Planning an annual holiday with your family or a camping trip with friends is not an easy job. In fact, it can be a stressful experience for some, as you've got to pay attention to many things at the same time. Of course, now that you've decided you want to holiday, chosen the destination and fixed the dates when you're going to start and return, you have to rearrange your work schedule accordingly, book the tickets if you're going by plane, or send your car for servicing if you're going to drive down. Also, you also need to figure out where you can keep your pets while you're gone. In short, you need to plan a lot in the few days before your vacation or trip. A travel planner is a good way to make sure that all the things you want to do fit in with clockwork precision before your vacation starts. Not only that, you can note down all the activities you would like to do during your holiday. It's also very useful in case of business travel. Let's find out how to make a travel planner template for a family holiday or a business trip. Making your Own Excel Travel Planner Template You can make your travel planner in an Excel spreadsheet. Microsoft Excel is an easy software to work with. If you're good at excel, you can create a detailed schedule of your activities before and during the holiday time. If you aren't, no problem; you can still try using it. It's easy to do, though it might take a little time to familiarize yourself with the design software. Basically, you should know what you want out of it. You can draw it in rough on paper, and copy it on your excel spreadsheet. You can use your creativity to:

• Design your template
• Vary text fonts and colors
• Add or remove rows and columns
• Adjust the column and row sizes
• Create borders for blocks
• Highlight priority tasks

Just make sure you highlight each must-do lists or reminders and dates with same colors, so they're easy to locate at a glance. Borders will help you to check a whole block easily. Once you've got the excel travel planner template ready, you can use it again, and update the travel planner with your next holiday info. What to Include in the Excel Travel Planner Template? You've decided to draw your template but don't know what to include and where, then this excel travel planner template design description will give you an idea about what all you can do. At the top of your excel sheet, you can type where you're going for a holiday. Then type in Travel Dates keeping a cell space for information you want to fill in. Similarly add the start date and end date in the same row. In the next row, beginning with the month and year, you can put in the dates of your holiday one-by-one in a row in bold, say if your holiday starts from January 1, 2010, followed by the other dates. On the extreme left down, you can optionally keep the month's calendar, say January 2010, in this case, (the option is built-in in excel, so you don't have to type in the calendar; just go to Insert, select Object and then choose Calendar). Once you've installed the calendar, you can also highlight the start and end dates of your holiday on it. Underneath, in the same column, type Things to Do and below that make a note of things that you need to take along like

• a map of the place you're visiting (if you're going there for the first time or traveling by road)
• passport
• currency
• any vouchers you will be able to avail there (specially if you are visiting a spa resort)
• digital camera
• warm clothes (that's a must, especially, if you are going in fall or winter)
• medicines
• sports gear (e.g.: fishing gear)

to the things to do list. Keep a column on the left of the list free, so you can cross-check whether you've packed all of them, in the check box. Below this, add Things to Remember, which will have to and fro airline reservations, accommodation at the vacation destination and rental car details, starting from the left of the spreadsheet. Below this, for the Activity Schedule, you can distribute the day on hourly basis, and put down the schedule of activities to be done on each day. This holiday travel template will be easy to create. Just keep in mind that your travel planner template should not be complicated or difficult to follow. After you've finished working on it, don't forget to save the excel travel planner template. Once completed, you can either take a print-out and fill it manually with ink or if you're taking your laptop along on your holiday, you can still update or refer to it. Business Travel Planner Template Keeping a handy business travel planner template will ensure that your business trips will pass without a hitch. A business travel planner template design should make provision for details about 3 main things:

• Your flight schedule
• Rental car arrangements/ connecting shuttle timings
• Hotel reservations

With all of these on a single spreadsheet, including the dates of your business trips, you can refer to the important travel details easily all at one time. The business travel planner is helpful, especially if you're traveling to many places. You can make a template to incorporate the purpose of the trip, with a Things to Do section comprising reminders for

1. Checking the status of your passport
2. Getting your Visa
3. Getting health checks (in case of international travel)
4. Confirmation details about your flights, car rental and hotel reservations

Customize your business travel planner template, as per your requirement. Once the template is ready, you can fill in the necessary details of the business trips for easy reference. Like stated earlier, highlighting will be helpful while referring, for example, using same color for departure details. A different color can be used for return details. The best option, perhaps, would be to make a black and white template, using different shades of gray for highlighting. While traveling by road to your holiday destination or on a camping trip, it's a good thing to map out your vacation travel plan beforehand. This will help you manage time properly. There are many types of travel planner templates, which you can download and save from Internet. Or if you are not averse to learning excel, you can acquaint yourself with some basic excel tools and design your own excel travel planner template. An excel travel planner template will help organize a hassle-free holiday or business trip. So, make use of it, and enjoy your journey! Bon voyage!