Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen, once penned, “To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote: To travel is to live.”
His poetic words ring true for every person who has had the opportunity to explore God’s magnificent creation. Yet, travelling doesn’t just happen by magic. It takes thoughtful planning and preparation to make a trip successful. Unfortunately, many people just don’t know where to begin.
My approach to traveling works really well. Whether I’m using a travel agent or not, I create a city summary for every destination. Now, a city summary is research you do ahead of time to identify your options of things to see and do in a particular city or region. These options can include places to see, restaurants to visit, hotels and markets to explore, etc. The concept of a city summary is to minimize the time it takes to research while traveling and to have a list of important details already on hand.
Generally, the goal is to have more things on the city summary than you could possibly do in one trip, but this gives you an easy reference for all of your options and interests. For my city summaries, I like to incorporate the areas of most interest on a map so I can develop my travel itinerary according to each location and the best route. This saves me a lot of time and guesswork.
In my opinion, learning as much as I can about a region ahead of time gives me peace of mind and saves me the hassle of trying to figure things out as I go. Of course, plans can always change!
Here are a few things to consider when creating city summaries, and why I believe you shouldn’t travel without them.
City Summary Basics
A city summary is like being your own travel agent. Researching, investigating, planning, and booking becomes your #1 job when preparing for a trip. It’s an organized, detailed chart of information pertaining to that particular place. For example, one of my trips was to Cairo Egypt. In this city summary, I included every detail I could find including major sites to see, addresses, phone numbers, and even reminders about tipping the locals.
In a simple document, organized by separate boxes of information, I have a comprehensive list of details to take with me on every stop on the trip. I can’t tell you how often these city summaries have saved me both time and money.
Whether you use my summaries as a template, or create your own from scratch, I highly recommend forming a thorough plan of everything you might need on your travels. My own city summaries have become an invaluable tool I’ve used for many, many years, and plan to keep using in the future.
How to Use a City Summary
The best part about creating your own travel narrative is that you get to decide what to include. I encourage you to use my summaries as a springboard of ideas for your own planning needs, but there are a few key details you’ll want to add to every city summary.
- Hotels/Places to stay
- Restaurants
- Markets to visit
- Things to do
- Drive-by sites
Along with these essentials, you might want to add contact information for transportation, travel guides, and even historic churches to visit. (Personally, I love stained glass!) I also like to include famous landmarks, local events, and hours of operation if that information is available.
A few more ideas for your narrative could be seasonal weather conditions, suggested attire for excursions, and the best times of year to travel to that region. Again, your summaries can be as detailed as you like, and, in my opinion, the more detailed the better.
Examples of City Summaries
Although I’ve created over 100 city summaries over the years, I’d like to highlight just a few to help you get a better idea of what they’re about. Here are some of my detailed summaries and what they include. Also, I’ve provided you a link to all my city summaries to provide you a place to start your planning and maybe save you some time.
Niagara Falls, New York Narrative
Most people wouldn’t even think about creating a city summary for a well-known destination such as Niagara Falls, but I’m pleased to say this narrative is one of my most detailed so far. Not only did I preclude the summary with helpful tips about what time of day to visit the falls, but also which tours were recommended, when to have your passport handy, and what restaurant had a fireworks’ display in September.
Another plan I added to the Niagara Falls narrative was the bike excursion that took us on a beautiful 17-mile ride with fruit stands and wineries along the way. By having the tour guide information, distance, and approximate time it would take, we were able to set aside one day to enjoy this outing.
Vienna, Austria Narrative
For this city summary, I included Vienna’s largest open-air market called the Naschmarkt, which was hard to miss for any visitor interested in a flea-market style shopping experience. They had everything from fruits and vegetables to antiques and second-hand clothing.
One of the city’s best-known cafes, Cafe’ Central, was a historical meeting place for Vienna’s intellectuals at the turn of the 19th century. Poet Peter Altenberg once gathered there with his literary circle and even had his mail delivered there. Leon Trotsky was one of the regulars during his Vienna exile prior to WWI. We listed this café on our itinerary before our visit and it quickly became a favorite of ours
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil Narrative
Our Rio De Janeiro trip wouldn’t have been as successful without a travel narrative. I included a list of guides including their email addresses and rank. (Most were 5 stars!) We were able to enjoy authentic restaurants off the beaten path, and participate in local craft fairs which immersed us deeper into the culture. For this city summary, I also added pertinent information for our hotel stay including certain amenities such as free wi-fi, free breakfast, and a swimming pool.
Prague, Czech Republic Narrative
The Prague narrative is extremely comprehensive as there we so many things to do and see. By having this summary, we were able to choose from many different options such as monuments, cathedrals, castles, and festivals. I was careful to include hours of operation so we could plan each day of our trip accordingly. There were amazing places to shop for antiques, hand-made items, crystal, and ceramics, and it was very helpful having all the information ahead of time.
