Over planning

I plan less now than I used to.

I don't figure costs - never have - although I am not a big spender. If I am in Paris or London or wherever and a museum interests me, I'm going without seeing what the cost is.

I also don't really plan lunch and dinner locations although since I am vegan if I am in a new area I'll take a quick look at Happy Cow to see if there is something of interest.

If you are doing Westminster Abbey, several years pre-pandemic I enjoyed lunch in the Cellarium which is near the Cloister area of the Abbey. Very cool location and at that time the food was also good. I think it was a bit spendy but I wanted to eat there and probably didn't eat much for dinner that night, lol.

Have a wonderful time with planning but be prepared to flex. The more planning you do the better you'll be able to do that if something unexpected comes up - a closure or something along those lines.

I don’t figure costs either. For planning, all I do is list the things I want to do or visit in a particular place, then see them when I want to. Motivation, weather, spending more or less time at a sight, or stopping at an unplanned sight, can change one’s plans.

I don't think you can over plan as long as you can adjust on the fly while there. Sometimes I found a site took less time than I planned and I would just look at my list and see if I could do another or just explore and see what I can discover. I don't plan costs except when booking hotels, but I do track them pretty well. I am interested in knowing what average daily costs are and to help others plan a budget or compare to tour costs. Just a thing with me.

I plan restaurants with several possibilities in a location in advance. I first rely on hotel staff, but have a list in case they don't have any suitable recommendations. I also plan transportation between cities and book tickets and reservations (pre-Covid). I use a spreadsheet as well that lists cities, sites, hotels and conf. #, costs, restaurants, train times, etc. I email it to myself and can pull them up on my phone or iPad at any time.

However, after all this planning, I can't say I am rigid to it. I plan because I'm not one that wants to spend any time while in Europe searching ahead for a hotel or a train reservation unless I have to do so.

I think planning is good and over planning is better, but don't carry over planning into over packing. That's bad! LOL

I have never used a spreadsheet for planning trips.

I will have looked at what I want to see in any one place, but will decide each morning depending on the weather what will be seen that day. Perhaps with timed entry to places due to Covid my method will have to change. I tend not to go to places for less than a week, so I am not rushed.

Cost is irrelevant - if it’s something I want to see, I will do it.

I rarely plan lunch stops in advance, but look for recommended places using my mobile phone wherever we are at meal time.

Yes!
I have a spreadsheet for each trip with main sights per day, opening times, and cost. I also plan to see 2 sites a day and then have a short tentative list in case something doesn't work out, or it takes less time than scheduled. I leave evenings open for whatever we may fancy on the fly or just a walk. I don't have unlimited funds, so this is how I know how much money to save. In addition, I review earlier trip sheets when planning later trips to get an idea of cost, what worked, and what didn't. I put in everything, hotel information, phone numbers, market days, monetary conversions, etc. Then it's all I need to take with us as an itinerary (well it's on the cloud).

Some will say this is overdoing it. As an architect, I plan for a living, so it's what I do. My wife pokes fun at the spreadsheet, but she knows where we are, what we are doing, and how much is allotted for dinner with a quick look. I usually start planning as soon as we get home from a trip so it evolves. It takes a lot of time to research, so write it down, you will not remember. Each to their own, and my way is not the only way, but I'm definitely in the planner category.

“If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” — Benjamin Franklin

Oh, you plan like I do! I plan what I am going to do each day. I include each thing I want to see, when it's open, what it's close to, etc. I I plan my route each day. Mainly, I do it so I won't waste time, or find myself unable to visit something I want to see.

Of course, plans can change. And if I am traveling with someone else, I can be more flexible!
I also find it fun to to anticipate where I will be and what I will see.

Two sites a day isn't overplanning, it's realistic. I like to make reservations when it means skipping a line or getting a table so I'm all for planning. My wife is just along for the ride.

