How to Plan a Weekend Trip

I like to consider myself a pro, an olympian if you will, in making agendas. It’s a skill set and a passion of mine. Here are some of my recommendations to make the most of your money and time while traveling for the weekend. 

1. Pick a place, and figure out how to get there

• If it’s not too far, high-speed trains are usually the best option. If it is farther and you need to fly, EasyJet and RyanAir are the cheapest airlines to fly through.
• If your schedule with school isn’t strict, try to fly on weekdays. Flying Fri-Sun is almost always twice the price of flying Mon-Thurs.
• Search for flights on an incognito browser, and use SkyScanner (skyscanner.net). Your computer will track if you’ve purchased or searched for flights before on the regular browser, and using incognito will usually bring up cheaper options. SkyScanner is great, it does all the work for you in searching for the cheapest options.
• Make sure to check if you need additional authorization to travel somewhere. For example, starting in 2025, you need to fill out an electronic travel authorization (ETA) to travel to the U.K.
• I think one mistake a lot of people make is booking all of their trips with their friends from home before they arrive. Keep a few weekends empty! I met a lot of friends while abroad, and had so much fun traveling with them.
• On that same note, set aside a few weekends for day trips. See what other towns are within a few hours of you, it's a great way to get to know the country that you're living in better!
• Get the amazon travel backpack. I had a tiny 20L travel backpack, which is not nearly big enough to fit the things I need for a day or two, let alone a longer break. So, investing in a bag that fits as an airline "personal item" will save you time and money in the long run. You can check airline regulations for the exact size!

2. Pick a place to stay

• I’ve found Airbnb's to generally be the best option. When you split the cost between 3+ people, it ends up being similar or cheaper to the cost of staying at a nicer hostel. You can try searching on incognito here too, sometimes that brings up cheaper options.
• If you do prefer hostels, hostel.com is a good site to search for fair prices.
• In my experience, paying the slight extra cost to stay in the city center is very much worth the money, it saves you so much time commuting. Also, look at Uber and public transportation costs before you decide. In some countries/cities, Ubers are incredibly inexpensive, but they can be pricey in others.

3. Crafting the agenda

• Use the internet! Oftentimes, people on TikTok, or Reddit, or blogs online will have agendas for a day/weekend in x city made.
• Look up locations, group what activities/places are close by, and plan your order of events accordingly. It helps a lot to not be metroing/ubering around all the time.
• Make reservations if you have a bigger group! This was an issue we ran into. For larger parties, it can be difficult to do walk-ins in certain cities, because a lot of European cities have more family-style, small and intimate feels, and can’t take big walk-in groups.
• Bring sunglasses! Very random, but my sunglasses are one of my most-used items when I travel.