Anatomy of an Itinerary (a.k.a. My Next Adventure…)
As many of my TL readers well know, I’ve long declared that for me – the hours, days, weeks (and yes, often months on end!) of bleary-eyed online research for my travels – is almost as much fun as the trip itself. Not only does the blissful planning and dreaming while-away dreary days of otherwise chilly winter doldrums, but as an avowed DIY independent traveler – arming myself with ALL the many options I’ll have upon landing in my new destination will ensure that I’ll not miss anything (peculiar to my personal interests, i.e. not just the tiresome list of “Must See”s proffered by most every website). Plus, should anything go wrong (as inevitably it often does), I’ll have plenty of options.
A (far skinnier) TravelnLass with an “Imagine Travel Alternatives” group at Tortuguero, “The Costa Rican Amazon”.
Curiously, this “itinerary planning” isn’t at all a new thing for me. Indeed, for many years I made my living off of such rigorous work – as a 20+ year international tour operator. Specializing in small group trips to Belize and Costa Rica (waaay back in the ’80’s and 90’s when few had even HEARD of the tiny Central American nation of Belize), my job description (as the lone, CEO of my own int’l tour company) relied heavily on designing the most wondrous itineraries (from 7 nt. to 21 nt. odysseys to several different Central American countries) that would enchant my clients with a wide variety of diverse activities yet (ever a priority) provide them with plenty of independent free time (so as to avoid the usual, tiresome “If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium” group tour mentality).
And THIS, I might add – long before we had the massive travel planning aid of this “internet” contraption reliably coughing up “Viator” and “GetYourGuide” tour offers on the fly.
But today, I’m here to simply set down in ascii, the steps I take for each of my own personal travel adventures. From inspiration and selection of where I’ll head next (often the toughest decision in the process), to choosing how to get there (as cheaply and reliably as possible), what order (and how) to move from place to place, where to sleep, what activities to consider in each corner, etc. and etc. In short: cobbling together an itinerary (be it a week or a month, in a single country or three) that optimizes A. my time, B. my precious (ever limited – no matter if your travel budget is 4 figures or 5) travel dollars, and C. my personal (and arguably peculiar) travel interests/druthers.
And so it begins… This. My next TravelnLass adventure to…
The Great “Where…” a.k.a. “Where (on earth!) Shall I Go Next?”
If you’ve been lately following the TL then you know that – after nearly a half-century of hopping around this wondrous Big Blue Dot – I’ve lately become a bit ambivalent about what new (or old) corner of the globe would make my wanderlust heart go pitty-pat. Though I’ve only explored but a tiny percentage of the many (193+ by most counts) sovereign countries in the World, there’s surely plenty of new options to explore. BUT…
I’ve never been keen on “counting countries” (i.e. just to check-off some arbitrary “50 by 50” or some such goal). For some, counting countries seems to be a badge-of-honor. But honestly – I fail to see how much “honor” there is in merely hopping off a cruise ship to spend a handful of hours “exploring” a square mile (at most) of the “local culture” amid a carefully choreographed backdrop (designed by the local Tourism Board) especially concocted for “day trippers”. Else – worse – merely stepping across some nebulous land border and thereafter claiming you’ve “been to Xxxx”. IOW, arbitrary travel goals aside, personally…
Travel for me has always been (and ever will be) about experiencing the authentic culture of a place, its people, its customs, its food, its peculiar wildlife, etc. Leastwise as much as possible as a foreigner. And for that… it’s all about hanging around for at least a few days – trying my darndest to avoid the worst of the “tourist traps”, and being ever open to miming my way into the good graces of a local or three, to glean a small sense of how their culture and their daily lives differ from mine.
That said, there are actually quite a few countries/cultures that hold little interest for me. For example: neither Russia, nor most all of the Middle East has ever much sparked my travel attention. We travelers each have our peculiar druthers, and no doubt they would be most interesting places to visit. But for me, those regions of the globe simply don’t tickle my travel toes. Besides, AIS – there’s still more than 70% of the World I’ve yet to explore, so clearly I’m not lacking alternatives.
