A Guide to our Ultimate Travel Planner incl. 10 Destinations – Google Spreadsheet
How we Organize our Multistop Trip: A Look at Our Ultimate Multi-Stop Travel Planner
We’re usually that chaotic couple who follows their instincts and stumbles upon beautiful places by chance. Time and budget management? Not really our thing – especially since we’re known for making impulsive decisions. But with a world trip on the horizon and only our savings to rely on, we quickly realized that without some serious organization, we’d likely lose track of both our time and our money. That’s why we decided to create our own Ultimate Multi-Stop Travel Planner – a planner built with care and tailored to our needs. Sure, there are plenty of planners out there, but none seemed to fit us just right.
10 Destinations, One Plan
To make sure we didn’t miss anything important, we created a dedicated page for each destination. These pages are like mini bucket lists, where we can note down the must-see spots and activities for every location. When you’re on a world trip with time and budget constraints, it’s crucial to do your homework beforehand—decide where you absolutely want to go and figure out how to get there. Of course, we’re not planning every single day down to the minute, but having an overview of each country allows us to make informed decisions on the go. This way, we can decide on the spot whether to stick to our plans or follow local tips.
Keeping Our Finances in Check
One thing we definitely didn’t want to do during our trip was constantly crunch numbers. After several trial-and-error attempts, we finally designed the planner with the necessary formulas to automatically calculate costs by category and country. This has been a lifesaver in making sure we don’t overspend. We’ve set individual budgets for each country, and we’re hoping to stick to them as closely as possible.
Stress-Free Packing
When you’re planning to travel with just a backpack for a whole year, a packing list is non-negotiable. We started by checking out advice from TikTok and other platforms to see what seasoned travelers recommend. Then, we sat down together and brainstormed our own list. The great thing about a packing list? You only have to make it once, and then you’re set—for better or worse! 😉
Flights, Accommodations, and the Little Details
We’re making sure to keep all our flight and accommodation details organized. Noting everything down right away saves a lot of time later when you’re trying to find those details—especially since not every booking comes from the same platform. There’s nothing more frustrating than digging through your emails and coming up empty.
The Calendar
We’ve been using a calendar to jot down important dates as we see fit. Like I said, we’re not into planning every single day, and we absolutely don’t want to! So, we only add the essential events to our calendar to keep a clear overview. Plus, there’s plenty of space for notes! This is super important for us, especially for our travel blog, so we can remember all the little details that make each destination unique.
Volunteering
We plan to do a lot of volunteering on this trip, so we needed a way to keep track of everything. We searched for planners that had a dedicated section for volunteering, but we came up empty. Since not all of our volunteering gigs are through the same platform, having a clear overview with all the relevant information in one place is crucial.
Google MyMaps
This tool is surprisingly under-the-radar and often confused with Google Maps. With Google MyMaps, you can mark places, categorize them, or even sort them by date. You can use custom icons for different categories, and every time you open your map, you’ll see all your marked locations categorized right in front of you. You can create multiple MyMaps for different purposes!
We’ve included a link to the relevant MyMap for each destination in our planner. It’s a handy tip but requires a bit of extra work—not everyone’s cup of tea, but it works for us.
If you’re planning a similar trip, we highly recommend taking the time to organize everything in advance. A good plan can make the difference between a stressful trip and an unforgettable adventure. For us, investing that time has been completely worth it, and we can’t wait to see where our next journey takes us!
Sounds good?
You can get our tailormade Travel Planner for your future trips!
