How to book travel in 2023

I like to think that organisation is my superpower, but even I find planning a trip can be super overwhelming.

Each trip is unique and obviously a week on a Fijian Island is very different to a month backpacking Europe, however I always use the same process to get started.

After many, many trips last year, I have devised a seven step process to help you book your trip in 2023:

Step 1: Choosing a destination

Most of the time, I start with a destination in mind. From here, I search for the best deals for flights and accomodation and research the best trip length and time of year to visit.

Sometimes, I have to work the other way and fit a trip into specific dates. This can be a much harder process and often ends up making the trip more expensive. With my recent Top End road trip, my original plan was to visit Uluru, but booking it last minute made me unable to justify an already pricey trip.

So I do prefer choosing my destination and then deciding on dates.

Step 2: Research the itinerary and budget the trip

Before I book a single thing, I create a spreadsheet and do an estimate of how much flights, accomodation, car hire, fuel and activities might be. Rather than setting a budget before planning, I tend to research the realistic costs and decide whether to go ahead based on whether it feels right (very arbitrary, I’m sorry).

I also make a rough plan of the itinerary – including things I really want to do and whether the trip works logistically.

My spreadsheet looks a bit like this:

BRB: just crying at how cheap travel used to be!! And now it’s about one million dollars to fly anywhere.

Step 3: Book flights

During the research phase, I’ve likely already decided which flights I want. My process is first checking SkyScanner or Google Flights for the cheapest dates. I always book directly with the airline. Most of my domestic flights are with Jetstar because it usually works out cheapest. I’ve also flown with Air New Zealand to New Zealand and Singapore Airlines to London.

I try to minimise stopovers e.g. doing the quick flight with one stopover to London rather than the cheaper flight that takes ten hours and an extra stopover longer.

Step 4: Purchase travel insurance

I aim to buy travel insurance immediately after locking in flights. Pre-pandemic I used 1Cover for international trips, but they didn’t have great covid cover for Europe. We actually had Flight Centre credit so we booked with a travel agent through CoverMore for that trip.

In hindsight, I would’ve been better off purchasing an annual plan with the amount of travel I did this year. This is something I’ll look into for 2023!

Step 5: Book accomodation

I use booking.com almost exclusively for booking accomodation. Having booked so many trips with them now, I have acquired Genius Level 3 status which gives me good deals.

My disclaimer with booking.com is to make sure you also check Google reviews for the property. We had an issue with a booking in Rome where we left early due to issues with the room and the hotel cancelled our booking, meaning we couldn’t leave a review. Unfortunately this means booking.com is skewed towards positive reviews.

Something I’m also weary of is the cancellation policy. Sometimes you have to pay more for free cancellation, so you’ve got to weigh up whether the extra $50 is worth the risk!

I have only stayed in AirBnb’s a handful of times. Being part of so many travel groups on Facebook, I’ve seen so many AirBnb horror stories that it doesn’t feel worth the risk – especially when hotel prices are comparable these days. That said, we stuck gold with an AirBnb in Paris, which you can check out here.

Step 6: Book tours

The last and most exciting step is to book tours. Most of the time I book tours last minute when we arrive at our destination. This can backfire with things that book out in advance! Every time I’ve visited New Zealand, I’ve wanted to go to the Queenstown Onsen and Margo’s restaurant, but they’re both always booked out!

In Europe, I booked all of our day trips through Get Your Guide. A lot of the tours on here have free cancellation up to 24hrs in advance which is really helpful.

I like to create a folder in emails with all my booking confirmations, and add everything into my Google sheet. Depending on where you’re going, you might also consider:

• Do you need to purchase a local SIM card? Can you use global roaming, or will free wifi cover you?
• Have you notified your bank of travel? Got some local currency?
• How are you going to get to the airport for your flight? Do you need to pre-book parking?
• Do you know where you’re going when your flight lands?

I know I can be a bit OTT with organisation, but it’s worth it to be able to sit back and relax as soon as I get on that flight!

Step 7: Get excited, because it’s time for a trip

Once you’ve done all the admin, it’s time to relax and get excited for your upcoming trip!

I hope you found this post helpful. Drop a comment if you have any other questions.

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