I love to explore, there’s something magical about visiting a place for the first time (or revisiting a location in a different season). There’s an element of childlike excitement, the thrill of it meeting your expectation or absolutely blowing your mind.
I take great pleasure in researching a location, absorbing all it’s highlights, planning an itinerary and experiencing it all. I do this using lots of useful tools, websites and books, here’s how I go about it.
Log every recommendation
Whether it’s chatting to a friend about their recent holiday, watching a TV show and wondering where it’s filmed or scrolling Instagram and spotting a beautiful spot you’d like to experience, I log everything that sparks my interest. I’m a forgetful person, so I write everything I need to remember down. Including locations. I’ve found a great way of doing this is on my phone through Google Maps. I search for the location on logged into my Google Maps app, scrolling to ‘Save’ and add it to a folder I’ve created called ‘Places to visit’.
As you can see below, I have quite a few pins racking up on my Google Maps:
I used this process when I was watching The Witcher with Henry Cavill, they filmed an episode at Gordale Scar, near Malham Cove. I thought it looked like an incredible place to visit, so I saved it on my Google Maps, and about a year later, I happened to be quite close to the location and so planned it into our day’s adventure. Having these places saved, means you always have a backup plan if needed.
I’ve also created collections on Instagram, to save places I’d like to visit in the future. Whether it’s a beautiful loch in Scotland, or a hike in the Lake District, I save them in the app, in an organised manner, so I can refer back to them when adventure planning.
Having a log of saved places makes life much easier when it comes deciding where to visit. Let’s face it, if you have a tonne of pins for the Peak District, then it looks like you’ve got most of your activities planned out for you.
Finding the right travel resources
I find a medley of different travel resources works for me, sometimes I need to get lost in the adventures of a book. I can sit for hours with a book in one hand and a pile of posits in the other, marking out where I want to explore next. On the other hand, sometimes I need to be reactive to a day where things haven’t gone to plan, so having lots of different resources to call upon is the best way. Here’s a breakdown of books I’d recommend, websites to keep in your favourites and apps for your phone.
Recommended travel planning books:
- Wild Woods by Alvin Nicholas and Martin Cray – This has been my absolute favourite travel book for the last year, it’s full of stunning woodlands that tend to be off the beaten track. If you only bought yourself one book in the next 12 months, make sure it’s this one. I take it with me on every adventure as it covers England, Wales and Scotland.
- Lonely Planet: Best Day Walks Great Britain – We’ve done a few of the walks in the book so far, and there’s a certain level of gamification about it. You get to tick things off your list, and it’s satisfying.
- Wild Guide: Hidden Beaches – This book is one of my newest purchases, so far we’ve explored some Welsh coast line with it, but there’s alot more coast to explore with this book.
- Wild Things Publishing have created multiple books that each focus on an area in the UK, I currently own: Wild Guide: Central England, Wild Guide: Wales and Wild Guide: Lakes & Dales, all of which are brilliant books to offer insider inspiration and locations to visit.
- Lonely Planet travel guides are perfect if you have a specific location in mind too, e.g. when we explored the Scottish Highlands, having a copy of Lonely Planet: Scotland’s Highlands and Islands was exactly what we needed. We’re building somewhat of a collection of Lonely Planet books now, ranging from the UK, to Canada and I’m sure there will be many more to follow.
- Bradt do a slow travel guides for most UK counties too, I’d highly recommend these, especially if you spend a lot of time in that county. We own The Peak District and Shropshire slow guides and they’re brilliant for narrowing a small area and really exploring it, to it’s full potential instead of just getting the highlights of an area and moving on.
My favourite exploration websites for the UK:
- National Trust – We’ve been members for a number of years now, and it’s the best membership I’ve ever been a part of. Not only do I feel I’m supporting something much bigger than myself, it means we all get to enjoy these buildings and locations for generations to come, plus the membership goes further than you think. There are lots of National Trust car parks, which are free if you’re member too. It takes the pressure off spending an entire day at a National Trust place, you can pop for a hour when you’ve got time to kill, or spend multiple days exploring the same place, let along revisiting time and time again. I aim to visit one Trust property a month to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth, so anything more than that, quite frankly, they’re paying me to be there. There is a dedicated website and app for Scotland too.
- Forestry England – I love walking through a varied woodland, encountering wildlife and admiring the effects the seasons have on our landscape. Forestry England have a range of woodlands across the country to visit.
