'Alike' or 'akin' or something else? [closed]

Context: I have started to write a blog post about my recent road trip.

Difficulty: I was desperate to go for a trip and in that desperation, the planning was not up to the mark. My previous trip also began the same way. To highlight this fact, in the 'Prelude' section, I wrote a sentence as below:

Alike my previous trip, this one was chalked out of desperation.

1. My proof-reader thinks that 'Alike' is not the right word, should be 'Akin'
2. I thought of using 'Similar' but that doesn't seem right either

Any inputs?

There are several options, which are pretty much equivalent in meaning, though there might be differences in style.

1. Like my previous trip, ... is fairly informal
2. Akin to my previous trip, ... sounds a bit highfalutin. Needs to after it
3. As [with] my previous trip, ... similar to option 1

There are undoubtedly more possibilities, but these are the ones I would consider. Depending on the style of your blog post I would probably go for the first one.

Oh, and alike is not an option here.