How to Plan a Travel Itinerary: Turn Saved Places into a Workable Schedule

A collection of saved places is not yet an itinerary. This tutorial uses a three-day city trip with one hotel base to show how to group stops, handle reservations, budget time and remove activities when a day is too full. The result is a schedule you can check and change, not a checklist you must finish.

Use it once you have chosen a destination and have arrival and departure details plus some possible stops. For destination ideas, see the weekend travel guide; for choosing a base, use the hotel-location tutorial. This method is not a complete plan for altitude acclimatisation, mountain expeditions, island ferries or border crossings. Those require separate safety, transport and specialist checks.

1. Set the boundaries before filling three days

Write down the exact arrival and departure points, dates and times, your hotel address, and your companions' meal, rest and accessibility needs. Three days and two nights rarely mean three full sightseeing days. Leaving a station, reaching your base and dealing with luggage take time, as do the tasks before departure.

• Arrival day starts where and when you can actually begin an activity, not at the train's scheduled arrival time.
• Use the full middle day for a main area, with meals, rest and room for delays.
• On departure day, work backwards from luggage collection and onward transport before adding any optional activity.

Choose each day's available window around the people travelling. Nine hours is not a target everyone should meet. The 09:00–18:00 window below is an invented exercise: breakfast is before leaving and dinner after returning. If you need a midday hotel break, add both extra journeys and the rest itself.

Write the full date for an early-hours departure, then work back

For a transport or hotel-arrival time beginning with 00, copy the full local date, time and location from the ticket or booking first. Then work backwards through collecting luggage, leaving your accommodation, reaching the terminal and completing any formalities. Every time the calculation crosses midnight, write the previous calendar date explicitly. Avoid labels such as “tonight” or “tomorrow morning”. Check the applicable deadlines with the operator or terminal for your journey, and allow separately for travel and delays. The invented numbers below are not recommended arrival allowances. This tutorial does not cover time-zone conversions; journeys involving them require separate checks.

In an invented exercise, a service departs at 00:40 on 8 October, and the plan has separately established that the traveller should reach the terminal 90 minutes beforehand. That gives 23:10 on 7 October, not the evening of 8 October. If the exercise also allows 40 minutes from the accommodation to the terminal and a further 20 minutes for delays on the way, the departure from the accommodation is 22:10 on 7 October. Work backwards again for luggage collection or other tasks not already included; do not squeeze them into time that is already allocated. These numbers demonstrate date arithmetic only, not a real service or an arrival guarantee.

Check accommodation on a separate line: actual arrival date and time → night you need covered → booking check-in/check-out dates → hotel's confirmation. For example, arriving at 00:30 on 8 October does not by itself mean a booking labelled “check-in 8 October” gives immediate access to a room. Tell the hotel your precise arrival time and ask which reservation and accommodation night cover it, along with the arrangements for late arrival, reception and entry. This tutorial does not decide the correct booking date on the hotel's behalf. Mark unanswered or unclear points as “needs confirmation”. Establish workable reception or alternative arrangements before committing to the connection; do not fill the gap by rushing or waiting somewhere unsafe.

Finally, have companions open the same version of the schedule and read out the full dates for the ticketed event, the departure the previous evening, the hotel arrival and the accommodation booking. Recalculate the chain and update every copy when something changes. Matching dates do not mean that rebooking, a refund, round-the-clock reception or a room being held has been promised.

2. Give every saved place a set of conditions

Make one record per stop. A blank field means something needs checking, not that it is unrestricted.

On narrow screens, scroll the table sideways to read all columns.

An entry slot, last admission and the end of a visit are different constraints. The National Museum of China's official visitor page treats booking slots, admission checks and seasonal opening arrangements separately. It illustrates the fields to check, not rules to apply to every museum. Read the notice and booking confirmation that apply to your date; ask the venue if information conflicts.

Do not mark an unconfirmed museum visit as booked. You can hold a conditional space in the plan, but decide on an alternative before relevant hotel, transport or activity cancellation deadlines. The alternative may need its own reservation. The National Day guide's booking timetable helps organise those decisions; its holiday calendar applies only to the stated year.

3. Group places by real journeys, then fit the bookings

Put the actual entrances on a map and check routes between them. A river, wall, station exit, interchange or slope can make two nearby pins awkward to connect. Use route estimates for the relevant weekday and roughly the time of day you plan to travel. Note whether walking, waiting and transfers are already included so you neither omit nor count them twice.

