Know thy Route

I hope you remember me mentioning in my last topic on this series about how we as a family get excited about road trips. Having said that, planning to drive during a vacation comes with its own share of huge responsibilities. If you have booked a tour operator, you will have nothing to worry about the planning. But the moment you decide to take the wheel yourself, there are a whole lot of aspects involved that need to be considered.

It all starts with a simple decision of what is the origin and destination of your road trip. Where would you like to start the drive where do you want to end it. Everything else in between are just pit stops, some short ones and others longer. We call this route planning. We usually avoid driving through cities, if feasible, and plan the trip through more scenic routes to enjoy the best what nature has to offer us.

Let us not forget the fact that while on a vacation, especially to a location you had never been before, everything is new for you. Every single bit is an experience. The question that begs to be answered is what is important for you or your family to include in the route you planned.

Obviously, there will be numerous choices, and it is easy to get lost. Here is where you apply the delicate balancing act of considering the wishes of each one of the family members so that you don’t end up disappointing someone. One of the recent road trips we did from London to Scotland, we combined a mix of beautiful villages which Ruby and I adored along with castles and other attractions, many of which were shooting locations for Harry Potter movies. Kids went wild with that!

You can start with making a list of well-known attractions on your route. It is so easy these days with tonnes of information available on internet. Travel blogs, websites such as Trip Advisor and various other sources give you lot of details and make it easy for you to come up with an initial list. The challenge will be to short list the attractions and align it as closely as possible to the route you planned. Else you will end up in too much of deviations costing you time and money.

Just make sure that you take the advice from various sources with a pinch of salt, since people usually write based on their personal experiences which may or may not apply to you. Some of the best examples are hotel reviews where what could be a perfect experience for you may be totally unacceptable for another traveller. Hence your decisions based on another person’s experience may not always be correct. The value attributed to attractions are another classic case. What could be an out-of-the-world experience for you could just be another tick in the box for someone. Choose wisely.

Remember to have a Plan B ready to respond to any changes while you are on the trip. Anything can go wrong in an unplanned trip. Weather changes, road closures, incorrect understanding of the information you obtained, accidental route deviations and what not? During our last trip in Scotland, we planned to reach the beautiful Isle of Skye by crossing a bridge from the mainland but were stupefied as we drove into a small port town of Mallaig which was the dead-end. The only option was to take a ferry to the island from the port which unfortunately we could not, since the ferry was full by the time our turn reached. We got the amount refunded, but Plan A did not work out that day. Instead, we explored the lovely town of Mallaig where we could even experience ‘The Jacobite Steam Train’ better known as Hogwarts Express!

 

Vacations should be all about fun. There will always be unknowns. All what we need to remind ourselves is not to fret if something goes wrong, instead be prepared and adapt accordingly.

 

The elf has many more stories to tell you. Until next time, drive safe and have fun!

 

The U-Turn

We planned and executed our first ever family trip to Europe last year. Switzerland was one of the dream destinations we included in our itinerary. While planning the trip, we shortlisted a few locations to visit in this beautiful piece of heaven. One such location was Isenfluh, a lesser known scenic place among the countless exotic destinations in this country. Google gave such magnificent images of Isenfluh that, not including this among our places to visit, was absolutely unthinkable. Thus we started our trip with Isenfluh as a definite stop among the locations to cover in Swiss.

After visiting a couple of other places in our itinerary we finally reached the Swiss Alps. On the way back from a famous hill station we spotted a tiny wooden board pointing to the left with the name ‘Isenfluh’ written on it. The road was narrower, compared to its counterparts in the country. We entered the road and immediately found a stark difference in the design of traffic. While the number of vehicles were quite less we had to navigate through a two-way traffic with no divider separating the road and the left border grazing the deep valleys of Alps!

Being a first time driver in Europe and having all our lives in my hands, I started the drive up the winding paths of the mighty mountain with a shiver down the spine! The only thing that still motivated us to go ahead was the fact that the images we saw earlier in Google slowly started to become a reality.

Further up the hill, a tunnel awaited us which looked quite spooky. This was unlike numerous other tunnels that we passed through in this nation were every other mountain seemed to have been cut through to create a passage. The tunnel was built in its most natural form with the mountain chipped away to create the path and is devoid of any structural reinforcement with concrete. The eerie feeling was complimented with a board that welcomed us at the mouth of the tunnel announcing the age of the passageway as more than a century old.

The lighting inside the tunnel was also less than others that we saw in Swiss. It was either designed that way to provide the commuters with a unique sort of an experience while the stark reality remained right in front of our eyes about the space crunch inside the tunnel where it was quite an effort to give way to a vehicle that came from the opposite direction. After what seemed to be an endless drive through a scary pathway we literally saw the light at the end of the tunnel!

