Do your research ahead of time. Use travel guides such as Lonely Planet (Resource #3) and Fodor's (Resource #4), to find out what is available in the region in which you are visiting.
List your top ten sites or events. Depending how long you want to stay, you probably will not get to see everything you want to see. Be aware of your "must see" sites so that you can put them on your itinerary.
Decide how long to stay at each location. A visit to a museum might take a couple of hours, while a tour of a historical sight might be longer. Hikes can take several hours, depending on the distance and terrain. When deciding what to put into your itinerary, be realistic about how much you can do in one day.
Note local holidays in the area and account for this in your itinerary. In particularly religious countries, museums, shops and other tourist attractions are closed on holy days or during the sabbath.
Add more time to each site visit if you have children. A trip with children, particularly small children, can often take twice as long as a trip with only adults.
List the days you are in the country and plan each day's events around what is open and what events are in close proximity to each other. Plan each day's events in a cluster of close activities. Take into account how long each event takes and any meals in between.
Use online tools to build your itinerary. Websites such as Kukunu and TripIt help you to build an itinerary, calculate how much time you need for each event and publish the itinerary online so that friends and family can see where you will be going and when.
