How to Plan an Itinerary That Saves Money, Avoids Crowds, and Unlocks Hidden Gems

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Tess, what is your process like for planning trips?

You know, it's evolved over the years, but I'm mostly now a non-planner.

Like I get, I'll get plane tickets, maybe a hotel, but other than that, it's all improv and I avoid tours like the plague.

But partly this is because I usually travel solo.

Ooh, I love solo travel.

I feel like it's oddly peaceful.

It is.

Just you.

You don't have to worry about when somebody else wants to get up or go to dinner or anything like that.

Amazing.

But for those who like things a little more buttoned up, later in the show, Megan and I will be talking about how to plan better travel itineraries that are tailored specifically to your interests and budget.

Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.

I'm Sally French.

And I'm Tess Vigland in for Megan Coyle for this first part of the show.

And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip.

Let's get to some news, Sally.

But first, our disclaimer, and that's that we'll talk about a few credit card card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that does not influence how we discuss them.

The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change.

Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening, so for the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

Let's start the news off with an acknowledgement that Memorial Day was just this past weekend, which means summer travel season is officially here.

Yeah, crowded airports, long TSA lines, all that ahead.

Oh, yes, and the Federal Aviation Administration put out a report last week saying that it's expecting flight numbers to only grow week by week throughout the summer with a peak at the end of July.

So Tess, I need to know, did you travel anywhere from Memorial Day?

I did.

I went to central Oregon, the lovely high desert town of Bend.

It was beautiful and I went to a Sting concert, the first one I've been to in about 30 years.

And was it solo?

It was not.

It was with family and friends.

So this is not a solo trip for me.

How about you, Sally?

Well, I got to say, say, you got to do a concert with friends.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So I use my Memorial Day weekend to actually catch up on a lot of sleep because last week I was at a media preview of Universals at the Universe New Theme Park in Orlando.

Let me tell you, it lives up to the hype and you will not get a lot of sleep if you go there.

I spent

two full days exploring the park before its official opening day.

I did every ride, some I was lucky enough to do multiple times.

Oh dear, did any of them make you lose your lunch?

Well, you know, I have to say, there are not a lot of extreme rides in the park.

The only really wild one is a coaster called Stardust Racers.

That one does go 62 miles per hour.

But speaking of losing your lunch, I ate so many lunches.

I did the five lunches in one day thing because all the food was so good.

I have to say, the mac and cheese cone that the internet won't stop talking about does live up to the hype.

Mac and cheese cone?

Mac and cheese cone?

Okay, Sally, I'm on the next flight and I would like an extra large bullhorn-sized cone, please.

I wish I could bring you one.

Well, we'll be getting a lot more details about your, shall we say, epic week?

Yes.

Next week, we will hear from people who worked on the park, park guests.

And Tess, I have to give you a spoiler.

I said I didn't sleep a lot.

Uh-huh.

The first day guests did not sleep a lot.

I woke up at 4 a.m.

to scout the most fanatic guests who wanted to be the first in line.

Turns out the guy at the front of the line had been there since 10.45 the night before.

No.

So we established earlier that I am not a tour person.

I am also not a line person.

Basically, I have no patience.

And I've been working on that kind of my whole life.

But Sally, I'm also guessing the park is not cheap.

No, it is not.

Tickets start at $139 and that's before the optional upcharges that end up feeling pretty inevitable.

I'm talking Harry Potter wands, Super Nintendo power-up bands, and of course the food.

Yeah, still worth it for that alone.

And it's not just epic that's expensive.

In fact, NerdWallet just ran a survey about theme parks and it found that of the 44% of Americans who plan to take a theme park trip, the average total spend is just over $1,400.

Now that does include tickets, transportation, lodging, food, souvenirs, but still, wow.

Yeah, so the median in that survey is lower, $500, but still not pocket change.

Theme parks are fun, but it is hard to say a theme park is ever budget travel.

Yeah, certainly not.

Well, moving over to Europe, I just got back from there, in fact.

Hyatt opened its first ever hotel in Croatia.

Yes, the Hyatt Regency Zadar opened May 15th.