The Big “REVEAL”…
So where next for the TravelnLass? My life-long penchant for exploring the globe, has ever been inspired/dictated by… pretty much sheer whimsy. Some sudden reminder that it’s February once again, and I’ve yet to experience the wonder of those magnificent Monarch butterflies dripping from the trees in the forests of Mexico. Or randomly unearthing an uber-cheap airfare to gawk at those legendary moai standing tall on Easter Island. Or suddenly realizing that I’d long hoped to witness that spectacular springtime season of blooming “sakura” in Japan. Or most recently the mere mention of a couple of food festivals in Ireland.
Else… as a life-long wildlife fan (I once flew down from Denver to Padre Island in south Texas for the express purpose of seeing – what was then – the last few Whooping Cranes on the Planet), often my next air ticket has been to whiz me to some obscure corner of the earth that happens to harbor some exotic species of wildlife. Like… those amazing Pygmy elephants in Malaysian Borneo, wild Orangutans at Bukit Lawang in Sumatra, and those wondrous Snow Monkeys at Jigokudani NP in Japan.
And sometimes… it’s just been coincidental, like that time I opted to fly into Kigali, Rwanda for a couple of days in order to most swiftly travel overland to get to Bwindi NP in Uganda for my gorilla trek (where a gorilla permit was a whoppin’ $900 cheaper than in Rwanda!) Though… in retrospect, Kigali turned out to be so fabulous, I wished I’d allowed a lot more time there.
In short, I’ve never had a “bucket-list”, and it’s never been about merely adding a new country to my “count”. Rather – it’s always pretty much just some stray whim that suddenly prompts me to buy a plane ticket to… wherever.
Which… (finally) leads me to reveal my next destination(s), and why.
MALTA & ALBANIA
Malta – “The Golden Island”
Why Malta? Honestly, mostly because of a single photo I stumbled across a few years ago that verily took my breath away in its antiquated island majesty. The truth is, I’ve long been a sucker for islands (indeed, I used to live on one – Vashon Island – off the coast of Seattle), PLUS… this particular isle is (kind of) on the way to…
Albania – a country that (with any luck) is still somewhat unspoiled by mass tourism. Indeed, worrisomely – lately it’s been popping-up seemingly everywhere as a travel favorite. Thus… given how swiftly such global attention among the travel masses can pretty much ruin/turn many places into cookie-cutter “Disney-esque” ugh – I figure I jolly-well best get my Traveln-ass there sooner rather than later.
So there you have it – the “Where” and why of my next venture into the “Wild Blue Yonder”.
The “When…”
As a (most happy) retiree, I can of course travel as often and as long as I like. But – unlike my earlier days of madly rushing hither ‘n yon to most every corner of Asia when I lived there – these days I’m honestly so utterly content here in my adopted home in Cuenca, Ecuador that just one or two trips each year keeps me quite travel-satiated. I just returned in October from a marathon skip through London, Belgium and Ireland, so I’m happy to sit-tight awhile on this lovely Andean mountain-top.
Furthermore, (unlike many of my family and friends up north in my native land) I have no need to escape the frigid temps and blizzards of winter in favor of a week or two in the tropics each year. Indeed, at 8,400+ feet on the Equator, Cuenca ever remains sweetly “temperate” w/ year-round “springtime” temps and tons of sunshine. Thus the “when” of any of my travels is mostly a matter of the climate/weather in my chosen destination. That and… the (ever more urgent) need to somehow avoid the crowds of “high season”.
