Ever since my university days, I have always been plagued by the travel bug. When the global pandemic brought travel to a standstill in 2020, I had to shelve my plans to catch the Sakura season in Japan. Little did I know that my wanderlust had to be suppressed for close to 3 years.
When it became clear that 2022 was the year that travel would really start to pick up, my desire to venture overseas grew again and I decided to kickstart my virgin post-covid trip to Bangkok. There are many things I can write about, but I am going to start this 3-part series by sharing how I usually craft a travel itinerary. The final product of my Bangkok itinerary is available if you would like to take a look.
The making of a travel itinerary
Whenever I show my friends an itinerary of a trip I have planned, I generally get 2 broad responses: one group looks at it in amazement as if I just wrote a 10,000 word PHD thesis, while the other shudders at the thought of them producing such a document, speaking as if it was a punishment of sorts if they ever had to do something like this. Ok I exaggerate, but you get the point.
Personally for me, I enjoy the process of crafting a travel itinerary because it gives me an opportunity to look for places not frequented by tourists and travel off the beaten path. Whether it is to immerse more fully in the local culture or to discover new sights or cuisines, I get a thrill at the possibility of exploring places that tourists don't usually visit. On this trip I managed to visit an interesting book cafe as seen in the following photo.
What do you want to get out of the trip?
Before I even start, I always ask myself what the focus of this trip is. It is usually a good mix of cultural immersion plus sightseeing and hopefully some epic scenery thrown in along the way. I used to be big on shopping for clothes and things that I thought I needed, (can you believe I bought more than 20 notebooks during my summer exchange to Korea just because I felt every design was awesome?) but I have since come to the conclusion that I am a boring person when it comes to fashion and I only have one pair of feet so buying 3 pairs of shoes in one trip is going to be an overkill. (I can hear some ladies protesting but I guess you are entitled to spend your money however you like it :D) Ever since then, I do slot in shopping malls/places in my itinerary but I tend to be more hesitant in buying stuff that I already have. To be fair, I still have soft spots for interesting bookstores and stationery places but that is a topic of discussion for another day.
1) Google
Ok so how did I start for this Bangkok trip? If you were thinking of some brilliant 5 step approach with fluff words thrown in along the way that culminates in me having the perfect itinerary, I am sorry to disappoint you. Basically I start off with some good old googling - reading travel blogs and pouring through sites that recommend attractions to visit in Bangkok. Many of these would obviously be repeated several times, and sometimes I deliberately avoid some of those places which I feel might be over-hyped. The process took me a few days this time round, but it can obviously be longer depending on the duration of the trip and also how customised I want it to be.
2) Optimise by location
Once I have a list of places that I want to visit and also eat at, (interesting food places are always a priority for me :D) the next part is to fit them in based on location, while taking note of opening hours. Personally I feel that this is the toughest part and sometimes I struggle to group attractions geographically. If done correctly, this helps you to cover about 3 - 4 places each day without feeling rushed as they are all relatively near to one another.
In my Bangkok itinerary, I do put in tentative timings for each place/activity and sometimes friends ask if I follow it strictly. Honestly, those are just time blocks which including traveling to and from that location. On most days, the timings are not followed strictly but they generally tell you where I am at either in the morning, afternoon or evening/night. I have always advocated for free and easy travel because it gives you the most control over your time. I have literally arrived somewhere before, decided it was not worth staying for and left after 15 minutes. On the other hand, I have also fallen in love with a place and spent way more than the 2 hours I allocated to it. Serendipity plays a big part when I travel, and I like to submit to it over the course of my whole trip.
3) Tie up finer details
Finally, I look through the connections between each place and double check that the time to get from one location to the next makes sense. At this point, alternative modes of transport can be proposed and noted down, but the main thing is to ensure that the overall itinerary is not overly packed or rushed. If I have the luxury of time, I will also source out the menus of some of the eating places and put it in the next page so that it can be easily referenced. Another item that is useful is subway maps, bus routes and timings, but that really depends on how much time I have. In this case, having the Bangkok BTS Map on hand while planning helps in visualising where some of the attractions are.
So there you have it - my overall thought process on how I design a travel itinerary. Do leave a comment below if you have found it useful! In my next post I will be sharing about some of the highlights of my trip so do look forward to that!
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