- Natural Resources Wales – Similar to Forestry England, National Resources Wales have a wonderful selection of managed woodlands to explore, visitor centres to learn from and activities to enjoy, all in Wales.
- Woodland Trust – Woodland Trust have a brilliant map of woods across the UK, some of which they own that you’re able to visit, others that are privately owned.
Apps you need in your life for traveling around the UK:
- Pitchup – We do a lot of van camping in the UK and Pitchup is by far the best camping directory I’ve found. One tip I’d swear by though, is if you care about the level of facilities like the showers, toilets, etc. Make sure to see a picture of them before booking your site, and make sure it’s selected in your search. I personally don’t deal well with the more ‘wild’ approach, so knowing that ahead of time is important to me.
- AllTrails – I love this app for finding hikes, walks and view points of interest. Sometimes I might pick up a trail and then decide to go my own way, but having something like AllTrails to spark the idea is so handy. They have a free and paid for level membership, I’ve used the
- Parkopedia – This app is great for finding lots of parking options when you’re visiting a new area. We’ve used it to find parking in the centre of York, and in the vast expanse of the Lake District. It’s incredibly helpful and quick, which is so helpful when you’re driving around and need a quick solution.
- Airbnb – Let’s face it, no one does wonderful accommodation with a twist of living like a local than Airbnb. Since having the campervan we haven’t used Airbnb as much, but it’s always there if we need it. My only rule on Airbnb is only booking with Superhosts, that way you can guarantee your expectations will be met.
- What3words – Personally, I think every smart phone should have this app preinstalled. Need to figure out a specific location within 1 metre? What3words is your app. The creators have created a 3 word reference for every square metre around the world, so if you need to meet someone at a specific location, say the start of a unmarked hike? Or if there’s an emergency and you’re trying to give the emergency services directions around a cliff top, What3words is the ideal referencing tool.
Tips and Tools for Travel Planning
Over the years I’ve refined how I plan my travels out and I’ve found using Notion has been the most successful. I used to write it down on scraps of paper, but then plans might change, I might forget to take that scrap of paper with me or worse still, we get caught in a rain storm, and all my well written plans are now a inky mess.
Notion is free to create an individual account, and it allows me put together my travel research into a constantly updatable format that eventually looks like a schedule. I really like the idea of working smarter, not harder, and notion allows me to do that.
I start by working out how long it’s going to take to get to our ultimate area. I have a golden rule for adventuring, nothing good happens with more than 4 hours of driving. So if it’s going to take more than 4 hours to get somewhere, I always break up the journey with a layover. It’s not always the destination, it’s just as much about the journey too.
My aim of each day of adventuring is to have two activities per day, that way you’re making time for lunch, and making the most of the day. There’s nothing worse than being on holiday and taking till midday to figure out what you want to do that day. It doesn’t matter if we’re on holiday, there is no way I’m laying in bed past 8am either. I don’t know about you, but I want to make the most of my time. I find having something planned for the morning, and something else for the afternoon means we keep a good pace for the day too.
I start my notion board with ideas from my resources whether that’s from my books, map pins, website research or Instagram saves. Once I have a list of highlight places, I figure out what two activities that day work well together in terms of location and level of effort. If we have a lot of travelling, we may only fit one activity in, so it’s needs to be a good one with lots of movement and fresh air, like a hike. Alternatively, I wouldn’t usually plan two long hikes back to back, it’s always nice to have a mixture of activities.
I really like adding extra information into my plan, like the type of activity, the suggested date, the postal address, online links for more info and even any attachments like a PDF of a trail. Admittedly, the downside of this approach is, if you don’y have signal, then your plan goes out the window! So prepare for that.
Here’s a recent long weekend travel plan to Wales:
Here’s a week long plan to explore the Lake District and into the Cairngorms, Scotland:
Along with our activity schedule, I also plan our accommodation, food and create a packing check list. What can I say, I love a list, it keeps me methodical and removes the need to keep everything in my head, all the time. When we go exploring we very rarely stay in the same place, so having a list of campsites we’re staying, and all the essentials is incredibly handy.
Here’s an example of a recent trip to Yorkshire and Northumberland:
It’s worth noting, just because we plan ahead of time, it doesn’t mean the plan can’t change. Let’s face it, the UK’s weather is unpredictable, and very often we need to adapt. At least by having done the research, there are plenty of alternative options, or things to save for another adventure.
I hope you’ve found this practical approach to travel planning helpful, it’s something I really enjoy doing and documenting and hopefully you enjoy it too.
Wishing you safe and exciting travels,
Ashley x