How to Write a Travel Itinerary For Your Website (With Example)

Whether you are a travel blogger, an agent, or anything in between, travel itineraries are fundamental.

Simply put, a travel itinerary is the list of things to do relating to planned travel. It is a stop-by-stop breakdown of how a traveler should spend their time. If you can write a perfect itinerary for your travel website, you will be doing all the goods for your travel business.

Whenever you build an itinerary for trips and adventure tours, you should make sure that it is descriptive and offers the best value to your readers. You should include everything on your itinerary running from attraction points, things to do, available services, additional information, and so on.

You need to do a lot of research before planning a travel itinerary. From structuring to some key factors, there are a lot of things to keep in mind.

In this article on how to write a travel itinerary for your website, we will talk you through the process of structuring your travel itinerary. Similarly, we will list out the factors to consider before writing a travel itinerary.

On top of that, we will demonstrate the sample of travel itinerary using the Advanced Itinerary Builder extension from the WP Travel Engine plugin.

Let’s get started!

#How To Structure Your Travel Itinerary?

You need to structure your travel itinerary properly so that it would be easy for your viewers. You can structure your trip itinerary in a similar way to the following:

1. Write a Brief Introduction:

A proper travel itinerary should contain an introduction. For instance, an introduction in the itinerary is a brief overview of the destination and why it is an attractive place to visit. You need to sell your itinerary here and give your readers a good reason to stay engaged on your trip content. 

For example, a perfect itinerary introduction for the Trip to South Africa can be written as,

For first-timers to this wonderfully diverse country, we have included a 12-day itinerary that introduces you to some of our popular spots. Given the short timeframe and the long list of potential places, you can get a little bit of Cape Town with a lot of wine and a generous load of wildlife.

2. Give an Overview:

This is the section where you should add a bullet-pointed breakdown of the itinerary. The overview allows your readers to understand if the trip is right for them before having to go through the whole itinerary. 

For example, an itinerary overview for the Trip to South Africa can be,

Explore the southwestern tip of Africa on a day trip to Cape Point. Sample all the fine wines you can imagine on a tailor-made tour of the Winelands. Watch the beautiful sunset on an evening game drive at Shamwari Game Reserve.

3. Include Detailed Information for Each Day (Day 1, Day 2, etc.):

This is the section where you have to lay out the stops for each day. You must offer insightful information about each stop for every single day of the trip.

You need to make a heading for each day and add some useful information like total hours, must-visit spots, and so on. Similarly, you can include what types of services you offer on the trip, like meal information.

For example, an itinerary for the Lhasa Impression Tour can be,

Day 2: Lhasa Sightseeing: Potala Palace/ Jokhang Temple/ Barkhor Street In the morning, we visit the famous Potala Palace and traverse the grandest of these myriad chapels. In the afternoon, we will explore the holiest temple in Tibet, the Johkang Temple and Barkor Kora, which is the most popular Kora in Tibet. Here, we can buy traditional Tibetan and religious souvenirs. – Overnight at Lhasa – Meals included: Breakfast – Hotel: New Mandala Hotel

4. Add Useful Information:

In this section, you can offer some extra information that helps your users get the most out of the travel experience. The things you can include in the “Useful Information” section are:

• Explain to your users how to get around the place, transport options, and things they need to be prepared for. 
• Talk about the best places to stay and suggest the best options for accommodation. 
• Make some hotel and restaurant recommendations and mention other food stops that you haven’t included in your itinerary stops.
• Include the packing list if you think it is an important aspect. Besides, you can write a separate packing list post and take advantage of internal linking as well.

For example, you can create a packing list for the specific trip, including these things:

Clothes – Sweaters, sneakers, socks, gloves Toiletries – Toothbrush, toothpaste, face lotion, hairbrush, soap Miscellaneous Items – Emergency contact, copy of passport, list of medications

5. Sign Off with a Conclusion:

This section is important to close the itinerary in a satisfying way. Here, you can offer a brief summary of your final thoughts. Similarly, you can recall the reasons why the trip is attractive and how your itinerary offers the best value. 

