How to be your own travel agent

Planning a vacation can be stressful. There is so much to coordinate and you don’t want to miss any big steps. Many people turn to a travel agent to have their trip planned out for them and get advice. I’m not saying this is a bad idea, but I am hear to talk about how to be your own travel agent, so you can plan these vacations out on your own. I love planning out the trip, I think it’s half the fun and I learn so much about the destination in my efforts. Here are some tips and tricks I use when I plan out my travels.

Decide Where and when you want to go

For this blog post, I am going to use Ireland as my destination. I use Ireland because this was my first international trip that I had planned myself. I had been to other countries prior, but they were not planned by me.

First things first, do your homework! Before you get into the nitty gritty, you have to figure out your destination and do a little research. You want to know when is the best time to travel there. Are you looking for the best weather that location has to offer? If so, you may be dealing with more crowds. Some people want to avoid the crowds, so you may chose an off-peak time. This is usually OK, but you may need to come more prepared (depending on your destination). In Ireland, you have to expect some rain all year round. But if I prefer to travel when tourism is lower (winter months), I know to come even more prepared with warmer clothes and waterproof gear.

For this trip, I chose June. Tourist season is just about starting in June, so it isn’t quite at peak. The weather is nice in June. Like I mentioned, in Ireland, you have to expect some rain all year long. But June is one of the more dry months Ireland has to offer. When we went, we had some mist most days. We had one day that is rained fairly heavy. We knew to expect some rain, so we came prepared.

How do I do my research??

Research hint 1: Depending on what I’m looking up, a simple Google search is all I need! I use Google for things like weather and locations of cities and destinations. Make sure that once you know whereabouts you want to go, that you chose the right airport.

Research hint 2: I rely heavily on Pinterest! I use Pinterest to read other people’s blogs and advice. I find these to be the most realistic and laid out plans out there. I even prefer them over travel books (which I use some as well). Example: Here is my blog on Ireland. I put it on Pinterest for others to use.

When I chose to travel to Ireland, I was pretty clueless. I knew about Dublin and the Cliffs of Moher, but that was about it. By looking up itineraries in Pinterest and reading through real-life trips, I learned SO MUCH. I learned that I wouldn’t actually want to spend a lot of time in Dublin, that I would want to travel west. See Connemara, Dingle, Ring of Kerry. Unfortunately, there were SO MANY other places I would love to see, but I knew we only had about a week.

Research hint 3: Join Facebook groups that are geared for travel tips to your destination. You will learn SO much. You can either ask your own questions or maybe read others’ questions you didn’t even think about.

Research hint 4: Buy or checkout a book from the library about your destination. I have used books from Rick Steve’s, Lonely Planet, and Fodor’s in the past. All seem to have useful information. Even though I mentioned I like Pinterest/blogs more, I do like having written material and maps with me as I’m looking through blogs. I usually use them together when I am just starting my travel research.

FINDING YOUR FLIGHT

Once my research is done and I know where I am going and when, I start to look for flights. I book my flight first (before accommodations) because I usually don’t travel with set dates. When I go into planning travel, I have a good idea of when I want to go, but I keep my dates somewhat flexible because it’s amazing how changing your flight a day or two can change that price of your ticket.

When you book matters as well. If I am planning a vacation with a domestic flight, I typically book about 3 months prior. Sometimes I will book earlier than that, if the price seems fair. For international, I book about 6 months prior to my departure. Also, I have heard several times that it’s best to book on a Tuesday? Flights can be less on this day. Now, this may be a true statement… I have never seen noticed this in my flight purchasing.

Here is two screen shots of how I book my flights. First I do a general search for approximately when I plan to travel. To see the price differences, I click on one of the flight dates and a calendar of prices show up. This gives me a picture of which day of the week is best for prices.

One other thing to note… I really aim to get a non-stop flight, if possible. Not everyone cares about this and often you can save money if you have a layover. This is just something else you can consider when booking flights.

