How Do You Execute on DIY Travel?

[Meadbh]

Well I just threw Compton out there because of rumors, but if we were to do a 48 state tour, or go visit Gettysburg, which is >2000 miles away, we'd have multiple stops on the way. How do I know which is the 'wrong side of the tracks' when we stop in Omaha? IS there a wrong side of the tracks in Omaha? Just curious.

Look at a map showing major chain hotels. Usually they will be clustered in safer areas.

 

[audreyh1]

While there are some things about TripAdvisor I like, I find their "Ranked #x attraction in city" ratings a total joke. For example, I went up to Dallas this week for a meeting and had a free morning. I've seen the Perot Science Museum and the Sixth Floor Museum (both outstanding) and was looking for something else interesting. #1 is the Arboretum - not very interesting when it was going to be 97 degrees by 11am. # 2 is the Symphony Center - you've got to be kidding! #3 is the Sixth Floor Museum (I agree with that - should be in the top 3). #4 is the SMU campus, just ahead of the George W. museum (which is on the edge of the campus). #6 is an Opera House, and #7 is an extreme amusement park (not my thing, but seems to be pretty unique). The Perot is #11 even though it is now one of the premier interactive science museums in the country (world?).

So don't take the Top 10 too literally in any place - you may find some gems that are more interesting to you further down the list.

PS I ended up going to the George W. museum as we went to several presidential museums last year and found it interesting to compare them. Although it was interesting because of being so recent, I though his dad's museum (on the Texas A&M campus in College Station) much better - a lot more historical context into what made the man.

Of course. It's based on reviewer's opinions. Kind of like ranking products by Amazon reviews. So you dig through the reviews to see what is really going on. And that is Tripadvisor's greatest strength - people sharing their individual experiences and stories rather than some marketer's opinion or spin. As you dig through the reviews you find the true gems, or the ones that match your typical likes and dislikes. Ignore the rest.......

 

[athena53]

So you dig through the reviews to see what is really going on. And that is Tripadvisor's greatest strength - people sharing their individual experiences and stories rather than some marketer's opinion or spin. As you dig through the reviews you find the true gems, or the ones that match your typical likes and dislikes. Ignore the rest.......

Exactly. Ignore the "this place sucks" and the ones that are filled only with vague superlatives ("our meal was fabulous"). The reviews I post are detailed. If Room Service was overpriced and the indoor pool was tiny, you may not care because you don't plan to use either of them. You may be interested in the picture of the dust-encrusted vent in the bathroom ceiling if you have asthma or allergies. I do comment on the area, including what's within walking distance. Give more credibility to the ones from people with many reviews.

I'm seeing more and more hotels ASK that you review them on TA. (It's OK to ask, just not to offer bribes for favorable ones!) In one recent stay, they had a stack of little cards with TA's logo and URL requesting that you post a review after your stay. So, the hotels are paying attention.

 

[Moscyn]

The Internet is a must check point for my planning. It tells me all I want with much accuracy especially when I am specific with my questions. I also get ideas on itineraries by just typing "14 days itinerary in ......" - the web sometimes take me to travel blogs. Of all the travel forums available, I use TripAdviser the most and am a contributor to it too. It has helped me a lot on choice of hotels, attractions, local tour operators, etc. when I have very specific questions, I ask them on their forum queries and usually get useful replies.

 

[audreyh1]

I find Rick Steve's material an excellent place to start for the best "things to do list" in a given Europe destination. But I never use him for restaurants or lodging. He only touches on a few locations whereas TripAdvisor will have almost everything. You can usually look for a "hotel near XYZ" and start browsing from there. Same with dining. Or you can pop up on a location map and see what is there.

Bigboytravel.com has a bunch of European destinations self-guided tours online for free.

 

[FUEGO]

To check how safe an area is, you can get a good rough approximation from looking at google streetview. If you see a ton of liquor stores and dudes loitering on street corners, it might not be the safest place (or most interesting unless you are seeking a vice vacation). Burnt out boarded up buildings, vacant buildings with weeds growing to the rooftops is another bad sign. Excessive poorly rendered graffiti and gang tags could be another one.

