Building Itineraries That Inspire (And Actually Get Used)
Best practice for creating Itinerary entries in your DestinationCore site
Itineraries are one of the most powerful tools you have as a destination marketer. Done well, they don't just list things to do — they paint a picture of what a trip to your destination could actually feel like, and give a potential visitor the confidence to start planning. Done badly, they're just a bullet list with a map stuck on top.
This article covers both sides of the coin: what makes an itinerary genuinely compelling for the person reading it, and how to make full use of the tools available in your Itineraries section to build it.
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Why do itineraries matter so much for a destination website?
The main job of any destination website is to inspire people to spend their time and money in your destination. An itinerary is one of the best formats for doing that, because it answers the question every visitor is really asking: *"What would I actually do if I came here?"*
A good itinerary removes the effort of planning. Instead of a visitor piecing together ideas from ten different pages, you've done the thinking for them — in a logical order, in one place. That's a genuinely valuable thing to give someone, and it's often the difference between someone bookmarking a page and someone booking a trip.
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What makes an itinerary good, rather than just a list of things to do?
Give it a theme.
The strongest itineraries have a clear angle rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Think "if you love X, here's a day built around X" rather than a generic tour of the destination.
For example:
- *"A Foodie's Day in the Peak District"* — built entirely around cafés, farm shops, and a standout restaurant for dinner
- *"48 Hours of History in York"* — museums, walking tours, and heritage sites, in a sensible order
- *"A Slow Weekend in Norfolk"* — for visitors who want to switch off, not tick off a list
A themed itinerary tells a story. A themed itinerary also tends to attract a more specific, more motivated visitor — someone who's already decided this trip is "for them" before they've even finished reading.
Give it a clear duration.
Visitors need to know how much time to set aside before they can picture themselves doing it. "24 Hours in Newcastle," "3 Days in Suffolk," or "A Half-Day in the Cotswolds" instantly tells someone whether this itinerary fits their trip.
Give it a sense of cost, where you can.
Not every itinerary can commit to a hard price, but where you can indicate roughly what a visitor should expect to spend, it builds trust and helps them plan realistically.
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How do I set this up in the DCMS?
This is where the theming and duration work you've just done gets turned into structured content:
1. Give your itinerary a strong, descriptive title that reflects the theme — e.g. "A Foodie's Day in the Peak District" rather than "Itinerary 4."
2. Set the Duration field. This tells visitors up front how much time the itinerary covers (e.g. Half-Day, 24 Hours, Weekend, One Week) and also feeds into duration-based filtering on the front end.
3. Fill in the Average Spend field, where you're able to. Even an approximate range is more useful to a visitor than nothing at all.
4. Set the Categories for your itinerary via the **Categories tab**. This is what allows visitors to filter itineraries by interest on the front end — for example Food & Drink, History & Heritage, or Family Friendly. A well-categorised itinerary gets discovered by the right person; a well-themed itinerary that isn't categorised properly might not get seen at all.
💡 Top Tip: Make your title and your category match. If your itinerary is themed around food and drink, but you've filed it under History & Heritage because that's what you filled in last time, it won't turn up when a hungry visitor filters the site — even though it's exactly what they wanted.
*One thing worth knowing: each itinerary can only be assigned one duration category — so if your itinerary genuinely spans, say, both a "Weekend" and a "One Week" version, you may want to consider whether that's actually two itineraries rather than one.*
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How do I actually build the itinerary steps?
This is done in the Itinerary Schedule tab — this is the heart of the itinerary, where you build out the actual stop-by-stop plan.
1. Add each stop as a step, in the order a visitor would realistically follow them.
2. Link to existing content wherever you can. If a stop is a business, event, or experience that already exists in the DCMS, link to that entry rather than typing the details out again. This keeps information (like opening hours or contact details) accurate and up to date automatically, and it's how a Business Profile gets extra visibility on your site.
3. Add custom points where nothing exists yet — for example a scenic viewpoint, a walking route, or a general recommendation that doesn't have its own Business Profile.