I always use a spreadsheet for pre-trip planning so I can mark travel days and times and compile a list of the things that I most want to see in a place. I find it the best way to plan hotel stays since the best deals go away early so if I want a good location, tracking the options (RS recommended vs other site recommendations) seems to make sense to me. We don't pinch pennies, but having a reasonable estimate of costs for the trip allows me to get over the inevitable "high-cost" options ahead of time. YES, I should have paid to go up to the Jungfraujoch... never mind... Daily planning/tracking on the trip is much less important to me.... Receipts get added to the spreadsheet on laundry afternoons, or on trains. I do download the links to important sites to my phone, but not to the spreadsheet.

I think it is all a matter of personal comfort on how much of the music is written down, versus riffing on the melody...

I also enjoy planning. My friends still tease me about my first trip to London several years ago, which I (over)planned down to the minute including bathroom breaks (though in my defense I’d heard that public toilets were scarce).

I plan much less now beyond lodging, transport, and sites/activities that must be booked in advance. I do keep a list of things I might like to do and restaurants I might like to try in any given city, and I keep note of opening hours/days. From that list, I sketch out my day the night before while I’m relaxing in my room. I just returned from 2 weeks in Spain on my own and that approach worked well.

Yup! Over-planner here too. Word docs with itinerary, contingencies, costs and packing list (a true spreadsheet is beyond my computer skills). Websites are bookmarked on home computer and on phone. Google maps marked with notes for hotels, transportation stations, restaurants, sightseeing and shopping. Citymapper app will be downloaded and noted when trip is closer and finalized.
But if things don’t go as planned that’s OK and I just wing it. You never know what “shiny objects” will catch my interest. Only absolute givens are transportation and hotels. Everything else is subject to change, unless tickets are bought.

PS I forgot to add that to avoid over-scheduling, which is different from over-planning, I use my phone’s calendar to plan out each day with time for walking/subway/whatever, time to see sights, food, relaxing, etc.

Looked at the heading and it reminded me of something I saw on a tv travel show. When discussing something after something didn’t go right, one person said to another, “An adventure is a poorly planned vacation,” so there’s nothing wrong with over planning.

Planning is good, overplanning is bad, but that's in the eye of the beholder. Snakebite's spreadsheets would be too much planning for me, but I agree with others that the more you plan, the better you can handle surprises. I collect relevant links in a file on the PC at home, and add an itinerary as a Word document that I build as I go -- first flights, then hotels, then sights and train reservations (if any). The only times I put in are for flights and any timed entries or trains I've had to reserve. It includes flight and seat numbers, hotel confirmation and phone numbers, ticket numbers for anything prepaid. This goes with me on paper and on my tablet, and a copy stays at home with my wife or someone else. I download apps for transit systems, hotel chains, the airline(s), museums and such onto the tablet so I can look things up easily.

Two sites a day is a good rule of thumb for a city stay, usually the first one is the "don't miss" and the second is less critical, subject to geography. As departure approaches and I can see forecasts I might tweak days based on expected weather. Move the boat ride to what looks like it will be a sunny day, but be open to changing if weather improves earlier.

I also enjoy the planning process but try not to be too obsessive about it. And on the ground I always find that variations happen because of weather, energy or lack of it, discovery of new options, etc. That's OK, I'm not trying to meet anyone else's expectations anyway.

My last proper overseas trip was a solo backpacking trip to Western Sichuan, China. I don't speak any of the local languages and I assumed (correctly) I'd meet very little English spoken.

I planned extensively so that I knew when and where buses were supposed to go - I had detailed pictures on how to get from airport to bus station. I had details of hostels/hotels in English and Chinese (for cab drivers).

I knew which route I wanted to take and I booked my first night or 2 in advance, but knew the other places on my route which had English speakers (from extensive research).

That was the most research I'd ever done and it was helpful. It didn't get me the whole way of course - I still ended up meeting a random fluent English speaker in a random transit town who told the shared cab driver where I was going. I met a random expat on a bus who helped me with translations on another day . However I was never badly lost and got to see all I wanted to.

Europe I plan in advance so I know what I want to see - I book mark and collate using the Evernote app - and at some point end up with a list of locations and sites (plus the notorious which days is every museum closed).

