8 Best Vacation Planners & Templates for Your Next Trip

If you love to travel, then you know that staying organized can be a game-changer. Some of us are compulsive list-makers and planners and are proud of it! Others tend to shy away from vacation planning altogether because they don’t know how to begin or because they prefer spontaneity.

Both of these types of people and everyone in between can benefit from the use of vacation planners and templates.

Whether you’re planning your trip, getting ready to depart, or are deep into your adventure, planners, lists, and organizers can be a big help to you. They can guide you in a way that no other tool can, and can help you to the most out of your trip.

We have scoured the internet to find the best vacation templates and planners for you. In this post, we offer templates to help you pack, create a vacation overview, and plan your travel itinerary.  

There are templates to help you brainstorm before you go and organizers to make sure you don’t forget anything when you leave the hotel to go sightseeing for the day each day.

We’ve thought of everything for you. We hope that these templates will help you to stay organized and in turn, will help you to have the best vacation of your life! Read on and start downloading and using them today!

ViaTraveler’s Ultimate Vacation Packing List

Every trip is different, but if you’re looking for an ultimate vacation packing list to make sure that you’re ready to go on any trip you choose, check out our own Ultimate Vacation Packing List.

We put this list together for a recent post on our site and it has everything that you’ll need to pack to have a great trip, no matter where you are going.

Of course, some things depend on destination – you wouldn’t pack the same items for a ski vacation as you would for a trip to the Grand Canyon – but some of the things are constants that you will need for any journey you plan to take.

This list we’ve made for you is as thorough as it gets!

See Related: Travel Tips for Visiting Mexico on a Budget

Blank Vacation Packing List from JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

 Of course, some people prefer to start from scratch and would rather make a list themselves – we get it. That’s where this great Blank Vacation Packing List by Abby Lawson of JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com comes in.

It’s not entirely blank, actually; there are six categories listed. You print it out and fill in the blanks in each category.

Pretty much anything you’ll bring on any trip can go under clothing, shoes, accessories, toiletries, entertainment, or miscellaneous, so these categories will guide you as you create your own, personal packing list from nothing. If you get stuck, she offers a checklist-style packing list as well!

Travel Bucket List Template from EpicTravelPlans.com

 Wait a minute, though – you don’t need a packing list yet –first, you need to decide where you want to go! If you love to travel (and if you’re reading posts on this site then you surely do) then you probably spend a lot of time daydreaming about your next exciting destination.

 However, some of us tend to get overwhelmed by all of the choices out there and as a result, end up actually going on fewer trips than we should. Overthinking things can be quite an obstacle to living our best lives.

 But, there’s a solution. When you organize and rank your travel wants and needs, you may find it a lot easier to narrow down the trips you want to take sooner rather than later. A brainstorming and bucket list can help.

This Travel Bucket List Template is a free download from EpicTravelPlans.com and is not only a one-page template of helpful guidance, but several. The site even explains how to use this type of vacation planner to your benefit.

 Download these templates now and get started on turning your dreams into action and adventure.

Places to Go, Things to See Template by Scattered Squirrel

Once you’ve settled on a destination, you can continue your brainstorming by using this template from a site called Scattered Squirrel. Scattered Squirrel has a collection of fantastic vacation planner templates so you’ll see this site again later on this list as well.

 The Places to Go, Things to See template is a great tool to use while planning your days at a specific destination. On it, you can list specific attractions that you might like to see and experience in your vacation destination.

You can also list prices and there’s room for some notes. Having this information organized and in one place can make it easier to decide what things you can fit in on this trip and what you may need to save for next time.

Trust me, doing so will be a big help when planning your day-by-day travel itinerary later on.

See Related: What Does a Tourist Look Like?

Travel Planner’s Budget Worksheet from SavingYouDinero.com

SavingYouDinero.com is a great site that offers many tips for saving money. The Printable Travel Planner on this site offers several pages of travel planning templates that you will find helpful including another packing list, a trip calendar, a resource list, a to-do list, and more.

