The private pool outside our bungalow overlooking the Mediterranean. It was fantastic!

Now I’m not going to necessarily advocate the stance that a vacation must follow a rigorous itinerary — we stayed at a fancy resort for three days during our vacation largely lounging at the beach and the pool, after all, and it was fantastically relaxing to just kick back and not have to follow any schedule apart from that which our own levels of laziness dictated — but there is something to be said for doing some mapping out in advance.

Case in point: It can be disorientating to travel in a foreign country at the best of times, but even more so if your transportation plans are a harried hodgepodge of mobile means. During our trip to Greece, we took six flights, rented a couple of cars, took two ferry rides, hopped into the backseat of more than one taxi and rode public transportation on a couple of occasions. It was a lot to keep track of.

We made every travel connection as planned, thankfully, and a large part of that had to do with the handy booklet my fiancé created for us before we left. Each page covered a day, and included a wealth of information like street addresses, phone numbers, flight times, booking confirmations, potential activities, detailed maps and directions for how to get from place to place. Most people probably have that information available to them while they travel in various travel guides and email printouts, but after several days of unpacking and repacking, stuff can start to get lost in the shuffle. Each of us had a copy of the itinerary booklet, and we kept them close at hand at all times — everything in one place. More than once we were pressed for time, and if we hadn’t had such a handy step-by-step guide, we would have gotten lost or missed a connection.

And apart from transportation and lodging info, the itinerary also included other important tidbits. Visitors must adhere to a dress code if they want to be admitted to the monasteries in Meteora, for example, so that went in the booklet. He also included a few pointers and suggestions for us to follow. A few that made me laugh:

• Arrive in Athens! (That’s about it; the flights are going to be rough. Get some rest!)
• Drive to the Elounda Mare and bask in how awesome we are.
• Board airplane back to Atlanta and the cold bitter grip of reality.

Anything else you think should be on this sort of itinerary? You can find Jessika on Twitter at @HowtoStuffHSW and on Facebook at How-to Stuff; head over there and let her know.