Temporarily group stops that connect reasonably within a day, then test the group against confirmed bookings, opening days and your companions' needs. If two neighbouring museums are available only on different dates, split the group. Grouping is a planning aid, not a guarantee of the shortest route.

An invented three-day outline might be:

• Arrival day: deal with the transfer and luggage, then keep only a short optional activity near your base. A late arrival can mean going straight to rest.
• Full day: anchor the plan on a confirmed main visit, with a nearby neighbourhood and meal. Calculate the details as shown below.
• Departure day: establish when you must leave your final activity, then decide whether a nearby visit fits. Do not add an intercity trip just to complete the list.

If you change hotels, add packing, checkout, transport, storage and check-in. The journey between the two addresses is not the whole cost of moving. For money as well as time, see the budget travel guide.

For a city bus leg, use the boarding checklist to confirm the exact stop, direction, service variant and destination stop before adding walking and waiting time to your schedule. Buses with the same route number may not all serve your stop; check the return separately.

Regroup after separate activities: calculate two timelines

This method is for adults who can travel independently and voluntarily split up during ordinary city sightseeing. It does not cover children, wilderness trips, a missing person or an emergency. Use the station meeting guide for an exact public meeting point, repeat-back confirmation and a pre-agreed lost-contact plan; this section deals only with the timing.

1. Starting from the local time when the group separates, give each person a separate timeline to the same public meeting point. List that person's activity, departure from the activity location and journey. First calculate the expected arrival without a personal margin. Include only steps that person will actually take, and mark an unknown duration as pending, never as zero.
2. Use the later expected arrival as the planning baseline, then agree on a meeting time no earlier than that baseline. Agreed meeting time − that person's expected arrival is the person's own margin. The activities happen in parallel: do not add both people's activity and journey times together. A person's margin protects only their own timeline and cannot be transferred to the other person.
3. Work backwards from the confirmed deadline for the next shared stop: latest departure from meeting point = deadline − shared journey − entry or processing − group margin. Check that the planned meeting is no later than this departure time. Count each component once; do not count personal and group margins twice. If it does not fit before they split, shorten or remove an activity, change the meeting point, or drop the next stop. After both people actually arrive, recalculate from the shared start time they confirm. If that time is already past the latest departure, use a confirmed alternative for the next leg; do not delete a necessary margin or rush to force the plan to fit.

Invented example: both people separate at 13:00. A spends 45 minutes on an activity and 15 minutes reaching the meeting point, so A expects to arrive at 14:00. B spends 60 minutes on an activity and 20 minutes travelling, so B expects to arrive at 14:20. Neither expected arrival includes a personal margin. The parallel branches take 60 and 80 minutes from 13:00; they do not become a 140-minute sequence. The later 14:20 arrival is the planning baseline, and they agree to meet at 14:30. A therefore has a 30-minute personal margin; B has 10 minutes. Those margins are not transferable.

The next shared deadline is 15:30. The shared journey takes 25 minutes, entry processing takes 15, and the group margin is 10: 50 minutes in total, making 14:40 the latest departure from the meeting point. A planned 14:30 meeting leaves 10 minutes before that limit. If B actually arrives at 14:35 and both confirm an immediate shared start, only five minutes remain. If the actual shared departure is later than 14:40, the original plan no longer works; they must not remove a necessary margin or rush to force it to fit. If both arrive early, they may leave early only after agreeing and rechecking the next leg; arrival alone does not silently change the agreement. Confirm that the point is open, reachable by both people and suitable for waiting on the day. Every number here is a teaching assumption, not a recommended activity, journey or waiting time.

Private copyable card: Separate __｜A: activity __ + journey __ = expected arrival __; personal margin __｜B: activity __ + journey __ = expected arrival __; personal margin __｜public meeting point __｜planned meeting __｜later planning baseline __｜next deadline __｜shared journey/processing/group margin __｜latest departure __｜both actually present __｜confirmed shared start __｜pre-agreed fallback if not reunited __. Each person can keep the card locally using the offline travel kit, without adding ID numbers, ticket codes or account secrets.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism's holiday travel reminder, published on 23 September 2026 and checked on 26 September 2026, advises travellers to check weather, transport, opening and reservation arrangements and to plan routes and time reasonably. It does not provide this example's formula or timings, nor does it guarantee that a meeting point will be available. The parallel-timeline method above is an editorial planning tool.

4. Work the numbers: why this day does not fit

Every number below is invented for teaching. None is a real city's travel forecast, venue schedule or recommended visit length. Assume you leave your hotel at 09:00 and return to the same hotel by 18:00: 540 minutes. There is no midday hotel return. Transport includes leaving and returning to the hotel; its door-to-door estimates already include transport waiting. Entrance queues are separate. Activities, lunch and rest do not overlap.

On narrow screens, scroll the table sideways to read all columns.

The original list exceeds the window by 35 minutes. Do not make it fit by skipping food, cutting necessary rest or assuming everything will run on time. In this example, drop an optional distant activity lasting 90 minutes, then recalculate the remaining journeys. Assume the revised travel total falls from 120 to 90 minutes. That 30-minute saving is an input to this fictional example, not an automatic benefit of removing any attraction.

The calculation is 575 − 90 − 30 = 455 minutes. Subtracting that from 540 leaves 85 unallocated minutes. The 50-minute queue and delay allowance is already inside the 455: do not subtract it twice. Nor must you fill the remaining 85 minutes with another attraction. They can mean more rest, slower walking or an earlier return. No allowance guarantees protection against a major delay.

5. Check the time slots, not just the total

A day can fit in total and still miss a reservation. Expand the same revised example:

On narrow screens, scroll the table sideways to read all columns.

This assumes a valid booking and opening arrangements allowing museum entry at 09:40 and departure at 11:40, plus a lunch venue open at the relevant time. If those conditions fail, change the plan. The example is not a reservation. The 20 minutes at the entrance and 30 minutes at the end total the 50-minute allowance. Showing some allowance at the end is bookkeeping: delays can happen anywhere, and spare afternoon time does not prove that a morning booking is reachable.

Check each connection: previous activity end + next journey + necessary entry preparation must fit the permitted slot. If the morning is already 40 minutes late, first check whether admission is still possible, then cut or cancel as needed. The 85 minutes later in the day cannot make a missed morning slot valid. Follow the operator's rules for a missed slot.

Keep both ends of a travel-time estimate when checking a booking

The timetable above uses one invented duration for each leg. If your route estimate instead says something like “about 20–40 minutes”, record both ends, the exact start and destination, when you checked it, and which walking, waiting and transfer stages it includes. Do not copy only the shorter value or take an average and call it a certain duration. This is an editorial sensitivity check, not a transport forecast, a statistical probability or an operator's promise. The longer estimate is not a maximum actual journey time, and planning around it does not guarantee arrival.

A range is useful only if it relates to this route and the time you intend to travel. Recheck it when an entrance, transport mode or departure time changes. Leave an unconfirmed leg pending rather than inventing a range. For a metro transfer, use the metro interchange guide to identify the walks, station route and transfer stages before deciding what the estimate includes. Do not add entry processing, necessary rest or a separate personal margin twice if an existing estimate already includes them.

Separate invented example, all on the same local calendar day and in the same time zone: an optional activity starts at 13:30 and is planned to take 40 minutes, ending at 14:10. For this exercise, the next stop has a confirmed requirement to complete entry preparation at or before 15:00. The door-to-door journey from the activity to the next entrance is estimated at 20–40 minutes, including walking, waiting and riding but excluding entry processing. Processing is separately assumed to take 15 minutes, with another 10 minutes of personal margin; neither is already in the journey estimate. No additional meal or rest is needed between these stops in the example; add it when your real trip requires it. None of these numbers represents a real venue, service or recommended arrival allowance.

The original arrangement meets this deadline only under the shorter assumption. Neither row establishes that the real journey will fall within the range. Spare time elsewhere in the day, or a seemingly close result using a 30-minute average, does not make this connection ready. Change the optional activity, choose a different confirmed arrangement or drop the next stop. Do not remove necessary rest, processing or an agreed margin just to make the numbers fit.