It's on Croatia's Adriatic coast, walking distance to Zadar's old town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In fact, if you'll recall our episode of Scott Keys from Go In, I went to Croatia years ago on a cheap airfare deal to Zadar.

It ended up being one of my favorite countries.

You know, it's been on my list for a really long time.

And I would imagine it could more easily become a favorite for a lot of other travelers.

Hyatt says this is part of a bigger push to expand throughout the Balkans with plans to grow the Hyatt Regency brand there by 70% by 2027.

Going big.

And the great budget tip here is that, of course, this one's bookable with World of Hyatt points, which NerdWallet continues to find one of the most valuable point currencies out there.

So this could be a great play for points and miles nerds.

Yep.

And now for some news in the points and miles world related to airlines.

That's that Amex is losing a transfer partner.

The last day to transfer Amex membership rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines is June 30th.

Wait a second.

This was the workaround people were using to effectively transfer Amex points to Alaska Airlines, right?

Exactly, Tess.

So since Alaska Airlines acquired Hawaiian, you could move Amex points to Hawaiian miles, then convert those to Alaska mileage plan miles at a one-to-one ratio.

However, that little trick ends on June 30th.

So once that closes, the only major transferable point currency that partners directly with Alaska will be Built Rewards, right?

That is correct.

And speaking of Built,

we've got some bad news there.

Megan is living her best life in Italy now, and I know she's going to be sad to hear this as Smart Travel's resident built fan.

Oh, she's coming back to some bad news.

Built is changing how you earn points when you pay rent using a third-party credit card.

Starting July 21st, if you use a MasterCard Visa or Discover to pay rent through Built, you'll earn one Built point per $2 spent, the same rate that already applies to Amex cards.

That's a pretty significant devaluation.

And the current deal hasn't been live that long.

Just two months ago, they announced you'd earn one point per dollar on rent with third-party cards from Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

So those earnings are getting cut in half.

I know it hurts.

It really seems to me like Built is trying to get you to pay through Built's own card.

So that way you keep earning the full points.

Ah, yes.

The back back door or the front door, I suppose

would be the case.

That's it.

That's it.

All right.

Well, that's it for this week's travel news.

So let's get into your and Megan's conversation about how to save your sanity and your budget when planning your next trip.

Okay, question for you, Sally.

Have you ever found yourself at a tourist trap that you regret paying for?

This is a good question.

I'm inclined to say no, because whenever I go to a city, I mostly don't spend money.

I Google free and cheap things to do in that city.

So it's impossible to regret something that you paid for when you didn't pay for it to begin with.

What?

No way.

You've never been to one of those $5 museums and you're like, this museum has two things in it.

Okay, well, I do feel like I do a lot of research.

And then the things that I pay for are things that I've heavily researched.

Like, is this theme park worth it?

Okay, well, just me then, apparently.

I just do.

And I think a lot of listeners are in the same boat, which is what this episode is all about, is planning your itinerary.

Yeah, don't end up at a random bamboo theme park in China that has a really sketch roller coaster that you do your own breaking.

But you know what?

I kind of want to find those like off-the-beaten path type of places to visit.

And some of them turn out kind of meh.

But with that bamboo theme park, I actually had an amazing meal there looking at all these mountains and.

Honestly, a lot of bamboo.

You eat bamboo.

Wow, amazing.

Bamboo everything.

But it was so sweet.

It was like this little family restaurant there.

so even if the attraction we went to wasn't the best the meal there and the experience was something i'll always remember interesting so it sounds like for you you've paid for some travel purchases that were partially worth it but partially not and we are going to go over that today how to find the best activities and meals ahead of time ways to save money without feeling like you're missing out and then of course how to find those little hidden gems because some of the best travel memories are those things that go unplanned yeah and we don't want you to be the person that's standing in the middle of some random tourist square, hangry, googling food near me and ending up in the world's saddest tourist trap.

You don't make good decisions when you're hangry, so we don't want that to happen to you.

Exactly.

So let's just dive into how to plan your trip itinerary.

I would say start scoping out what you want to do.

It is nice to plan a trip around those big ticket attractions.