The only time I felt like I landed in a bad spot was in Chicago when we were taking public transit to go to U of Chicago and we had to transfer around 55th st. While waiting for the next bus we knew we were in a bad spot, but there were tons of armed police and unarmed "transit stewards" or something like that standing around the area. I thought the area looked sketchy from google streetview, but after asking a local who's fairly street smart he said it would be okay if you stick to the area around the station and don't stray far.

Or get the Ghetto Tracker app for your smartphone. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/ghetto-tracker_n_3869051.html

I think it's actually not available any more...

 

[audreyh1]

Traveled lower 48 for 5 years and never had to worry about staying in an "unsafe" area. Of course we always checked RVparkreviews.com to read user opinions before staying at any new RV park, and Walmart has good parking lot security at night.

 

[RonBoyd]

Traveled lower 48 for 5 years and never had to worry about staying in an "unsafe" area. Of course we always checked RVparkreviews.com to read user opinions before staying at any new RV park, and Walmart has good parking lot security at night.

+1

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

What, besides your own experience, are the tools, resources and processes one would use to put together a longish trip that will get you a reasonable bang for you buck and get you some travel memories worth having.

Your question matches the way I travel. By coincidence, I wrapped up trip planning a few days ago and then wrote a rough draft for a blog post on this topic. Thanks for the motivation to finish it.

Maybe these tools and processes are useful. Note, I use <> when describing search terms to be replaced. Don't type the <>.

1. I always start here.

== Strong urge to go?
- You're on your own here

== Good reason not to go?
- Google <destination name> plus these terms and sets: bombing, foreigners kidnapped, violent crime tourists

2. Then check if I can afford it.

== Airfare
- Airfare search: Matrix - ITA Software
- Who flies where? Useful because airline search sites don't list all carriers: 1) Google 'airline carriers <3 letter airport code>'. Often gives wikipedia results, so who knows if up to date, and 2) Airline Route Maps
- Route maps also useful for planning open jaw trips on an airline.

== Cost per day?
Once I know airfare I search per night costs for private rooms in guesthouses (hostelworld.com) and rooms in mid range hotels (agoda.com or hotels.com). These usually have correlated well with cost per day. One can also search forums for 'how much per day', but that's usually too much slogging.

3. Because I have been traveling to get away from home during the less enjoyable times here, next I see how those times work for the destination(s).

Climate
- Monthly averages: e.g., Japan Climate and Weather Averages
- More and more detailed Averages : Beautiful Weather Graphs and Maps - WeatherSpark

Air pollution
- Air Pollution in Asia: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map
- Also search destination town names and 'AQI', 'burning season'.

High - Low Season
- Google 'high low season <destination name>'. For more precision: 1) Search lodging price for various times, 2) See when airfare costs jump up or down, 3) For places where many drive to campgrounds, check price changes by week or month. They're probably open only during high and shoulder seasons.

Holidays
- Google school / bank / government / national holidays

School breaks
- Locals tend to travel when schools out for summer or whenever.

4. Now I see if my fantasy view of what's available to see, do & eat at the destination(s) compares to reality.

- The usual sources, e.g. guide books, tripadvisor. Put color coded markers on a trip specific google map. I'd tell you my color coding but it keeps evolving.

5. What ELSE to either see / do or avoid like the plague.

This is where I spend the bulk of my travel research. It's how I find the less than obvious places, the ones where you'll see more locals than foreigners. Sometimes these are well down in the tripadvisor rankings with few ratings and a high percentage in the local language. Also put color coded markers on the trip's google map.

Sources
- ESL forums. They often travel when not working.
- Bike routes. Dedicated bike riders tend who blog tend to provide marvelous detail. Plus they often return to the same areas and thus try to find different things to see and do.
- Private tour companies often list town names or attraction names you've never heard of. They won't give away very much info, but Mr. Google will.
- Art related sites often list events, galleries, hang outs. Good for identifying neighborhoods worth wandering. Check gallery listings for clusters not near tourist sites.
- Motorcycle touring forums. Many of the places they post about are not easy to reach using public transit, but I've found some gems that were.
- Google image search and Pinterest. Scroll past the common photos, looking for the uncommon. Often they link to someone who travels by
whim, or lives in country, or makes the effort to locate the less obvious places.
- If you like tiny harbor towns, search harbor info for traveling mariners using <destination name> and 'harbormaster' or the country equivalent. Often there is info on local things to see / do and land maps. On land recreational sailors usually travel by foot, bike or public transit.


