Hi, we're the Curious Chicks and today we're going to talk about how to customize your ultimate vacation. Let's say you've never been on a trip before and you have no idea where to start or if you just want to learn some new ways to better plan your trip, we have a lot of great ideas. We've been to a lot of places and we've planned a lot of our trips before. We've always found that we get the most out of our trips based on our planning methods. The first thing you're going to do is determine the wind, where and the how long that can be just dictated for you. Let's say you have a wedding to go to, you can bet you want to turn into a trip or if you can only take time off while your kids are on spring break, that will automatically determine the wind and the where. Right, and the wind is going to affect the where and the where will affect the wind. Say you want to take a trip during the summer because of summer break, well you're not going to want to go somewhere where it's too hot because you might just be miserable on the really hot weather. At the same time you want to go skiing, then you're probably going to want to go somewhere during the winter. So the seasons will affect where you go and when you go. You might want to keep in mind that during the low season or the times when the weather is not as good at a destination, the rates will probably be a lot better. If you have the freedom of picking when or where you want to go for your trip, that's the best possible scenario. If you want to go to certain retractions or there's specific events that are happening around the world, most likely they only happen during a certain time of the year. So now that you know the wind and where, you're going to want to track your flight prices in a good way to benchmark is start using Google flights. Then you can move on to other websites like Sky Scan, which is also pretty popular. But my favorite is kayak. There's a lot of detailed filtering options that you can use such as determining what time you want to take off and when you want to land or lay over times or even what airlines you want to take. Have you ever heard of a fair IQ? Well I learned about it recently. So after you book your flights, you can sign up with fair IQ and they'll continue to monitor those flights and they'll let you know if you're eligible for refunds or credits. That's really cool, right? Now that you've booked your flights, you've got to want to request time off with your employer, find a dog sitter or babysitter, and maybe even a house sitter if that's necessary. You'll also want to remember any vaccinations that you're going to need depending on a part of the world you're traveling to. Don't forget about special documents like pieces or passports that you're going to need to bring with you. Passports are really important if you're traveling outside of a country. Most should be about it longer than your stay. And also in most countries actually required for your password to be valid for six months after the date that you return from your trip. So what do you do next? Research! Yes! Research all about your cities and destinations. You can go do all that research online or you can watch YouTube videos because I think that they're a lot more fun. A lot of YouTube videos are actually well done these days. Yeah, like hours, right? Yes, like hours. While you're researching, you might want to take note of the different neighborhoods, especially in the larger cities because that'll help inform where you might want to stay which is coming up in a later step. You're going to want to research the different attractions that are within that city and also figure out what they're operating hours are like. Then you're going to want to create a Google map where you can draw pins onto the different attractions, the airports that you're coming in and out of, different restaurants and hotels. The point of all this is to start to create a loose or very detailed item right. So looking at that map of all of your pins, you kind of know how you want to clump your activities by the day and also by the operating hours. The way to look at that visually is to look at it on a classic calendar by creating my calendar using Post-its. And it's really nice because you can color code, you can rearrange as much as you want and that'll help you get to a really good solid item right. You're going to want to figure out the different modes of transportation within that area. Do they have a subway system? Do they have a bus system? Can you easily walk from one place to the next? Do they have Uber or other taxi services? If you're traveling long distances, you're also going to want to reserve and book those seats ahead of time, especially before you book your accommodations. And depending on the distance between one place to the next and how long it takes for you to get there, it's going to affect your itinerary. Now it's time to book your accommodations. And this is where Google Maps is going to come in handy. Pick a place that is in good proximity and accessibility to all the attractions that you want to visit. Other things you might want to keep into consideration is cost, safety and life. Yeah, my go-to is TripAdvisor. I like to go on there to see the traveler photos instead of relying on the professional website photos because they look nothing like reality. They have a good search filter using specific keywords. I'll check recent reviews for things like construction that might be happening in or around the building that may disturb your stay. And I'll also make sure that all my personal criteria is met, such as Wi-Fi or air conditioning or having a seat in the room. So, Carmen, how do you generally go about booking your tours? Well, usually I'll just do a simple Google search at first and I might find some third party companies that offer tours for these attractions that I would like to see and visit. One thing though that I always like to do is make sure that these companies are legit and I verify them by looking at other third party companies like TripAdvisor or Yelp for actual reviews that people have taken those tours. Also, you might want to check the official website of these attractions because they often have tours available for you to take. I like to use Viader a lot. They have a lot of different tour offerings and they have a wide range of local tour companies to that country. And I get your guide as a new one that I've used recently that I've found to be legit as well. What I've done recently too is go on free walking tours. There's a lot of like students or people that are just trying to make some extra money. So they'll be in like these bright vests that you can find at a major attractions and they'll offer free walking tours for a donation. But it's pretty cool if you're on a budget. Another good option is Rick Steve's books or other tour books will mention a lot of tour companies that they recommend mentioning them when you book the tours so you sometimes get it dis-terrified. You can not even book your tours ahead of time and just go to the attraction sometimes. You can just buy your tickets there. But again, you're taking some chances and you may or may not get to go with that tour. So the weeks and days leading up to your trip, you pretty much should have everything set by now. And that will lead to a very stress-free start to your trip. And just make sure that you haven't already that you have the appropriate clothes and shoes for your destination. And print out any documents such as your itineraries, your confirmation emails, vouchers, tickets, and cancel any extra bookings that you might have. So for example, if you booked extra hotels and had good cancellation policies, then make sure you cancel those before you take off. Yeah, and you'll want to alert your credit cards and your banks that you're upcoming travel. Another good idea is to check with your postal service to see if they offer a whole mail option so you don't want your mail to start accumulating at your house while you're gone. And then 24 hours before you take off, make sure you check into your flights and pick your seats if that's an option for you. We hope you have a great trip and we hope that these suggestions will help you get the most out of your trip. If you liked this video, leave us a comment below, give us a thumbs up or subscribe to our channel. Have a nice day!