How to Plan a City Trip That Leaves Room to Enjoy It

Short city trips are amazing ways to see new locations and uncover some real gems across the country. And for the most part, they fly by too fast and leave you with amazing memories, but the ones that don’t usually fall apart due to location, it’s down to expectations. People are trying to do too much, to fit too much in, and this is going to explain how you can avoid doing exactly that.

Stay Central and Walkable

What this means isn’t that you need to stay in the centre of a city or the location you’re visiting, but central to everything you want to do. Find common points between the places you plan on visiting and then look for accommodation within easy reach of them all, or at least somewhere that makes sense. If you’re staying too far out, you’re simply wasting time on commutes to get to where you want to go. So when you’re planning, make a map of your intended targets, then check accommodation in that area.

Don’t Overbook

One of the biggest mistakes people make for city trips is overbooking themselves. You want to fit loads in — sure, that’s natural —, but there’s a fine line between booking and overbooking, and a lot of people overstep it unintentionally.

You don’t need to fill your days with museum visits or hitting tourist attractions or locations. You simply need to be realistic about what you can actually fit into the day. Account for travel time, long queues, and stopping off at places you didn’t plan to. Give yourself breathing room so you’re not rushing everywhere all the time.

Choose Areas, Not Spots

Booking around neighborhoods works better than chasing specific locations. Much like the accommodation point above, if you are somewhere with coffee shops, restaurants, bars that sell craft & signature cocktails in Gaslamp, or parks, shops, etc., you get to have everything in one place that you need and you don’t need to feel like plans are collapsing if things don’t go how you intended them to — you’ll still have options where you are.

Lock in the Sell-Outs

What this means is you only need to book the things you want to do that actually sell out. If the chances of a walk-in visit are slim to none, then book it. If there’s always high availability, it doesn’t need to be locked in; you can go whenever you have the time. There’s always at least one event you want to do, so make sure this gets its booking first, then everything else can be built around it.

Build in Downtime

This is really important, as the last thing you want to do is really miss out on things you didn’t know about because you’re too exhausted or too busy rushing. Unplanned downtime on city breaks isn’t failure, it’s fun. You have more time to wander around and find things you weren’t looking for, and this is where you’re likely to have your best moments because you left the space for them to happen.