Techniques
- Use google to search only blogs: https://www.google.com/?tbm=blg
- Once you find a useful site, goggle only that site for what you seek: e.g. 'Guinness on tap' site:walkingwhiledrunk.blogspot.com
- Read TA lists starting from the lowest ranked. Find items where large majority of reviews are in the local local language. If you find something
interesting, then search outside of tripadvisor.
- Google <destination name> and: 1) 'third visit -tripadvisor -review', 2) ‘overrated’ and ‘tourist trap’, 3) Substitute or Alternate X for Y, 4) 'Is it (was it) worth it'. Mostly useful for the other places mentioned., 5) Anything one is interested in, e.g. narrow lane, pre-war, cobblestone, 6) <word> town name, e.g. Kinky, Weird, Ghoulish, Playful, Amazing, Unexpected, 7) Difficult if you don't know <language name>, 8) 'difficult to reach', 9) 'rest day' or 'stayed longer' or 'great place to chill' or 'didn't want to leave', and 10) If you want to know if a once interesting destination has been crushed all but lifeless by the tourist industry: 'hard rock cafe'.

6. Verify or get second opinion. Take off the rose colored glasses. I look for reasons to change my enthusiasm for specific sites and things to do.

- Google maps, satellite view, street view and image search to preview the destination. Bad sign is if 90% of the images are of the same things.
- Use advanced google search to limit results to the last 6 months. Then search your destinations with some or all of the following: renovation, repair, scaffold, closed, construction, unfortunately, disappointing, over rated, dangerous, ruined, tourist trap.
- Find tripadvisor reviews containing terms of interest
<keyword here> "about <tripadvisors name for the site>" site:http: //www . tripadvisor . com/ (remove the spaces)
e.g. many stairs "about ugafuku shrine" site:http: //www . tripadvisor . com/ (remove the spaces)
This works because 'about <name for site>' is on every tripadvisor review page.

7. Assemble possible days or day parts.
Determine what places make sense to group together in time

- Are you using bus, subway or trains? Plan routes where you arrive at one station, walk between sites then depart from another station, especially if that requires walking through an ordinary non-tourist oriented neighborhood(s). Obviously, it's useful to know how safe this is before trying.
- Do travel sources all give the same info for the walking portion of how to reach a heavily visited site? Use google maps to plot an alternate route. Such a route is usually longer but you'll avoid both the crowds and shops selling tourist crap to tourists. Alternate routes I found usually have a few shops for the local tourists mixed in with normal businesses for such a neighborhood.
- List things available on specific days or days closed, e.g., 'Any day except Sunday', 'Tuesday morning only'. I review this each night before deciding what to do the next day.

8. In country: Follow your whim.

 

[48Fire]

Driving in Europe depends on where you are. I had a very challenging experience with a stick shift on a nearly vertical hill that GPS sent us on. With five people and luggage in the car, it could not go up, and after 3 tries, the clutch smoking, and negative progress, I was several inches from being pinned up against the curved, stone wall bordering this tiny street. Fortunately with some guidance, I was able to inch slowly back down the hill and avoid scraping the wall.


That said, I would suggest also expanding your "impromptu" skills. Our best experiences in Italy were often unplanned, explorations off the beat path. Like when we stumbled across a sheep herder and his flock in the mountains.

 

[athena53]

<snip>
-Private tour companies often list town names or attraction names you've never heard of. They won't give away very much info, but Mr. Google will.
<snip>
-List things available on specific days or days closed, e.g., 'Any day except Sunday', 'Tuesday morning only'. I review this each night before deciding what to do the next day.

-In country: Follow your whim.

Thanks- the ones above are my favorites, especially the one on destinations of private tour operators! I read a story on Rosslyn Castle in an an-flight magazine just before a trip to Scotland (hadn't heard of it because we weren't Da Vinci code readers) and DH and I found it was an easy trip by public transportation from Edinburgh.

