When you’re planning a vacation, no matter how short, you want to ensure that you have an itinerary. This will assist you in getting to do the things that you want while on vacation. Here are some of our best tips for organizing your itinerary for the perfect vacationing experience.

Start with Realism

While there may be tons of things that you would love to do on your vacation, you only have so much time. You can’t expect to explore all of Europe during a weekend getaway. Be realistic about the things that you really want to do and the things that you would just like to do. Put your must-dos at the top of the list and your would-like-tos at the bottom.

Plan Extra Time for Waits

You don’t want to book your itinerary too tight that you don’t have any margin for error. Rather, give yourself a generous amount of time to allow for things like long wait lines at exhibits and walking from a parking lot blocks away from the museum. This will help to keep your stress levels down during your visit. Also, it can provide you with some extra time to enjoy the little things along the way.

Use Travel Apps

Planning a trip can be done more efficiently with a travel app. There are tons of them out there including PlanChat, TripIt, and TravelBank. If you’re traveling with others, you can all utilize the apps to plan your itinerary together. For example, you can take a poll with PlanChat to determine who wants to take a bus charter and who would prefer a boat charter. This can help you to organize what activities everyone wants to do during the trip.

Save Imperative Info to Your Phone

One of the best ways to organize your vacation inventory is to save all your imperative information on your phone. This way, you can easily access the data you need at any point in time. Whether it’s the order number for your rental car or a town map with your route planned out, having this information readily available will ensure that your vacation goes smoothly. Just make sure to keep you phone charged.

Traveling can be a fun way to let us experience things outside of our comfort zone. However, stress from planning can be overwhelming at times. You should work to organize your itinerary by utilizing the planning tips above. This way, you’ll be well prepared for your next vacation.

Addy Reeds is a freelance writer from Eugene, Oregon. She discovered her passion for journalism while attending the University of Oregon. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @addyreeds1; https://www.facebook.com/addy.reeds