How to Decide What To Do, See, & Eat on Vacation
You’ve chosen your next destination, picked your dates, booked flights, and even scored a great Airbnb. Congratulations! Now… how are you going to spend your time there?
Each destination, even the smaller ones, offer so many things to do, places to see, dishes to eat. Here are some strategies to decide how to spend your precious time!
KEEP A LIST
Keep an ongoing list of sights to see and places to eat. I have a list in my Notes app called “Travel Stuff” were I log anything that interests me by destination. I might have heard about an amazing landmark or tour on a podcast or was given a restaurant recommendation by a fellow traveler. All of these notes live in that one list.
I also do a quick scan of my Instagram saved posts and screenshots to find any other destination-specific inspiration that I’ve squirreled away over the years.
ADD ON THE MUST-SEES
Whenever I dig in and research a new destination, I take whatever list I’ve accumulated from my “Travel Stuff” list and then add the travel “must-sees”. To find these, I head to sites like Lonely Planet, Culture Trip, and many other sources with a good listicle. (Here’s a post of some of our favorite travel websites.) I love a “10 Things You Must See in …” post as much as the rest of the internet! Usually after reading a handful, I get the idea of what tourist sights were worth visiting. Remember these are general “must-sees” but in no way should you feel obligated to see them all. Travel is best enjoyed when you don’t feel compelled to take that Instagram photo and you’re spending time doing, seeing, and eating what truly brought you to the destination.
A non-listicle source that I always check out? My ultimate favorite, The New York Times' 36 Hours column. They do an amazing job of highlighting neighborhoods to visit which helps balance out time solely spent at tourist sights.
And! Once you arrive at your destination, don’t forget to gather recommendations from your Airbnb host or other locals. Our favorite, off the beaten path experiences usually come from these sources!
GET THE FAMILY INVOLVED
Get the kids and/or other travelers in your group involved. I love borrowing travel books from Libby, our library app. The kids would pour over books like City Atlas or Lonely Planet City Trails before heading to new destinations. I would take note when a landmark, museum, or activity would catch their attention. I wrote a whole post about our favorite Children’s Travel Books.
GOOGLE MAPS
Now, plug those spots into Google Maps and flag them to find later. I love watching all of those little “Want to Go” green flags fill the map of our next destination. The map also helps me understand what sights are near each other and how we can tackle everything that we want to see. The “Want to Go” flags are also great when your group is suddenly hungry and you don’t know where to eat. You can easily spot if there’s a place nearby that you wanted to try. We also loved that Google Maps are downloadable. You can choose an area to download so that your map is available offline.
BOOK AT LEAST ONE GUIDED TOUR
Guided tours can bring a destination to life and give you insight into daily life in the city/country that you just can’t achieve on your own. I can picture details of a city and recall facts about it with so much more clarity when we experienced it with a local guide. From free walking tours to Airbnb tours to local tours book through our accommodation, we loved them all!
BUILD A CHECKLIST OF MUST-TRY FOODS
We loved Offbeat Budapest’s Foodapest Bingo Card! We ate our way through the card and explored the food scene of Budapest beyond Goulash and Chimney Cakes. That experience made us get serious about create a food list for each of our destinations. Traveling to Singapore without eating Hainanese Chicken Rice or Prawn Noodles? Impossible! Visiting Chiang Mai without experiencing Khao Soi? Not happening! We love having a list of dishes to try in our back pocket when we’re ready to try something new at a restaurant. Tasteatlas.com is a great resource to start with to see what dishes are more popular in your next destination.
What about you? How do you decide what to do in a new destination?
