how to prepare for a city trip

When this article goes online I’ll be miles up in the sky somewhere between Budapest and Amsterdam returning from a trip to Sziget Festival and the city too of course. During this short trip I actually realized how much of a predicament traveling can be so I’m here to shed some light into the darkness.

Step 1

First and foremost, your suitcase. A city trip is usually a long weekend so I would advise you to travel with hand luggage. Saves you heaps of time at baggage claim and you’ll know for a fact that it hasn’t been left behind. If you’re planning on hanging out at a beach somewhere for three weeks then you can easily manage without your suitcase for a day or two, but if it happens during a 3 to 4 day city trip it’s very aggravating.

Step 2

Your hotel. Or Airbnb. Or whatever. The place where you’ll be sleeping. Go for a hotel centrally located (and I mean central central) in the city and don’t go for something in the outskirts. Again, you’re only here for a short stay and you don’t want to waste your time in dark metro’s or reeking buses. How much fun is it to just roll out of bed and waddle to the nicest restaurants and cafés without having to go through a stingy neighborhood? And yes, you might be paying a little extra for the location but I’ve learnt through trial and error that the idea “I’m only here to sleep” does not suffice. A lame hotel in a lame place really takes a chunk out of the fun.

Step 3

Homework. A lot of homework. Yes, you should also be spontaneous and experience everything that gets thrown your way. But if you have three days to see as much as possible than you might as well know beforehand where you need to be. Choose some cultural highlights, select some restaurants that you would like to go to and which lunch spots can’t be missed. Also fun; have a look at sites where they promote parties and such to see if perhaps some rad DJ is performing at some rad club.

Step 4

For the real planners amongst us you have apps you can use to plan out your route. I found a website the other day called citytripplanner.com and it allows your to thoroughly plan out your routes. It takes a bit of fidgeting but its great because all the cultural highlights are shown and since everything is shown on a map, you have a complete overview.

Step 5

For a city trip longer than three days, it might be fun to look for places outside of the city that are worth a visit. Paris and London for example have great outlets where you can find goodies from Céline, Dior and Prada with insane discounts. Florence too is full of outlets. And for anyone heading to Paris, you can always go up North for the day to visit the Champagne area.