We are in the throws of summer and if you have not already, you might be in the middle of summer travel planning. The following are my essential tips and considerations for having the ultimate summer travel!

1. Budget

I’m uncertain anyone likes to be hemmed in by something like a budget; however, knowing the amount of money you have available for your trip will give guidelines to your trip expectations. Categories in your budget should include: transportation, food, souvenirs, accommodations, and experiences.

Because we have taken some big trips in the past couple of years, the transportation category has been the biggest chunk of our budget. However, for smaller trips, I would say accommodations and experiences would be larger spending categories.

You determine what your budget will be and how you will make it work for you during your trip.

2. Weather

Checking to see what type of weather a location has throughout the year can help you determine when the best time for you to visit will be. For example, in Kuaui, it is the rainiest of the Hawaiian islands. It’s drier months are May-July. If I was only able to visit during March or April, I would need to be prepared to have certain excursions hindered by the volume of rain and rough currents.

3. Must-Dos

Talk with your spouse and/or family and ask what are the must-dos of the trip. When we visited Greece for my son’s senior trip, he wanted to make certain he was able to see some famous sites. When it was my daughter’s turn for her senior trip to Kuaui, she wanted to focus more on relaxing times at the various beaches over the island.

What are the must-dos that will make your vacation special? Over the years I have tried to share various trip itineraries to my blog. You can access my family’s Greece itinerary, here.

If you only have a certain amount to spend on experiences, then I recommend listing them in order of importance and by cost. Once you and your family have viewed the list, you can choose which experiences you will participate in. For example, on our recent trip to Kuaui, my daughter wanted to do a helicopter ride. After looking up multiple sites for costs and determining one 50 minute helicopter ride for our family of five would be over $2,000, we realized that would be an experience we would not be doing for this trip. We were however able to book an entire day’s excusion on a catamaran boat with food included for half that price. We selected the catamaran excursion as one of our experiences.

4. Accommodations

My best advice for selecting accommodations is to look for certain features. My top features are: 8+ rating, A/C, and free cancellation.

The only time I have ever used a travel agent is when we went to Disney World and the agent was well worth her expertise. For all other travel, I do the research and planning on my own. Sites that I hit up for travel accommodations are: booking.com, VRBO, airbnb, and even occassionally, hotels.com .

For booking.com, I look for 8+ ratings for any and all accommodations I book. For VRBO and AirBnB, I deep-dive on the reviews – not just the first one or two. I read MANY reviews before I book with one of these two sites.

With features like “free cancellation”, it is not always necessary to purchase travel insurance. You will have to determine what is your risk when traveling and what money can be recouped.

5. Transportation

When traveling to a vacation destination, decide before you go how you will get around your travel local. Will it be best to take city transportation? Do you need to rent your own car? Once you have decided your mode of transportation, do a deep-dive on the ins and outs of that mode. For example, if you are choosing city transportation, look up maps, schedules, and fees all before you leave for your trip. Know the difference between a bus, a subway, and the Metro (ask me why this is important to me). We learned this lesson the hard way while in Athens, Greece. I thought city transportation meant a city bus system; however, after three hours of wandering the streets of Athens, we learned the city not only had a bus system but an underground metro system. Knowing exactly how you will travel from point to point on your vacation will greatly decrease your stress.

There you have it: my top 5 areas to consider when summer travel planning. Happy travels!