How to plan a trip?

There have been some questions lately on Facebook about how to plan a trip. There are of course multiple ways to go about this. Ranging from joining one of the commercial operators that organize tours. Or, just drive around and find hotels/B&B where you can. Our approach is based on some 10+ years of traveling in Europe by car. Sometime by ourselves, sometimes with a group of friends.

Inspiration or theme

Through the years, we’ve had different sorts of inspiration for the trips. Sometimes there has been a certain event has formed the basis. Sometimes we’ve got inspiration from other car enthusiasts. And on other occasions we’ve picked a theme. In 2025, we went by the “Mille Miglia” theme. Following a roadblock from 2019 edition of the historic rally.

This took us to some places in Italy that we most likely wouldn’t have found otherwise. In 2024 we drove to Ireland, based on a chat with a dutch couple in Harwich the year before. They had been to Ireland on an organized trip with their MGB GT.

While researching the Mille Miglia tour. We found out about another historic rally, Coupe des Alpes. At the time, we couldn’t find enough details about the route. But now we’ve got a book about this. So, maybe in 2027 we’ll have a go at that one.

Planning

We typically start by adding points-of-interest to a Google Maps map that we share with our travel companions. Places to visit, hotels, ports etc gets added. A top tip is to use different icons (and colors) when adding these. Like green beds for hotels, blue cameras for viewpoints, orange museum icons etc. This makes them easier to distinguish when looking at the map.

Searching the web for things to do, places to visit etc is useful. As is watching videos on YouTube to get more ideas. Once all these are added, it’s time to start looking at the driving routes. More often than not, the roads are a key part of the whole experience. There are limitations in Google Maps on how many layers you can add. As well as how many points of interest you can add per layer. Another annoying limitations is that if you do the planning during Winter. Google Maps will block you from planning to drive on roads in the Alps if they are closed. Regardless if you plan to drive in the Summer. Paper maps are useful to get an overview. Plus as a backup if the phone or navigator acts up.

You can create routes with start and end points. Plus adding stops in between along the route you want to drive. You will get an indication about the distance as well as driving time, the later subject to traffic. So, treat it as an indication and not a absolute truth.

We add an overview to a shared spreadsheet. Including dates, start and stop, distance and estimated driving time. This will typically be iterated several times during the planning process.

While doing transit along highways, you can make quite a lot of progress. But once on the nicer roads, you won’t make that much progress. in particular if you plan to stop and visit various places.

Hotel and ferry bookings

We prefer to pre-book hotels and ferries. In particular if we a traveling with a group of friends. We then add the details of the accommodations including addresses, phone number and websites to another spreadsheet. We also add the cost and booking reference there. The same goes for any ferries.

When it comes to hotels, we try to find hotels outside the cities with good parking facilities. It can be hard to judge from booking sites what the parking looks like. But using the satellite view in Google Maps (or Apple Maps) is useful to get a view on the facilities.

Regulations

It might seem obvious, but do remember to keep up to date with the latest updates to road regulations along the route. Being environmental zones in the cities, road taxes etc. Some countries have specific rules about having hiviz wests inside the car, second pair of glasses etc. Also, make sure to bring the essential paperwork for your car, including insurance documents as well as ownership documents.