The very early stages of planning

So rare for me to blog twice within a 2 week period right?  Hell, it's rare for me to blog twice within a month...

Since I booked my flights I've discovered one thing of note:  ABBA The Museum is opening on May 7th in Stocklhom and advanced tickets are now available.  I'd made that quip about ABBA in my last blog and I guess it turns out I wasn't so far off after all ;)

Had some spare time last week (not so much this week) so I started my online reading, discovering the wonders of Tallinn, the frequency that the ferries from Helsinki ran, some tourist highlights and the bus schedule to Riga.  There appears to be a €6 ticket available (€3 if you're cool with arriving at 3am... which I'm not) that I'd like to take advantage of.  Hopefully still available by the time I book (if you should find yourself in a similar situation, you may choose to book the ticket now and simply eat the cost if it turns out you can't use it later... Riga is near the start of my trip so I think I'll be able to firm up plans soon, therefore I will wait another week or so)

It could be a fluke, or maybe my dates aren't exact (always plan for the worst, or worse at least...) but I saw some recommended hotels on TripAdvisor for about $80-$90/night in Riga.  Pretty affordable for a hotel in my books, and they're described as central.  I will consult a map before I book.  Again, hopefully that's soon before prices go up (May is the start of high season).

Though I don't believe everything I read, I like to get a feel for how many days people like to spend in each city.  TripAdvisor has a great search tool, typing in something like "how many days in Tallinn?" will get you what you're looking for.  Read people's comments carefully, everyone sight-sees at a different pace so just because they suggest 5 or 6 days doesn't mean you need that much time if you're willing to get up early, walk 12 hours, and pack a lunch to eat in a park.  Side tip:  If you're in a city on Monday/Tuesday with plans to go to museums, check their hours as some are closed at the beginning of the week, which may require you to stay an extra day or alter your itinerary.

Take this preliminary approach for every city, you'll inevitably discover more about some cities than others.  That's ok, a little reading will quickly give you a feel for how much time you want to spend in one place.  After reading about Tallinn, I was ready to spend 3 days there, but when I took all the cities into consideration and how much time in total I had, I quickly realized that was unrealistic and that I could easily see the city in a much shorter period of time.

Also when time (or in some cases, money) runs a little short, you can start to make the decision whether you want to do some overnight travel to save time/cash.  For some routes, overnight is the only viable option.  For example, ferries from Tallinn/Riga to Stockholm only sail at night as it's a 15 hour trip.  Even if they were to sail in the mornings it would be a waste to be stuck on a boat all day losing precious sightseeing time.  (The ferry sails around 5:30pm so there's many hours of daylight where you can enjoy the view before it gets dark, and you can get up again at dawn to watch the sunrise over the water if you wish).

I find midday travel a bit of a pain, it cuts your day in half, you can't do too much in the morning because you need to catch your train/plane/bus, and when you arrive it'll take time to get oriented, settled in your hotel etc. and by then it's getting dark so not much is accomplished in your day.  If I have to travel in the day, I try to do it in the early morning (I'm not a morning person so I'm cool with dozing until we arrive).  Evening is also an option, but as a single woman I don't like arriving in new places in the dark trying to find my way to my hotel.  It's ok if I'm already familiar with my destination.

After a while you start to feel ready to draft an itinerary, it's not carved in stone but gives you a feel of how your trip may go....  Here's my preliminary draft:

(A little small but click on it for full sized image)

I've included what I consider to be my essential details in a way that's easy for me to read.  You may choose to organize differently.  I like to look at the date, see my start city and end city (aka do I have to travel on that particular date?), how I'm traveling, and where I'm sleeping that night (if it's on a train, I'll dress in wrinkle-free clothes and make sure I have an extra layer to stay warm.  Secondly if there's something special I've got planned (a show, a concert...), so I can plan that day accordingly.  Then there's the stuff that's good to know, ie. any major costs and other info.

That's about it for now.  Next steps would probably be to keep reading and start booking something.  For those of who do a lot of traveling, this is likely pretty dry for you, but others have expressed an interest in how I plan my vacations.  So I thought I'd detail a little bit of my process.

Cheers.