TravelFoodCraze

Travel is the most beautiful and adventurous experience in life. Have you ever thought why most of us are desperate to travel the world in our 20’s ? It’s the age we feel that we are independent and good enough for any decision making. Yes, this is the most needed attribute for any traveller. When we travel through a lot of places, we will understand what it means to be in the outside world. You get to see different people, culture, food (Yum! Yum!), architecture, wildlife and more.

Many of us keep thinking of travel someday in our life and keep dreaming about it. But do you lag when it comes to implement your travel plan? Here you go with the easy planning ideas. When you make your travel happen the first time, it’ll probably make you keep going.

When we make it to travel plans, brain gets bombarded with the first and foremost question “Where to travel?”. This is common in young age as we aspire to explore the whole world as we see in our Indian or English movies. In reality, we know we can’t make it to the world tour in one shot. Let’s be practical about our choice of place. It’s the time to get into your imaginary mind which thinks about sunny beaches, forests, countryside, bustling city, cold winds, islands, stunning architecture, etc. (mind never stops being imaginary). But now, you should have stuck to one deep thing in mind and that’s your destination.

Now comes the complex part especially for the working professionals. Yes, you need to open your calendar and check your upcoming office plans. Next is to check out your peer’s leave plans too just not to end up leaving the office floor empty. It’s true, guys! Make your plan in the days where nobody is on a long leave thus having you enjoy the break to the fullest. It’s going to be impossible to get any office call at any circumstance during your travel. When productivity is met, no one is going to call up you. So, now you can make a long leave plan. It’s going to be a fun and forget-all trip. It will be a great memorable trip if planned good keeping the number of days in mind. Go for a domestic travel for at least 5days and on an international travel for a week or more.

No worries! You have decided your destination and days of travel. Let’s work on the finance stuff now. Any mode of transport like car, bus, train or flight cost can be checked online from your place of origin to the destination. You can check for accommodation through online services again. You need a confirmed place of stay at a hostel or hotel ranging from 1-star to 5-star so that you needn’t be stranded in your destination. When you check for the cost of accommodation, you’ll definitely get idea of the cost of food and local commute in the place. But to be on a healthy note, get your hotel booking along with breakfast because you cannot roam around with a noisy stomach. Considering any meal of the day abroad, estimate it to be at least double the cost of meal you pay in India. Write down all these estimated budgets.

You should check your bank savings / account balance right away to make your booking. When you have a 75% budget for the travel, you can book your flight and hotel accommodation coming up in 2months time period. These 2months are going to be helpful for you to save more for your travel expenses and enough shopping to look stunning in your trip photos.

In case of international travels, keep an eye on the currency exchange value as it may go up or down anytime. You have enough time to enquire in different currency exchange agencies for a good rate but make sure to have foreign currency 15days prior to your travel. Once you are done with this exchange, no regrets of low exchange rates as it will be a matter of Rs.500/-.

As I said earlier, safety is the first thing for any traveller. You’ll not know where you are exactly on every road in a new place. So, always download an offline map of the city or destination you are travelling. This will be helpful even if you don’t have network coverage in some places. You’ll definitely feel relaxed seeing you as a “Blue dot” on Google offline map. You can watch video on how to download and use offline maps during no network coverage here. Yes, Google maps come handy for us. You can put flag and mark all the visiting places in your destination and hotel location to estimate distance easily. This helps you a lot during travel from one spot to other.

Coming to travel clothing, count the number of outfits plus two for the count of days. For example, for 7days trip, pack up 7 (days) +2 = 9 outfits. In addition to this, you need some jackets / coats / shrug / scarves which adds to the need of the place. When you are up to a colder region, pack up one parka jacket, one or two sweatshirts, a woollen cap and two pairs of gloves and you’ll need two pairs of boots or shoes and a slip-on to use in the hotel. For a hot place, keep it cool with two or three cotton scarfs to protect yourself from extreme exposure to sun and two pairs of flip flops or sandals or basic sneakers. In a beach spot, take two pairs of flip flops or sandals to remove and get into the beach anytime and to walk on the shore easily.

The basic common things you can take to all these places will be an umbrella (sunny or rainy days) and your style statement sunglasses to pose for your memorable photos. You should not be burdened by baggage everywhere and so keep it least always but sufficient. You can stuff all these things in one or two medium or big sized trolley based on the days of travel. Carry a backpack to keep your basic needs handy. Never carry multiple small or cabin trolleys even when you travel as a couple. A couple traveller can take a couple of baggage max to make an easy travel. Are you ready to bid adieu and have a bon voyage?

If you had a sleepless night, that’s normal in excitement of travel. You’ll have time to sleep during your journey. Now, tick the checklist and cross check your baggage for necessary stuffs. Keep your cash divided and never a big amount in one space. You need to keep your train or bus or flight ticket handy. In case of international travel, count and keep your foreign currency and some Indian currency along with your passport and an original government ID proof. Plan your time to start from home to board your flight on time.

It’s always good to take cab from home to airport. For any domestic travel, reach airport before one and a half hours as you’ll go through baggage check-in counter, security check and finally boarding counter. When comes to international travel, be at airport before 3hours to avoid long waiting queues and you’ll go through baggage check-in, security check and immigration (you can expect queues here) in which you’ll be generally questioned by an Immigration officer such as, “Where are you travelling?”, “Where do you work?”. The aforementioned questions are in case of tourist visas only. Don’t act over smart to the officers unless you want to get into a problem. You need to be casual and normal and give only direct answers for what is asked and avoid story-telling. Once you get sealed on your passport in immigration counter, you are free to fly. Go to the boarding point and await your flight. On reaching your international destination, in case of VISA-ON-ARRIVAL, you need to fill up an immigration form with basic information about yourself and days of stay and hotel name. Keep your return flight and hotel booking copy during immigration. You’ll have the same kind of questions in foreign immigration as in India. Finish it, get sealed and go collect baggage. You need to make sure to check and count your baggage before leaving airport. If you are in a great airport, do a little shopping or you can eat something there if you are hungry. You can shop during your return journey too. When you exit the airport, feel the fresh air that welcomes you to the destination.