3 Tips to Prevent Travel Plans from Failing

I love to travel. Since I was a kid, I've always loved to travel because my dad would take my sister and I with him and also because both my parents and a few other relatives worked at the airport growing up so I was always around it and that atmosphere. 
This summer, I had plans to travel; I didn't care if it was across the world or across the country. I just wanted to get out of California for a bit and explore a new place!
I first intended on going to London around this time, and then decided on New York City when plans fell through. Now, I'm sitting here typing this out as I get ready to go move to school next week. 
I never posted about my plans on Twitter or any other social media sites just in case things didn't work out, but I had talked to people about it and even prepared for it (like telling my internship supervisor that I wouldn't be around the last two weeks of summer). I'm bummed that things didn't work out, but I really hope to get somewhere next summer! 
Here are my tips to prevent travel plans from failing:  1. Make sure you have your plane tickets ready! My dad has a connection to get my ticket at a great deal, but he never got the ticket because he just really lagged on it and he wanted to make sure that I had a decent amount of pocket money to travel with. With all of that, he kept putting it off. 
One of the biggest things is to make sure that you have access to get yourself a ticket! Whether that means having enough money or having a way to actually get the ticket, make sure you have a surefire way to make that happen!  2. SAVE MONEY. Obviously, have enough money for the ticket. But beyond that, you're also going to need to have money for housing and food, and maybe souvenirs if you really want it. 
Because I didn't have a car for the first half of the summer, I couldn't have a job because I wouldn't have a stable form of transportation. On top of that, if I wanted to travel, I probably wouldn't have worked at the job long enough to request vacation time. Although I got a couple jobs now, it is the end of the summer and too late for me. 
SAVE! You can plan your trip all you want, but if you don't have money, then you can't make it happen! I just recently opened a savings account, so I will be using that to save up money for traveling and other things as well.  3. Plan your itinerary. Even if you just want to go with the flow and figure things out as you go, I think that it's still a good idea to have an idea of the areas you'll be in and places you'll be staying throughout your trip. That way, even if you get lost or something goes wrong, you have an itinerary to go off of. This also allows for you to know how much money you need to have saved up by the time you get to your travel destination.
I was honestly really sad once August rolled around and I wasn't boarding a plane to London or NYC. But due to poor planning, things didn't work out. I hope that you learn from my mistakes and use these tips to keep your plans from falling through the cracks! 
Good luck in travel planning!
Have you ever had travel plans fail before? Are you planning going on a trip soon?