How we travel - How to Travel Europe

How We Plan Every Trip to Europe

Planning a trip to Europe can feel overwhelming. Flights, hotels, trains, attractions, transportation, tickets—there are dozens of decisions to make, and overlooking just one can create unnecessary stress. After years of traveling throughout Europe, we’ve developed a planning process that keeps us organized and helps us avoid costly surprises. Here’s the exact system we use before every trip.

Contents:

Preplanning
Airline travel
Identify interim stops
Hotel Selection
Sightseeing events and tickets
Train Connections
How we keep it all organized
Just prior to leaving
On arrival

Preplanning

Identify Interim Stops

Phase 1 – Choose the Trip

Decide the primary goal
Pick the season
Determine the length
Build a rough itinerary
Check the validity of our passports
Check for any visa or entry requirements for our destination
Verify vaccination requirements are met

Phase 2 – Book Flights

Compare airports
Compare prices
Consider open-jaw tickets
Watch fares

Example: Planning Our Tulip Trip

Our primary goal was to see the tulips in bloom near Amsterdam. Since the bloom period determined our travel dates, we worked backward from there to choose flights, hotels, and our route through Belgium, Germany, France, and finally Paris.

Phase 3 – Choose Cities

Main destinations
Day trips
Travel time

Example: Planning Our Tulip Trip

Usually we go for roughly 18 days and spend 3-4 days in one location before moving on. For this trip we decided to spend time in Antwerp (a great decision), then go on to Aachen (a cute little German town), head to Frankfurt, then on to Colmar France and finally Paris.

Phase 4 – Hotels

Focus on price, amenities and location
Elevators and A/C mandatory
Breakfast either in the hotel or nearby
Close to Metro
Ability to check-in early or drop off our luggage
Minimum two twin beds pushed together; Queen preferred
Room size considerations
Look at street view on mapping tool to verify safety
Read reviews

Phase 5 – Transportation

Trains
- Check availability of InterCity trains
- Maybe too far in advance – keep checking back
- Search for shortest travel time at a reasonable price
- Purchase as soon as available to get the best price
- Select seats at the time of purchase
- Popular routes sell-out
Flights
- Great for longer trips such as Berlin to Paris
- Take trains for shorter trips like Rome to Florence
Metro
Airport transfers
- from the airport to the hotel
- from the hotel to the airport

Phase 6 – Attractions

Purchase tickets if available yet
Consider tours
Book early
Verify transportation options before purchasing

Phase 7 – Final Week Before Departure

Credit cards are already set up with a PIN and travel notification with the credit card company
International cellular plan already in place
Sufficient local currency on hand
Hard copy of tickets in a folder ready to go
Passports and any visa documentation ready
Leave a hard copy of your passport with someone; have a virtual copy accessible online
Make sure transit logistics from airport to hotel is understood (directions, tickets)
Make sure sufficient medications are on-hand for your trip
Charge your devices
Remove non-essential items from your wallet

Phase 8 – Arrival Day

Go through Passport Control
Gather luggage
Go through Customs
Exit Customs to ground transportation
Keep and eye out for any needed ticket machines
Follow the signs for you transit means

How we keep it all organized

Print and take with us paper copy of every ticket
Use planning app
Beware of time zone differences when calendarizing items
The only good app is the one you use -do the work, it pays off

Example: Planning Our Tulip Trip

We tried just using hard copies of travel, hotel and activities in a chronological order but that meant we had to carry some of the paperwork around and it became messy fast. We then tried entering the travel, hotels and events in the calendar manager but that was cumbersome and ineffective.
For the trip to Amsterdam we opted to use an app specifically designed for travel planning. It required a bit of work upfront to put in the dates, transit/hotel/activity info but it was well worth it. We entered all of the addresses for the transit stations/hotels/activities. This allowed us to use the planning app to pull up GPS directions on how to get to the next place without having to search for it. MUCH FASTER and easier.
We also added in the notes section of the app where to find the actual tickets: in an app, only in hard copy, PDF in email etc. This eliminated the mad rush to find the tickets as we were nearing the activity entrance.
One other thing we did with the app that worked very well was, prior to the trip, we checked for public transportation routes from the hotel to the attraction and added the transit times as a separate entry. That told us where and when we had to be at the transit hub thereby allowing us to plan things around it without worry.