How to Build an Itinerary With Room to Breathe
The short answer
Plan fewer things than you think you need. Give each day one anchor, leave the rest open on purpose, and count travel time as part of the plan. A trip with room in it is easier to enjoy and easier to fix when something changes.
I plan trips with pacing in mind from the first conversation. It's the part of an itinerary that's easiest to skip and hardest to fix once you're there.
Why do most itineraries end up overpacked?
Mostly because adding is easy and cutting feels like losing something. A top-10 list gives you ten things, and it's hard to look at ten things and pick four. Add the fear of not getting back to a place, and the days fill up.
Travel time hides in the same way. A plan can look reasonable on paper and still leave no room once you count the transfers, check-ins, and meals.
When clients come to me with a sample itinerary, it’s the time between things that is most often overlooked. If you are a crow flying from Edinburgh to Glasgow you might be able to make three stops along the way. But you are a human, likely with luggage, taking public transportation. Not only is the travel time going to be longer, but you are going to have to haul that suitcase everywhere.
How do you decide what to cut?
Start with everything you want to do, then work through it in this order:
Mark the few things you'd really regret missing. Ask each traveler separately. These become your anchors.
Give each day one anchor at most. Two is fine on a day with little travel.
Add the real cost of getting there. Count transfers, check-in, and the time it takes to settle into a new place.
Move what's left to a maybe list. If a day turns out to have room, you'll know what to reach for.
The hardest part of cutting is when you started by getting advice from friends. Everyone has a favorite restaurant that you must try, or a painting that you must see, or a bar you must have the house wine from. You asked and you don’t want to disappoint them by saying you didn’t go, but remember that you are planning your vacation, not the highlight reel from someone else’s.
How much open time should you leave?
Enough that you could lose a few hours to bad weather, a slow morning, or a place you don't want to leave, and the trip would still work. How much that is depends on the group, the destination, and how long you're going for.
Start with who you travel with and what their preferences are. Everyone won’t get what they want every day, but ensure that there are even days of space or busyness if that’s what each person’s goals are. And don’t be afraid to split up! Your early morning museum visit can happen while they sip an espresso and people watch.
Open time is where you wander somewhere you didn't plan for, or nap, or sit longer than you meant to. There is rarely a client who comes home and says that the tour was their favorite part of the trip. Instead it is the unplanned restaurant, the perfect shop they found on a side street, or having drinks with locals at sunset.
What does a well-paced day look like?
One anchor, with room on either side of it. A morning that doesn't start with an alarm, one thing that's worth the effort, a long meal, and an afternoon with no plan. Then dinner somewhere close.
That's the shape, and it changes with the place. A day in a city with a lot of walking looks different from a day in the mountains or on a beach. A favorite trip memory from clients was a mother-daughter duo who visited Rome. They had been before and wanted a different experience. Instead of an early morning Vatican tour, I scheduled a late morning bike ride of the Appian Way. This gave them time for an easy morning and then an afternoon where they could linger over a nice wine at sunset. Their evening meal was within walking distance of the hotel. At the end of the day they felt connected to Rome and one another in a deeper way.
Questions people ask
How many things should we plan each day? One anchor is a good starting point. Add a second only when the day has little travel and you have the energy for it.
What if we only have a few days? Pace matters more on a short trip, because each wasted hour is a bigger share of it. Pick fewer places and stay longer in each.
Isn't open time a waste when we've come so far? It can feel that way before you go. Once you're there, most travelers want the time to rest or follow their own interest. Clients who push for a full schedule come back and say that they are exhausted and barely remember the trip. Those who leave space are the opposite, they come home with great memories of what was planned and also what they found on their own.
Can an advisor help with pacing? Yes, it's a large part of what I do. I wrote about the rest of the work in Is a Travel Advisor Worth It?.
Where to start
If you'd like help building a trip with room in it, fill out my inquiry form and tell me a little about where you're thinking of going. I'll start my research before we talk, and we'll use the discovery call to work out the pace that suits your group.
Krystal Weiss, CTA, is a Virtuoso-affiliated travel advisor based in Houston, Texas, specializing in milestone travel: graduation trips, anniversaries, and honeymoons. She is the founder of AWK Travel.