Thus – after settling on Malta and Albania for my next adventure – it was just a quick matter of checking the climate and year-round weather for each locale. Both countries fall solidly in the temperate “Mediterranean” latitude. Malta especially is smack-dab in the middle of the Mediterranean (just 50 miles from the south coast of Sicily), and Albania’s topography includes both sandy Adriatic/Ionian beaches, as well as their very own glacial “Albanian Alps” (a.k.a. the “Accursed Mountains”), so easy enough to find a balance in temps year-round. And better still… I can comfortably visit both in the “shoulder season” (i.e. March/April or September/October) which has long been my druthers in Europe to avoid the worst of the high-season tourist hordes in both locales.
In short, I settled on Malta and Albania – come September/October this year.
Next Priority – How Long?
As a footloose retiree, the “How Long” is of course likewise pretty much unlimited. I can easily put my few English students on hold for a spell, and I have no other responsibilities to consider – other than my dear cat Dulce. But I’ve long had great cat-sitters when I travel, be it one week or six. BUT…
I DO have a limit on just how much bouncing around this ol’ dodderin’ wants to (can physically!) do anymore. International travel in general is fairly physically demanding (e.g. looong plane rides, tiresome layovers, toting luggage – even my small carry-on – on/off planes, trains and buses, etc.) And my particular travel style has never included comfy cruise ships, nor swanky all-inclusive resorts. So I’ve pretty much settled on about 3 weeks as my personal “sweet-spot” for length of trip. Thus my only “How Long” for this trip was deciding how to divide my time between Malta and Albania.
Slicing up 21-odd days between the two destinations proved fairly straight-forward. The island of Malta is simply not all that big (but one-tenth the size of Rhode Island) so a week there should be plenty to see most all of it (along with its neighboring bitty isle Gozo). So that leaves about 2 weeks to wander around Albania. Of course, one could easily spend more time in either country, but for a first go at both – I think that divvy of time will suffice.
Next Chore – Buying Air Tickets
Purchasing air tickets for most any trip is generally the most expensive item and I could easily peck an entire blog post on that process alone. But suffice, my main M.O. for grabbing air tickets is to A. start early (6 months isn’t at all too soon to start looking); B. be flexible with my ideal “window” of travel dates (i.e. willing to move it forward or back a few days and/or add/subtract a day or two on either side of my “depart on…” and “return on” dates between Ecuador and Europe.
Google Flights nifty “Explore” map
Which brings me to my newest air ticket buying tip: Given that I’ll be again flying to Europe. And furthermore, that once one lands ANYWHERE in Europe, cheapo airline flights (like Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz, etc.) to most everywhere in Europe are abundant. So… for my planned trip to both Malta and Albania (on the same go) I simply used the Google Flights “Explore” map to find the cheapest hub in Europe. More often than not, that’s generally Madrid. But… plugging in my rough 3 week to/fro Ecuador dates – turns out a rt. ticket to Madrid was running $1,000+ while… those same dates from Ecuador rt. to Paris was showing a very sweet $732! Snagging that fare required a slight extension of my trip (i.e. instead of 21 days, I now have 25 days to divvy up between Malta and Albania). But hey – a bit more time is always nice – especially when it saved me more than $300.
Even better, with Paris as my hub (and who doesn’t like a night or two in the City of Light, yes?), I could then use the European budget airlines for routing myself two different ways: Paris -> Malta -> Tirana -> Paris; else the reverse (Paris -> Tirana -> Malta -> Paris) while again divvying up the time in each country to snag the best fares and schedules.
In short, you can bet I grabbed that $732 rt, airfare from Ecuador to Paris pronto the moment I found it (it’s now up to $969). And I’m still weekly checking the intra-Europe budget fares before making a decision on what order my Malta/Albania itinerary will play out. Which neatly segues into the next order of trip planning business…
Noodling Out the Dizzying Attraction/Activity Options
With the “biggy” trip chores behind us now, it’s time for (the most fun) travel planning (a.k.a. sublime “dreaming”) task to do before we book any of our (ever w/ free cancellation) sleeps:
We first need to devise a plan for how we’re going to choose between the (no doubt dizzying, no matter the country) array of diverse locales, along with the wondrous sights to see and fabulous things to do in our destination country(ies). And then… just how we’re going to move about to see/do them.
