Travel Itinerary for a Visa Application (Day-by-Day Sample)

A travel itinerary for a visa is a table of your trip: for each day, the date, the country and city, where you sleep and how you get there. Schengen consulates use it to check that the dates add up, that your bookings and insurance cover the trip and that you applied to the right country. If your consulate’s checklist asks for one, here are the rules behind it, a fill-in template and a complete 14-night sample.

What a travel itinerary for a visa is

You write the itinerary yourself, usually as a typed table running from the day you arrive to the day you leave. It is a different document from the flight reservation that holds your seats in and out: the itinerary covers every day in between, and its first and last dates are the flight dates.

For a Schengen visa it is 1 of the supporting documents you file with the passport, application form, insurance and bank statements, and the consulate reads them against each other.

The Commission’s 2024 Visa Code Handbook adds that itinerary documents should come with documents on the means of transport: arrangements for the onward journey, or a driver’s license and car insurance if you travel by private car. In the itinerary, that is the transport column.

Which consulates ask for an itinerary

The request comes from the consulate’s own checklist, and the wording varies.

Authority	What it asks for	Format it sets
EU Visa Code, Annex II	A booked organized trip or “any other appropriate document indicating the envisaged travel plans”	None
German missions in India	A personal covering letter, proof of transport and itinerary, and a detailed travel itinerary or organized-trip booking	None stated
German Embassy, Dhaka	A “Tour Plan lining out the entire intended itinerary / activities in the Schengen area”	Itinerary plus activities
Greek visa center, UK	A “Full Itinerary for the entire stay”, plus proof of travel in each other Schengen country	Destinations and dates
Netherlands, applicants in India	“You will also need to show your travel plans.” A booked tour needs its booking	None
Switzerland, VFS in Indonesia	Its own blank itinerary form	Dates, country and number of nights, then date and signature

Outside Schengen the wording is looser. The UK guide to supporting documents for visitors lists no itinerary but recommends details of the activity you will do in the UK, and counts hotel and flight bookings as less useful evidence. Canada’s recommended documents include ones showing how long you plan to stay and what you will do. For a US visitor visa, the State Department’s consular manual says the applicant must have specific and realistic plans for the entire period of the visit.

Does a visa itinerary have to be day by day?

Not under EU law: Annex II accepts any appropriate document showing the travel plans, and the Swiss form has columns only for dates, country and number of nights.

A day-by-day table answers every request in the table above, from the tour plan with activities in Dhaka to the full itinerary with destinations and dates at the Greek center in the UK. The dates and nights for a form like the Swiss one can be read straight off it. We recommend the day-by-day version unless the consulate gives you its own form; then fill in that form.

What to put in a visa itinerary

Build it as a table with 1 row per calendar day, from the day you land to the day you leave:

• Header: your full name, passport number, the visa type and purpose, and the arrival and departure dates.
• Date and day number: every day, including the travel days at both ends.
• Country and city: where you sleep that night; on a travel day, the place you arrive.
• Where you sleep: the hotel, rental or host for each night, with the street, written exactly as on the booking or the host’s letter.
• Transport: the flight, train, bus or car between cities, with times for the flights in and out.
• Plan: 1 line on what you do that day, such as sights, a meeting or a family event.
• Nights per country: a total for each country that adds up to the length of the stay.
• Date and signature: where the consulate’s form has those lines.

Your travel insurance must cover the full period of the intended stay and be valid in every Schengen country, so its first and last dates are the first and last dates of the itinerary. The number of days also sets the funds the consulate expects you to have: Article 21(5) of the Visa Code assesses means of subsistence by average prices for board and lodging in budget accommodation, multiplied by the days stayed.

Which country to apply to on a multi-country trip

On a trip through several Schengen countries, the itinerary is how the consulate checks that you applied to the right one.

Here is how the Commission’s 2024 Handbook applies the rule in 4 of its worked examples:

Trip	Who decides	Why
France 20 days (family) and Belgium 2 days (business), arriving at and leaving from Amsterdam	France	The family visit is the main purpose of the trip
Belgium 6 days (business) and France 6 days (family), via Amsterdam	Belgium or France	Equal stays make each a main destination; the Netherlands, the country of first entry, is not responsible
France 4 days, Germany 4 days and Austria 3 days by bus, all tourism	France	No main destination, so the first external border crossed decides
Denmark 15 to 18 August (4 days), then Spain 3 to 12 September (10 days)	Spain	2 visits within 2 months; Spain has the longer stay, and 1 visa covers both

When the length of stay decides the main destination, the Visa Code counts it in days. The nights-per-country total in your itinerary is the easiest way to show that count, because every night has a booking behind it.

Travel itinerary template

Copy this into a document or spreadsheet, replace every bracketed field and add 1 row per day.

