Travel Planning Guide: An Easy, Fun, and FREE Digital Download

Whether for work or play, planning a travel itinerary can go from being fun and exciting to feeling overwhelming…fast. Add in multiple destinations, a big group, or an extra lengthy trip, and it can feel downright impossible to keep straight or within budget. Luckily, throughout the years I’ve learned what tools, information, and preparation works best for me to make the most of any vacation or trip!

There are so many ways to plan out a trip – I’ve used everything from calendar apps, a hard-copy daily/monthly planner, Pinterest, an excel spreadsheet for budgeting, yelp for restaurants, google maps for mapping out spots, and a hefty combination of all of these to feel like I was prepared. I’ve streamlined the process significantly with a tool I’ve used so heavily in a personal and professional setting – Google Sheets! Google sheets are invaluable to me, whether for travel, budgets, event planning, or project management.  Fun fact: I completely planned our wedding, and yep, you guessed it, did it on a google sheet.

For me, the combination of the google sheet I’ve created and will share with you, and google maps act as everything I need to budget and plan for any kind of trip I am taking.

To access my go-to travel planning template, simply chick the link below!

Travel Planning Template | by Kristen Harbin

Once you open the travel template, you can save to your own google account, or export if you prefer. From there, simply follow the guidelines on the first tab to add in your own information, like your trip dates, location, and activities. On the second tab, you will find an example of a completed sheet. Using this sheet, you have easy access to all of your travel details, and from there the only other tool I like to use is google maps. I like to plug in all of my locations on google maps as I build my travel sheet, which helps me plan what activities to do on certain days.

While there are a lot of fields on this sheet, it’s important to note you should customize to fit what works best for you! Adding, deleting, or changing certain fields is so easy on google sheets, and I encourage you to change this so it makes the most sense to you. Also, it’s okay to leave some fields blank! By leaving some days lighter on activities than others, it allows you to keep your trip spontaneous and laid back. You mainly want to use this to keep your stay, transportation, and dates in check.

This travel planning sheet is a guide, which you can also use to easily change up your schedule if needed. Tired and want to relax instead of follow what was originally a busy, active day? Cut and paste the activities you missed into another day, and grab another drink poolside…always take care of yourself and don’t let an overly ambitious itinerary wear you out!

Disclaimer: All of the information provided in this template is solely a sample itinerary with fictitious information and is not a reflection of any actual plans, locations, or bookings. 

I hope you all enjoy and find this super helpful! Let me know what you think and if this works for you. Safe travels!!<3