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Single location trips
What do you mean by 'single location trip'? Well I guess the title is a little mis-leading but I couldn't really think of anything else to call it that made sense.
What I mean by single location trip is simply a trip where I do not book a car and instead stay in one location and in one area and either walk or use public transport. It also usually means that I will be in the same hotel throughout the entire trip.
When I decide to do a single location trip I like to do what I call a chameleon plan which is basically a route with ideas and places to visit along the way but I call it a chameleon plan because it can change at any point and become a completely different plan.
Below is the process I follow when booking and planning a single location trip
Choosing where to go
When looking for my next trip I don't at this stage know if it is going to be a road trip or a single location/public transport trip, the first thing I do is head to Skyscanner to find some flights.
When planning a trip you would just assume that I choose a place that I would like to visit however what I actually do is check Skyscanner for flights first. The reason I do this is because I want to find the cheapest flights possible and this usually leads me to places that I wouldn't usually consider or think about going.
Back in January I found some flights to Milan Malpensa for just £11, having been to Milan before I initially dismissed it as it wasn't exactly my favourite city however after a little bit of googling I realised that Lake Como was nearby. I had been to Lake Garda before and thoroughly loved it so a chance to tick off another Italian lake really appealed to me.
At this stage I was considering hiring a car however after looking at the train prices and adding in the fact that it was easier to travel by ferry whilst on the lake I figured that for this trip it would probably be better using public transport and so this trip became a 'single location trip' as opposed to a road trip.
Take a look at the flight page to see how best to use Skyscanner to find those cheap flights.
So for this example on single location trips I am going to talk you through the planning for my trip to Lake Como
Finding a flight
The first thing of planning a new trip is finding a flight, so I head to Skyscanner and search some flights, check out the flights page for more info on how to do this.
Public transport
People seem to really get a little bogged down when looking for information on public transport in foreign countries, it can seem daunting however most websites can be translated to English and tripadvisor is also really great.
I would usually google something like 'public transport in Lisbon' and see what comes up, if there is an underground/metro it makes life a lot easier however most main cities ahave extensive public transport links.
A lot of cities will have day passes which mean you can pay a one off fee and use the public transport all day, this gives you peace of mind and it's a really cost effective way of covering as much ground as possible.
If I am wanting to travel to a few places that a further apart of venture out of a city and around other areas of a country this is when I will consider making my trip into a roadtrip instead.
Planning
Google Maps
Whether I am booking a road trip or a single location trip I always use google maps to assist me in my travel plans.
I can't stress how useful google maps is when organising trips, I will literally bounce from google maps to google constantly.
The first thing I put into maps is my destination airport, I will then zoom out and look for places nearby that look interesting, I will then google things such as 'beautiful places near Milan or 'places to visit near Milan Malpensa' and then I will start to piece together a plan.
When I booked my trip to Lake Como it was purely because the flights were only £11, however as I wasn't a big fan of Milan city I knew I wanted to travel further afield so I used google maps to see what was nearby.
Once I had found Lake Como I then started finding out how to get there but sometimes I find somewhere I want to visit but the public transport links just aren't good enough or the times are wrong and so I have to find somewhere else instead.