I get a lot of questions from my friends and coworkers on where I go to find travel deals and how I plan my trips. Travel "deals" are relative -- depending on your budget and your willingness to compromise on any number of things. I will address my favorite "deal" finding techniques in another post, but for now, let's talk about travel planning.
So how does one figure out what they want to do, see, eat, drink, and explore?
Most of the time I travel, I'm headed to a "bucket list" location, so I usually have a pretty good idea of what it is I want to see -- there are usually the big, touristy things that call out to you (like monuments, museums, etc.) and the rest is just exploring during down time between the big things.
But for a trip to a place I know very little about, like my recent trip to New Mexico, I've found that Pinterest is an excellent planning tool. I am a visual person, so being able to see pictures of places is a great way for me to start putting a list together. I create a new board for each place I'm planning -- like this one for New Mexico or this one for Pittsburgh. Then, I'll just use the search feature within Pinterest or start googling for cool restaurants, neighborhoods, breweries, and the like and I start pinning away! Of course, I work my way through reviews and recommendations as I am pinning so I have a fully curated, ready to use board before I leave.
And use the board, I do -- the Pinterest app for your smartphone allows you to take your travel plan on the road with you, with all of the addresses, opening hours, and admission fees info on hand as you need them. As a tourist who often likes to avoid looking like one (for safety and other reasons), I love that I have my guidebook on hand, right there in my phone, so I'm not pulling out a giant book or map and calling attention to the fact that I am lost and confused!
There are a ton of other ways to find things to do and places to see when travelling -- what are your tools of choice?
So how does one figure out what they want to do, see, eat, drink, and explore?
Most of the time I travel, I'm headed to a "bucket list" location, so I usually have a pretty good idea of what it is I want to see -- there are usually the big, touristy things that call out to you (like monuments, museums, etc.) and the rest is just exploring during down time between the big things.
But for a trip to a place I know very little about, like my recent trip to New Mexico, I've found that Pinterest is an excellent planning tool. I am a visual person, so being able to see pictures of places is a great way for me to start putting a list together. I create a new board for each place I'm planning -- like this one for New Mexico or this one for Pittsburgh. Then, I'll just use the search feature within Pinterest or start googling for cool restaurants, neighborhoods, breweries, and the like and I start pinning away! Of course, I work my way through reviews and recommendations as I am pinning so I have a fully curated, ready to use board before I leave.
And use the board, I do -- the Pinterest app for your smartphone allows you to take your travel plan on the road with you, with all of the addresses, opening hours, and admission fees info on hand as you need them. As a tourist who often likes to avoid looking like one (for safety and other reasons), I love that I have my guidebook on hand, right there in my phone, so I'm not pulling out a giant book or map and calling attention to the fact that I am lost and confused!
There are a ton of other ways to find things to do and places to see when travelling -- what are your tools of choice?
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