A trip that works · any destination
Your itinerary is realistic if every day passes three tests: the travel fits door to door, the main thing happens at a sane hour, and there is slack for something to go wrong. Most over-ambitious plans fail the first test: they count cities instead of bases and flight time instead of travel time.
By Aaron Luz · 25 years in tourism · Last reviewed November 2026
A base is where you sleep. Every change of base costs part of a day: check-out, getting to the station or airport, the trip, check-in. A common rule of thumb is at least two nights per base, and three or more if you want the trip to feel calm. Places you can see on a day trip do not need to be bases.
A one-hour flight often turns into half a day: getting to the airport, security, boarding, the flight, bags, and the ride into town. Trains from city centre to city centre are often faster in practice than short flights. Put the full door-to-door time in your plan, not the flight time.
The day you land and the day you leave are travel days. Plan something light near your stay, and never put a fixed, prepaid tour on the morning after a late arrival.
Many museums and sights close one day a week, and the most popular ones sell timed tickets that run out. Check each one on its official site before you lock the day, and book the timed tickets early.
After a long-haul flight across several time zones, the first day or two are rarely your best. Keep them flexible, and put the highlights later in the trip.
Weather, a delay, a closed road, a day you just want to rest. One free half-day per week of travel keeps one problem from knocking over the rest of the plan.
First the things that are fixed and scarce (flights, the stays that sell out, timed tickets), then the flexible things. Booking the hotel before you know the route is one of the most common and expensive mistakes.
AI assistants are good at ideas and structure. Before you book, double-check the parts they can get wrong: real transfer times between places, whether a sight is open on the day they chose, distances that look short on a map, and whether the plan leaves any time to rest. A plan that looks perfect on screen can still have a day that does not work.
For most people, two or three bases in 10 days, with day trips from them. Four or more bases in 10 days usually means you spend a lot of the trip packing, checking out and in transit.
Usually, yes. With three bases in seven nights, two days are partly lost to moving. Two bases, or one base with day trips, gives you more time in the places you came to see.
If the place is within about an hour or two each way and you are happy to come back in the evening, a day trip saves a check-out. If it is further, or you want the evening there, move.
Yes. Send it to me with the Trip Check: I review every day before you book and tell you exactly what to fix.
Related: Lisbon or Porto? How to choose your base · the free "Before you book" checklist.
Want a second pair of eyes on your plan?
Send me your itinerary, built by you or with AI. I check every day before you book and tell you exactly what to fix.