Travel itinerary: [Your full name], passport number [passport number]
Visa: short-stay Schengen visa, [purpose], [arrival date] to [departure date]
Main destination: [country], [number] of [total] nights

Date	Day	Country, city	Where you sleep	Transport	Plan
[date]	1	[country, city]	[hotel or host, street, city]	[flight in, with arrival time]	[arrival, first visit]
[date]	2	[country, city]	[hotel or host, street, city]	[train, bus, car or on foot]	[main activity]
[date]	[last day]	[country, city]	None	[flight out, with departure time]	Leave the Schengen area

Country	Cities and nights	Total nights	Dates
[country]	[city and nights]	[number]	[date] to [date]
Total		[number]	[arrival date] to [departure date]

Date: [date of signing]
Signature: [your signature]

Sample day-by-day itinerary for a Schengen visa

This is an invented sample: the traveler, hotel names and bookings are made up.

Travel itinerary: Priya Raghavan, Indian passport number Z4829175
Short-stay Schengen visa, tourism, single entry, 10 to 24 May 2027
Main destination: Italy, 7 of 14 nights

Date	Day	Country, city	Where you sleep	Transport	Plan
Mon 10 May 2027	1	Italy, Rome	Hotel Esempio, Via Panisperna, Rome	Flight from Bengaluru, lands at Rome Fiumicino 14:10	Check in, evening in Monti
Tue 11 May	2	Italy, Rome	Hotel Esempio	Metro, on foot	Colosseum, Roman Forum
Wed 12 May	3	Italy, Rome	Hotel Esempio	Metro	Vatican Museums, St Peter’s Basilica
Thu 13 May	4	Italy, Rome	Hotel Esempio	Bus	Day trip to Tivoli, back in Rome at night
Fri 14 May	5	Italy, Florence	Residenza Campione, Via Maggio, Florence	Train Rome to Florence, 09:10	Cathedral and old town
Sat 15 May	6	Italy, Florence	Residenza Campione	On foot	Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio
Sun 16 May	7	Italy, Florence	Residenza Campione	Train	Day trip to Siena
Mon 17 May	8	Switzerland, Lucerne	Gasthaus Muster, Haldenstrasse, Lucerne	Train Florence to Lucerne via Milan, 08:30	Old town, Chapel Bridge
Tue 18 May	9	Switzerland, Lucerne	Gasthaus Muster	Boat, cogwheel railway	Mount Pilatus
Wed 19 May	10	Switzerland, Lucerne	Gasthaus Muster	Boat	Lake Lucerne
Thu 20 May	11	France, Paris	Hôtel Exemple, Rue Cler, Paris	Train Lucerne to Paris via Basel, 10:00	Evening on the Seine
Fri 21 May	12	France, Paris	Hôtel Exemple	Metro	Louvre, Tuileries
Sat 22 May	13	France, Paris	Hôtel Exemple	RER train	Versailles
Sun 23 May	14	France, Paris	Hôtel Exemple	Metro	Montmartre, Musée d’Orsay
Mon 24 May	15	France, Paris	None	Flight to Bengaluru, leaves Paris Charles de Gaulle 21:30	Check out, leave the Schengen area

Country	Cities and nights	Total nights	Dates
Italy	Rome 4, Florence 3	7	10 to 17 May
Switzerland	Lucerne 3	3	17 to 20 May
France	Paris 4	4	20 to 24 May
Total		14	10 to 24 May 2027

Flight reservation: Bengaluru to Rome on 10 May, Paris to Bengaluru on 24 May.
Travel medical insurance: 10 to 24 May 2027, all Schengen countries, €30,000 cover.

Date: 29 March 2027
Signature: Priya Raghavan (signed)

Italy has 7 of the 14 nights, more than any other country, so Priya applies to Italy; landing in Rome plays no part in that. Every hotel line matches a booking, and the insurance and flights start and end on the same 2 dates as the table.

How to write your itinerary and check it against your documents

7 steps from the checklist to a finished itinerary

1. Read the checklist of the consulate you apply to and note its wording: travel plans, detailed itinerary, tour plan, or a form of its own.
2. Take the arrival and departure dates from your flight reservation and write 1 row for each day between them.
3. Fill in the city and the place you sleep for each night, copying names and streets from the bookings or the host’s letter.
4. Add the transport between cities and 1 line of plans per day.
5. Total the nights per country, check that they add up to the stay, and apply to the country with the most days or the main purpose.
6. Check that the insurance starts on the first row, ends on the last and covers every Schengen country on the route.
7. Date and sign it if the form has lines for that, then lodge the application no more than 6 months and, as a rule, no later than 15 calendar days before you travel.

If you also send a letter explaining your trip, give each country 1 line with the same nights, and leave the daily detail to the itinerary. Keep the bookings behind the plan valid until the decision, which takes 15 calendar days and can be extended to 45.

Changing your itinerary after the visa is issued

Plans can move after the visa is issued, within limits. The Commission’s 2024 Handbook says that traveling to Schengen countries other than the one that issued the visa is not abuse if you first use the visa in line with the intention and main destination you stated when you applied. It also tells consulates to weigh your visa history, including how you used earlier visas, so the main destination on the itinerary should be the one you visit.

Entry and exit stamps are not reliable evidence of the main destination, the Handbook says, especially after a flight, and refusing a later visa on the stamps alone is unreasonable. Some consulates are stricter about bookings: the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh warns that changing or canceling any travel reservation after the visa is granted may lead to refusal of future applications.