It’s always a good idea to have a travel itinerary for any adventure. Having an itinerary means you won’t be spending hours in your hotel room trying to think about what to do for the day, as everything would have been planned in advance.

I often get asked how I plan my trips – including how I manage to fit in visiting lots of places into a day, to how I choose restaurants and modes of transport.

For any adventure abroad, I always create a travel itinerary to ensure I visit the best places and maximise the amount of time whilst on holiday. In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to create the perfect itinerary, with a recent example I did for Toronto, so you can make the most of your future city breaks!

1) Accommodation, airport and flight information

At the top of your itinerary include the address of your accommodation and your flight details. Research the most convenient way to travel from the airport to where you’re staying and include this on the front page of your itinerary.

You may think that you will just decide to get a taxi or Uber, but do check how long this will take. You don’t want to spend hours in traffic, after a long flight, getting to your hotel. Quite often, public transport is a better and more cost-effective option.

Planning this initial stage of your trip will make for a very smooth start to your holiday!

2) Make a list of all the places you want to visit

The next step is to think about everywhere you want to visit. Make a list of all the landmarks and attractions you instantly know you want to go, and do some further research on Instagram, YouTube and through browsing travel guides and other travel blogs.

3) Rank in order of priority and locale

Sort the places on your list in order of priority, taking into account an estimate of how long an activity will take and how many days your trip is for.

At this stage of your itinerary planning process, use Google Maps to also start grouping the places on your list by area and then within each area, which place comes first, second, third and so on.

4) Modes of transport, restaurants and other logistics

Is your accommodation located near a metro station or bus stop? Are you going to be Uber-ing? Are any of the places on your list within walking distance from where you are staying? How will you be travelling from A to B? These are all the kinds of questions you need to be thinking about and factoring into your itinerary.

You’ll see from my examples above that as my hotel in Toronto was in the heart of Downtown, next to CN Tower, I planned my trip so that it was pretty much walkable throughout.

I’d really recommend printing off a metro map and attaching it to the back of your itinerary – it’s always super handy to have, especially when you are in a new city.

Also, research the opening times and entrance fees of attractions and museums, and the restaurants close to where you are visiting each day.

5) Sort everything into days

Now is the time to make a mini-calendar and sort all of the research you’ve done through the steps above into the days of your trip.

Try not to make the itinerary too tight and allocate time for things that aren’t in your control such as long queues or travel time from one place to the next.

Also leave some gaps for any unexpected opportunities and time to relax and chill – after all, you are on holiday!

6) Print and travel

Yay! Once you’ve reached this stage and finished your itinerary, it’s time to print it off and travel – I’d recommend printing two copies – one to keep with you in your hand bag or backpack, and the other in your suitcase as a spare. You should also keep a digital copy on your phone, so you can instantly pull it up whilst you’re out and about on your travels!