Organizing travel plans: Itinerary and packing list

Posted by Aylee

February 7, 2011

When I’m bored, I like to think of ways I can organize my life. This time… our travel plans.

We just booked our first anniversary trip. We fly to Puerto Rico and catch a 7-day Caribbean cruise from there. This will be our first-time to take a cruise with traditional dining which means we have to dress up on formal nights. My husband and I are very casual. Packing formal clothing is new to us. So I decided to create a packing list to make sure we have what we need.

I made columns for each type of clothing (shirts, pants, dinner jacket, etc). On each day or event, I enter the clothing number of the clothing that we will use. I entered “T” for the ones that I don’t need to pack because I’m wearing them the day we leave. For example: I’m using Shirt T and Sweats T on day 1… Shirt 1 and Shorts 1 on day 2… Shirt 2 and Shorts 1 on day 3…

Click image to enlarge

Then whatever I enter on the clothing packing list above, it gets automatically transferred to my master packing list below (see right-most column):

Click image to enlarge

I color-coded my master packing list based on where the items go (e.g. luggage, carry-on, etc). I think it will make packing easier for me. You can download a copy of my Itinerary and Packing list spreadsheet here. My list is customized to what we need for our type of vacations, but you can customize it to your own travel needs.

Travel

6 Comments

Wonderful ideas My problem with packing is that I will be traveling from tropics to temperate climate, Singapore, Thailand & Vietnam from 4/18 to 4/26 after boarding Diamond Princes on 4/20. By 4/28, we will be cruising to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Japan, then China again, Dalian City and ends on 5/6 in Tianjin and Beijing, where we will stay for 3 more days. The weather in Northern China is like New England to New York City. In between the cities we will have sea day. Have 3 formal nights on the 16 days cruise.
Can you help me design a wardrobe for packing 1 light suitcase-27″ and a carry on luggage. Do you have postcards of Washington DC cherry blossoms? I can use about 2 dozen cards. Please give me the price or sources where I can shop at.
Thank you. I like your packing list idea of daily use of outfits.
Teresa Lim

Comment by Teresa Lim on March 9, 2011 @ 8:02 am

Hi Teresa! Wow, I’m jealous. I wish I could go on a cruise that long. I’ll see what I can do to help with the wardrobe. I’ll email you what I can come up with. As for the postcards, I’m sorry I don’t have any from Washington DC.

Comment by Aylee on March 10, 2011 @ 11:02 pm

How funny! I’m on the same cruise, however, instead of disembarking in Beijing, we are staying onboard for the repositioning to Alaska. I’m starting to pack the small things now so I don’t forget anything and searched “packing list” and came up with your wonderful spreadsheet which looks so comprehensive I don’t think I could possibly forget anything. Thank you!
If you think of anything specific to SE Asia please let me know!

Comment by Deborah Tormey on April 4, 2011 @ 9:25 am

Glad to know you will be on the same repositioning of Diamond Princess from Singapore to Alaska.
We could have done the same but our group members want to get off from Beijing. Too long sea days and maybe we will do another cruise for other parts of the world.
Are you in Cruise Critic Board. Lots of pointers for our group and those going all the way to Alaska. Look for askyoyo thread, she has private tours organized that we are joining for Vietnam, Dalian City and Busan, S. Korea. Meantime we have a private group( 9 at present) of Tianjin city cultural tours, plus shopping, Lunch and dinner included then transfer to Beijing Hotel afterwards. Just in case you are interested to join us, still have four spaces, or somebody who wants to see the local scene instead of fighting the traffic to Beijing. If you have not been to Beijing, then you will need to tour it first. Its a must to see Forbidden City, Imperial Palaces, Great Walls and others that is hard to see everything in the short time while the cruise ship is in the Tianjin Xingang Port.
My Cruise Critic name is Yuwant. Will see you on board.
Teresa

Comment by Teresa Lim on April 4, 2011 @ 10:41 am