Dream Trip to San Francisco & Marin
Four years ago, I discovered the glory of creating my own maps for the sake of vacation planning. My buddy and I traveled to San Francisco, and, as you might know, the city is 7x7 miles! In order to see everything we wanted to see, I mapped it out into quadrants, and later, sectors, and broke it down by day.
This is not the trip from 2013, but a trip from 2017. I drop interesting restaurants (I even scope the menus to make sure it’s compatible with our lifestyle), photo ops, activities, appointments, everything I can think of or is recommended to me through a plethora of websites and personal connections. Then I color code by day. When we’re traveling, I can pull up my map and find something close by to eat that I know will work for us.
Planning vacations this way has become my go-to and I’ve shared maps with friends.
Disclaimer: I recognize that this format is not for everyone. It requires a lot of time to plan, but it works for us. We like to come home exhausted, feeling like we’ve made the most of our trip, and being “clinical” about it means we see what we want to see! Also, we definitely see things that aren’t on the map, and we do not stick to a rigid itinerary. We plan each day by ear - stopping in to grab lunch somewhere or checking out a site recommended by last night’s bartender - but we have a strong guideline that sets our days up for success instead of waking up and asking “what else did we want to do?”