A mesmerizing view of Alps greeted us at the exit of the tunnel that left us short of breath and we literally stood there absorbing the beauty of this awesome creation of God! Soon we realized that it was not just the beauty that left us with less air to breathe, but was also the combination of altitude that we climbed and the fear that intensified even more through that narrow path around the tiny stretch of mountain side. That was the exact moment when a bigger car took quite a sharp turn at the already narrow road and literally pushed us right to the edge of the cliff! It was indeed a narrow escape.

We stopped the car for a moment and took a deep breath to absorb the gravity of what just happened. While the majesty of Alps that surrounded us was too enticing and as a seductress lured us into her open arms, we took a very hard decision that very instant not to proceed further! We clicked a couple of pictures to capture the moment for eternity and with great difficulty managed to take a U-turn to return to safer plains.

This was a defining moment that reminded us of certain points in our lives where we need to stop and think if it is truly worth proceeding. If your conscience tells you that the way ahead is quite dangerous to the extent of being life threatening, do not hesitate to take a U-turn. It may be an opportunity lost, but putting at stake the lives of your loved ones does not justify even the greatest of temptations in this mortal world!

May you be blessed with the courage to take informed decisions in such moments of truth. 

Stroller Power

Our daughter celebrated her first birthday a few weeks before our trip together as a family to Mauritius. My wife and I debated on the need to take the baby stroller with us. Convenience for the baby was the only argument for taking it whereas we could list down quite a few reasons not to take the stroller including the hassle of carrying it, extra luggage etc. to name a few.

Guess the emotional element of baby’s comfort finally overruled every other argument and we ended up carrying the stroller with us. Little did we know that the one year old who ‘convinced us’ to take the stroller was doing us a favour without which the entire trip would’ve been a disaster!

For all the young parents out there, stroller is one powerful accessory you should definitely include in your luggage. Here are some of the quick benefits we realized with this magical vehicle which contributed a lot to our peace of mind during this trip as well as the future ones:

Carrying the little ones

It is probably the most underestimated task especially if you’ve not experienced it before. When on a trip, carrying the kid in your hand can literally be dangerous for your health since sooner or later you’re going to figure out how much of a colossal effort that is! Placing the kid on the stroller not just helps you to be free but more importantly is extremely comfortable for the kid as well. Also, if you are a parent with two kids with minimal age difference you could alternate the usage of stroller so that you don’t tire out the elder one too much.

A push cart

Strollers though are designed primarily to carry kids, many parents use them as a push cart as required. This is even more applicable and useful when you are on a trip. There will be quite a few items that you may be required to carry which can all possibly be supported by this wonderful ride. 

Managing the stroller

Remember the hassles I mentioned earlier that we were debating about carrying the stroller as an extra luggage? If you are taking a flight, many airlines today allow you to carry the baby on the stroller itself till the point of boarding where they’ll take the stroller from you to check that in. A few other airlines’ take the stroller at the Check-in counter itself which you could collect at the destination. Do remember that due to the size of the stroller, it may not be arriving on the same carrousel / belt along with your luggage, instead could be arriving on the over-sized luggage carrousel. This again could be different for different airports.

On the other hand, if you are travelling by train or by road, you could easily find a spot to park the stroller either below the seats or in a luggage holding section if available. In any case, the good news is that managing a stroller isn’t that difficult as what we expected. The benefits a stroller provides definitely outweighs any inconvenience it may cause.

Having said this, there could be certain types of trips where you may want to consider twice before you plan to take a stroller. If your trip is to a beach destination or a challenging trekking expedition, taking a stroller may not necessarily provide you with the benefits cited above. On the contrary it may in fact add to your luggage making the trip more strenuous.

As I strongly believe, you can read or listen to the experience of others but never forget to apply common sense from your perspective to see what is best for you!

Bon voyage!   

Trip Elf: Your Travel Buddy

When it comes to travelling, there are three types of people in this world. Those who love to travel and explore the world around them is the first category. There are others who hate travelling for multiple reasons, mostly personal ones. We then have a third category who are occasional travellers.

Irrespective of the category you belong to, this is an attempt to share a few tips related to travel in general. If you are one who loves travelling, I’m sure you may have experienced some of these yourself and are welcome to make use of the rest. If you hate travelling, I’m positive that you may find some of these tips to help you to rethink on your resistance to travel since you don’t really know what you are missing!

This is a series on such tips that I keep gathering over my trips and am more than happy to share them with you. These will evolve over a period of time and I’ll keep adding to this series as and when I have something worth sharing.

Happy reading and enjoy your trip!

Travel Tips 01 – Planning Your Trip