I would also suggest somewhere not too far.
Think about affordability and narrow it down from there, perhaps? So how much money you think you are able to spend on a short trip and then you can either google what there is to see not far from where you are (e.g. I hear Edinburgh has fantastic public transport and there's quite a bit to see; obv that's just a random example, it may be far to get to for you in reality but basically that's how I would search, think about what I know is closeby that I can see and go from there). I have also literally googled "things to see in X city/X area" before, and there are websites such as Tripadvisor that will give you lots of examples and can help you decide :) I'm planning a holiday to Sweden and literally that's the thing I did and how I figured out where in Sweden I'd like to go.
I also would recommend checking out Airbnb and Booking.com - you can tell the websites what area you're looking for accommodation in and filter by type and price.
As for budgeting, it's worth taking into account:
- transport costs: to your destination and back, and to travel within the area you're going to if needed
- accommodation costs
- sustenance (I have budgeted for this by checking out nearby pubs/restaurants/places to eat to my accommodation in advance and checking how much it'd cost to have like, what may constitute a regular meal for me); travelling in a city has the advantage of access to more shops/supermarkets/easy and cheaper food
- activities: if you plan to activities that are paid-for (for example, in Sweden they do sled dog trips, and that's a one-off activity I'd pay for; when I went to Tenby, there were boat trips just for the sake of it as well as boat trips to a nearby island - you can usually get the prices for all such things online in advance so that helps with budgeting).
- pocket money (just any extra money you can spend on whatever you like e.g. souvenirs)
- a little emergency fund - just in case.
The last two bullet points are all up to you, but they're useful things to add to your total budget when planning a holiday. (Hope the budget stuff doesn't come across as overwhelming! I used to design project budgets for a living, so it's kind of like second nature to me now. It's definitely useful to break down your budget into smaller parts.)
|