Planning for a trip in the long term

February 24, 2018 8:25 AM

I'm planning a trip to Japan and Korea next spring as evident by my previous questions. I won't be going until next spring, around March. I'm super excited about it but planning seems so overwhelming. I have almot a whole year to do it! When should I book accommodations and flights for best prices and least anxiety? How do I keep myself organized?

I have a huge list of stuff I want to do/information and it's spread out between Google Keep notes, bookmarks and some in a notebook. It's pretty overwhelming, especially when I want to do ALL THE PLANNING!! I feel like there's so much logistics to work out.

posted by starlybri to Travel & Transportation (1 answer total)

With Japan at least, hotels can book up quickly at peak times like cherry blossom season or during autumn when the leaves are changing. I use Booking.com (any other legitimate travel aggregator should work too, but Booking.com has worked well for me on multiple Japan trips) to book 'safety' rooms 6 months in advance, which generally have no charge and can be cancelled up to a day in advance.

Some of the cheaper business class hotels often only put up their inventory 3 months in advance so you could do another check then to see if there are new availabilities.

I'd also recommend making a customized Google Map for Japan as street addresses are not so useful there.
posted by Gortuk at 4:27 PM on February 24, 2018