How to Choose Your Travel Style Before You Book Anything

Question one: where does your money do the most work?

Every traveller has one category where spending genuinely improves the trip and several where it does not. For some it is the hotel, for others the food, for others the guide who explains what they are looking at.

Decide your one category and be honest about the rest. A traveller who cares about food can happily stay in a simple guesthouse. A traveller who sleeps badly should book the good room and eat at lunch instead.

Question two: how many hours a day do you actually want to be out?

Six hours of activity per day is a comfortable holiday. Ten is a project. People routinely plan for ten and then feel guilty when they manage six.

If your honest answer is five or six, cut a third of your itinerary before you book. You will see the same amount and enjoy more of it.

Question three: how often are you willing to pack?

This single question separates our slow travel routes from everything else. If packing once a week sounds right, you want two bases and day trips. If packing every second day is fine, you can cover much more ground.

There is no correct answer, but mismatching this is the most common source of trip fatigue.

Question four: who is coming?

Children set the pace and the distances. Teenagers need something active. Older parents need lifts, shorter walks and reliable seating. Two friends can improvise in a way a group of six never can.

Build the plan for the least flexible member of the group, because that is what will happen anyway.

• Budget: value per day matters more than luxury moments
• Comfort: fewer sights, better sleep, easier transfers
• Food: route follows markets and regional cooking
• Romantic: fewer stops, longer evenings
• Adventure: active days with weather alternatives
• Culture: depth over coverage, closing days respected
• Family: short distances, apartments, one activity a day
• Slow: two or three bases for the whole trip

Then pick the destination

Once the style is clear, the country becomes a practical question. A food trip works superbly in Italy, France, Spain, Japan and Thailand. A slow trip works best where distances are short, which favours Portugal and Greece.

That is the whole reason we build our library around scenarios rather than destinations. The destination is the easy part.