All posts tagged: Travel Tips

Top Tips For Renting A Car In Europe

Published by Dev

Planning to rent a car in Europe, and doing it for the first time? Read these useful tips. During my recent blog trip with Germany Tourism, I ticked off a major bucket list thing — hiring a car and doing a road trip in Europe. Though I understand it was a short one, and a part of me wanted to ride a motorbike than driving a car, I think the fact that it was my first time ever attempt for solo driving/riding in Europe, and that too on the wrong side of the road (according to my Indian disposition) driving a car felt like a safer plan. So if are just as helpless as I was before the trip, renting a car in Europe from India (or some other country overseas) for the first time ever, this article will help you answer your questions. The Hidden Costs: My Experience Of Renting A Car In Europe Driving around in Europe is indeed a great experience. But there’s more to the deal than just a great experience. Thanks …

The Bible of Budget Travel In India: Top Tips

Published by Dev

Looking for budget travel tips for India? You are at the right place. Because this is not your average budget travel guide for India. This is, The Bible Of Budget Travelling!   After living in India for almost my entire life, when I quit my job in 2015 to travel, I decided to initially explore my own country, before stepping out in the world. This was for two reasons: one because I knew if I survived a few months in India and still didn’t give up on travelling, I can handle any place in the world. I wanted to test my endurance. Secondly, because India was among one of the cheapest countries to travel, and given I had no source of regular income at the moment, budget travelling was the only way to afford travelling. So my choice was easy, and I spent the initial 12 months of my travelling stint mapping the length and breadth of my country, before actually stepping abroad (except for travelling Nepal and Bhutan. But they’re more or less India). …

Travel Tips For Long Term Traveling

Published by Dev

Since I’ve quit my corporate career in 2015 and became a full-time nomad, I’ve learned that long-term traveling has its own challenges. It is something very different from short weekend trips. When you’re on the road for months, you’ve to think and act differently. From packing travel essentials to maintaining a daily personal routine to keeping a hold of your budget, long-term travel is a different deal altogether. I mean I remember when, before becoming a full-time traveler, my weekend holidays had only one agenda: to relax, unwind, and not care about a thing. I would pack anything (always more than I wanted); spend money (on food and accommodation) carelessly, and plan more than what was necessary. So yea, where long-term travel offers amazing life experience, it does come with its own set of challenges, and these tips will help you maintain your new nomadic lifestyle and avoid chucking it all in after a few weeks. Pack Light When you are planning to stay on road for months, the most important thing to keep in …

Providing A Confirmed Return Flight Ticket For Visa

Published by Dev

As an international travel blogger, holding a weak Indian passport in hand, I often deal with providing a confirmed return flight ticket when applying for a visa — or worse, providing a proof of my onward journey while getting a visa-on-arrival or a visa-free entry. I remember the first time it happened to me I was crossing the border into Thailand wanting to continue backpacking into a few other countries in Southeast Asia. Though I was exiting  Thailand in just two weeks (as visa on arrival for Thailand for Indians only allows us to stay in the country for a maximum of 15 days) I didn’t have a flight ticket to my next destination Cambodia. I wanted to travel to Cambodia by land and for that, it was only natural to be entering Thailand and then book a bus/train ticket. However, due to my inexperience with international travel (it was my first ever trip outside of South Asia back in 2016) it never once crossed my mind that this would be a problem. I was asked …

Essential Holiday Packing Tips

Published by Dev

Packing for a holiday divides people into two schools. The first leaves everything to the last minute, throwing in as much as possible; the second packs early and systematically, but often has to unpack again because they need something already stowed away in the suitcase. Well, I happen to be the first case (as most backpackers do) but believe me, if you want to pack for a holiday better, you don’t want to do that. For most of my journeys, I end up leaving something or the other behind and later regretting it. But whichever side of the packing divide you fall on, don’t worry – there is a middle ground too. And this middle ground, my friends, will help you back better and more efficiently. Related Read: What I Pack For My Travels Essential Holiday Packing Tip 1: Make A List Without a packing list, you can so easily forget something, especially if it’s not something you use every day, such as suncream, sunglasses, or even a swimming costume. The essentials such as your passport, …

Top Travel Hacks For When You Are Broke

Published by Dev

There’s no escaping the fact that travelling needs money but if you know just happen to know your way around and have the knowledge of all the right places to look at, then you can go on amazing vacations despite not being a millionaire. I mean it’s because of budget travelling that I’ve been able to survive the initial days of travel blogging when blogging didn’t generate any revenue and I had to invest all the money for my travels from my pocket. I could have, back then, travelled like an average irrational tourist, spend carelessly in quick flight bookings, expensive hotels and a few taxis here and there, but I didn’t. I knew that I could either travel more by spending less money (and fulfil my travel dreams) or not be travelling at all. So if you too are struggling with a little cash inflow and still want to travel the world, these travel-hacks will help you go a long way. Top Travel Hacks For When You Are Broke Avoid Travelling On Weekends Hotels and …

How To Find A Good Hostel

Published by Dev

With more and more people trying solo travelling today, the trend of staying in a hostel, over boring guest-houses, is certainly picking up — but to be honest, good hostels are rare to find! It’s not the physical appearance that makes a hostel good or bad. I’ve stayed in some of the fanciest hostels during my travels (in cities like Perth or Berlin or Bangkok that are considered to be the friendliest backpacking destinations in the world) but the hostel-experience there bored me to death. And then I’ve stayed at some of the most unheard-of places and in hostels that looked untidy and smelled of someone’s last night’s dinner, but I had an amazing time because of the people there. To have a good hostel experience, it is important to have a good social atmosphere. After all, hostels have more to do with people than the physical place itself. So while finding a good hostel, here’s what I always look for! Breakfast: Breakfasts is when you have the most convenient and common time to meet …

Travel With A Backpack Or A Suitcase?

Published by Dev

A die-hard budget backpacker rolling a ‘pretty’ suitcase on the wild-west Kuala Lumpurian streets, sounds confusing right? That’s exactly what I was doing — struggling between the hard choices of lifting and rolling an 18 kg suitcase — while making my way from Kuala Lumpur to Penang Island. It all happened when I was invited by Selangor Tourism for a 5-day blogging trip in the Selangor region, in Malaysia, and an idea struck my mind that ‘I don’t want to look the odd one in the group, carrying a backpack.’ A quick phone call to another blogger, who was accompanying me on the trip, and my fear turned into reality. Everybody else was attending the trip like a fancy tourist. Reluctantly, I decided to put my hard-earned respect at stake, ditched my backpack behind, for the first time in my previous 2-year travel stint, and carried along a nice-looking suitcase. Yes, I decided to carry a rolling suitcase than my beloved backpack! An Easy Lesson, Learned The Hard Way As soon as my FAM trip was finished, and …

Tips On Travelling Through Western Australia If You Aren’t Driving

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Western Australia remains one of my favourite regions in Australia when it comes to travelling. It has moving sand-dunes, white sand beaches, some 100,000-year-old sandstone formations, massive gorges, mountain ranges, vineyards, historical towns, indigenous communities and what not! The only problem is, however, transportation is a big problem in the region unless you are driving. If you’re going to and from the main cities, like Perth or Albany or Broome, you still find a bus connection or a train, but if you’re going off the beaten path, consider yourself screwed because there will be no public transportation. And if you still manage to find a bus or a train, the cost of transportation will be so heavily overrated that you are anyway going to regret it. On the east coast of Australia (regions like Queensland and New South Wales) buses and trains are still affordable, but on the west coast, the case is rather the contrary. Here buses are surprisingly expensive, due to limited competition. At times, you will feel that it’s cheaper to fly out in the …

Travel Tips For Slovenia

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What people think about a place, and what it actually is, can be two different realities. And so was the case with me before I travelled to Slovenia. While I was planning the itinerary for my first backpacking trip across Europe, I expected Slovenia as a part of the ‘wild west’ or ill-famous Eastern Europe. Moreover to my guilt, my heart was always more drawn to the neighbouring countries of Italy, Austria and Hungary. But since there was no way to travel from Hungary to Italy, via land, without travelling through Slovenia (because I didn’t want to cross through Croatia holding a Schengen Visa), I decided to pass through Slovenia, and moreover stay in Ljubljana for a few days. [Related Read: My First Impression of Ljubljana] So if you are visiting Slovenia for the first time, then read ahead. These four significant misconceptions are the most useful travel tips for Slovenia. Don’t Mix Slovenia And Slovakia Slovenian people are very friendly and well-versed. For almost always you will find them smiling. But if there’s one thing that …