We mentioned theme parks.

Other things could be those museums, especially in a museum-heavy country like Italy, maybe something like a boat tour.

Often these are good to plan in advance, particularly because they are cheaper if you buy those tickets online in advance.

Often we're seeing this trend of dynamic pricing where prices can fluctuate, particularly if you are buying them at the ticket window.

So if you can book an advance online, you lock in that price, which can often be less.

And part of that research is figuring out when they actually release the tickets so you can get them.

from the attraction itself and not having to buy it through a third party.

I already made a mistake for my Italy trip and my sister and I want to see the real David statue by Michelangelo.

And I only thought about this maybe two weeks ago and then I went to look up how to see the real statue and the tickets are already sold out the entire week.

There are no time slots.

There are still ways to get in.

You can buy a skip the line ticket through a tour group.

Those are expensive though.

It was double the price.

Yes, but exactly.

That's the price you pay when you did not look up this information beforehand.

So So, if there are any of those big-ticket items, look up not only how much it costs, but when the tickets are released, and maybe if there are certain days that are cheaper, that might make it easier for you to go.

And that reminds me of our next tip.

When trying to get tickets for these big ticket attractions, like some of these museums in Italy, that are sold out, there is sometimes a workaround, and that's by going for combo passes.

So, you mentioned those front-of-the-line passes are more expensive.

Combo passes are interesting.

These will be things offered in not every city, but many major cities where you'll get tickets for say six different museums.

And often like three of the museums are must sees and then the other three are like, I can skip this.

But what's nice about these is if you purchase a combo pass, you have access.

So even if one of them is sold out for an individual a la carte ticket, you have this pass.

That's another way to get in the door.

Again, make sure you do the math and see, would you actually save money by doing these big packages?

Yes.

You're not interested in those last three attractions, then you're already paying part of the price.

So you have to consider that.

But if that is your way to get in, I mean, do it.

Sometimes those little random attractions that you wouldn't go and you say, I would not pay for this, those actually end up being the best though.

That's true.

Another thing I want to point out is if it's a museum that you're trying to get into.

Some of these museums do have free admission days, sometimes every month.

The cadence kind of varies, but for the Louvre, for example, in Paris, after 6 p.m.

on the first Friday of every month, everyone gets in for free.

So there's only a few hours left in the museum operating hours, but that's one way to get in if you haven't been able to.

Good tip.

And that's another benefit of booking in advance: you can lay out that schedule.

And for many of us vacationing in Paris, it does not matter if we go on a Thursday versus a Friday.

So do that advanced planning so you find out that Friday evening is that free time.

Another tip is look for discounts, student discounts, senior discounts, teachers, military.

These discounts are pretty common.

So look in advance what you need to actually get those free tickets if they apply to you.

I am so spoiled because I grew up outside of Washington, D.C.

And the Smithsonian museums were free to visit.

You didn't need any reservations.

That's changed now for a lot of the museums and the zoo, but.

There are some cities that actually just let everyone in for free, which is cool.

I love that they're free because you can just like walk in for an hour and not feel obligated to spend all this time there because you spent $50 on a ticket.

Smithsonians are the best.

Yeah.

I mean, we would just go for the afternoon.

Like you don't have have to see everything in the museum.

Takes the pressure off.

Another way to find free or cheap tickets is go to local tourism websites.

A lot of these websites will publish deals or they'll have calendars of those free days, which makes it really easy.

Just Google the name of the city you're going to and then tourism board.

I talk to people who work for the tourism boards almost every day for my job, and they are the most knowledgeable people out there.

They know everything about what's going on in the city.

My other tip actually is to find local publications or even social media accounts that do roundups of free or cheap events at your destination.

So for LA, like where I live, that you can search what to do in LA this weekend.

And I found tons of free stuff through some of these newsletters or on TikTok.

And there's like local festivals that are free.

There are activations for brands.

And so I do this trick both while I'm at home, just to be a tourist in my own city, but also while I'm traveling.

I do this in San Francisco.

One of my most visited websites, it always comes up in my browser history because because I'm on it so often.

SF Funcheap.

I'm in San Francisco and you know San Francisco is expensive.

