Vacation planning is fun and easy so you don’t need to get overwhelmed. The first thing I want you to do is to take a deep breath and don’t panic. If you’ve never done this before, relax. I am here to help you with some simple steps to plan a great vacation.

1. Determine Your Budget.

There are many ways to go about determining your budget, but I usually set a price of how much I want to spend (per person) and then go from there to determine how to find the best travel deals based on where I want to go on a cheap vacation. You need to be reasonable regarding what the budget will be for your vacation or getaway. A very realistic and reasonable budget for a cheap vacation is between $800-$1200 per person including airfare, hotel, car rental, food, tips, and airport parking. I’ve traveled all over the country on business and the average budget for a two-to-three day business trip is about the same amount so it’s a very reasonable for a cheap vacation for an entire week (especially when it involves air travel and a much longer stay).

2. Choose Your Destination.

Here’s a little insider travel secret. I’ve traveled to some amazing vacation destinations at amazing prices, but I don’t usually choose my destination. The destination chooses me. It can get a little frustrating but I can tell you that if destinations did not chose me, I would never have went to Jamaica and seen a live starfish swimming underwater when I was snorkeling off of a beach in Negril, climbed the Great Wall of China, traveled through the Panama Canal or met a baby sloth at a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica just for starters. I went to those vacation destinations not because I had a deep desire to travel to Montego Bay, Beijing, Panama City, or Puerto Limon, but because I was chasing a travel deal. Now, vacation planning via chasing a deal is a great way to get cheap vacations and save a lot of money. I have been on some incredible trips and gone to vacation destinations I never would have had at the top of my travel destinations “bucket list,” but I realize chasing the travel deal has prevented me so far from going to Tahiti’s island paradise of Bora, Bora (my life long travel dream) and I still want to do the “Sound of Music” tour in Salzburg, Austria. So you usually have a choice: chase the best travel deal or choose your travel dream.

3. Book Your Airfare, Hotel, and Car Rental.

When you’re vacation planning, the best way to save hundreds of dollars on your vacation is to book everything together as a complete travel package. I don’t have any technological reason as to why this saves you money, but it does. Feel free to experiment with your own online travel booking engine of choice with this concept by making queries separately and then as a package, but it’s been done before and proven to save you money. I do know that Rovia Travel has the best online price 68% of the time as compared to Travelocity and Expedia according to a recent independent survey by Topaz International so you may want to check them out.

4. Research Your Vacation Destination & Plan Your Travel Itinerary.

Researching my vacation destination and planning great itineraries is one of the things that I sort of excel at in vacation planning because I love researching the hot tourist attractions of the vacation destination I’m visiting. I know some people just like to “wing it,” but that lack of vacation planning can really add hundreds of dollars to your trip. There are two great ways to do your research. First, there are so many online tools at the local tourism offices of the areas your visiting that have all the main information at your fingertips, plus many have coupons or travel deals you may not have been able to find in other ways. The second thing I like to do is pick up a great guide book for the destination I’m going to. Frommer’s Travel Guide Books and Rick Steves’ Travel Guide Books for Europe are very well researched and written and these authors update their books almost yearly so you know you have up-to-date information.

5. Make Two Checklists.

Now you need to make two checklists for your vacation planning. One is a list of things to do before you go on vacation. This includes finding a pet sitter, getting a neighbor to pick up the mail, calling your mobile phone service to arrange for a text/email package while you’re away if you’re traveling internationally, secure a passport or visa (if you need them), get medical vaccinations if necessary, call your credit card companies to let them know you’ll be traveling and what cities or countries to expect charges to come up on, and things like that. The second list for your vacation planning is a list of things to pack.

Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now you see how simple vacation planning is even for an inexperienced traveler. These are the basics of vacation planning and now that you know how to plan your vacation, we have a lot of extra bonus travel tips my travel website (see below) to help you discover a world of ways to see the world. Bon Voyage and have a fabulous vacation.

When asked, “What would you like to do when you retire?” a surprising number of people answer simply, “Travel.”

When retirement finally arrives and people give themselves permission to see the world, are they more likely to travel alone or in a group? Which is better?

Some people absolutely love traveling in a group. Even when they go on a cruise, where everything is already pretty much laid out for you–some people prefer to go cruisin’ with a group of friends and acquaintances.

Many people like the tour group approach to travel because of its “worry free” features. Tour group travel includes experts who know what they are doing. These experts make all the necessary arrangements. They…

Buy tickets
Create an itinerary of notable sightseeing places of interest
Make reservations for overnight accommodations
Offer suitable suggested places to eat
Handle emergencies during the tour
Also, traveling with a group provides the feeling of safety in numbers, as one travels to unfamiliar places.

Despite the advantages of traveling with a group, many people enjoy traveling on their own. Some begin their travels with a group and then discover that they would prefer making their own decisions regarding their travel itinerary and arrangements.

Rick Steves is a tour guide who encourages all kinds of travel, but with a passion for those who want to experience the local flavor of one’s travel destinations.

In his newsletter, Travel News, Rick Steves reflects: “What distinguishes great travels from typical trips? It’s those places and opportunities when travelers can reach beyond their comfort barriers (self- or industry-imposed) and actually connect with the people and cultures they’ve traveled so far to experience.”

For the independent traveler who wants to slow down and “actually connect with the people and cultures they’ve traveled so far to experience,” the home exchange provides a perfect solution. During a home exchange, two households swap homes. The home exchange provides the traveler a residence in someone else’s community, a truly unique opportunity for connecting with the local people and culture.

Numerous online home exchange companies have emerged during the past 10 years to help travelers create a home exchange.

The home exchange movement began during the 1950s among European teachers who went in search of an affordable holiday. Now, hundreds of thousands of travelers are embracing the home exchange as they plan their vacations.

As the world gets smaller and smaller, due to modern technology, the urge to travel seems to be getting stronger and stronger. Increasingly, people wonder, “Why wait until retirement to start traveling?” It’s a point worth considering. Just remember, the trip of a thousand miles always begins with the first step. Once you have resolved to take that trip, consider your options: do you want to travel with a group or on your own. Either option is a great way to travel. The important thing is to act on your resolve–take that first step.

Dr. Dell Shiell and Diane Shiell, a husband-wife team, co-founded St. Hans Ministry Exchange, Inc. in 1991 to promote home and ministry exchanges. They also co-authored a book, Fair Exchange: A Ministry Exchange Between the USA and Norway.

Serving Lutheran churches for 32 years, Diane and Dell advocate both creative stewardship and entrepreneurial stewardship for Christian ministry support.