I will book the first town after a very long flight or a know arrival date. I will probably book internal flights if I'm sure of the route- but in the end everything else will be booked a few days in advance, when I know where we will be. Ive always travelled like this - but now that my partner's health has got worse I think its even more important to have a flexible schedule - there is nothing worse being dragged around a trip when you dont' feel well, its almost as bad as feeling like you are dragging someone around who is unwell.

Tripit has largely replaced my (very detailed, with estimated costs) Excel spreadsheet -- I put in accomodations, planes and trains as they are reserved.

On my phone calendar I first block out the entire length of the trip, then add each town as hotels are booked (one color each) so I have a visual reminder of what's left to do.
Restaurants are usually 1) places we have liked before 2) suggestions from hotel owners or 3) whatever is handy when we get hungry. So not planned ahead.
One big sight per day, all the rest is decided on the fly depending on whether we are tired or hungry or the weather is bad ....
I no longer do detailed cost estimates -- we know the range we are comfortable spending on accommodations and meals and airfare. Why not-- we are spending our kids' inheritance.

That is not over planning it's just how your (and my) brain works and to avoid anxiety. It is excellent!
With all the moving parts of a major trip, I must use a spreadsheet to keep my mind from racing, which causes anxiety and insomnia. It also helps me keep my arms wrapped around a project that could be a year in the making.
BUT I use spreadsheets in other areas of my life, household budgets, work etc.
I have a master spreadsheet with a column for day, date, place, day of trip (day 1, day 2..), Activity and notes (reservation confirmation numbers, important phone numbers, etc), plus there may be multiple tabs in my workbook that compromise my research data.
But my spreadsheet serves multiple purposes, to keep me organized, highlights to remind me what I still need to book, reserve, print and it is also sent to family members in case we go missing they know our exact location each night, contact names, what we had planned to do etc.
I find that I usually do 1/2 the things I had planned with the non-negotiable ("Plan A"-booked, paid for) in bold and "If I have time" (Plan B)..which we never get around to. We usually find that the day gets away from us after the 1st event we do, we might like the area and not have known about a cool park, or that we were so close to XYZ and decide to check that out instead, or stumble upon a dance group or artist we want to observe. Plus just getting to places takes so much longer than anticipated.

On my first solo trip, to Quebec, Canada, I didn't have a written itinerary. I may have just identified where to go from alists of stuff on the internet. On my second solo trip, to London, England, I looked at the Eyewitness guide to London and then only made a handwritten list of places to see. On three subsequent trips to Europe, and two future trips, I got wiser or more sophisticated - now I type myself a day-by-day itinerary. For each day I list what is most important to me first, followed by "if time [name of one or more sights]", followed by something like "sleep in [name of the hotel and city], [1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on] night. I write when I am taking trains to my next town, when my planes leave, when I can check into my hotels, notes on which places to buy advance tickets for, notes on where to meet guided tours if I think I am joining any, and so on. I don't plan my eating in advance. I might have gotten the idea of writing an itinerary from a Rick Steves guidebook. I print my itinerary, put it in a folder and put it in my carry on bag. I e-mail it to my brother. I even try figuring out directions in advance. I intuitively feel like I need to know where to go when I get off the plane before I arrive.

Under-planner here. Having spent a career locked into engineering development schedules, where sometimes my time was scheduled and reported down to the hour, the LAST thing I've wanted to do on vacation has been to follow a schedule! I've much more wanted to have a general idea of the top-level goals and go explore.

I still remember the little corner cafe in Avignon I stumbled across for dinner. Three little tables on the sidewalk and three inside. Cute kid showed up in soccer jersey, hanging outside and chatting to the owner in Spanish. Owner+wife were from Chile, kid was from Spain and hadn't learned much French yet.

Cerastez, you and I do the same thing. I have magnificent spreadsheets full of costs, links, phone numbers and addresses; passport copies and now covid tests, vaccination receipts and cdc cards. All converted into a neat little pdf on my phone and cloud and a hard copy in the carryon. Before computers I would publish a book for each trip. Then, by day two, I abandon all of it. But the process is my research fir the trip and I leave confident and with a backup plan if I need it.

