I get it all the time. Why do you spend so much time planning trips that are months out? The answer is simple. Travel time is precious. Whether you’re on a long weekend, a two week holiday, or a year around the world, you don’t want to waste precious time recovering from preventable transportation missteps. Route planning before you leave home is the best method for a stress-free travel experience.
That being said, I’m not neurotic. I don’t plan my daily activities month, or even days in advance. Sure, I have a general overview what I’ll do at each destination, but I don’t plan what time I’m visiting what museum on what day. If I was into that I’d book a package tour. I don’t book package tours and neither should you. I plan my routing.
There are always exceptions. Certain museums and attractions need to be booked well in advance, and some locations require tours-or are at least enhanced by tours. But learning how to get from Point A to Point B is essential, as it isn’t always as easy as it looks on a map.
Right: Enjoying a beer in Venice
What do I plan ahead?
Trip routing. I start with routing regardless of the duration of my trip, be it ten days or six months. It’s imperative to at least have a rough route mapped out. For longer trips it shouldn’t be carved in stone, but it should be pretty darn firm for shorter jaunts. Trust me, outside of Western Europe and Southeast Asia, it isn’t always simple, and it requires hard work. You can’t just “wing-it” unless you have no timeline or an unlimited bank account. Further, in developing countries, geopolitical issues, border crossings, and visa requirement may add further complication.
Left: gear in tow, Zagreb, Croatia
The great thing about route planning is that it’s fun, and you learn a lot about your destinations!
What do I mean by trip routing?
Trip routing is looking at the proposed trip as a whole and finding the best way of getting to all your destinations in the most logical, cost effective, comfortable, and scenic manner, be it by plane, train, bus, or camel. Let’s take an example of a three week trip I took with a friend to the Balkans in the summer of 2014.
Routing for Three Weeks in the Balkans
The routing: 1. Munich, Germany > 2. Venice, Italy > 3. Ljubljana, Slovenia > 4. Zagreb, Croatia > 5. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina > 6. Prishtina, Kosovo > 7. Skopje, Macendonia > 8. Berät, Albania > 9. Kotor, Montenegro > 10. Dubrovnik, Croatia.
My flight arrived in Munich and departed from Dubrovnik, so I needed a logical and manageable route. It seems easy, but it’s not, as I soon learned. It’s strategic and must be researched.
Right: rainy day in Ljubljana, Slovenia
So why was it hard planning this trip? It looks pretty simple! And it’s in Europe! Don’t I just book buses or trains when I get there? Sure, if you want the trip to end at about Stop 6.
I’d never been to the Eastern Bloc when I planned this trip and I didn’t know what to expect. Truthfully, I didn’t know much about the countries either. I knew they were communist at one time and that there was a brutal civil war, but not much else. Plus, our timeframe was short and we wanted to see each place. So I began my research…and it took me weeks until I was confident we could do this at all…and about a month before I was confident we could do it without rushing.
Left: standing on the bobsled track from the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics
As I’d done all the research before hopping on the plane, we enjoyed our days rather than worrying, arguing, and wasting countless hours figuring out how to get from place to place.
Here’s a location by location account of what my search results yielded:
1. Munich, Germany to Venice, Italy by sleeper train
We desperately wanted to take a sleeper train from Munich to Venice, so I began researching. I ended up finding the best train travel website on the internet: The Man in Seat 61. Seriously, if you like trains, this site is gold. I start here every time I’m traveling by train in Europe and beyond. Seat 61 told me that a night train existed, but it was a popular route…so I needed to book early. It wasn’t possible to book online at the time, so I had to get the tickets mailed to me in the States through a German ticket broker in Boston. Fortunately, you can now book online at German Railways.
2. Venice, Italy to Ljubljana, Slovenia by transfer
This looked easy from the map as it’s only 240 km, but I quickly realized there was no direct train nor traditional buses (July 2014). Through a google searching stress I discovered the best and most economical transport was a “transfer” through GoOpti. The transfer took about 3 1/2 hours from central Venice and was pleasant and spectacularly beautiful.
Left: Kosovo, a newborn country
3. Ljubljana, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia by train
When I travel, I prefer to take the train as often as possible. It’s peaceful, scenic and relaxing. This step was admittedly easy thanks to the Man in Seat 61, who I again consulted and we decided to book the stunning and affordable train to Zagreb.
4. Zagreb, Croatia to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina by a communist-era hunk of steel
When Yugoslavia disintegrated, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia went to war. Tensions remain high. Heck, it was only 25 years ago. Bosnia is mountainous, poor, and has terrible roads, so we opted for the train, which was slower than the bus. The train itself was a dilapidated, circa 1964 Soviet monstrosity, but it got the job done. The journey was remarkable, running through mountains and next to raging river. However, when writing this post, I found out the train is no longer running! Clearly, the tensions remain high! The only reasonable option currently is by bus, and buses suck compared to trains. This is why it pays to to do your research and stay current! Though everyone tries to put out good information, situations change. (Though it was a blast re-researching a great trip!)
assassinated, the event which led to World War I
5. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina to Priština, Kosovo by two buses and a weird border
This is where the planning got difficult. Sarajevo is a bit of an outpost, and Kosovo is a “quasi-country” in that Serbia doesn’t recognize its existence. Problem is, you need to pass through Serbia to get to Kosovo. So I set myself to google…and some time later I learned that due to the “issues” between Serbia and Kosovo it’s not possible to buy a ticket from Sarajevo all the way through to Priština.
