Let the Planning Begin

Our Trip

August 3- San Francisco to Barcelona
August 8- Barcelona to Rome
August 16- Venice to San Francisco

After some “travel hacking,” we were able to book affordable flights to and from Europe, but we had to book in December 2018. This was a big risk, in fear of it being so far out, but we knew we had to do it!

We really wanted to go on this trip with friends, but we knew it would not be easy, since all of our friends are still paying off college debt (seriously!). After asking many of our friends, most were unable to go with us, except Molly and Rico! Molly and Rico, agreed to join us IF we planned the whole thing. DONE! We had to plan it anyway, so the only difference was saying we had 4 people instead of 2. Easy!

Planning

Since I had a few weeks off, with no school work to do, I planned our entire trip! I planned out what we wanted to see in each city, what days they were open, how much they cost, if they had a dress code and I used all of that to create a “schedule”. Our schedule wasn’t as specific as “we will walk here and take this route” (not usually), instead, it laid out what big activity was planned for the day, the Vatican, the Colosseum, etc. Since we were about to travel to such a popular location at their busiest time of the year, we needed to plan it all out in advance! I booked the tickets and we were ready to rock!

This part was really necessary, especially since our trip was in August, when Italy is very hot and very busy! I’ve read in so many places about hundreds of people everyday that are standing in lines for three hours at a time to get into a popular tourist spot! I’m all for seeing the big cites, but in a world where the internet has taken over, you can do a little extra planning, book the tickets ahead of time, and skip a three hour line! Our time in Italy is so precious, there is no way I’m spending three hours of my day to stand in line with the sun beating down on me. The planning is worth it!