I've had to plan more for my recent trips (US only) than I would have had to previously because I'm having to make reservations for places that wouldn't have required them in the past. So whereas previously I might have pre-booked a few key sights and left more time for sightseeing options, I'm having to pre-book more.

In cases where I've wanted to book multiple activities in a day, that has required more estimations of timing and a loss of the flexibility to simply proceed from one activity to another as the day unfolds. I was worried this would also result in a loss of time for being spontaneous, but haven't actually found that to be the case.

I’m big on research, moderate on planning. To me these are different things. Research is collecting my options, learning about places, listing and mapping, learning how things work. I do a ton of this. I’ll have notes on how to do things like buy bus tickets, I always make a map with more restaurants and minor sights than I could ever see. I also research relevant culture or history so I have context for what I see. One could easily say I over-research.
When I’m bored I’ll pick a city I have no serious interest in going to and spend an hour researching it as if I were going on a trip there.
It’s an addiction!!

However…
I don’t like to over-plan, which I define as having a set daily schedule of multiple sights and meals picked out in advance. I know ahead of time which museums or sights require reservations and make those if it’s a must see place. I also know which days are closed or otherwise not ideal for some things so can avoid that.
I like to “plan” at most one must-see a day and fill in the rest as I go. Since I did all the pre-research, I know my options and can look at my list/map and decide if it’s an art gallery day or a food market and wine tasting day or a hop on a train to small village day trip day.

It's great to have a detailed plan as long as you're flexible about its execution. I'm a believer that too much information is better than not enough information.

That is not over planning it's just how your (and my) brain works and
to avoid anxiety. It is excellent!

I may overdo it when I'm planning how to get places such as the airport to my hotel, but it's important for my own piece of mind. I'm obsessive about it to the point where I will watch You Tube videos and virtually walk the route using ground views on Google Maps. One of my many quirks.

But planning is half the fun and we start many months in advance, to get a broad overview of what there is to see and then narrow down and slot potential days when we want to see particular sites. We also do a lot of historical research so we hit the ground with a basic understanding of what we are seeing and why it is significant.

Never used a spreadsheet though, rarely plan restaurants in advance and I'd make myself miserable if I planned costs. I'm grateful that I'm at a point in my life that I don't have to worry about a travel budget anymore (within reason).

I’m big on research, moderate on planning. To me these are different
things. Research is collecting my options, learning about places,
listing and mapping, learning how things work. I do a ton of this.

Mira, we're cut from the same cloth. That research includes making "how to" notes for the stuff that's most challenging for me, like the ins-and-outs of rail and other forums of public transit. LOL, I think I still have an old page tucked away somewhere on "How to read an Italian train ticket"!! HA! But other notes involve specific things to look for or interesting background on a structure, square or bit of art not covered in a guidebook.

The frustrating thing right now, if we were traveling Europe, might be having to make prior, timed-entry reservations for more attractions than I'm used to, which involves planning, but it is what it is, eh?

Allan- The first time I had to print pre-purchased train tickets in Paris I printed out step by step directions from the seat61 website, and also print out walking directions from that website. Is that called obsessive? I don't think so...I call it "just in case".

PPP equals PPR. That being said plan some slack time into your itinerary here and there so you can modify adapt and adjust to the local conditions.

As you can see, everyone is different. There is no right or wrong answer. It's what's right or wrong for you.

I am not a big planner. I also use TripIt for transportation, hotels and planned activities (where I either have reservations or actual tickets.) Everything else is noted but not planned. I like to be flexible.

I rarely pre-plan where I eat as I would rather get recommendations from a local than a guidebook. I can't remember the last time a lical gave me a bad recommendation. Or sometimes you stumble on a place.

A couple of weeks ago, in Toulouse. I was wandering around looking for a place to have lunch. I saw a restaurant with a line of about 40 people out the door. I had never heard of the place so I took out my phone and searched for it online. It sounded interesting so I joined the queue and had a very nice lunch. (It also helped that as I walked down the line, everyone was speaking French.)

