Oh brother... For our summer holidays we always pack up our caravan. A couple of years ago I started to make a list of campsites that friends/family recommend o

Oh brother... For our summer holidays we always pack up our caravan. A couple of years ago I started to make a list of campsites that friends/family recommend or that I stumbled upon on the internet. They’re all on a Google Map, and the list is sortable by country, region, stars and amenities. Also a couple of years ago I made another document with possible routes (we always make it a road trip, with anywhere between 3 to 6 stops in 3 weeks). I currently have a list of about 80 destinations, so we have a couple of hundreds possible routes to choose from. I make a general plan before we go (for instance this route from our last holiday to France): Route Kilometers Nachten Datum Ede – Le Crotoy 463 km 5 do 16/7 – di 21/7 Le Crotoy – Seillac 372 km 2 di 21/7 – do 23/7 Seillac – Brantome 319 km 6 do 23/7 – wo 29/7 Brantome – Aydat 267 km 6 wo 29/7 – di 4/8 Aydat – Melun 403 km 3 di 4/8 – vr 7/8 Melun – Ede 544 km The beauty of this seemingly rigid planning is that I can adjust it on the fly. The weather sucks? We move on to our next stop. Campsite isn’t what we expected? I can find another campsite close by that we’ll probably like in seconds. And because my route file I have a myriad of options to choose from. You might think that a planning like this takes away the adventure, but it doesn’t. A couple of years ago we liked our first campsite so much that we stayed the full 3 weeks there. I’m not bound by my planning, but it’s more like a guideline that we can divert from. For citytrips I book months in advance. I make a list of all the things I want to see and do, and plan them in advance. So our citytrips tend to be more rigid, but we like that. I would hate to waste time on finding out what's cool when you're at your destination, only to find out smart people booked in advance and you're too late. (This got us in the crown of the Statue of Liberty, for instance. And I prepared a bicycle trip around the island of Manhattan on forehand, since it wasn't a marked route there would have been no way to do it without preparation). I get that some people book last minute, but for me the preparation is just as much fun as the vacation itself.