On my first trip to Europe I showed up at the Louvre on Monday. It was closed. (That was 1977.) I went to Versailles instead so all was not lost.

DH and I have had great experiences at places we learned about from brochures in the hotel lobby and in the local paper. I can fake my way through most European languages, which helps. Watch the billboards, too.

 

[FUEGO]

Here's a tool that shows cost of living for various spots around the globe: World Map of current Consumer Price Index (CPI)

I figure it might lead to some interesting budget travel ideas for us (and others!). I found out Spain is generally cheaper than most of the rest of non-Iberian western Europe, and the southern parts are cheaper than the norther parts of Spain. Also, southern France is cheaper than the other parts of France.

FYI, the index is based on New York City costs = 100, so other areas are displayed relative to NYC prices.

 

[RetiredAndFree]

I now have three years of long term planning under my belt since ER'ing in 2011, and am happy to share how I approach our multi-destination planning, everything from one week to 10 weeks, our longest to date.

First I start with an idea, then I go onto either Frommers, Fodors (Int'l destinations) or TripAdvisor (Domestic destinations) to see if there are enough ideas listed to peak our interest. This also gives me a really good idea of how many days we'd likely find ourselves engaged, since by now I know our interests pretty well.

I then create a spreadsheet where I list where we want to go in sequential order, with corresponding columns for projected costs and things to do. This can take weeks if not months to do, given all the research involved. But the little gems I've discovered by doing so makes it well, well worth the effort. It also allows me to better manage our time since I know which attractions are open when, which are not, and, score, which may have free visitation days or tours.

For domestic trips, I also utilize MapQuest to determine mileage and driving time between each leg. I also utilize old fashioned maps, obtained from AAA. I scan the surrounding area of each pinpointed location on the map looking for nearby state and federal properties that might not have popped up in my original research. IMHO, state and federal properties continue to provide the best and most authentic experiences for the buck.

I also research interesting places to eat, because while eating out is not necessarily our focus while traveling, eating at unique places adds greatly to the fun, while ending up in bland, uninteresting places detracts significantly.

I book all lodging in advance, because the above research enables me to feel confident I know how long any one area is going to be able to hold our attention. Plus I don't want to have the worry of where, exactly, we are going to stay on any given night rattling around in my head. Favorite sites for this are, depending on mode of travel, RVParkReviews, Travelocity, Expedia, VRBO or Airbnb.

We make a point of stopping in at Visitor Centers as soon as we arrive in a new location. Sometimes it just supports the research I've already done, but often times things I didn't know about present themselves and we end up going in a different direction altogether.

I make a point of having at least one major activity planned out in advance for each day of travel. I pre-book freely, but limit those things not subject to last minute cancellation so that we can easily make changes as we feel appropriate based on all the variables that present themselves in travel - weather, budget constraints, energy constraints, traffic patterns, etc.

I think it's also important to accept that you will never be able to 'do it all' and that that is OK. As long as what we do is enjoyable, we are fine with understanding we may have left a few things undone. We also give ourselves permission to do nothing at all on any given day should we so wish. So far we've rarely evoked this executive privilege, because even within our flurry of activities I leave daily windows of downtime to simply stop and smell the roses.

Some may find this all to be way, way too much work. For us, it works because 1) I sincerely enjoy this part of the process, and 2) once we take off, we have very, very little to worry about. We can simply focus on the adventure before us, knowing the big details have been taken care of.

 

[Meadbh]

Wow, some of you do take this to a higher level!

Since I frequently travel alone, I can be more spontaneous when I get to the destination. I often take advantage of flight connections in interesting cities and build in an overnight stay to have a look around. When I visit a city new to me, if there is an activity that I really want to do, I book it before I leave home, but leave the rest of the time open. I take a general tour on the first day, often on a hop-on, hop-off bus. This gives me ideas for further exploration. Sometimes the first few stops are so interesting that I have to skip several stops at the end! This happened in Berlin, when I spent a couple of hours each at the Bauhaus and DDR museums and Checkpoint Charlie. I have learnt not to over schedule myself. Finding the unexpected is half the fun.