Plan and travel the way that makes you happy. It really doesn't matter what anyone else does or thinks.

I do something similar, using a combination of mostly spreadsheets and word docs. I don't do a lot of planning for each day except for what must be booked in advance (tours, sights like the Alhambra or the Borghese that get booked up weeks and weeks in advance). I research the sights and make a list of those that interest me by priority (high, medium and "if there's time") with detailed info. I spend a lot of time on the planning process and for me it really pays off, and I do enjoy most of it.

When I've been in London I've tried to see as many plays as possible which required daily planning to book all the performances (eves and matinees). I add to that a list of sights with hours so I can decide day by day what to see and do in between. I usually have a plan for 1 or 2 restaurants, maybe a pub or two, and at least one good afternoon tea. On my last visit, I fit in a day trip to Bletchley Park (highly recommend it if you haven't been) but in several visits, I still haven't gone to Cambridge or Oxford (both high on my list) because I just can't seem to tear myself away from London.

Cerastez i don't think you are over planning but setting a plan of action in a way that works for you.
They way i travel has changed a lot since i first started travell, now in my mid 60's I have slowed down a lot and what appeals to me now is quite different from 45 years ago and my planning has changed.
I likw countryside walking, visiting pubs, micro breweries and older buildings whatever they have been used for and can usually plan things around that. the interenet has completely changed the way I plan and instead of having a big list of things to do , i download websites so i can go into my phone or iPad and get info very quickly. being flexable is very important to me,when I travel on my own I love getting a bit "lost" as i seem to find some greta places , but with online maps and info on local transportation on my electronic devices I can always find my way back (I always carry a power pack to boost my devices if needed).
Planning and research like Cerastez is something I enjoy.
I have seen real overplanning when someon posted about their planned trip, with everything down to the minutes including walking times or bus times between places they were visiting ,even saying how long they were going to be in a restaurant, experienced travelers will know that that type of over planning is heading for disaster.

I always plan my activities based on what area I am in, that way I can cut down on the walking/metro/bus/taxi usage from one end of a city to the other. Like you I like to do an activity in the morning and one in the afternoon and find a place for lunch in-between the two. If there is a specific restaurant or cafe I want to eat at and they offer reservations or recommend reservations then I make them, other than that I'll just walk around and read the menus posted outside the establishments and see what peaks my interest. In the evening I just enjoy strolling around an area or neighborhood and just enjoy the scenery. Three more days until I arrive in Strasbourg :).

I do tend to plan touring days since some sites and museums have different opening/closing days and times. This backfired a few years ago however when I used a calendar from the wrong year to do my planning; I still don't know how that happened. It also requires faith in the current information that you have.

I love planning and anticipating a trip - that is half the fun!
I spend a lot of time on google maps plotting distances between sites and which routes are most likely to be scenic / architecturally significant.

My plantar fasciitis demands that I plan regular breaks in my siteseeing, so looking for well-situated cafes and public spaces is central to my approach.

I stumbled across this paragraph this morning:

Plan ahead. While a spontaneous getaway can be exciting, research
shows that the stress of poorly planned vacations can eliminate the
positive benefits of time off. In particular, planning a month ahead
and focusing on the details in advance versus figuring things out
while on vacation has been shown to result in a better vacation
experience with more positive outcomes. Planning ahead also gives us
something to look forward to — something that Gretchen Rubin, author
of The Happiness Project, says not only makes us feel good, but also
adds an “atmosphere of growth” to our lives and makes us optimistic.
Even if you’re only going across town, you can still identify which
days you’re going to take off and plan what you’re going to do in
advance.

Here's the link to the full article which was about the benefits of vacation time. https://hbr.org/2020/08/thinking-of-skipping-vacation-dont

Friends of ours spread out a large map on their living room table, with some cardboard underneath, and then they stick colored pins into each place they want to visit, one site for the morning and one for the afternoon. They are very disciplined people who will actually stick to their plans.

