I'm interested to hear how much you plan your trips. We're off to Romania this year, and my trip planning so far consists of...Disembark Euro tunnel, charge across Europe to the Romanian border, then slow down till I get to Brasov. Few days there then head towards the Adriatic coast via bits of FYR Yugoslavia. We only have two weeks, so time is a premium. I sometimes feel I should get more focused, but then I worry that I might loose the fun if I start to plan too much.
You sound way more worldly in your adventures than me, I typically stay in the states and Canada. I like to set out on a Monday morning, and have a first-night's lodging pre-determined and reserved if poss. I figure that first day I want to log some decent miles, and I dont want to have to sniff around for a place to stay when I get there. Book the first night's lodging ahead, run some decent miles, and then sleep well. The next morning, I look at a map, and see what's generally ahead. I plan nothing, other than perhaps some key cities I wanted to see, or some natural attraction I have heard of, be it a waterfall or twisty route meant for motorcycles. The rest I make up as i go. Traveling during the week, I will start looking for lodging late afternoon early evening. If I come to a town and for some reason it's totally booked, then I stomp on to the next city. Sometimes this has backfired, and the next city was another 90 miles.... in the dark.... in moose country. Oops. I play hit or miss like that until I get closer to Friday. Friday morning I start looking on the internet over breakfast or coffee somewhere, and for sure have a place booked for my Friday and or Saturday. Typically Sunday I am heading home. Rinse repeat, that's my deal. I don't camp much, but should. It always sounds like a great idea, but sometimes a motel, AC, and a real bed and shower just the ticket after a long day riding.
I did have a chuckle at that. Your pretty much doing what we do. Normally try to get a fairly early start, then start looking for somewhere to stay late afternoon. We never book anywhere, and we have never failed to find somewhere.
I'm leaving this summer for a trip to south america and have done my usual planning, I have some things figured out like the Mexican border and insurance, the rest I'll just wing it, the same as I always do. Don't sweat it, things will always change as you move along. Cheers Slowphil P.S. I should add, this drives the guy I usually travel with nuts, he likes to have every night booked into a hotel/motel 6 weeks in advance.
I plan extensively. Here the snow flies from November till April, and the only way I can not go insane is to clean the bikes (once a year whether they need it or not) and plan my next trip. I use Google Earth, Google Maps, multiple motorcycle road Websites, atlases, state tourism Websites, and Basecamp for Mac. I find every dog-friendly campground and hotel within 100 miles of my projected route, and even call restaurants with outside patios to see if Barley would be welcome there. I carefully trace multiple routes on my maps using different colors: orange for my planned route, blue for technical twisties, and green for scenic routes. I create day-by-day routes on Basecamp and organize them by day so I can upload them into my GPS every evening of the trip. So far I have yet to go on a trip that even remotely approximated any of my carefully organized routes, but it keeps me happy in the winter.
General destination and number of days and then leave with a general idea of what roads I may need to take,possible options, and sites along the way.
Nice one. I just can't get my head round people who are that regimented. While I have a clear target, everything else usually gets made up on route. I read some posts on here and it seems that things are planned with military precision, I often wonder what happens if the plan fails?
You take somebody else's tour, or you do your own. Long trips are usually serendipidous adventures, if you have an open mind. This is where the true gold lies, and can be easily mined.
While my route, stopping points, etc. are on the fly, I do some research on the areas I'm travelling through in case there's something I want to see - oops, that airplane museum was two days back...
Maine winter is long but I have only six or seven particular destinations planned for my version of the Common Alaska Trip. I have also spent time reading the 2-volume People of Canada to help me appreciate the sights and sites along the way. I've re-read several London and Mowat books on the North. I read Canadian versions of news. All this is more to give me context for whatever I see instead of focusing on the "star" attractions. Health of a family member says I cancel the trip. I'm sure glad I that I don't have reservations to cancel today. I seldom make reservations for ANY trip. There are free camp sites that require reservations and I have used those in the past. I was going to leave Thursday so the arrangements for house, pets, bills, and mail will all help. The change to my trip could have been tornado or earthquake or protest or storm or fire or flood. There are lots of things I can control -- and perseverance is admirable -- but there are times to simply cancel plans.
What he said, add a reservation to camp site or motel/hotel if planning to stay in same spot for 2-3 days or if it's a stat holiday, etc... Also we usually decide on what we both (rider and pillion) have on our bucket list for the area we will be in. Over all we don't plan to much the route itself, but usually prepare the hell out of the trip in terms of gear/clothes/equipment for us and bike. This been said we tend to read up a fair amount on the places we planned on going but more to get background info and make sure we don't miss the interesting (to us) places. Often the night before we will confirm our general route for the next day, and look for last minute deals for hotel/BB, and such or nice camping sites. Never really worried about where to sleep/camp because you have the flexibility to divert.
I NEVER set up reservations ahead of time (and almost never use hotels/motels). I usually leave with a destination in mind for the first night. I either over or undershoot it 99.9999% of the time, usually overshooting it the first day. I really dislike having a strict itinerary. That prevents me from veering off-course if I see an interesting road or site that catches my eye that may interfere with reservations. I'm going on a two week motorcycle trip on Monday and have to make reservations for a ferry. I REALLY dislike the fact that I have to get the tickets beforehand (okay, well I don't have to, but it's highly recommended if I want to actually take the ferry). I now have a fairly strict schedule that I must keep up with. I usually leave with a period of time allotted, a list of places I'd like to see, and then just go.