 

[RetiredAndFree]

Wow, some of you do take this to a higher level!

That made me laugh.

Currently we are getting ready to leave on a two week trip to Peru where I've left all the planning to someone else. I'm calling it my vacation from vacation!

 

[sengsational]

Awesome write-up!

... Put color coded markers on a trip specific google map. I'd tell you my color coding but it keeps evolving.

...

That's just one great idea I am certain to use

 

[MBAustin]

The only time I felt like I landed in a bad spot was in Chicago when we were taking public transit to go to U of Chicago and we had to transfer around 55th st. While waiting for the next bus we knew we were in a bad spot, but there were tons of armed police and unarmed "transit stewards" or something like that standing around the area. I thought the area looked sketchy from google streetview, but after asking a local who's fairly street smart he said it would be okay if you stick to the area around the station and don't stray far.

Interesting - this is also the only really sketchy place I can recall in the USA. We were headed to U of Chicago for DD to visit. Fortunately she decided it wasn't for her.

 

[FUEGO]

Interesting - this is also the only really sketchy place I can recall in the USA. We were headed to U of Chicago for DD to visit. Fortunately she decided it wasn't for her.

Pretty amazing that Obama's house (his Chicago house, not the 1600 Penn. address...) is not more than a quick walk from that really sketchy area. It goes from not so nice to pretty nice over the course of a mile or two.

 

[explanade]

Like many others here, I like to plan as much as possible. I always try to book the flight and hotel months in advance. The flights are usually not cancelable without some fees and often will book hotels with free cancellation. Or if they offer a good enough discount from the rack rate, I'll go ahead and book a non-cancelable rate and prepay.

I used to get guidebooks the latest edition available. But like many others, I use web resources and go on forums to get specific info. Frommers.com, if it has anything about the destination, is a good overview to start with. Tripadvisor and fodors have good forums.

The end product of this research and planning is an itinerary that I print out, which has all the flight, hotel, rental cars, tours, etc. information. I use kayak My Trips now but I used to use TripIt for a long time. These services let you forward your flight, hotel, etc. confirmations to them and they will populate the dates for these bookings into your itinerary.

Then I fill out the rest manually with all the info. that I've researched. For instance, the attractions I plan to visit or may visit, so all the practical info., like opening hours, ticket prices, how to get there, etc.

I fill out day by day the places I would be interested in. I also put in lists of grocery stores and restaurants (separate entries) that I might go to during my stay.

Even if I don't end up going to some of these places, I figure the info. could be useful if I should visit these places again. Usually places like Rome and Paris I go through repeatedly while linking to local transport. So I often schedule a night layover.

I keep working on this itinerary until the day before I depart and then finally print it out. I also save a soft copy, as a PDF that I load into iBooks on my iPad.

Complimenting this itinerary would be some printouts of maps, which I either find on some web page or a part of a custom Google Map that I assemble. My custom maps will have pins for my hotel, the attractions I will visit, stores, maybe directions.

The map could encompass several cities, then I zoom in on each city and print out the portion (taking a screen shot) with the pinned places.

Again, many of these custom maps, I've re-used on subsequent trips.

 

[audreyh1]

Sounds like several of us essentially write our own guidebooks. I also compiled things into PDFs that I loaded onto iBooks as well as a spreadsheet itinerary that contained the essentials for hotels, trains, public transport and suggested daily activities.

Preview on the Mac lets you combine PDFs, so I used this to pull together useful maps, brochures, notes, etc for each destination. It's nice having it on the iPad rather than carrying around a bunch of paper.

The nice thing so far, is that I already know in my head which bus to take or in general which direction to go. A quick glance at my itinerary gets me on track if needed, and DH also has a clue because he actually read some of the generated materials.

We stepped out into the gigantic Munich train station. I knew exactly where to go even though we'd never been there before, but I had reviewed online layout maps a few times. Got our luggage stowed, tram tickets bought, out to the tram area, didn't miss a beat (well, had to buy a pretzel to get enough change for the locker ). It's nice having a strong sense of orientation. There are still plenty of surprises, but it's not nearly as overwhelming.