Planning a Tour

I'm pretty good at planning things. Trips. Weekly meals. Geometry lessons. It's one of my strong suits. (Maintaining a clean room, however, is not). So are my mom and sister. We like spreadsheets and notebooks and lists. My other sister likes spreadsheets and lists too, but her trips are a little more "fly by the seat of your pants" than my mom and oldest sister.

Anyways, point of this post: how to plan a tour.

Q: What do I mean by tour?
A: The tours I'm talking about aren't the guided tours with someone walking backwards in front of you with a mic telling you about the history of the buildings you pass while you wonder when you get to eat next. I'm talking about self-guided tours where you go where YOU want to go and eat when YOU want to eat. And geek out about something. This is your chance to pick something you're interested in, and focus just on that and have fun.

Q: Do I have to go somewhere to plan a tour?
A: No! You can take one of your hometown! See places you've never seen. Or revisit places you have seen all in one day!

And on to planning.

Step 1: Pick a focus.
What will your tour be of? What are you interested in? Do you want it to be food related? History related? Book related?
Ideas for focus:
Food - Donuts (duh), Pizza, Coffee
History - 5 oldest buildings in town, Original houses, abandoned buildings
Book - Did a book take place in the town? Can you follow in the character's footsteps for a day?
Places - Libraries, Parks

Step 2: Decide on a time frame.
Will your tour be a full day? Half day? How long will you spend at each place? How long will it take to get from place to place?

Step 3: Logistics - plan your route
Will you be walking, biking, or driving? Is there a particular place you need to start or finish (time wise or food wise)? If it's a food related tour, is there enough time between stops for digestion? Mark the locations you want to visit on a map (paper or online) and then connect the dots to plan your route.

Step 4: Prep work.
Do you need to research any of the buildings or locations? What hours are the food places open? Do you need to bring anything with you (camera, water bottle, money, bike lock).

Step 5: Enjoy your tour!
Grab a buddy and immerse yourself in something different for the day! Take pictures, write notes, or just enjoy your tour. Make sure you have a list of your stops and a good map to guide you!

Step 6: (Optional) Create a record of your tour.
Do you want to make a scrapbook? Write some online reviews? Make a slideshow to force family members to look at?

Besides my most recent donut tour of NYC (that one was all planned by my sister, I just got to go along for the ride, or walk) we also went on a Fangirl tour of Lincoln. Fangirl is a young adult book written by Rainbow Rowell that is about a freshman at UNL. My sister and I had a free afternoon in Lincoln and had both recently finished the book so we decided to follow in Cath's footsteps and visit places she went to throughout the book. It was great because I had only moved to Lincoln earlier that year so I got to see a lot of places I hadn't seen yet, and we got to get lost in the story again. This tour combined history, architecture, and food. Oh, and ridiculous photo ops: