Preparing for a trip: the pitfalls of travel planning

Is the anticipation half the fun? Or does it take most of the fun away? Some people like to plan every hour of every day of their holiday, others find their way when they get there. This is my view on travel planning and how I tackle it.

I have to admit that even though it was the biggest event of my life up until then, I hardly planned anything before I went to Australia. I figured out I wanted to start in the north and travel down the east coast, so I booked a flight to Cairns and that was it. So when I arrived there I was a little bit clueless, and the 'what the hell am I going to do from here' quickly daunted on me. I talked to a dorm mate and visited some travel agencies and was quickly informed about the places I would go, and I just went from there. I just traveled to a town, checked out what there was to see, extended my stay if I wanted to enjoy a certain place a little bit longer, and then checked my bus schedule and moved on. I came a far way with just a map and a Lonely Planet, never needing to consult blogs or internet reviews once.

For my upcoming trip to Croatia I wanted to be better prepared. I always refer to Australia as a 'backpackers place for beginners'; you don't really need to plan. Everything is pretty much set up for backpackers, especially on the east coast. I'm not 100 percent confident many people speak English in Croatia however, which complicates traveling on the fly. But the most important reason for planning more now is that I only have limited time to travel, and I want to get the most out of it.

And that is where the pitfall lies. I started out with a Lonely Planet and Google and a rough outline of my route and a list of places I want to visit. Fine so far. But then I started researching every single thing there is to find out about those places. I looked up bus times, paranoid that info would be hard to come by at site. I have lists of things I should see in several towns, I even made custom maps of towns and landmarks, but honestly, I can't remember most of the items on the list - that's how excited I am to see them... It's the fear of missing out that has taken all the fun out of trip planning.

So here's the lesson I've taken out of this: don't go overboard with your travel plans. You can't see and do everything. A holiday should not add stress to your life, and worrying about bus schedules and stuff like that is pointless. The thing with travel is that it's often unpredictable, and that's part of the fun. Traveling is about discovering and exploring. It should be done out there in the real world, not in front of a screen. So I'm taking a step back, and will minimize the means of information I'll bring to my trusty travel guide and a travel journal with some scribbled notes. Despite my found knowledge on the country, I have no idea what my trip is going to be like. I love that, and I can't wait to go exploring.