So SF Funcheap is my hero.

I've also figured out that you can earn some credit card points if you do end up paying for some of these attractions or tour groups or whatever it is.

I booked the skip the line tickets to see the David statue and I booked that through Get Your Guide.

It's a company that aggregates a lot of these.

types of deals and tours.

And I also earned miles on it because it was part of the American Airlines online shopping portal where they're offering like a mile per dollar that I spent on that.

So even though I paid for it, I did get some miles that I'll use on a future flight, hopefully.

I will say, sometimes these attractions can be tricky because there will be credit cards that say we offer bonus points on entertainment.

And you're like, does Disneyland count as entertainment or not?

It can be tricky.

So just look in advance of how it will be coded.

All right, more of our itinerary tips in a moment.

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We just mentioned some of those lesser-known places places can be really fun, usually cost a little bit less.

What are your favorite examples in San Francisco, Sally?

I went to TripAdvisor and I looked at what their top attractions were in San Francisco because I feel like somewhat of a San Francisco expert.

And their number one rated attraction is Alcatraz.

Alcatraz requires a ticket because you have to ride a boat to get over there.

I do love Alcatraz.

No shade on Alcatraz.

However,

if you are going to San Francisco for the first time and you have like three days, I would not say, oh my gosh, you have to go to Alcatraz.

It's a whole day commitment for the most part.

It requires you getting on a boat.

If you skip it, it's totally fine.

My call to people is to not feel like they have to do whatever the top attraction is.

Often I feel like these trip advisor top attractions or top attractions on any website, one, They're from companies that have huge marketing budgets that can afford to really market be there.

And then two, I think of these attractions as being like the most vanilla attractions where they are appealing to everybody, but they're not necessarily the best to everybody.

If you love a tiki bar, then go to Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco.

I would not necessarily say that Smuggler's Cove is the top attraction, but it is if you're a tiki enthusiast.

But with something like Alcatraz, it's like everybody is going to like it, but that does not necessarily mean it's the best.

In all walks of trying to find what to do on your trip, you need to be more specific about what you want to do.

Even if it's just that you want to see a breadth of different things, you want to do the food, you want to do the museums.

You want to do the outdoor stuff.

If you want to do all of that, you have to let either your Google search include that there.

You have to ask the people that you know and give them that sort of direction so you get the better recommendations.

I'm so glad you brought that up.

Be specific in what sort of recommendations you want.

So I think we should pivot to how to get recommendations.

And I have to say, my number one pet peeve is I see this in online posts on Reddit, even in work Slack channels where someone will say something like, I'm going to Hawaii.

What do I do?

There are 500 people in this Slack channel who we don't even know who you are.

What are your interests?

First off, where in Hawaii are you going to?

What island are you going on?

What's your budget?

Do you like to drink?

Do you like to be active?

Do you like none of the above?

So when you are searching for recommendations, definitely be specific about all of those things.

Even like the time of year, that matters as to like what's open.

Maybe a a hike won't be open, or maybe there's a really cool festival, but your dates just don't line up with it.

So give them the dates, give them the budget.

I think those are all really good tips.

No matter where you are asking for recommendations, whether it's online in a local subreddit or to a large group of friends, be specific about what you want.

And then you also want to try to ask people in your life that you know also care about the things you want on vacation.

So for example, I know Sally loves her steps.

And so when I'm asking Sally for recommendations, I'm like, hey, I'm willing to walk.

What would I do if I want to see at least four neighborhoods in one day in San Francisco?

Exactly.

One of my other best ways to get wrecks is by actually going to locals.

And if you don't know any locals, you might have a hotel concierge who's very friendly and can be a local.

One tip that I actually read in Nomadic Matt's book, he has a book called How to Travel Travel the World for $75 a Day.

So I'm stealing this tip from him.

But he says, ask the hotel concierge, not where should I go to eat, but where would you go to eat?

That way they send you to the cool hole in the wall, not to like rainforest cafe.

To build on that idea, ask your hotel concierge for a tip.

I love that idea of like asking them for a local rec, something they would actually really do.

Yes.

