How to Plan and Finance Your International Dream Vacation

Make your international dream vacation a reality by choosing priorities, doing research, planning, and following some simple savings strategies.

Choose a Destination
Choosing an international vacation destination is the easy part- at least if you have a dream. If you don't have a particular destination in mind but want to travel, researching potential vacation spots can be overwhelming. Reading some guide books or travel magazines can give you all kinds of ideas and somewhere along the line you have to say, "This is it. This is where I want to go." Now, the hard part starts.

Research the Destination
Now that you have focused on a destination, you need to decide how long you plan to stay and what you want to see and do while there. It is helpful to write things down as you find them, especially if you are using a bunch of different resources. As you are choosing activities, keep in mind that you can usually only expect to do one or two of them per day. Don't let this fill you with regrets for what you won't see or make you so schedule-bound that you can't spontaneously ditch a plan for something that looks more interesting.

However, for planning purposes, make certain assumptions. Decide tentatively which city or town you will be sleeping in during each night of your vacation and which city or town you will visit during the day. If you plan to take day trips, check the distance and travel options. Many things that look close on the map or even are close mileage-wise take a lot longer to get to than you might anticipate if you don't do your research.

Write down a tentative, day-by-day travel itinerary.

Choose Spending Priorities
Where do you most want to spend your travel money? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to stretch your travel budget? Three main components of any travel budget that are flexible are the transportation cost, the hotel cost, and the food cost. Activities pretty much cost whatever they do,and your choice there is to do them or not.