~ Time Out for an Old-School Traveler Rant ~As a life-long veteran traveler – I’ve long favored an utterly “free-spirit” approach to exploring any new land. But (sadly) – gone are the days that I could simply land in (say… Venice or Amsterdam) with no pre-arranged ANYTHING (i.e. neither sleeps nor most certainly not a “Skip the Line” ticket to the Anne Frank museum). But these days – arriving in most any corner of the globe that recklessly is pretty much sheer lunacy (even in the somewhat less crowded “shoulder” season). Were I to proceed that foolishly, I’d very likely not even get into the museum to see that legendary “revolving bookcase” door, and – worse – might well end up sleeping in the street b/c there’s wasn’t a single hotel room vacancy in all of Amsterdam. Ah, but this life-long, old-school, wanderlust (like-it-or-not) has (begrudgingly) learned to adapt to the reality of travel today. Not only do I now prudently pre-arrange every last one of my sleeps in my destination country, but if there’s anything major that I hope to see/do – I bite-bullet and book the (%#@!) on-line ticket in advance. That said, I still try to keep my itinerary as open and free-spirited as possible. While I do tentatively plan-out my route through a country, my accommodations in any given place (be it city, village, or beachside cubby) are *always* booked at ONLY properties that offer “free cancellation” (often up to but a night in advance). That way, I at least have some leeway should I suddenly discover an interesting detour and want to alter my itinerary a tad. That and… no way do I fill up most every spare moment with pre-arranged excursions and tours. Nosiree – for me, faaar better to leave myself fully open most every day – in order to leave plenty of opportunity for that most rare and precious travel entity: “serendipity” (that actually, seems to follow me like a magnet wherever I roam). |
Old-school grumpy rant aside… Back to that (didimention, sublime?) task of researching all the many attractions and activities that I might (or might not) want to see/do in my precious 3+ weeks in Malta and Albania.
For any given new destination, I first look at the usual “Top 10”. But generally less than half of those tickle my toes and I’m much more interested in unearthing the places and activities that match my peculiar interests. Often these are NOT on the ubiquitous “Must See” lists and thus require more rigorous (and fun!) sleuthing. For this I often spend hours tunneling down ever-deeper digital “rabbit-holes”. Ah but the rewards for unearthing an obscure countryside cheese-tasting, or a chance to slosh in the mud (“mudlark”) along London’s Thames river in search of 16th century coins and pottery shards (for example) is well worth every minute of digital scrolling.
My “Villa Olive” sleeps in the upper “Old Queparo” village
For my next adventure I still have weeks (nearly 6 months!) of such lovely digital chores ahead of me. But suffice I’ve already got a long list of Malta traditional eats to track-down – e.g. the (apparently ubiquitous) “pastizzi” of course, along with “fenek stuffat” (rabbit stew), and “Kinnie” (a bittersweet fizzy soft drink made from the fruit of myrtle-leaved orange trees and extracts of wormwood.) And in Albania I discovered a little known abandoned village overlooking the Ionian beaches of “Queparo” (with just two renovated places to stay.) And of course.. lol – I’ve also bookmarked a few geocaches, along with a slew of clothing thrift stores (my fave!) in both Malta and Tirana. 😉
But suffice… for all the rest – it’s just a matter of being aware of my many options in both destinations. Knowing what-all is out there, but none of it *nailed-down* before the wheels of my silver cigar-tube even touch the tarmac in Malta and Albania.
Still… knowing the “what-all” that’s specific to my target destination(s) – gives me the guidance that I need as to where and how much time to spend in any given corner. In short, a pre-requisite to the next step in my itinerary planning process.
Locking-in My Sleeps…
As I said above (like-it-or-not) these days one pretty much damn-well MUST have one’s sleeps reserved in advance. And for that I’ve long used Booking.com (and have accumulated a sweet little “Genius Level 3” status which gives me up to 20% discounts on my sleep reservations. But here too, I have some key factors that I search on, and I *scour* the details of every potential property, as well as the reviews in a systematic way.