Car Rental

Depending on where you’re going, you may want to rent a car. I always do this off of Expedia. Many times, I bundle flight an car together. Things you will want to think about and consider:

• Size of the vehicle. How many people are traveling with you and will the people and luggage fit? At the same time, in a place like Ireland, I wouldn’t want a very big vehicle.
• Are you traveling with kids? Do you need to book or bring along any car seats?
• Depending on where you travel, do you need 4×4? For Ireland, we did not need this, but when we went to Iceland and Costa Rica, we did get 4×4.
• Do you want Navigation. We did upgrade to having Navigation in Ireland and it was helpful for us. Next time we go, we will probably just make sure we download the Google Maps for Ireland, but if you don’t want to do this, the upgraded Navigation was helpful!
• When booking, pay attention to whether the car has automatic or manual transition. Our first trip to Ireland was our first time driving on the left-hand side of the road. We chose to get an automatic so we didn’t have to think about shifting.
• Insurance? Do you want to purchase insurance?

Accommodations

OK, flight and car has been booked! Now I start looking into where to stay. This is where some of your previous research comes into play. Did you decide if you want to stay in one location? Are you planning on moving around? And how many nights in each location?

For our Ireland trip we chose to stay 2 nights in Dublin, 2 nights in Clifden and 2 nights in Killarney. Our flight landed early in the AM, so our first night in Dublin was purchased more so so we could drop off our luggage and take a short snooze in our room when we landed.

We ended up booking hotels (mind you, it was our first trip oversees we booked alone) but next time I would do VRBO’s. Hotels are fine, but I would much prefer a VRBO. We can usually find them for similar prices as hotels and the flexibility of having a fridge, kitchen and sometimes laundry is a big deal for us. Also, we travel with kids, so having space to give the kids an area to play and adults an area to adult is a bonus! Below you will find several VRBO options in the Ireland locations we were traveling to.

Dublin

On this “How to be your Own Travel Agent” guide, we know we want at least one night in Dublin. Since Dublin is a city, I would prefer a hotel. I look for one that is near attractions we would like to see and walkable to restaurants that look appealing. I typically use Expedia for this. If you look at the map below, we already know we want to see Guinness, Jameson and Temple Bar. We will look for a hotel in the area.

Here are some hotel choices:

#1 The Clarence

#2 Hard Rock Dublin

Clifden/Galway

Next accommodation sight… Somewhere near Galway or Clifden. This is where I will look for short-term vacation home rentals. Typically, I would look a little out of town and a place with a view. I will post some that I would prefer, and I will post some that are in the heart of the city, walkable to the pubs and shops.

Killarney/Dingle Area

Killarney is a better central location. It’s a lovely town with great pubs and restaurants. You can easily drive to Dingle or Ring of Kerry from that location. We stayed in Killarney and it was wonderful, however, I fell in love with Dingle, so next time I know I would stay somewhere on the Dingle peninsula and for several days.

Where we actually stayed. We had a good stay here.A nice hotel for a good price and we were able to walk to dinner from this location.

What to do

A big part of travel is figuring out how you’ll spend your time. I typically wait until a month or so before our adventure to really nail this down and make reservations. For Ireland, I honestly didn’t book too many adventures ahead of time. A lot of our time was spent hiking and adventuring around, less “organized” activities.

Again, your research comes into play here… You will plan out your activites based on what interested you when learning about your destination. Like I mentioned, we just mostly did a “plan your own adventure trip” while we were in Ireland. You can’t go wrong with this here, because there is just SO MUCH beauty to behold.

A couple things I did book in advance were tickets to the Cliffs of Moher and Guinness and Jameson tours. I did this through Viator. This VERY helpful website is a great resource for tours and activities you may not have thought of. Other really great ideas are Hop ON/ Hop Off buses in the city, walking tours, and food tours. Food tours are a favorite of mine. I love the chance trying a variety of foods and learning about the culture.

That sums it up! Those are the major things I plan prior to a trip. Other things to think about…. make sure your passport and driver’s license are up to date and valid. I keep a printed confirmation of most of my travels on hand as well. I haven’t had to resort to this, but in case my phone doesn’t work, I have back up.

You will also want to check in with your bank and cell phone companies to see if you need anything while traveling. I use Verizon and have an international plan. My phone automatically will charge $10/day whenever I use my phone internationally. My bank no longer requires this, but the past, I did have to inform them of travel dates, so they wouldn’t suspect fraud activity.

One more thing… Packing… I definitely will research my destinations weather, so I know how to pack. Using Pinterest can be helpful with this as well. Here is my Ireland packing itinerary.

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