A travel advisor's guide to when you don't need a travel advisor.

Twenty-four pages on planning a trip that fits your budget and your values — including the part where I tell you to book it yourself.

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What's actually in it

Nine short chapters and four pages built to be printed and written on. No filler, and only one paragraph anywhere in it that asks you for anything.

A steward plans differently than an owner doesWhy a well-planned trip isn't money leaking out of the kingdom.
Six questions before you pick a destinationTwenty minutes that changes more than any other twenty minutes you'll spend.
What the price actually includes — and doesn'tThe gap between a headline price and a finished trip is usually 15–30%.
The booking call checklistEleven questions that change the number. Print these two.
Your datesDeposits stop being refundable on a date, not gradually.
The giving lineOne more budget line, and who receives it.
Traveling generously once you're thereTipping, where your money stays, and being a decent guest.
The conversation with your familyTen minutes at the dinner table before you leave.
Coming homeFifteen minutes that decide whether the next trip is better.

Here's a real page from it.

The booking call checklist is the page people actually use. Eleven questions to ask before you put money down — whether you're on the phone with a resort, a cruise line, or an advisor.

Anyone worth booking with will answer every one of them without hesitating. That includes me.

The Well-Planned Trip

Print this one

The booking call checklist.

Is this the all-in price, including taxes, port charges, and fees?Ask for the total a card would be charged. Not the per-night or per-person headline.

What exactly is included — and what will I be charged for on site?Specialty dining, premium drinks, spa, wifi, excursions, water sports, transfers.

What is the deposit, and what date does it stop being refundable?Write the date down. This is where most money gets lost.

Who do I call at 11pm on a Saturday if something goes wrong?If there isn't a real answer, factor that in.

Seven more questions on the page.

Written by Grant Haynes

I've been a support-raising missionary for nearly three decades — in Oaxaca, Mexico and Clarkston, Georgia — and I still am. I'm the founder of Global Frontier Missions, and I've spent most of my adult life on the side of ministry that depends entirely on other people's generosity.

I'm also a travel advisor. Every trip anyone books already carries a commission, and it always becomes somebody's revenue. On the trips I book, roughly 5% goes where the traveler says instead — to the church, missionary, or nonprofit they name, at no extra cost to them.

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Tell me where to send The Well-Planned Trip and it's on its way. Use it on a trip I have nothing to do with — that's a good outcome too.

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