I want to share with you my top tips to help you planning your next holiday. I am currently in the process of planning my next holiday to Thailand. It takes a lot of research and reading lots of reviews to find the best places to book and visit. Here are my top tips to help make planning your next holiday easier.

MY TIPS TO PLANNING YOUR NEXT HOLIDAY // HOW DO YOU PLAN YOURS?

WHERE TO GO & THE BEST TIME TO GO

The first thing you want to do is decide on where you are going! With any country in the world, they all have the best and worst times to go. This could all depend on the weather, the currency or special events etc that are happening. Most of the time we choose to go somewhere that has the best exchange rate and also the best weather.

When booking my holiday to Thailand the best time to go is between November and March. This is when the weather is the best and less monsoon weather. Booking our holiday for January 2017 to Thailand is £100 cheaper than going this year in January. And this is flying with the exact same airlines as before.

RESEARCH, RESEARCH & MORE RESEARCH

Research is the key part to finding all the best places to go to when planning your next holiday/trip. Reading lots of reviews will help you get an idea of what people really think of different restaurants and hotels and different tourist attractions. TripAdvisor will be your best friend in this, giving you up to date pictures and visitor reviews from around the world of lots of different places who have been.

Also asking people via word of mouth whether they have been and what they thought of it is another great way of researching and finding out where is the best places to go. Once you’ve gotten all of your research together either note them down in chronological order or create a mind map to help make sure you haven’t forgotten anything and help you remember what’s going to happen.

BOOKING THE FLIGHTS

Booking the flights should probably be the first thing you want to do as the cost of flights could change. I highly recommend using websites like Agoda and Skyscanner for searching the best flights and prices and comparing different airlines. If you are going on more of a long haul flight going economy plus or even business class if you can afford it, is better and always choose extra leg room or seats on the aisle where you can stretch your legs out during the flight.

PLANNING ACTIVITIES AND EXCURSIONS

Again linking back into the research point, research and find out the best activities and excursions you can do where you are going and also what would fit in with your holiday style. Are you after a more relaxed holiday in which you could plan a yoga session or beach trips? or something more athletic and exciting and book a hike or a speed boat trip around the local areas? The first year we visited Thailand it was a lot more crazy because we were trying to do all the excursions we could possibly do and we were in several parts of Thailand.

When we booked a lot of excursions with a speed boat trip to James Bond Island but split the going out days to the relaxed days in order to recover and have some chill time by the pool or on the beach. This year we are planning on visiting an elephant sanctuary and me and my mum are planning on doing some yoga sessions and probably visit the gym a few days a week in order to get fitter. Again using TripAdvisor is probably your best way to find activities and excursions near where you are staying is the best and also seeing if people have recommended to go there and do those things.

READ MORE: How To Book Cheap Flights

WILL YOU NEED TRAVEL INSURANCE?

Most of the time travel insurance isn’t always needed but sometimes depending on where you are going and how good the medical care is could vary on whether you actually need travel insurance. Going to Thailand for the first time of course we needed various injections against Malaria and Typhoid boosters as we had them in school and they will last our lifetime so we won’t ever need them again, thank god! (I really really hate injections) and we didn’t get travel insurance which was interesting but we did make sure we have our EU Health cards on us just in case.

KNOWING WHAT TO PACK

Depending on what the weather is like and what style of holiday you are going for will depend on what you are packing in your suitcase. I always like to write out a list of what I’m planning on taking so I know exactly how much I will need to cover how many days I am going for and to know if I have enough and what I need to get such as toiletries. I then weigh my suitcase to see if I need to take anything out or add more. Packing versatile clothing items will also help so you can mix and match and save space in your suitcase for lots of souvenirs. Check out my packing guides here on my Freebies Page.

READ MORE: 6 Ways To Travel More Ethically

TRAVEL FRIENDLY BEAUTY PRODUCTS

I think us girlies know that the majority of our suitcases are filled with beauty products from makeup, skin care to hair care. Finding travel friendly beauty products can be quite hard and since I’ve turned Cruelty Free I am now having to find travel friendly CF products (read about them here.)

If you have been a long time reader of mine you will probably remember my post about my favourite travel friendly beauty products, make sure you check that post out. I love using the clear plastic bottles and containers and transferring my bigger products into those.

If you are going for a longer period of time of course getting bigger bottles of the products you will use the most such as shampoo, conditioner and body wash will be more sensible and then the other bits using much smaller containers/bottles.

If you are someone like me and uses hairdryers/straighteners/curlers on your hair and need travel friendly versions of those I would recommend checking out the T3 Featherweight range which includes a fold up hairdryer and other lightweight hair tools from straighteners to curling irons. Other favourite travel friendly products of mine include the Colgate Portable Soft Toothbrush and a travel sized floss reel.

Image used in this post are credit to Lara Jameson on Pexels.

What are your top tips for planning your holidays or trips? Where are you planning on going next?