A Guide on How to Create an Itinerary

Fewer than 15 percent of American travelers use an itinerary for planning travel. By skipping that step, they’re likely not getting the most out of their time and money.

Let’s look at how to create an itinerary and why you should make one the next time you travel.

What Makes An Itinerary So Useful

Creating an itinerary before you head out on a trip helps you maximize the time you have when you’re away. It can include all the activities and sights you want to experience and it helps you figure out the best way to use your time.

Leaving those decisions until you’re at your destination means you could forget things or make poor decisions at the moment.

Types of Itineraries

There are different types of itineraries for different types of trips. Each of them will have slightly different information based on the situation.

Private Tour

A private tour itinerary contains plans for you and potentially your friends or family. It’s more flexible because you don’t have to plan around anyone else’s preferences.

Group Tour

If you’re part of a group tour, the itinerary will be the same for everyone on the trip. Some aspects might change to accommodate multiple people, such as ridesharing or room sharing.

Special Interest Tour

If you’re taking a special package tour, such as an adventure tour, a honeymoon package, or a tour of a historic area, the itinerary will focus on things that are unique to that type of tour.

Domestic Tour

A domestic tour itinerary is for trips you take within your home country. Depending on the size of the country you live in, this could be all new to you or it could just be a good way to plan for local things you have never seen.

Business Trip

A business trip itinerary will have information like meeting times and locations, important contacts, hotel details, and so on. It might contain some ideas for non-business activities but it’s more focused on business-related information.

Tourist vs. Tour Manager Itineraries

Tourist itineraries typically contain things they’re interested in. A tour manager’s itinerary is less focused on what they like personally, including things that are more likely to interest their clients instead.

This gives them a better idea of what’s available in the area when planning itineraries for their customers.

How to Design a Good Itinerary

A good itinerary not only contains important information, but it’s also easy to read and versatile enough to view on different screen sizes. The first step in how to make an itinerary is to gather all the relevant details for your trip — schedule, hotel information, local emergency numbers, etc.

Next, use a tool like the Adobe itinerary template to avoid having to lay everything out from scratch. You can customize the itinerary design to your liking but this will save you a lot of time getting things set up.

Finally, save the template in different sizes to view screens from a smartphone up to a full-size computer display. It’s also a good idea to take a printed copy as a backup.

Take the Time to Create an Itinerary for Your Next Trip

It takes some time to create an itinerary but it will make your trip a lot more enjoyable. And you’ll get even more excited about traveling when you start looking at everything you’re going to do.

Browse through the Travel section of our site for more helpful articles like this one.