For starters – AIS earlier (in my “rant”) I ONLY look at sleeps that have “free cancellation”. I also set my search filters for only those properties that have an “8+” (out of 10) rating, “show only available properties” and finally – I move the “budget per night” scale down to ~ $10-$20 or so more than I really would like to spend.
Note also that… I do NOT toggle the “Show only private rooms” (i.e. don’t exclude dormitory beds) because many of those hostels also offer private rooms. And for me (as an ever solo TravelnLass), a private room in a hostel (with the camaraderie of fellow travelers, a shared kitchen, and often tip-based walking tours, etc.) is the best of all worlds.
Travel expenses are all about “trade-offs” – save a bit here, and splurge a bit there…
Bear in mind too, that I’ve long been a “frugal” (as opposed to “luxury”) traveler. And more importantly – I consider any and all of my travel expenses to be trade-offs. While I love saving a bit here and there, I’m quite happy to splurge on my own private jacuzzi overlooking a gurgling river in Mindo; or a sunrise balloon ride at Cappadocia in Turkey. And I have no problem with (rarely, but still…) spending $200 on a Michelin lunch in Peru (at the then, 5th BEST restaurant in the entire World!)
IOW, as I see it – we’re ALL on a “budget” no matter how plump or lean your travel piggy-bank might be. We’re also all different in our travel styles and our travel priorities. Personally, I honestly don’t need a $150/nt. hotel room – that I’m only in for about 10 hours each day at most (and even then, am unconscious for at least 7 of them). So I’d much rather save a bit on sleeps – and spend it on a Michelin meal, or a private birding guide at a cloud forest in Mindo, Ecuador, else… just exchange it for an extra few days in Paris, or an upgrade to business class on that looong flight home across the Atlantic.
Ah but back to locking in those sleeps. LOTS of variables here and any one of them can easily make or break your stay. Location is a high priority for me, so I always first separately Google for “best neighborhoods” in most any city on my itinerary. Then I look at the “Show on Map” feature in Booking.com to give me an idea of just where-all the filtered properties fall.
And then… the uber-vetting begins. For any potential pick, it’s important to read *every word* on the page. The description, the checkin/checkout times, property surroundings, how far is the property from key attractions, bus stops, etc. And finally – carefully read through all of the Guest reviews. For this, I like to set the review sort to “Newest first”. But I find that it’s a good idea to also sort by “Lowest scores” as that can often reveal some serious problems (depending on the review date of course). And for all of these guest reviews, I always click on the handy “Show translation” for those in Arabic, German, etc. to be sure I don’t miss anything important. And – if all seems promising (i.e. good location, reviews, etc.) – I click the wee “heart” and save that property to my Booking.com Malta favorites list.
And finally… (only b/c I didn’t bother looking at properties that don’t offer free-cancellation) I reserve my favorite carefully vetted sleeps knowing that I can later change things around if need-be.
Whew! Though all that accommodation research might seem like over-kill, trust that (esp. if you’ll be staying more than a night or two) will pay off greatly when your toes land in your new destination.
Oh, One More Thing on “Sleeps”…
Note: When planning any itinerary, talking about “I have 12 days in xxx…” is meaningless, because when moving from place to place within a given destination, at least a half-day (to often pretty much a full day) is lost – every. time. you. MOVE. The more you move around – the more of your precious travel time is wasted in packing up, traveling to, checking-in and unpacking at the next place. Thus, far more accurate/helpful in your itinerary planning to express your stays in x-number of “nights” in each locale.
Furthermore – hopping around with a single night here and a single night there – is a recipe for having precious little time to actually ENJOY each locale. And indeed with such a frenetic pace, you’ll likely wear yourself out halfway through your trip, and (worse) – your entire trip will meld into but one big BLUR.
