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Published: August 14th 2014
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As mentioned before I am a little obsessive compulsive and an itinerary by day just wasn't going to cut it. So two months prior to departure I dove into my next project: planning all of the details. I was a little discouraged when someone proclaimed, "You're going to plan the fun right out of this trip," but for me there seemed to be too much at stake to fly blind. I knew what I wanted. I wanted a detailed summary of each day on our trip. I wanted to have as many of our attractions already reserved, booked, paid for before our departure as possible. Then one day I had a vision of my visit to the Spy Museum in Washington D.C. when I was a kid and out of that the concept of a "Daily Mission" packet was born. The idea behind the packet was to have one of those top secret manila envelopes that much like a spy's would contain all of the information needed to accomplish the mission. As the idea as progressed it has definitely become the highlight of my planning process!
Daily mission packets are super easy to make, and you could easily make a
set for yourself. I am not crafty at all so I took full advantage of craft dummy tools available. Here's what I used:
- pack of small manila envelopes
- permanent markers
- stencils
- ink pad
- tiny alphabet stamps
The instructions are pretty basic, use a combination of stamps, stencils, handwriting to personalize each envelope. I tried to come up with a clever theme to summarize the day such as "A Taste of Ireland" or "When in Rome..."
Making the packets was the easy part. Stuffing the packets was the project. For each packet I planned to include the day's itinerary, a little background info about the place we were visiting, a map and any of the prepaid tickets, boarding passes or train reservations we would need for that day. The thought is also any on-sight maps, brochures, post cards, etc. that we obtain can be stored in the envelope for keepsakes upon our return.
For hourly itinerary planning I highly recommend Rick Steve's best of Europe. As I said before I referred to this book over and over like it was my Bible. I started with things that were already set in stone: connecting flights, train reservations, etc. and made sure I had detailed down to the half an hour what non travel time we had for the day. Then I googled "city name attractions map" and searched Google Images until I found one I liked. Flipping between the map and the guidebook, I determined how to lay out the day and approximate times at each attraction. Rick Steve includes recommended layouts and helpful tips about when to hit sights for smaller crowd sizes. Whenever I could, I would immediately visit that attractions site and prebook our visit. I used a legend to help me track what was set and stone and what wasn't as well as what was prepaid and what wasn't. A check box means it's already purchased, and italicized F means its free and a dollar sign means we will be paying when we get there. Any time slot that is set in stone (like the time a flight leaves) is bold. Each day ended with directions to our hotel and street addresses were included where possible just in case GPS is an option. Finally, after I had a day planned out, I would edit the attractions map in paint and put purple stars by the places we were seeing and a red circle for our hotel. I would paste the map at the top of the itinerary with a blurb about the place (copy and pasted from various travel websites) for the less geographically/historically inclined of our travel party (cough cough, my husband :D).
I started with Barcelona. I lived in Barcelona for a summer so I already had in mind exactly what I wanted to see. The other days were more challenging, but there was not a location I wasn't able to fit into a practical plan fairly easily. Anyways back to Barcelona.... I wanted to show you guys how one of our days turned out so you can get a general idea for how it worked. As you can see in the itinerary I did prebook our tickets to Park Guell and Sagrada Familia (the check box showed up as an R below). So in the packet for that day (themed "Barcelona in a Day") there is this printout and our tickets for both attractions. That will be everything we need for the day except to pay for meals (but at least breakfast my favorite meal of the day is covered!). A side note: We made back up copies of everything in the packets to stick in our main bag as the packets will be in our day pack. That way if we somehow become separated from our day pack we will still have a backup of everything we prepurchased and our itineraries.
Example from one of our daily mission packets! (These are super top secret so you should feel oober special.)
Friday, September 5th – Barcelona in a Day! Set on a plain rising gently from the sea to a range of wooded hills, Barcelona is Spain's most cosmopolitan city and one of the Mediterranean's busiest ports. Barcelona feels a bit surreal – appropriate, since Salvador Dali spent time here and Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí designed several of the city’s buildings. Stepping into Gaudí’s Church of the Sacred Family is a bit like falling through the looking glass - a journey that you can continue with a visit to Park Güell. Sip sangria at a sidewalk café in Las Ramblas while watching flamboyant street performers, and then create your own movable feast by floating from tapas bar to tapas bar.
Barcelona’s 10 Top Attractions: 1. Las Ramblas
2. La Sagrada Familia
3. Park Guell
4. Magic Fountain (9pm show)
5. Gothic Quarter
6. Mercat de la Boqueria
7. The Block of Discord
8. Montjuic
9. Picasso Museum
10. Camp Nou
Note: Relax! Nowhere to be today!
Itinerary 7:30 am: Breakfast
F 8:00 am: Leave Hotel
- Pit Stop: Carrer Roger de Lluria
- Pit Stop: Block of Discord
8:30 am: Reservation at Park Guell R
10:00 am: Reservation at Sagrada Familia R
12:00 pm: Lunch in Gracia $
1:00 pm: Old City Tour
F - Start in Placa Cataluyna
- Rick Steve’s Barri Gotic Walk
- Rick Steve’s Ramblas Ramble
- Stop at La Boqueria
- Arrive at Sea
5:00 pm: Dinner at a Tapas bar $
7:00 pm: Explore Montjuic
F 9:00 pm: Magic Fountain
F So there you have it! If you are interested in seeing any of our other daily missions, just let me know in the comments.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
You have taken planning to another dimension...
I agree that planning a trip is almost half the fun, and do so for my trips, usually with a planning blog as the first blog in the series about the trip. My son's girlfriend has bought them airline tickets to visit Barcelona for his birthday in mid-September so I will send him the link to this blog. What other cities have you prepared plans for?