Work back from the longer estimate and retain the inputs

For the same example, subtract 40 minutes of travel, 15 for processing and the extra 10-minute margin from 15:00. The latest departure from the current activity is 13:55 under those assumptions. Using 20 minutes of travel instead gives 14:15, twenty minutes later. The original activity ends at 14:10, fifteen minutes after the 13:55 limit. This limit depends on the example's inputs and confirmed deadline; it is not an instruction to rush or a guarantee obtained from a navigation estimate.

If the optional activity in this example can genuinely be shortened to 25 minutes, it runs from 13:30 to 13:55. Adding 40 + 15 + 10 minutes then reaches exactly 15:00. There is no further unallocated time beyond the 10-minute margin already included. The shorter plan still depends on permission to finish the activity early, the actual exit and entrance, the route and the next stop's conditions. If travel takes longer than assumed, a task was omitted, information changes or you cannot manage the journey, replan or cancel. Do not run, bypass barriers or delete essential steps to preserve a passing calculation.

Private copyable check card: Local date/time zone___｜current point and earliest start___｜optional activity duration and whether it can be shortened___｜journey estimate range/source/time checked___｜stages already included___｜separate processing, necessary meals/rest and extra margin___｜next confirmed deadline and conditions___｜completion under shorter/longer assumptions___｜departure limit using the longer assumption___｜actual current status___｜revised or cancelled arrangement___. Use the offline travel information guide to keep an offline-readable copy and share changes privately with companions who need them. Do not publish ticket codes, accommodation addresses or personal plans. Leave unknown ends of an estimate unknown, and do not derive a success probability from them.

6. Work backwards for departure and write down what to cut

Start with the carrier's and terminal's applicable check-in or entry requirements. Work backwards through relevant terminal walking and security, luggage collection, the complete journey to the departure point and uncertainty allowance. That gives you the time to leave the final activity. Do not just subtract a navigation estimate from the ticket's departure time. Airports, railway stations and ferry terminals do not share one universal advance-arrival allowance. See the rail travel guide for rail connections.

Write the cutting order into the schedule. First remove unconfirmed or lower-priority distant options and recalculate travel. Then shorten activities only where that is feasible. If bookings, necessary rest or departure still cannot be met, cancel more activities or change transport or accommodation. Check cancellation terms separately rather than assuming an abandoned booking is refundable.

Weather or safety restrictions are not solved automatically by choosing an indoor venue. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's 23 September 2026 travel reminder calls for checks on weather and transport along the route, as well as opening and reservation arrangements. Consider an alternative only when its venue, access routes and local safety instructions permit it. If instructed to shelter, remain in place or evacuate, follow those instructions rather than completing the itinerary.

After a closure: replan from where you are now

Apply the safety stop conditions above first. The following is ordinary itinerary planning only where local instructions permit continued activity and the necessary route conditions can be checked. It is not an emergency-response plan. Being indoors, nearby or shown on a navigation app does not establish that a place can be visited.

1. Fix the current start and the deadline you must keep. Record your location, the full local date and time, where you must finish and by when, plus the order of tasks such as luggage collection or a companion's rest. Completed morning activities no longer occupy the remaining window. Do not calculate departure from the original hotel when you are somewhere else.
2. Check the alternative before committing to it. Confirm opening, an available booking, the permitted entry window and last admission, and both the journey from your current location and the onward route. If official notices, a confirmation or staff responses leave a conflict unresolved, mark it pending rather than setting off and asking later. Instructions to remain in place or relocate still take priority.
3. Recalculate every remaining task, then check the sequence. Include travel to the alternative, entry preparation, the activity, necessary meals and rest, onward travel and allowance. Check whether walking and waiting are already in the travel estimate to avoid counting them twice. Even when the total fits, test each connection against entry, luggage-collection and departure deadlines.
4. Track the old booking separately and share the change privately. Dropping a visit does not mean its booking has been cancelled or refunded. Record requests, responses and pending matters through the original channel. Confirm the new meeting place and time with companions and note anyone who has not received it. Update offline information when addresses or routes change; do not post booking codes, room numbers or personal itineraries publicly.

Separate invented example: it is 15:00 at your current stop and you must return to the same accommodation by 17:00, leaving 120 minutes. No further meal is needed in this example; necessary rest is separate. An alternative needs 20 minutes of travel, 15 for entry preparation, 40 for the activity, 15 for rest, 25 to return and 20 of additional allowance: 135 minutes, or 15 too many. Reject this arrangement rather than removing necessary rest or allowance to make it appear to fit. A shorter visit or a different alternative needs fresh feasibility, route and timing checks. Add any newly needed meal or other task. There is no real venue or opening promise here, and the 20-minute allowance is neither a universal rule nor protection against every delay.