Nosiree, for me, I rarely (if ever) build any one-nighters into my itinerary. Nor do I rush around trying to see every blessed corner of the “10 Best” in a single week. It’s tough I know – mighty tough to refrain from trying to see ALL of a new country (that you likely won’t get back to for years, if ever). But trust me – far, far better to SLOW DOWN and be selective of just where to spend your time. Choose but a handful of locales that match your peculiar travel interests (and just keep mumbling “Next time, I’ll be back…”) 😉
In short, at the very LEAST: a minimum of 2 nts. in a given locale (which actually only gives you but 1.5 days to enjoy it) is strongly advised. And better yet – 3 or more days to settle in and explore that locale more fully (with perhaps day trips/tours to nearby attractions).
Which leads me to more sleep details for my next adventure:
For Malta – given that it’s such a small island – I checked on the local public transport options (i.e. buses and ferries) and most everything (even neighboring Gozo Island) is reachable within a couple of hours at most. Thus it was easy to simply locate a good “home-base” near the main Malta locus (the nation’s capital: Valletta) for my entire time on Malta.
Albania of course is much larger, and getting around by bus/collectivo (though apparently quite doable) requires overnighting between locales. From my research (and in keeping with my travel mantra of not rushing to every “must see” across all of Albania), I determined that I was primarily interested in a goodly stay in Tirana (the capital), along with a couple of small traditional towns (Berat – “The City of 1,000 Windows”, and Gjirokastër – both UNESCO World Heritage sites, and both in Albania’s central valley). Plus…
Though I’m not at all a “beach person”, nonetheless – Albania is noted for its stunning beaches along the southern “Albanian Riviera”. So I thought a somewhat extended stay at one of the many beaches might be a good way to wind-down my near month-long European trip. Suffice it was tough to decide among the likes of “Ksamil” beach (but a stone’s throw from the Greek island of Corfu), “Sarande” (the most popular/touristy beach on the Albanian Riviera), Borsh, Queparo, Himarë, Jala, Gjipe, Dhërmi – and more. But in the end, I settled on reserving sleeps for 6 nights at Queparo – mainly because of the aforementioned abandoned village of “Old Queparo” that lies just steps (well o.k. more like a 40 min. rocky trek) above the beach.
The Final (presently still tentative) Itinerary
And the result of all this planning, dreaming (and arguably bleary-eyed digital research) to cobble together my 26 night European itinerary come Sept/Oct ’25?
Actually, 2 of those nights will be in Paris on the way out and back (where I’ve been in an earlier chapter of my life, but hope to at least enjoy a brie-stuffed croissant along the Seine – along w/ a quick glimpse of Notre-Dame that recently reopened after 5 years closed following the fire in 2019).
Ever subject to further tweak, but I think this will give me a good taste of both Malta and Albania:
- 1 nt. flying over the Atlantic
- 1 nt. in Paris (in order to recover from the looong cramped night over the aforementioned ocean)
- 6 nts. Malta
- 17 nts. Albania: 4 Tirana -> 2 Berat -> 3 Gjirokastër ->2 Querapo (upper village) -> 4 Querapo (beach) -> 2 Tirana
- 1 final nt. Paris
###########
And there you have it – more than *4,000* words to detail my personal itinerary planning process. Notice that ’tis just the barest of bones (i.e. nothing nailed down but for a rt. int’l air ticket and 25 nts. of (free cancellation) sleeps.
Of course I’ll continue to scour the www for further unique options in both Malta and Albania over the next 6 months. Ah but AIS – that’s fairly half the fun of traveling, yes?
P. S. New here and curious who I am? Check my bio to learn more! Better yet, subscribe to my email list (so you never miss a single post) and get a pdf of my 30+ Best Travel Tips (trust me, at least one is sure to be a revelation).
About the Author
Dyanne Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion,and I’ve always lived life “like-a-kid-in-a-candy-store” – eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been: This ain’t a dress rehearsal, folks!
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Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion, and I’ve always lived life “like a kid in a candy store” – eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been:
