How to Cut Travel Time Between Sights and Get More Out of Each Day

Put every candidate on one map

Before choosing days, mark everything you would like to see on a single map. The clusters appear immediately: some places sit together in a neighborhood, and some sit alone across the city. That picture is more useful than any list.

Turn clusters into days

Assign each cluster to a day, rather than assigning sights to days by theme or by rank. If a cluster has too many places, keep the best ones and drop or move the rest. If a lonely sight is far from everything, either give it its own half-day (ideally combined with something nearby you did not know about) or drop it and do not feel bad.

Order the stops in a loop, not a zigzag

Within a day, sequence the stops so your path moves in one direction and finishes near where you want to end up: your accommodation, or the place you are having dinner. Crossing the same street or district twice is a sign that the order can be improved.

• Start at the farthest point and work back toward your base, so the end of the day is the easy part.
• Or start near your base with the anchor of the day and finish with lighter stops that lead you toward dinner.
• Keep timed reservations as fixed points and arrange the flexible stops around them.

Choose your base by where things are

When you can, pick your accommodation after mapping your must-see places, not before. A base close to the majority of them, or near a well-connected transit stop, saves more time than almost any other decision. A cheaper hotel far from everything often costs the difference back in time and transport.

Match the mode of travel to the distance

• Walking works for short hops and is often the most enjoyable way to see a neighborhood.
• Public transit suits medium and long distances in cities with good coverage. Check frequency and the last service of the evening.
• Driving or taxis help with day trips, awkward locations and travel with luggage or small children, but factor in parking and traffic.

Check opening days and hours before you lock a day

Nothing wastes a trip through the city like arriving at a closed door. Many places close on a particular weekday or have shorter hours in some seasons. Check before you commit a cluster to a specific day, and keep a nearby alternative for surprises.

Verify with real travel times

Distances on a map are not travel times. A short line can hide hills, stairs, a transfer or a detour around water. Look up the actual route and time for each leg, and re-check when you reorder anything.

MyTrip Builder does this for you. It calculates the real distance and travel time (walking, driving or public transit) between consecutive stops, colors each time field by where it came from so you can tell a calculated time from a manual entry, and refreshes the whole trip with one click after you change the order. See how it fits into the wider process in our guide to planning a day-by-day itinerary.