Month: June 2017

7 Tips For Women Solo Travelers To Discover Southeast Asia

Published by Dev

This is a guest post by Luna Anderson from Hikertrack.com, a blog about outdoor activities. Last year she backpacked across a few countries in Southeast Asia and learned that travelling in that part of the world can be a lot more different and challenging at the same time if you just happen to be a solo woman hailing from the West. Sharing her knowledge with all those solo women planning Southeast Asia, this is what she has to say… Travelling in Southeast Asia is quite hard as it is. Obviously, you are likely to investigate one of all culturally-rich and also adventure-filled locations in the world. The experience can be overwhelming — and being a single woman backpacker provides an entire mass of more worries into the mix. For beginners, for example, the biggest worry is being secure out there. They want to make sure that they understand the local customs. So if you’re a solo women traveller wanting to visit Southeast Asia, you’re at right place. Here is an overall bunch of best suggestions for …

Gujarat Travel Guide

Published by Dev

When I was initially planning to backpack across Gujarat I’d no idea what to expect. People suggested that backpacking in Gujarat – particularly inside Kutch – won’t be a good idea. But it wasn’t the backpacking or travelling on my own, that I was worried about. A limited travel information available on Gujarat was the biggest challenge. Other than its few religious sites, a couple of national parks and the over-promoted Kutch festival (or the Rann Utsav), very little has been written or spoken about tourism in Gujarat. A few online travel guides moreover left me discouraged furthermore mentioning about Gujarat’s poor public transportation system. So before I start with my usual travel guide format, I’d give you a general overview and help you understand Gujarat better. The state of Gujarat has been divided into three parts: Saurashtra, Magadh and Kutch. Saurashtra and Magadh, does not have much to travel, at least if speaking for not-so-religious travel community. Other than Gir National Park (popular for spotting Asiatic Lion), all you’ll find here are a few historical sites including Somnath and Dwarka, and a few …

How I Make Money Travel Blogging? And How Much!

Published by Dev

I remember about a year ago, I wrote an article on How To Save Money For Travel. I mean they were still those early days of blogging when I was spending all the money I needed to travel from my poscket. Moving one year later, I’ve reached a break-even point, meaning I don’t make profit or save any money through blogging, but I don’t pay for my travels either. My blog, very recently, took me across Europe for two months and all I paid from the pocket was 70 thousand Indian Rupees, including my returning flight from India and the visa, because everything else was sponsored by tourism boards or independent travel companies. [Read: How did I travel two months in Europe in less than 70 thousand Rupees]. Later, in September and October, I’d an all-expenses covered (including flight tickets from India) media trips to Malaysia and Germany, respectively. So the question remains, How exactly do I make money? How do I fund my travels? Do I have sponsors? Who is paying me to travel the …

Tips To Find Sponsors For Your Blog Trip To Europe

Published by Dev

Travelling to Europe? Run a blog? This guide can help you find sponsors and travel Europe for free. If you run a travel blog which is fairly new and thus, doesn’t help you score many FAM trips, do not worry. Travelling the world on FAM trips isn’t a big deal. In fact, the reality is, if you continue blogging and gaining more followers, even if at a slow rate, you’re eventually going to end up attending FAM trips to one country, or the other. Brands and tourism boards are constantly looking for bloggers, in new markets, for delivering their brand message and convince more people to visit them. But are they contacting you? I guess not! As I always say, if they aren’t contacting you, why not you contact them. Send them an email introducing your blog, tell them about your blog’s efficiency, and how it can help them redirect your readers to their website and social media accounts, and eventually, to their destination. Do not forget to share a Media Kit though. [Read: How …

How Blogging Helped Me Travel In Europe For 2 Months, In Less Than 70k Rupees

Published by Dev

After returning home from my two-month long backpacking trip across Europe, one question I was particularly asked, was how did I afford to travel in Europe for so long. People around me wanted to know how did I afford travelling for so long in a continent so expensive, despite having no job for the past few years. Those who knew me personally and had a little idea about how I make money travel blogging still thought that my dad or someone else in the family supported me financially. A few high-school buddies even mocked, stating that I might be into smuggling drugs or busy working illegal ideas, after repeating, yet once again, the usual family sponsorship gamut. And when I spoke in defence and confessed of my innocence, declaring “it’s my blog that supported… and that’s how I travelled Europe for so long without spending much” they called me a Dishonest Don. “We all know your stories fucker, now tell us how did you do it,” one of my friends snapped. How Blogging Is Contributing …