 The most helpful part of this free download, though, is the Travel Planner’s Budget Worksheet. Almost all of us struggle with staying within our budgets when we travel, but this go-to tool can help.

This worksheet has spaces for you to set a personal budget for each of many common travel categories including transportation, lodging, and food and drink, with sub-categories below each heading.

It also has a column for actual money spent so that you can compare what you thought and hoped to spend with what you actually spent at the end of the trip. This comparison can be very eye-opening and can help you in changing and guiding your habits so you can spend even more wisely on future trips!

 The Travel Expense Tracker in this packet of template downloads is also great. It will allow you to track your spending during your trip so you can see where your dollars and cents or euros or pesos or whatever you’re using go each day.

Carry it in your purse or pocket with a pen and get in the habit of writing each item you buy and its costs down. You’ll be amazed by how much money you save by tracking your spending.

Travel Itinerary Overview Template from Edit.org

 Another great tool if you like to see everything organized on one piece of paper is this Travel Itinerary Overview from Edit.org.  This planner is great because it will allow you to see what you’re going to do and where you’re going to be each day of your trip all on one page.

 You can fill out this user-friendly travel planner right on the Edit.org website which will allow you to change and update it as needed as your plans expand or change. The example shows full sentences which may be your style, but bullet points would work as well if not better for some.

 This template is very professional looking and outlining your day-to-day travel itinerary on it for your travel companions will impress them immensely. It will also help you to keep everyone in your group on the same page – no pun intended.

See Related: Tips & Things to Know Before Going to Alaska

Vacation Planner Overview Template from Scattered Squirrel

Often it’s helpful to have all of the pertinent information about your trip in one place and on one sheet of paper as a complete travel itinerary overview. You may know all of the information about your trip when you start to think about it.

Or, you might have your times and dates and flight information written down in several different places, or it might be stored in several different emails or in different apps on your phone.

However, even though you may not realize it, this disorganization of information is causing you subconscious stress that you don’t want or need.  Putting all of that data in one place is going to make your life a lot easier and will make you calmer about your trip than ever.

The Vacation Planner Overview template, another offering from Scattered Squirrel, covers all the bases. You can see everything you need to know about your trip at a glance and without shuffling through a bunch of papers. You can see your departure date, arrival time, accommodations, return travel plans, and the activities you have booked in advance.

You can also create an hour-by-hour, weekly overview of activities so you can view your upcoming fun at a glance as well. You don’t have to stick to your schedule – it’s a vacation, after all, but listing out what you plan to do day by day can help keep you focused so you can do everything you want to do while at your destination. It’s wise to do that part in pencil so you can make changes as you go!

Vacation Day Planner from Scattered Squirrel

This final vacation planner template is one of the best on this list. If you’re someone who benefits from following a very specific travel itinerary, then you must give this one a try.

 A template like this one will allow you to plan out your day in order. You can list what you’d like to do in the morning, mid-day, and evening based on how you want to fill your rapidly passing vacation hours. When you work it out on paper like this, you can try to develop a flow of activities that makes sense.

Of course, you’re not required to follow what you wrote on your template, even if you wrote it that very morning. On vacation, everything is flexible and changeable. You always have to be ready for a bit of opportunity and awesome adventure that takes you off the schedule, too.

 Furthermore, this template includes a space for a list of items to bring along. This can be a big help for anyone, but especially for busy families or a group traveling together. It can often be challenging to ensure that you get the door with everything you need on a vacation that is far from your normal routine, or when trying to organize numerous individuals.

 Finally, one of the best features of this template is the Highlights of the Day block. This can be used in two separate and different but equally great ways. One way to use it is to list the main things you wish to accomplish on the day in question – the things on the overall day planner that you absolutely don’t want to miss.

Or, you could leave this space blank as you go through the day and then return to it before bed and use it as a diary to help you remember the parts of the day that you liked best. If you’re someone who likes to scrapbook or keep various pieces of paper as souvenirs from your trip, this day planner can become both a diary and memento from your trip.

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