Copyable change card:

Current place and full local date/time: ___. Required finishing place/time: ___. Remaining essential tasks: ___. Alternative opening, booking and access checks, with source and time: ___; unresolved: ___. Travel + preparation + activity + meals/rest + onward travel + allowance: ___. Does each time slot work? ___. Decision to keep, reduce or cancel this activity, and why: ___. Old booking status: ___. Companions who received the new meeting arrangement: ___. Offline information updated: ___.

This section's workflow and example are editorial additions. The ministry notice linked above was checked again on 25 September 2026 for general planning principles, not confirmation that a particular venue or road is open today.

Connect the actual exit to the pickup or transit point

The visitor entrance, the last stop inside a venue and the exit that can actually be used may be on different sides. Write the whole chain in the itinerary: last internal stop → exit permitted that day → safe route outside → exact public-transport stop or legal pickup point. This addition covers the exit task only. It does not treat an internal shuttle as a public bus or assume that a visitor may re-enter after leaving.

1. Check the exit before the visit and recheck onsite information before leaving: use the venue's current official page, booking information and signs to confirm the permitted gate, any one-way route and whether every traveller can use it. Mark an unknown answer to confirm. If stored belongings are still inside the venue, before the exit, in another gate area or at a service desk, ask staff for the collection order and accessible route. Collect them under the venue's procedure while the location remains reachable; do not leave first and assume the original ticket permits re-entry.
2. Separate internal transport from the journey outside: record where an internal shuttle actually ends and whether that point is inside the venue, at the exit or already outside. If that endpoint is still inside the venue, continue the route from it to the permitted exit; if it is already outside, do not count the exit segment again. Then identify a safe pedestrian route to the exact bus stop or legal pickup point. A shuttle ending at a “visitor centre” has not necessarily reached a public bus stop. For a bus leg, use the city bus boarding guide to check the stop, direction and calling pattern rather than repeating those rules here.
3. Include the exit chain when calculating the latest time to leave: work backwards from the required arrival time for the next leg. Include the internal walk, waiting for and riding the internal shuttle when used, retrieval of stored belongings, leaving the venue, the walk outside, waiting, the actual bus or car journey, any applicable connection, and entry steps at a railway station or other onward terminal, plus a personal allowance. Do not add walking, waiting or a connection twice when it is already included in the full route estimate. There is no universal number of minutes. If the exit, shuttle endpoint or onsite restriction changes, recalculate from the current position. Do not make the plan fit by running, crossing outside designated pedestrian routes, bypassing a barrier or deleting the return allowance; follow onsite directions.

Invented chain: at fictional Venue R, the last exhibit is K and internal Shuttle S ends at a visitor centre that is still inside the venue, before the exit. The traveller's fabric tote is at that visitor-centre storage desk. This example assumes that S is operating, the route from K to its boarding point, the route from the visitor centre to East Exit and the public pedestrian route outside have all been confirmed, East Exit permits departure that day, and bus stop P is at the end of that route. The exit order can therefore be written as K → Shuttle S endpoint / visitor centre → collect the tote under the confirmed procedure → East Exit → safe walk → Stop P, not “S → P”. If S, the exit, collection sequence or any required path is unconfirmed, this exit chain remains to confirm. Reaching P completes only the exit connection; it does not confirm the bus service, direction, payment conditions or the whole return journey. The example represents no real venue, stop, timetable or promise of re-entry.

Keep the line in a private itinerary card; do not publish accommodation, booking or personal pickup details:

Date / period ___; last internal stop ___; permitted exit and source ___; re-entry after leaving ___; stored item location and collection order ___; internal shuttle endpoint, inside / outside status, wait and ride ___; safe route outside ___; bus stop / legal pickup point ___; actual onward journey, connections and applicable terminal-entry steps ___; required arrival and latest time to start leaving ___; unresolved ___ .

For this addition, a Beijing government report dated 16 February 2024 was read on 26 September 2026 Beijing time. It records separate or changing entrance, exit and departure-gate roles at particular municipal parks during that Spring Festival period. This is a historical local example, not evidence of any venue's current exit, shuttle, opening or re-entry rules. The exit chain above is an editorial planning method; the venue's current information and onsite directions remain decisive.