#Things to Consider While Writing Travel Itinerary for Your Website

Now that you are well aware of the structure of your travel itinerary, it is time to create high-quality itinerary content to produce something valuable for your travel website. For that, you should keep the following things into consideration:

1. Figure Out the Length of Your Itinerary:

Before you start writing your travel itinerary, you should decide on its length. For instance, you should know the total duration of your itinerary. For instance, it could be three days, five days, or seven days.

The length of your itinerary depends upon how far the destination is, what it offers in terms of things to do, and the area it covers. If you are writing an itinerary about a trip to Bali, you should be aware that most people prefer to spend at least a week in Bali as it has so much to explore. 

You can decide the length of your itinerary with proper research, or it could be based on your past experiences. Make sure you also do proper keyword research to find what your audience is truly looking for. Maybe the search query for a 5 Day Trip to Bali could be higher so that you can plan your itinerary accordingly. 

2. Decide on Stops and Attractions:

After you decide the length of your itinerary, you should figure out how the travelers should fill their time. To do so, you must ask yourself these questions:

• What are the most popular attractions, landmarks, and points of interest of the particular trip?
• What are the things that make the trip memorable for the travelers?
• Are there any hidden spots that are yet to be discovered to make the trip unique?

If you consider these queries, you can decide on the best stops and attractions for your travelers. For instance, if you are writing an itinerary about a short trip to Mardi Himal Base Camp, the point of attraction could be Mardi Himal View Point. 

3. Plan the Logical Routes:

Next up, you should always consider the geography of the travel destination while structuring an itinerary. 

You should plan out logical routes between different stops to minimize travel hours and maximize efficiency. For instance, there could be multiple routes leading to a particular destination. It’s up to you to decide which route takes less time. 

Similarly, if two or more attractions are close to each other, it is sensible to visit them at the same time.

It is recommended to use your knowledge of the location and take advantage of tools like Google Maps to figure out the most logical route for each day.

4. Offer Insider Tips:

Insider tips are necessary to make your travel itinerary more valuable to your users. It is something extra that you can add to your trip experience.

For instance, you should include unique insights and ideas as well as off-the-beaten-track gems to your itinerary. The off-the-beaten track refers to a lesser-known or remote area.  

The visitors want to feel they are in reliable and experienced hands. With detailed and unique insider tips, you help your itinerary to stand out against those offering more generic advice. You can always include these tips at any point throughout the itinerary, whenever they fit best. 

5. Be Specific:

Itineraries are for those who want their trips to be planned for them. People always seek insightful guidance about their trip through the detailed itinerary. You need to be precise and unambiguous while you are writing it.

Your job is to guide your visitors fully through your itinerary. In the meantime, don’t offer too much in the way of flexibility. You need to display conviction in your chosen stops and attractions. Besides, you should show confidence that they will have a great time if they follow your itinerary fully. 

6. Include Images:

Images are often considered the best way to tell stories, convey information, and engage your audience. Whether you use images for your travel blog or website, make sure they are of high quality.

Including high-quality images on your travel itinerary helps your visitors take a virtual tour of the destination before they buckle up for the adventure. Whenever they see alluring photos on trip itineraries, they get more excited for the upcoming journey. 

With high-quality images, you can keep your user’s attention on your travel blog and enhance their overall user experience.

If you are looking to include images on your travel itineraries, check out these 20+ Best Stock Photos Sites For Royalty Free Travel Images. 

7. Focus on SEO Factors:

Keyword research is the most vital part of SEO. You can’t optimize your travel blog and increase its visibility until you do proper keyword research. It, in fact, lays a platform for your website optimization.

