Planning a trip

For someone, the process of planning a trip is a real thrill and delight, comparable to the adventure itself, and someone, on the contrary, hates planning a trip and tries in every way to get rid of it. Accordingly, there are two types of travelers: some carefully and in detail plan everything to the smallest detail, while others go to another country as if diving into an ice hole with their heads, without any plan. Personally, I profess something in between and will not give arguments for « for » and « against » neither for those nor for others, nor will I impose my point of view. Let me just share some tips for planning a trip based primarily on my own experience.

• If you, like me, do not want to visit tourist places and dream of getting to know the hidden world of the country — forget about guidebooks and tourist forums. All these things create a vicious circle. As soon as one tourist has visited somewhere, other tourists who have read about the new place on forums and guidebooks immediately rush there. Non-tourist places are not known to anyone except local residents. Which means…
• We will have to communicate and look for new acquaintances. An important stage of travel planning is the search for interesting people in the country and city where you are going. Use Facebook*, dating sites like Interpals.net or services like Couchsurfing. You don't have to ask for a visit, you can just chat and ask about interesting places that are worth visiting. Check with the locals all the aspects that you are concerned about. How to get from city A to city B faster, more convenient and cheaper? Is the city A worth spending two days in it? Are there any interesting places near the city where you can get out? There are dozens of questions that you will not be able to find answers to in the forums (or these answers may disappoint your excessive popularity).
• My system is like a peach and consists of two main parts — the solid bone of transport planning and the pulp of free travel. For me, everything related to flights, relocations, check-ins and check-outs in hostels is the starting point for planning, these parameters cannot be ignored or violated — it will be more expensive for yourself. However, a softer, sometimes even slightly relaxed attitude to travel between firm travel dates helps to get a taste of the freedom of travel.
• After I find out all the dates and hours I need («bone»), I write them out on a piece of paper in order of priority. You can simply take a strip of paper, draw it down in increments of 1 hour and shade the time that is a priori occupied by something that cannot be moved or ignored. Between these shrihs will be the time that is given to you.
• The principle of planning «pulp » is simple — I make a list of places I would like to visit in a particular city, just a list by item (of course, with penalties and opening hours). Once there, I decide what and in what order I would like to visit, and what should be forgotten.
• The list of «pulp » (I hope my fruit analogies did not tire you very much) is very successfully adjusted based on the information that can be obtained at the tourist office (they are in any major city). In extreme cases, if the list of places to travel is over or you are not very satisfied with it, you can simply contact a passerby or a group of young people, they will be happy to tell you.
• Get used to force majeure, just understand in advance that they will be. Buses and trains break down, people are late, interesting places are unexpectedly closed, even flights are delayed and postponed. Of course, it's not worth being paranoid and putting all this into the plan, but if something like this happens, smile and start thinking about how to adjust it based on your plan.

*Activity of Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram is prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation.