How to Plan a Trip Yourself
When you are looking forward to something good, your body produces the happiness hormone dopamine. Could you take advantage of it? Start planning a trip yourself to get more enjoyment out of your trip and save money and nerves at the same time.
Plan ahead
Start planning six months of your trip. Once you've chosen a country, buy your round-trip tickets right away - this defines the boundaries within which you plan your trip and saves money, as it's always cheaper to buy the tickets in advance.
Then find out whether or not you need a visa for your departure country. If so, apply for one on the embassy's website. Come to the embassy or visa center at the stated deadline with all the documents listed on the website. Usually, it takes two weeks to a month to get the visa. When you have finished all the tedious bureaucratic procedures, the most exciting part of the preparation begins.
Additionally, this dentist who does oral surgery in Marlborough MA also recommends making a list of clinics near your destination in case of medical emergencies.
Exploratory Glory YouTube Channel
Explore the country through social media.
Start your preparations by searching for pictures on a search engine or Pinterest. Enter the name of the country you plan to travel to into the social networking site's search bar. It will give you pictures of the most scenic spots other travelers take. So you can immediately understand what you want to see with your own eyes and what you can do without, determine what attractions are top-rated, and find unusual places, which will only tell some guides.
For example, this is how I found Mount Adama Peak in Sri Lanka, which is 2,234 meters above sea level. The Buddhists believe that Buddha left his mark there, and monks ascend it yearly. Guides don't offer guided tours, so it's a self-guided ascent. And it is worth it!
When planning a trip on your own, it's important to consult reliable sources, such as travel guides and trusted websites like paperhelp legit, so you should find valuable resources for organizing your travel itinerary.
Self-traveling
Watch the clips on YouTube. When we were in Peru and came down from the mountains after a four-day hike to Machu Picchu, my husband, and I was anxious for a delicious and inexpensive coffee. Everyone ends up the same way on this trek - in the village of Aguas Calientes. The prices there are insanely high for travelers' cafes. After an hour of searching, I remembered a traveler's video: she told us there was an unremarkable market with low prices on the first floor of one of the buildings. We had some excellent coffee and bought water and biscuits for the journey to Cusco.
Read what people write about the places you like
In the photos, you might like a beautiful lake with pink water or an eco-hotel shaped like a tree house. Read how you can get there and what other travelers have said about the place. Itineraries are available on the Vinsky forum, and reviews can be found on TripAdvisor. It may be a half-day walk through a tropical rainforest to the hotel or the lake, maybe someone else's imaginary adventure. Do your due diligence and check your facts.
Make friends in the country you are planning to travel to. Use Instagram* or Facebook*. Or see who's looking for a place to stay in your city on CouchSurfing. It's a service for travelers worldwide to find free accommodation and meet locals.
Before our trip to Peru, a Peruvian woman, Anna, stayed with us. Thanks to Anna, we learned that Lima is safest in the Miraflores and Barranco districts. That said, the most fabulous parties are in dangerous areas, and you can get into them with locals, who are easy to find on the same CouchSurfing.
Put together an itinerary.
Sketch an outline of the country in a notebook, and mark the planned places to visit. This will make it clearer how to build an itinerary.
I usually draw a route as a clockwise circle, going from the lowest point on the map upwards and downwards. It's a method many travelers use. I need to figure out how to explain that from city to city, we always meet people we know from the beginning of the journey. We always find out we have the same plans by talking and sharing itineraries. Such tricks aim to build a route most efficiently, spending less time and money on travel.
Take care of your comfort: food, lodging, luggage.
Following the itinerary, you will always stay in different hotels and cities. Allocate two or three days to each city, depending on the attractions you plan to visit.
You can experiment with accommodation formats since you won't have to stay there long. For example, in one city, stay in a noisy hangout hostel. In another, book a room in a luxury villa. In a third stay with a local. Vacation rental welcome book, Airbnb, and the familiar CouchSurfing can all help.
Think about where you are going to eat. Explore the Entertainment, Lodging, and Restaurants tabs on TripAdvisor. Write the names and addresses down in a notebook. You won't need them, but seeing familiar characters in a city far from your home is lovely. It makes you feel like a local.
Try not to take too many things with you. You'll be more mobile if you carry only the essentials.
Take care of travel within the country.
Do your research on the transport you'll use to get from one point to another on the map. Usually, you must enter the name of the country and the mode of travel you choose, the train, bus, plane, rental car, and others, into the search engine.
Buy your tickets in advance. If you want to wait to buy in advance, find out how and where to do it when you arrive in the country.
Just make sure you know before when you can buy a ticket. It was a shame when we didn't buy tickets in advance for the scenic railway from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka, and it turned out on the spot that they sold out a month in advance. Don't repeat our mistakes.
Make your travel guide.
Gather all the knowledge about the country and your itinerary in a guidebook. You can color it, paste in vivid illustrations and clippings, write down all the necessary information, and even basic phrases in the local language.
I always do this when preparing for a trip. My guidebook always has all the key places to visit, addresses, phone numbers, and essential information.
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