Marrakesh, Morocco Narrative
One of the neat things about our Morocco trip was the option to take a hot air balloon ride over the city of Marrakesh. Had I not done the research, I might have missed this unique opportunity. We also enjoyed some of their night markets which included entertainment from local performers. By having a city summary, I was able to mark down which places were safe to visit and what opportunities offered the best cultural experience. I also added a couple of guided tour options to keep in mind for future trips.
To see more summaries, check out this list:
AFRICA
- Accra, Ghana, West Africa
- Banjul, Gambia, West Africa
- Cape Town, South Africa (1)
- Cape Town, South Africa (2)
- Cotonou, Benin, West Africa
- Dakar, Senegal, West Africa
- Durban, South Africa (1)
- Durban, South Africa (2)
- Lome, Togo
- Luderitz, Namibia
- Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa
- Maputo, Mozambique
- Marrakesh, Morocco
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Port Elizabeth, South Africa
- Praia, Cape Verde
- Sao Tome & Principe
- Seychelles Victoria
- Victoria Falls, Zambia
ARGENTINA
- Buenos Aires
AUSTRALIA
- Darwin
- Melbourne
- Sydney
AUSTRIA
- Melk & Linz
- Vienna
BELGIUM
- Bruges
- Brussels
- Wallonia
BRAZIL
- Manaus
- Rio De Janeiro
- Rio Grande
BRUNEI
- Muara
BULGARIA
- Nessebar
CAMBODIA
- Sihanoukville
CANADA
- Toronto
CHILI
- Punta Arenas
- Santiago
CHINA
- Beijing
- Hong Kong
- Kashgar
- Shanghai
COLUMBIA
- Cartagena
CZECH REPUBLIC
- Prague
DENMARK
- Copenhagen
EGYPT
- Cairo
- Luxor
FALKLAND ISLANDS
- Port Stanley
FRANCE
- Carcassonne
- Marseille
- Normandy
- Paris
- Provence
- Reims
GEORGIA
- Batumi
GERMANY
- Neuschwanstein
- Passau
GREECE
- Athens
- Santorini
HUNGARY
- Budapest
INDIA
- Kochi
- Madhya Pradesh
- Mumbai
INDONESIA
- Bali
IRELAND
- Belfast
- Dublin
- Killarney
- Kinsale
ISRAEL
- Jerusalem
- Petra, Jordan
ITALY
- Alghero, Sardinia
- Amalfi Coast
- Anacapri
- Atrani
- Civitavecchia (Rome)
- Conca Dei Marini
- Livorno Florence
- Maiori
- Messina, Sicily
- Olbia, Sardinia
- Positano
- Praiano
- Ravello
- Sorrento
- Tuscany
JAPAN
- Hiroshima
- Ishigaki
- Okinawa
- Kamakura
- Kyoto
- Nagoya
- Tokyo
- Yokohama
MALAYSIA
- Kota Kinabalu
MALDIVES
MALTA
- Valletta
MAURITIUS
- Port Louis, Mauritius
MONACO
- Monte Carlo
NETHERLANDS
NEW ZEALAND
- Akaroa
- Auckland
- Dunedin
- Tauranga
- Wellington
NORWAY
- Bergen
- Oslo
OMAN
- Muscat
- Salalah
PERU
- Iquitos
PHILIPPINES
- Boracay Island
- Manila
PORTUGAL
- Funchal Madeira Islands
ROMANIA
- Constanta
RUSSIA
- Sochi
SCOTLAND
- Edinburgh
SINGAPORE
SLOVAKIA
- Bratislava
SOUTH KOREA
- Busan
SPAIN
- Arrecife, Canary Islands
- Barcelona (1)
- Barcelona (2)
- Gipuzkoa
- Ibiza
- Las Palmas, Canary Islands
- Malaga
- Palma de Majorca
- Palma de Mallorca
- Porto Mahon
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands
SRI LANKA
- Trincomalee
SWEDEN
- Stockholm
SWITZERLAND
- Innsbruck
- Interlaken
TAHITI
- French Polynesia
- Moorea
- Papeete
- Taha’a Society Islands
TAIWAN
- Kaohsiung
- Taipei (Keelung)
TURKEY
- Istanbul (1)
- Istanbul (2)
- Kusadasi
- Trabzon
UKRAINE
- Odessa
- Yalta
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- Dubai
UK
- Gibraltar, UK
USA
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Georgia
- Hoonah, Alaska – Icy Strait Point
- Juneau, Alaska
- Ketchikan, Alaska
- Niagara Falls
- San Francisco, California
- Skagway, Alaska
- Tennessee
VIETNAM
- Nha Trang
I hope these examples are helpful to you as you decide what to include in your own city summaries. The sky is the limit as to how detailed you want to be, but every piece of information is useful once you arrive at your destination.
While it’s true that travel doesn’t come easy, it can make a world of difference when you use city summaries. Once you have them, you’ll be able to quickly pull from your library of narratives wherever you go. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a great way to plan for trips and thoroughly enjoy every place you visit.
ACTION STEP:
Choose an upcoming travel destination and start a city summary today. If you’re not planning to travel soon, create a city summary based on your last trip!
I believe in learning from other people’s experiences. Please share your thoughts with us in the feedback section.