Right: hiking outside Skopje, Macedonia
One must buy a ticket to Novi Pazar, Serbia, and once you get into Serbia you buy your onward ticket to Priština. You change buses in Novi Pazar and boom, you’re in the world’s newest country, Kosovo. You can’t make this stuff up.
6. Priština, Kosovo to Skopje, Macedonia by minibus
Suffice it to say, the poorer the country, the poorer the infrastructure. In 2014, the entire city of Priština was a UN sponsored construction zone. It was hot and had a Mad Max feel. I’ve heard its changed for the better. We were ready to get to Macedonia after spending an afternoon there. There is one train leaving at 7:00 am, and the only alternative transport are lackluster mini-buses that have no departure time and only leave when full. (Bishkek to Osh, anyone?)…so that’s what we took!
Left: Berat, Albania, the city of a thousand windows
7. Skopje, Macedonia to Berat, Albania by bus and taxi
There was (and is) precious little information on the interweb about how to get from Skopje, Macedonia to Albania’s capital, Tirana, let alone how to get from Skopje all the way to Berat in a day. After scouring the internet for hours and only finding information from the unreliable balkanviator (which I won’t even link), I finally located a recent tripadvisor forum post mentioning the route. There was a bus at 6:00 am arriving at 1:00 “ish” pm. The post also mentioned the dreadful state of Albanian roads and to expect the bus to take an 2 extra hours than advertised.
Well, it took an three extra hours. For some reason the Albanian driver and his assistant decided to stop and wash the bus…TWICE. Why? I don’t know, the “roads” look like they’d been constantly sprayed with sand shelled by mortar for a decade.
Right: less than stoked about the 50 Euro Albanian taxi
Normally this wouldn’t bother me much…but I’d researched that the only way to get to Berat from Tirana was via shared “furgon”..and the last “furgon” left 30 minutes before we got to Tirana (actually, it was Durress, if we’d gone all the way to Tirana we’d have been 4 hours late)! Hey, I thought 2 1/2 hours of lag time was plenty?!? I don’t normally like to make multi-leg journeys in developing countries, but we REALLY wanted our two days in Berat!
…so we did something I hate doing…we spent a boatload of money for a taxi to Berat. After arguing and arguing and arguing with a parking lot full of Albanian taxi drivers, with a chasmic language barrier, we finally said f*** it and paid the hostage price of 50 Euros and hit the “road.” Yes, it was worth it.
8. Berat, Albania to Kotor, Montenegro by transfer
This route was not possible. There was NO information. Sure, it was easy to get the d*** shared taxi from Berat to Tirana, but how on earth could we get those measly 200kms to Kotor?? I literally scoured the internet for days and found NOTHING. I was close to giving up and ditching Albania altogether (to the excitement of my father who has seen Taken one too many times)…and only when I was looking into hostels in Kotor did I find that the HOSTEL, Old Town Hostel, ran transfers from the center of Tirana to Kotor. Amazing. A new van that would take us straight to our hostel? Jackpot!
The lesson here is that if you stay persistent, you can find the information you need.
Left: Kotor, Montenegro from above
9. Kotor, Montenegro to Dubrovnik, Croatia
Finally, a short, easy, and spectacularly beautiful bus ride to one of the most spectacular cities on earth. Find times or book here.
How did pre-planning our routing help this trip?
Simple. It made it possible. Without pre-routing the trip, we’d have never been able to get to all the destinations in three weeks and enjoy them. It also helped me learn a lot about the history of the countries. Once you get into it, I think you’ll find it a fun way to get excited about where you’re going! That being said, there are no shortcuts. It takes time. You’ll get better at it, as I have, but you have to put in the work.
Jay’s Keys for Routing for Trips With a Timeline
- Begin with a place to start and a place to end
- Choose the destinations you want to visit along the way
- Start filling in the blanks of how to get from A to B, B to C, etc…
- Download the maps.me app and the maps for each of your destinations and pin crucial points along your journey, such as bus and train stations
- Don’t get frustrated if you can’t find what you’re looking for right away, keep searching! The information is likely out there!
- Information from people who’ve done it is better than information from a tour desk
- Have fun with it! Once you get there you’ll be so happy you put in all the work!
- Know that you will mess up. You’ll look back and fondly remember the times you messed up…just don’t mess up because you were flying blind!
Drop me a comment or an email if you have any questions, suggestions, or similar encounters!