That's what I'd call overplanning. But then, if they enjoy it and if it works for them, so what?

I don't like extremes. I want to see things and not just spend two weeks hanging around on the beach, but this is going to be a vacation and not a military excursion. I love to plan and do research about the place we're going to visit, but I want to leave room for unexpected discoveries and serendipity.

Once we are there, we'll have a general idea of what we want to see, but if something more interesting comes along, why on earth should we feel bound to our own plans? During our last vacation, we had planned to visit a renowned museum and then stumbled into a local festival with groups performing traditional dances. I am sure we would have enjoyed the museum too, but this was so much better!

I always tell people that traveling gives me three phases of enjoyment, in this order:
1. The months of preparation and planning
2. The years of memories of the actual trip and
3. The days/weeks of the trip itself

Getting the full enjoyment of 1, requires that 3 is completed. I haven't been able to enjoy planning for a trip until the dates are set. Arguably, the memories lead to the most enjoyment, due to the time factor, but the intensity of the fun is always highest during the planning.

People have been making fun of me for my level of planning everything in my life for my whole life. I don't let it bother me anymore. I have had a (so far) very successful life. I haven't been in a situation that I couldn't cope with or didn't have a contingency plan for. I enjoy planning, planning qualms my anxieties, and it just plain works for me!

Right now I am planning two different trips. The first is for May, 2022. It combines the wishes of my son and myself. The cities or sites that are my choice are more heavily planned. The sites that are my son's choices are more loosely planned. I have a loose plan just in case he never comes up with a plan, that way I can offer him some options.

I am also planning a trip for myself only to Paris in September. My Paris Goolgle map is lit up like a Christmas tree. I am planning days according to arrondissements. I will have a rough walking route planned to see the things I want to see. I have some cafes and restaurants pinged. When I finally get there, who knows? I will do what I want! But all of the planning will help me make that decision.

What I learned from TV production - you have to have a plan and you have to be willing to change it. That's why we used so many pencils.

I have never used a spread sheet but have traveled with those who do. Overwhelms me but makes them feel comfortable. I plan transportation (trains, car rental, etc), a few day trips, might throw in a "day off" if it's a particularly long trip and maybe a restaurant we want to hit for dinner (will make a reservation if it's necessary). I don't plan "cost".

We spend more time in preparation before we leave then on the execution - if that makes sense.

I'm the planner for trips that my husband and I take. I learned by accident to be sure he has a copy of those plans - where we are staying, contact info, what has been prepaid, confirmation numbers etc. If something happens to me before we depart (or at any time) he has all the relevant info. If we should check luggage (rare), I have an edited version in our baggage - mainly just locations we will be in case luggage doesn't get in our hands upon arrival. Same document is given to a few family members so they have options for reaching us if typical methods fail, or heavens forbid, local issues hit the news!

He got bumped off a connecting flight once while I continued on our journey with a dozen college students in tow (his flight was booked separately from our group so he was forced off since he appeared to be traveling solo (overbooked flight or airline was trying to get others on board from their previously canceled flight). Explanations and pleas to the airline went unheard but he had a lovely overnight stay in a very nice hotel and was able to meet up with us the next day. Of course, it's easy now to store a doc or pic on our phones but I still print copies of some info as backup in case the technology fails or goes missing.

I have to make a conscious effort not to over plan. The excitement of a new place is dimmed a bit if you watch too many videos of it, for example. I want it to be fresh and surprising. For example, we're going to see Paul McCartney next week. I could go on Youtube and watch his previous concerts, but why? That would diminish the in-person experience.

The one area I do over plan for is transportation, especially the day of arrival when I'm in a mental fog. That has proved invaluable over the years, especially when our hotel or VRBO is down narrow alleys off the beaten path.

I look at costs to a point.

I use a Google Doc with basically an a.m./p.m. approach. Planning to the minute? No.

It's worthwhile to have a flexible plan, in that if you want to visit x-number of sites in a given day, and halfway through you realize it's a death march and you're just checking off blocks, then maybe it would be better and slow down? I'm not arguing with Ben Franklin.