We have a whole guide on the SEO checklist for travel websites if you want to understand the optimization factors for your travel itinerary. Here, we will summarize these factors in few words:

Keyword Research:

Keyword research is the most vital part of SEO. You can’t optimize your website and increase its visibility until you do proper keyword research. It, in fact, lays a platform for your website optimization. 

You can look for free tools like Google Keyword Planner or a paid option like Ahrefs to conduct proper keyword research before creating a travel itinerary for your website. You should include the main keywords, which are mostly searched by the audience, on your itinerary website. 

Descriptive and Structured Content:

You need to organize your keywords well and create structured itinerary content if you want to increase its visibility on search engines. Focus on keyword placement and make sure your travel itinerary provides the best value to your users. 

#Steps To Build Travel Itinerary Using WP Travel Engine Advanced Itinerary Builder Extension

Advanced Itinerary Builder is a paid extension for the WP Travel Engine plugin that lets you add informative and descriptive day-to-day itineraries for your trips. Using this paid add-on, you can flaunt your trip’s details in a more pleasing way. 

Here, you can either follow the video or the below steps for writing a travel itinerary using the Advanced Itinerary Builder extension.

In order to use the Advanced Itinerary Builder add-on, you should first install and activate the WP Travel Engine plugin on your WordPress website. 

You should begin the process by downloading the zip file of the WP Travel Engine plugin. You can get the plugin zip file from the link below:

Home

Now, log in to your dashboard and redirect to Plugins -> Add New from the left sidebar. 

After being redirected to the next screen, proceed to click the Upload Plugin button. 

Next up, click the Choose File button to select the zip file of the WP Travel Engine plugin which you downloaded a while ago. 

Once you select the file, click on the Install Now button to install the travel plugin on your WordPress. 

Once the plugin installation is completed, click the Activate Plugin button to complete the process. 

Upon activation, you can see the WP Travel Engine plugin placed at the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. 

Now, hover over to the WP Travel Engine plugin and click Extensions to find the Advanced Itinerary Builder extension for your website. 

After that, click the Get the Extension button right below the Advanced Itinerary Builder extension.

Once you click the button, you get redirected to the extension download page, from where you can get the Advanced Itinerary Builder extension. 

After downloading the Advanced Itinerary Builder extension, upload the extension folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.

Now, activate WP Travel Engine – Advanced Itinerary Builder from the Plugins menu within WordPress. 

After you activate the extension, go to the WP Travel Engine > Plugin License from the left sidebar to activate its license. Once you add the license key, click the Save Changes button to continue. 

Now, you can manage the settings for Advanced Itinerary Builder via WP Travel Engine > Settings > Extension > Advanced Itinerary Builder.

You can enable the Advanced Itinerary Builder settings and press the Save & Continue button placed in the bottom right corner. 

Now, redirect to Trips > Add New from the left side panel of your WordPress dashboard. 

Here, set the name of your trip and redirect to the Itinerary tab on the left. After that, click the Add Itinerary button. 

To continue, add the day-wise itinerary with appropriate titles, day labels, durations, and itinerary descriptions. You can refer to the example below:

You can now include as many itineraries as you want via the Add Itinerary button. Since we are showing you the steps to add a travel itinerary with examples, we will add an itinerary of a few more days. 

Besides, while writing the itinerary, you can also include extra information like meal plans and the altitude of the specific location as shown in the image below:

Once you complete adding your trip’s itinerary, click the Save & Continue button to save your itinerary. 

The complete itinerary of the trip should look like the following on your website:

#Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

#Conclusion

Well, if you were ever wondering about how to write a travel itinerary for your website, you have landed in the right place. With our detailed breakthrough of the key itinerary factors and structuring process, you should find it easy to create one for your website. 

Similarly, the fundamental steps of creating a travel itinerary using the Advanced Itinerary Builder add-on should help you more in the process. Implement our guidelines, and you should have a perfect travel itinerary at your disposal.
While we are talking about add-ons, learn how to integrate a payment gateway on your travel website. Cheers!