on Instagram before I make a massive trek there so I can see what’s on offer. Like Pinterest, don’t et too caught up in Instagram and don’t let it stop you from just stumbling across things organically. Travel is not about finding the perfect Insta shot.
Google Trips
This app is great for organising as it pulls all you reservations from your gmail account into one place so you can view everything together. Flights, bus reservations, hotels, Airbnb whatever it is, Google Trips will store it all in chronological order under individual headings like folders. For example, if you book a bus to London this will appear under the heading “London” with your dates. Here you can add other reservations such as hotels and organised a plan in other folders such as ‘things to do’ , ‘food & drinks’, ‘day plans’, ‘starred place’ all compiled through a gmail account. It is a fantastic app which can make keeping everything together so easy so there is no scrolling through confirmation emails frantically at check in!
Inspirock.com
This is a new discovery of mine and its bound to come in handy when planning get aways. I was looking for a website that did exactly this and I’m super annoyed I didn’t create it! It’s essentially a travel agent where you can put in a destination and dates and it will give you advice such as to activities, where to go and how long to spend there as well as food, drink and accomodation suggestions. You can tailor the trips to your needs by selecting the type of trip it is (romantic, adventure, budget etc) and what you want to do (popular things, off the beaten path, balanced etc). For example, you are planning a trip to Cuba so you would enter ‘Cuba’ and say, 14 days, and Inspirock will give you flight options, which cities to visit and how long to spend there plus so much more information on domestic travel times (so you know it will take 4 hours to drive between Havana and Trinidad). Definitely going to be using this a lot for ideas!
Photos from my trip to NYC and the stunning Time Hotel
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