How Much It Cost Me To Run This Blog So Far And How Much Has It Helped

Published by Dev

The ideal way of calculating the profitability of your business is by comparing the total effort and money you’ve invested in it so far vs what you’ve gained out of it. It has been more than 1.5 months since I’ve been blogging now, and I think it’s about time I ask myself how profitable blogging has been, for me, so far! During all this time of full-time blogging, I’ve personally calculated the benefits almost every day, but it would be only unfair if I kept the secret to myself and not shared. Though of course, it’s practically impossible to go back in time and share every tiny detail but I’ll still give you an idea. Different Ways I Make Money Right Now Direct Earning: Since the last six months or so, I’ve been earning somewhere around 10-50 thousand Indian Rupees a month, from my blog. And to do so, I use a mix of different revenue sources — ranging from writing sponsored posts on my blog to running Google Adsense to placing affiliate links and earning from …

How To Travel The World Without Spending Too Much Money

Published by Dev

[Desclaimer: I was not sponsored to review workaway, which may otherwise feel once you read my post. Moreover, the fact that I had a great volunteering experience and that I encourage the idea of Workaway-ing, are not linked] Recently while travelling in Europe and Australia, I tried a unique experience of working as an au-pair with a couple of hosts by using a website called workaway.info — a work/exchange volunteer type of program, with projects from all over the world. The drill is… as a workawayer, you get to stay in a place for weeks or even months without having to spend any money on your food and stay. Workaway is perfect for people who want to stay a long time at a certain place for free. But there is more to it than just staying for free. I found workaway a better way of travelling because you can stay with your host like a family (particularly if you attend someone as an au-pair) and by doing so you get a chance to learn about their culture more closely and much better about …

Backpacking in Europe Or Backpacking In Southeast Asia? Tips For Indian Backpackers!

Published by Dev

Europe and Southeast Asia can be completely different when it comes to travelling, and the many obvious dissimilarities like the differences in the cost of travelling, visa complications are no alien to us either. Southeast Asia offers easy visa possibilities, whereas Europe on the other hand, makes it tougher to get one. So if you’re planning a trip abroad, and are confused about what would be a better choice for you, personally — is it holidaying in Europe or holidaying in Thailand, or Bali — then these four but more peculiar differences will help you make your mind better. Visas If money is no foundation, and you’re planning to cover a few number of countries in one trip, it makes more sense to backpack in Europe, because you’re only required to apply for a Schengen Visa and you’re free to cross 28 borders in Europe, without having to worry about border security. Southeast Asia, on the other hand, requires visa formality for every country. Though most nations in Southeast Asia give Indians the option of Visa …

Tips For Your First Solo Motorbiking Trip In Himalayas

Published by Dev

I vaguely remember the time I was planning my first ever motorbiking trip in the Himalayas, I was scared more than ever. I’d never done something like this before and I’d no idea what to expect from it. And to make it worse, I’d decided to go solo, and that too on the world’s most isolated and treacherous roads — Spiti Valley, in Himachal Pradesh. Read: An Ideal Road-Trip Itinerary For Spiti Valley But where on one side I was scared and confused, with no past experiences of riding in the Himalayas, on the other side, I knew I was ready for it — at least if technically speaking. I had researched about the entire route map well enough, equipped myself properly, and was not carried away by the romanticism of riding only a Royal Enfield. For a total of 9 days, I drove an average of 200 kilometres per day, covering a total of 2200 kilometre distance from my home (in Delhi) and back, and it was a whirlwind experience. Another fascination I was bitten with was doing the entire …

Budget Travel Tips For Europe

Published by Dev

Even with more and more budget backpackers making it to Europe, discovering their own quirky ways to travel on a cheap, Europe is still considered as a fairly expensive destination (especially among those who are dealing with a big currency difference, as I did, of 1Euro (EUR)= 70 Indian Rupees). During my 2 months of travel in Europe, and especially while travelling across countries like Germany, Austria and Italy, I often get sick to my stomach seeing how expensive everything was — from transportation to food to accommodation. A few things, however, have worked in travellers favour, for example, the dawn of hospitality networks, the rise of sharing economies, and an introduction of cheaper public transport. And all this has contributed to making Europe more affordable than ever. And here are my Budget Travel Tips For Europe: Take Buses more often. And Avoid Trains There’s no denying the fact that in Europe buses are a lot cheaper than trains. And most budget backpackers rely on buses to keep their travel costs low. Speaking of my personal experience, during the recent backpacking trip …