Thursday, September 6, 2018

Travel Tip 01: Planning Your Trip

It is a well-known truth that nothing is more refreshing than travelling to locations, especially new ones. Many families do this at least once in a year. While going for a tour can be quite a relaxing experience, an unplanned trip can turn out to be a disaster. It is important that you have a fair amount of idea about where to go, what to see and what to do at the locations you’ve included in your trip. Many people avoid the hassle of arranging for the trip by paying a handsome amount to a travel agency, especially for international trips. There are quite a few who prefer to plan the trip themselves and enjoy every moment of doing so.
For those who dare to plan the trip themselves, here are a few tips that could possibly help them plan better:

Plan in advance
Unless it is a last minute trip plan, always ensure that you give enough time for planning the trip. There could be many unknowns that may need more time. It’ll help to have enough time in hand for such eventualities. It’ll also help especially with booking of tickets for flights, trains etc. Most of the time ticket prices are quite low when booked in advance.

Check-list
It is an absolutely handy tool to have a check-list created for activities or items required for the trip. May it be getting a Visa or taking the mobile charger with you, the check-list is a sure shot success to ensure that you have not forgotten anything important. It is also a good practice to keep a copy of this check-list with you so that you can use it for your subsequent trips. You could even categorize the check-list as domestic vs international or cold weather vs warm weather etc. and plan the execution accordingly. As and when an activity is completed, you could strike that through. It’ll give you a sense of completion for your trip preparation.

Passport / Visa Requirement
If it is an international trip, one of the key factors to be considered is your readiness with respect to passport and Visa(s). You need to ensure that your passport is valid at least for 6 months (in most cases) and you’ve a valid Visa for the country or countries to which you are travelling. Visa processes can differ from country to country and you’ll definitely need to factor in some time to ensure that you’ve the required Visa in hand before the trip.

Accommodation
While staying with family or friends can be quite a comfortable experience and saves you good amount of money, staying at a hotel can be very liberating. You may want to keep in mind a famous saying that, “A guest is a guest for two days; after which they become a pest”. Various online booking options such as Booking.com, Airbnb.com etc. offer quite a few alternatives for accommodation. You need to be careful about choosing one by looking at the ratings and reviews of the hotel / apartment. Asking people who’ve booked earlier through such options is also a good idea. Cost needs to be a key consideration as well since this is one factor that could put a big hole in your travel budget.

Foreign Exchange
For international trips where you need to handle a currency that is different from your home country, it is important that you plan to carry certain amount of foreign currency acceptable in that country. This is where it could get tricky. You need to have a fair estimate of the amount required for which you obtain the foreign exchange. Anything less will possibly leave you cashless in a foreign country. On the other hand, anything in excess at the end of your trip will possibly cost you more since you could end up losing some amount while returning the currency to foreign exchanges. Using a pre-loaded forex card or your own credit card are also options, provided the destination you are heading to accept cards and is safe to do so.

Food
You wouldn’t believe the amount that just drains away on this particular expense while at your destination! One of the tricks of the trade is not to have all meals at restaurants. Instead, if feasible, plan your own cooking for which you could choose apartments with kitchen and utensils. Alternately, you could carry a small electric cooker which could help you cook a bit if required. This is especially helpful when you have little kids for whom food from outside all three times may end up as a wrong choice for their health. An alternate to restaurant food could be local supermarkets where you could buy food items that you could either consume directly or cook a bit yourself. This is guaranteed to make you happier at the end of your trip when you look at your budget sheet!

Budget
Last but not the least, all of the above and more in one way or other contribute to your expense for the trip. You need to have an idea of how much you intent to spend for the trip. It is equally important to have a check on your budget during the trip so that you won’t end up overspending. It could be quite normal for you to have changes in your plans during the trip, but having a budget will help you to have a hold of your spending which will eventually help with your financial planning.

Though there are many more tips that may not have made its way to the above list, there is one not so obvious factor that you need to give its due respect. It is nothing other than ‘common sense’. This is one critical factor that will ensure your safety above everything else throughout your trip. Hope you find this list useful and plan your next trip accordingly.

Wish you a very happy and safe journey. God bless.

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