Create a standard travel itinerary
It is important to prepare travel itineraries that are easy to understand. This is why there are several rules to be respected.
A travel itinerary usually has several days. It includes all transports, excursions and activities, lodging, meals and guide services that you propose to the client.
Lodging
You need to prepare your listing of hotels / hostals and homestays that you want to use in each city your clients will stay.
This listing should include :
- Name of the hotel
- Category 2, 3 or 4 stars
- Adresse and phone number
- Email-Adresse
- If possible, person in charge of reservations
- Rates in low and high season for the different room categories
It is important that you know the hotels yourself, that you have visited several rooms and common areas in order to “feel” if they fit to your clients. Ideally you would stay a night at the hotel, which is not always possible.
Ask for the details of the breakfast, what is included for the rate.
Transportation
It is important to have reliable drivers in various cities in your country. For sure, you will need drivers in the capital city that can welcome your clients at the international airport and bring them to their hotel. Or you might want to hire a driver from your region that knows also the capital city and will bring the clients back.
Before contracting a driver, make sure to ask
- His drivers licence
- Car insurance
- Professional papers for being a driver
- Construction year of his car (not older than 5 years!)
- Regular maintenance checks of the car
- The person must be a careful driver, have a clean car, be clean on himself, knowledgeable about his country and sympathetic with people
Meals
Meals can be lunch, dinner or a box lunch (a pick-nick on the road). Usually the local drivers or guides know where you can go to eat in their towns. Hygiene is the most important subject, as you don’t want the clients to get sick. Keep in mind that their stomach is not used to the bacteries in your country.
If the meals take place in a homestay, make sure that the family provides a varied menu, not always rice and beans, but also lots of vegetables and fruits. You are the one fixing the rates, so if it is more expensive to have vegetables and fruits, you include this rate in your quotation (and you check on the family that this is what they provide to the clients – see Guest Satisfaction Section).
Activities and Excursions
These activities and excursions might take half a day, two hours or a full day. It is important to explain the activity clearly so that the client knows what to expect.
To describe an activity properly, please state the following :
- How long is the complete activity (from start to finish)
- How much transportation is involved ?
- How much walking / hiking is involved ?
- Difficulty of hiking ? Easy / Moderate / Difficult
- What should the client bring with him ?
- Description of the activity
- Pictures
Guide
We make a difference between a local guide (orientador) and a professional guide (who has a diploma and speaks at least one foreign language). The daily rate is not the same – nor are the expectations.
To contract a guide, you must have a look at the following :
- Diploma
- Experience (how many years and for which companies did he work)
- Where does he guide
- Level of foreign language (make an interview in the foreign language)
We have prepared an Itinerary Template Spreadsheet. Feel free to use it and add on days to the itinerary.