Can't over plan.

I'm just starting to plan a 12-day trip with my daughter to Norway for late August. We'll fly to Trondheim and drive north as far as we
can go in the allotted time. What's hard for me is making reservations now for accommodations. How to know whether we will easily make it to a particular town (where we have a reservation) way early in a day or if we will be driving till 10:00 pm because we made unexpected stops? It's such a different ballgame from the city trips, i.e. London or Budapest or Amsterdam, which I am used to taking with a side trip by train somewhere else for a couple of days. Maybe I'm just trying to make things too perfect!

I plan to some degree, to be sure regarding accommodations and train rides, regarding costs and logistics, location too since my aim is to stay very near to train stations, eg, in London, Berlin, Metz, Strasbourg, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Kiel, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris,

I don't use spreadsheets to plan. I use the DB website, fold-out maps, consult primarily the Rough Guide, and rarely now, "Let's Go"...still a source, sometimes Michelin Green Guide.

The exception are those rides for day trips, which can be whimsically canceled. I don't over plan, it's counterproductive.

There is an itinerary I decide on, then logistically I start to put this varied itinerary together using the train connections, day trains, night trains, EuroStar, distance factors, discounts, etc.

I leave time for spontaneous day trips, should that possibility arise, and where they can be plugged it, say, if I am staying in Vienna and decide to do an afternoon trip to Wiener Neustadt, (that was interesting historically) , or from Hamburg to Rostock, ....actually did that once but canceled since the rain in Rostock ruined my plans.

I like the planning aspect of the trip almost as much as the execution of the plan ... I figure since I am spending all this money and time, I want to be sure I don't miss out on something that I will kick myself for later (the younger generation have labeled this FOMO, I call it being prepared) ... but the plan is still flexible enough to allow for some deviation (like the dropping of a sight if time doesn't permit but at least it was a conscious decision ... not an 'oh crap how could I not have known about this') or spontaneity.

Now, to accomplish this, I use spreadsheets (which are printed and saved electronically in multiple places in case I lose the printed copies) with dates/times, places, food (one amount per day unless I break out lunch and dinner), costs (actuals if I can find specific prices or otherwise just an approximate ... plus any full cost such as car rental (plus fuel), train pass, etc...), hotel and train information and comments for each lone ... some down time is also added in for longer trips ... also have a tab for city or area maps, plus an overall route map. Some may call this over-planning, others may say this is not enough ... to each his/her own ... from the earlier comments, I think I am in the majority.

The OP's process doesnt sound like too much. Planning can be fun, but I think you can overplan. We seen some people post itineraries here with each day lined out in 15 minute increments. Often, without taking into account transportation time, or stuff like restroom breaks and coffee breaks, which easily can run into an unplanned hour or so. Some plans really depend on the weather.

There's something to be said for the joy of spontaneity and accidental discoveries, and you have to be ready to change your plan. We never pick lunch or dinner spots in advance. Some people just cant stand that uncertainty.

My problem with over planning is that it's like over packing. It seems more things creep in than get eliminated over time. Planning is intended to simplify, but if I get carried away, it adds complexity instead.

I don't think I over-plan, but I definitely do make an effort to have an itinerary because otherwise I'd miss out on things that have specific opening days/times. I just spent 8 days in London and each day had some set things, with ideas for other things--all of it came off perfectly, with plenty of unstructured time and included 2 day trips by train to Bath and Canterbury. What started the whole trip was realizing if I wanted to see the Faberge exhibit at the V&A I'd better plan a trip around the available tickets. I try not to plan seeing a show at night with having to get up at 5 am the next day to catch a train. Day trips are usually separate from each other by a day at least. I like to be "in town" the day before I come home...little rules that help me plan things.

I start with a big piece of paper and fill in what I'm thinking of for each day, whiting-out or highlighting as things firm up. Before I leave home I fill in my little purse-sized travel notebook, around 4" x 5" with flights, hotels, and a page for each day's activities, and room in the back to keep a journal. I don't want this on my phone--for some reason the notebook is key to a great trip.