And then you go to that place and then you ask someone there.

Like let's say they sent you to a restaurant.

Then you ask your waiter there and you're like, okay, where would you go get dessert after this?

And have them tell you.

Then you go to the dessert place and you say, hey, you know, tomorrow morning, I have some time before X.

Where should I go for this?

And then use it as like a little game to get to your next destination.

Yes, I love that.

All right.

I have another question that I feel like is going to be a hot take.

How do you feel about using ChatGPT or any other AI to plan your itinerary?

Interesting.

I do like ChatGPT to get some general advice, but I do find that it can be a little difficult to really understand that full itinerary that you have where you're staying.

Again, though, it goes back to being specific.

So A lot of travel websites will just list the top 10 attractions in San Francisco and they're all spread apart.

Chat GPT, when making the recommendation, might just give you back kind of those same top 10 attractions.

So if you are using ChatGPT, be really specific.

Say, I am staying in Chinatown.

I want recommendations that are in walking distance of Chinatown.

I want restaurants in walking distance.

That's the best way to actually get advice.

But even when you do so, you want to check because ChatGPT might not necessarily know, has that restaurant closed?

Is it really as close as you thought?

So do your research on top of using ChatGPT.

What do you think?

Yeah, I agree.

It's not always right in terms of like times and operating hours, that kind of thing.

But it is a really good starting point.

I tell ChatGBT, hey, I love going to bookstores, especially when I'm traveling.

So I'll tell ChatGBT, I'm like, hey, I want to see a bunch of different neighborhoods and let me know what good bookstores I need to hit in the city.

And it'll give you the list, which is awesome.

The other thing I found about ChatGBT, one, I like that it'll, if you ask it to plan a three-day itinerary, it'll split it up into morning.

afternoon, evening types of activities.

So I really like that because it's helpful for figuring out, you know, like the vibe of a place and whether it's better to go there during the day or something you can save for later.

I also like that you can ask it, where are places that most tourists miss?

Let's talk about some of our favorite free and cheap activities.

I love a walking tour.

Have you ever done one of those?

Yes.

Oh, and this is great, especially major cities in Europe.

These are very common.

If you Google free walking tours, they'll typically say something like, meet at this town square, and they take you out on a free walking tour.

Amazing way to get LA of the land.

Of course, you should definitely tip them at the end.

Yeah, I just did one in Berlin two years ago and I learned so much about the history and then I really didn't need to do any more planning for the rest of the trip because my tour guide gave us her map of recommendations at the end of the tour.

Even if there's not a free walking tour, there are ways that you can create your own sort of free walking tour.

So guidebooks can help you do this.

Even if you browse Strava and see where other people are going in the city, urban hiking to me is the best way to see a city rather than being confined to a tour bus.

That reminds me actually of a cruise that I did last year.

And we did something similar, walking around the town to save money on the transportation because you pay for the shore excursion through the cruise.

Sometimes they'll charge you like 100 bucks per person just to take you into town and it's a mile walk or something like that.

And many cruise ports are located in great areas of town where you don't need to take a shuttle anyway.

I think about San Francisco where the cruise port is right near Pier 39, right near the ferry building, both two great attractions.

Speaking of cruises, let's just talk about how to save on some of those things you can do on a cruise.

I know you just went on a few.

Yes.

So there are so many possibilities for upcharges on cruises, but every single cruise I've been on, I have thought, wow, the most fun things are included.

So I was just on a Norwegian cruise line.

And they have this thing called the Indulge Food Hall, which is like this tiny food hall of tiny small plates.

That was my favorite restaurant.

It was included.

And then I was just in the Bahamas and I just did this amazing walk by myself going through all of Nassau and I saw so many amazing tourist attractions just on foot.

And again, people paid $100 to go on a shuttle bus tour.

You really don't need to feel compelled to book shore excursions.

There are often alternatives if you're willing to try the public transportation if walking is an option or even book your own private transportation if the public transportation doesn't work either.

You know, there's a lot of options.

So I would just say explore them and see where the savings are.

Now, let's pivot away from cruises over to hotels.

There are often many free and cheap things to do at hotels.