4. Keep stops grouped geographically, not just logically. Every step you add plots as a point on the itinerary's map on the published page, so an itinerary that zig-zags across the destination will look — and feel — disjointed to a visitor, even if the theme and order made sense on paper. Try to build your schedule the way you'd actually plan a route on the ground.
💡 Top Tip: Before you publish, look at your itinerary from the visitor's point of view — would this order actually make sense if you were walking or driving it? If stop three is on the opposite side of town from stops two and four, it's worth re-ordering or re-thinking.
*Itineraries are built for content that has a location — businesses, events, experiences, and custom points that can be plotted on the map. General articles or non-location content aren't designed to sit within an itinerary schedule.*
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What if I don't want to recommend one specific place to stay?
Not every itinerary needs — or should — point to one hotel. Sometimes it's better to give the visitor options rather than a single answer.
In this case, rather than adding a specific accommodation stop to your schedule, add a heading within your body copy such as "Accommodation Recommendations", and use it to point visitors toward a range of suitable places to stay nearby. This keeps the itinerary itself focused on the experience, while still giving visitors what they need to plan the practical side of their trip.
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How can I add richer content around the itinerary, beyond the schedule itself?
On most sites, the itinerary page template includes the Content Builder — the same flexible block-based editor used elsewhere on the DCMS — so you're not limited to just the schedule and a paragraph of copy.
This is genuinely useful, because it lets you support visitors whose plans don't match your itinerary exactly. If someone loves the theme of your itinerary but wants to swap out one stop, or has an extra half-day to fill, giving them nearby alternatives that still fit the theme keeps them engaged with your site rather than sending them off to search elsewhere.
A couple of examples worth building into most itineraries:
- A Collections block titled "Accommodation Recommendations" — a curated set of places to stay in the same area, for itineraries that don't specify one.
- A Collections or General Cards block titled "Other Things to Do Nearby" — additional businesses or experiences in the same geography and the same theme, for visitors who want to extend or adapt the itinerary.
The key principle: anything you add here should still match the itinerary's theme and location. The goal isn't to throw in everything available nearby — it's to offer thoughtful alternatives that feel like a natural extension of the itinerary, not a distraction from it.
*Availability of the Content Builder on the itinerary template can vary by site setup, so if you can't see it, check with your website admin.*
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Do itineraries really need FAQs?
Yes — treat this as a must, not a nice-to-have.
FAQs on itinerary pages do double duty. They help your itinerary get picked up in search engine results for the kind of natural, conversational questions visitors actually type — "Is this itinerary suitable for kids?", "Do I need a car for this route?", "How much should I budget for a day like this?" — and they reassure a visitor reading the page that the practical questions they have are already answered.
A few themes worth covering for most itineraries:
- Suitability (families, accessibility, fitness level required)
- Transport (can it be done on foot, or is a car needed?)
- Best time of year to follow this itinerary
- Rough budget, if you haven't already covered this via Average Spend
- Whether stops can be swapped or reordered
Three or four well-chosen FAQs is plenty — focus on genuine visitor questions rather than padding the page out.
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What extra features will visitors see once my itinerary is published?
Once published, your itinerary automatically includes:
- A map plotting every point in your Itinerary Schedule, in order
- Social sharing icons for Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and email, so visitors can easily share the itinerary with someone they're planning a trip with
This is another reason geographic grouping in your schedule matters so much — the map is often the first thing a visitor's eye goes to, and a clean, sensible route reads as trustworthy and well thought-out before they've read a single word of copy.
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Quick checklist before you publish
- [ ] Title reflects a clear theme
- [ ] Duration field set
- [ ] Average Spend field completed, where possible
- [ ] Category assigned via the Categories tab, matching the theme
- [ ] Schedule steps added in a logical, geographically-grouped order
- [ ] Existing Business Profiles, events, and experiences linked where they exist
- [ ] Accommodation addressed — either as a schedule stop or a body copy heading
- [ ] Content Builder used to add nearby alternatives (accommodation, other things to do)
- [ ] Three or four genuine FAQs added
💡 Top Tip: The best itineraries read like a recommendation from a friend who really knows the area — not a database export. If you find yourself just listing everything with a location tag nearby, step back and ask what story this itinerary is actually telling.