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 the 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 …

How I Sustain My Travel Needs To How Much Money I Make From Blogging

Published by Dev

  This article was written back in 2017, and since then many things have changed about my income sources, and about how I sustain my life of travelling. I even started a hospitality business in the Himalayas in India in 2018 which further added to my revenue source. So if you want to read the updated version of how I make money travel blogging and how I sustain the life of travelling as I enter in 2019, click here.Or continue reading how I sustained my travel-blogging life back in 2017…  My blog, very recently, took me across Europe for two months and all I paid from the pocket was 70 thousand Indian Rupees —  in buying a return flight from India and the visa — because everything else was pretty much sponsored by tourism boards or independent travel companies. Later, in September and October, in 2017, I did an all-expenses covered (including flight tickets from India) media trips to Malaysia and Germany, respectively. So yea, moving ahead in 2017, I’ve started getting sponsored travel more frequently, and …

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 doesn’t help you score any 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! So as I always say, if they aren’t contacting you, why don’t you contact them? Send them an email introducing your blog, tell them about your blog’s efficiency, and how you can help them redirect your blog readers to their website and social media accounts, and eventually, to their destination. Do not forget to share a Media Kit though. [Read: …

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

Published by Dev

As I retured home after my two-month long backpacking trip across Europe, one question I was repeatedly asked was, how did I afford to travel in Europe for so long, despite having no job, and with it, no source of permanent income for the past few years. Those who knew me personally but had a little idea about how I make money travel mocked me by saying that my dad or someone else in the family supported me financially. 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” they said I was lying. “We all know your stories fucker, now tell us how did you do it,” one of my friends snapped. To be honest, blogging had been the best thing happened to me so far since I’ve started travelling — at least if financially speaking. It has provided me with sponsored trips and even helped me make a little money here and there. And when I say, …

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

Published by Dev

I wrote this article back in July 2017 honestly mentioning how blogging helped me travel around the world —  while doing a fair comparison between how much I invested in starting a travel blog and running it so far with how much it helped in return (in terms of money I made so far and the number of free tours I scored and to where all). Moving ahead, and one year later, as I write this update (in December 2018) I’ve gained much more out of blogging than what is mentioned in the article here. I am currently working on that updated version to give you a better idea about how blogging has helped me travel to 20+ countries until now while spending almost nothing from my pocket, and astonishingly even making a bit of money in the process. I will provide the link of the updated article here as soon as I write it. The ideal way of calculating the profitability of any business is by comparing the total effort and money you’ve invested …

How To Travel The World Without Spending Too Much Money

Published by Dev

Recently, while backpacking in Europe and Australia, I tried a unique way of travelling on a budget by volunteering (in return of free accommodation and food) using a website called WorldPackers — a work/exchange volunteer program, with projects from all over the world. The drill is… as a volunteer, you work for your host for a few hours every day and in return, you get to eat and stay for free. WorldPackers is perfect for those who want to stay at a certain place for a long time in return of doing some work for them and availing free hospitality. But there is more to it than just staying for free. I found volunteering is a better way of travelling because you get to stay with your host like a family member (particularly if you attend someone as an au-pair) and by doing so you get a chance to learn about their culture and the pace more closely. My volunteer experience in Rome and Germany (the first time I experienced WorldPackers) showed me a local way of life. …

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 numbers 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: Spiti Valley Motorbike Trip Itinerary 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 journey to …

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 …