We do see this negative trend of many hotels charge resort fees, but a lot of these hotels are also trying to justify the resort fees by offering some benefits that are really, really excellent.

So I mentioned the Andas Maui.

They have some of the best on-site benefits that are included for the resort fee.

I'm talking about things like free snorkel rentals, free stand-up paddleboard rentals, free canoe tours.

All of these things are included in the cost.

So, when you are calculating, should I stay at a cheaper hotel with no amenities or a hotel that's slightly more expensive that has all of these amenities, you do have to do that math in advance and say, is this more expensive room worth it?

But I also get the free kayak tour.

Do that calculation, but it can be.

And you might be surprised.

Let's segue to food because that's the most important travel activity, obviously.

First tip: do not eat near the tourist attractions.

Definitely.

I read another tip also from Nomadic Matt.

He said six blocks within a tourist attraction is a no-go for places to eat.

I thought that was a good guideline for advice.

Google Maps is your friend.

I will do all this research ahead of time.

I'll be like, oh, there's an interesting restaurant here.

And you don't really need to hood it into your itinerary.

So the good thing about having this map ahead of time is you have all these places saved and they're just options that you've already vetted.

And then when you're in the location, you just open your map and you go, oh, there's one just a few blocks away.

And that really takes a lot of the stress out of it.

All right, let's move on to listener question time.

We have another voice memo.

Let's play it.

Hi, my name is Cody and I have a question about travel credit card rewards points.

I have heard from super travel optimizers that the most efficient way to get points is to open new cards and get signup bonuses.

I don't have or spend that much money.

So, I have one card with an annual fee, the Chase Sapphire preferred card.

My wife also got one.

So, we got all our points there.

And we've opened a handful of other no-annual fee Chase cards and a couple other cards that had some sign-up bonuses.

But from here, I'm not going to buy like a $250, $350 a year annual fee card because this is not in our budget.

So, are there other free cards from hotels or airlines or other non-Chase brands it would make sense to open up and put all our spending on those for a couple of months to get signup bonuses?

Is there anything even worth looking at?

Or should I just use my Sapphire preferred card for everything and use those points?

Thanks.

Cody, this is a fantastic question.

Thank you for submitting it.

First things first, I actually maintain a whole page on NerdWallet right now where we list the best travel credit cards.

We'll drop that link in the episode description.

Okay, but Cody, I'm going to give you some bad news.

Cards with no annual fee usually do not offer the huge sign-up bonuses that you might be looking for.

The lowest annual fee on any card that NerdWallet recommends that has like an excellent sign-up bonus is still going to be around $100.

But what I would recommend for Cody is getting a no annual fee cashback card to go along with his Chase Sapphire preferred.

So one option is the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

It has a $0 annual fee.

And it actually does come with a small sign-up bonus.

Okay, so we'll post that card review.

That will be in the show description.

And I just want to point out that the wording of the welcome offer is cash back so it'll say something like earn 250 cash back when you spend this much on purchases in the first few months that's just an example but you have to check the website to see the current offer that 250 cash back language it is actually given to you as chase ultimate rewards points so 250 cash back would be 25 000 chase ultimate rewards points and you don't have to redeem them for cash back for that amount you could actually transfer those points to your Chase Sapphire preferred.

We definitely don't recommend annual fee cards for everyone, but if you are looking for those high-level travel rewards, often it's worth it to make that investment upfront in a card with an annual fee.

So that way you get better benefits in the long run.

We hope that was helpful.

Okay, we hope you will try out some of our ideas to save money and making your itinerary when you are on your next trip.

For now, make sure to follow Smart Travel on your podcast app of choice, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.

If you liked this episode, or even if you didn't like this episode, please leave us a comment on Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

All those networks let you do that.

This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie, Claire Soci helped with fact-checking, and a big thank you to Nick Charissimi for editing our audio.

And for our disclaimer, we are not financial or investment advisors.

This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes.

It may not apply to your specific circumstances.

This week and every week, we hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller.

Thanks, everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.

I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world.

These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vagellin, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history.

Go to explorerspodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app.

That's the Explorers Podcast.