Intercity coach: check the boarding terminal, gate and drop-off point separately

An order saying “to City B” does not identify where to board the coach or where it will set passengers down. This addition checks one selected intercity service; it does not repeat the route-number, direction and stop sequence used for a city bus.

1. Confirm the exact boarding point: use the current order and the operator's or terminal's official information to record the full date, service, exact coach terminal or authorised stop, and full address. A full terminal and a road-passenger stop point are different types of boarding location; do not assume that a stop point has full terminal facilities. If names are identical or similar, or the result identifies only a district, treat the exact boarding point as unresolved until the full address matches. Navigate to the real passenger entrance, not the centre of the building or a nearby city-bus stop.
2. Check the gate and boarding instruction for this service: confirm the current waiting area, gate or staff-designated entrance and what must be completed by what time. If the ticket or page is unclear, ask through the original channel or onsite staff rather than assuming a nationwide identity, ticket-collection, security or advance-arrival rule. Reaching a city-bus stop named after the coach terminal does not complete the walk to the terminal entrance, any applicable checks and the correct gate.
3. Verify the drop-off and onward connection separately: before boarding, record the full name and address of the actual drop-off terminal or stop, whether it is an intermediate point or this service's terminus, and the safe route onward to the accommodation or activity entrance. A destination name is not a drop-off point, and reaching the point does not confirm a city bus, pickup or walking route. If the original channel, operator or terminal still cannot confirm the drop-off, mark it unresolved rather than calling the onward chain ready. If the point, service or entrance changes, update the plan; do not chase a vehicle, cross vehicle lanes outside designated pedestrian routes or enter a non-passenger area.

Invented example: an order says City A → City B (central district). In this example, the confirmed boarding point is City A East Coach Terminal / Gate L2, while the actual drop-off is City B North Stop. When the traveller reaches a city-bus stop called “East Coach Terminal”, the route to the passenger entrance, applicable checks and Gate L2 still has to be completed; the status is not at the gate. The chain can enter the itinerary only after the original channel confirms the boarding terminal, Gate L2 and the drop-off point, confirms that this service is currently using L2, and the onward journey from City B North Stop to the accommodation is checked separately. None of this guarantees an on-time coach or available onward transport. Every name is a teaching placeholder.

Date / service ___; operator or original-order channel ___; exact boarding terminal / stop and address ___; waiting area, gate or designated entrance ___; required steps and deadline ___; actual drop-off name, address and intermediate / terminus status ___; onward connection ___; last checked ___; unresolved ___.

The Ministry of Transport's 2024 road-passenger stop-point guide explains that stop points may be placed at different types of location, that a multi-entrance hub may need more than one, and that locations can change. A 2021 Shenzhen Municipal Transport Bureau booking guide tells online buyers to check the departure-station address and warns about identical or similar names. Both pages were read on 26 September 2026 UTC and support only the exact-point check above, not a live service or nationwide ticket rule. A 2023 Yuanjiang coach-terminal notice is used only as a local example of following the ticket's service and boarding point to the corresponding gate; its other historical rules are not generalised.

7. Copy this daily planning sheet

• Starting place and full local date/time; required finishing place and full local date/time:
• Companions' essential meal, rest, access and mobility needs:
• Main visit; actual entrance; booking status; entry slot; last admission; closing time:
• Nearby optional stops and the first activity to remove:
• Each journey's mode, estimate source, time checked and unresolved details:
• Visit minutes + travel + meals + rest + queues and allowance:
• Total; available window; excess or unallocated minutes:
• Luggage collection place and deadline; time to leave the final activity:
• Cancellation or rerouting triggers; checked alternative; booking-change or cancellation deadlines, requests, responses and pending items:
• When to recheck notices, reservations, routes and weather before departure:

Finish with three questions: does each day have a real usable window, can every fixed booking be reached step by step, and do you know what to remove if delayed? Put the confirmed addresses, bookings and required routes into an offline travel kit, then test reopening it without Wi-Fi or mobile data before departure. The worksheet and invented calculations are editorial planning tools, not an official route or a fitness standard. Official pages were consulted on 24 September 2026; check the notices applying to your trip again before travelling.