photo by @the.yogi.travels
Wanderlust part 2
Gemma Gosden
04 August 2017
Following on from our post last week we have more amazing travel advice and tips from Christina.
Transport
The 2 best flight comparison sites are:
This site is best for scheduled flights such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines etc.
Also well known for long haul flights.
This site is best for low cost flights, although, you do have to be careful because the price shown is not always the final price that you will pay.
Also they don’t always show live availability, so the fare displayed could be at least an hour old and is no longer valid.
I use skyscanner to give me a good indication of the cheapest airlines for that route/dates, then I go onto the airlines website to confirm the cost and book.
Booking through a third party site doesn’t make it any cheaper, so I always book direct on the airlines website.
Walk as much as you can! It is by far the best way to see a new place. I love getting lost in new places, it’s all part of the travelling experience!
If the place you are visiting has a metro system ALWAYS use it and NEVER get a taxi. If you’re not an experienced traveler it can be quite daunting at first trying to figure out the metro in a foreign country, but you will be so glad you did, and realise it’s actually quite easy.
When it comes to travelling from place to place and between countries the cheapest way will usually be by bus. Depending where you are travelling to and how long the journey is most places offer night buses.
Not the most comfortable but it’s worth it if it means you can afford to extend your travels by saving money on transport!
If you can afford to spend a bit more, the alternative is to go by train if it’s available. It is quicker and can be more comfortable than the bus depending what class you book, BUT, it can be very very confusing!
Make sure you are clear on what platform and train number you are travelling on. Every country is different but if you ever find yourself in north China (like I did) where English is not widely spoken and all signs are in the local language it can make it a very interesting experience!
So make sure you learn to say the platform number or train number before you go, it just makes life easier.
Lastly and the most expensive is to travel by plane. Obviously sometimes travelling by bus or train is not going to be an option. Internal flights are usually like buses, very frequent and plenty of availability.
If you want to be able to go travelling and live each day as it comes then flying does give you the most freedom as usually these can be booked the day before, if not the actual day you want to travel, whereas with night buses and night trains, these need booking a few more days in advance as they can get booked up rather quickly.
Research
The key thing to getting your travelling adventure right is research.
Google is a beautiful thing and I literally use it every day. As soon as I want to book a trip the first thing I go is google!
One of my favourite sites to do research on different countries has to be www.lonelyplanet.com
I also highly recommend their travel books. I always buy one for wherever I visit.
The books are written by people that actually live there, so there is so much useful information including maps which are super easy to read.
They have literally made my trips so easy to plan. They also give you a good indication of what your budget might need to be
Other tips:
- Try to drink as little alcohol as possible as it can be pricey
- Don’t be scared to try street food, its normally the tastiest food
- Make sure you have travel insurance and a valid passport!
- Travelling with other people can work out cheaper as you can avoid supplements and might be able to get group discounts
- Try and book everything yourself rather than through a travel agent, if push comes to shove I recommend www.statravel.co.uk
- Make sure you get a travel friendly bank account sorted before you go as some banks can charge you for using your card overseas
Thank you Christina!
We hope all this info has helped and we would love to hear from you if you’re currently planning your own wanderlust adventure.
A huge thanks to Christina for her advice and feel free to get in touch with her via Instagram if you have any questions.
GDG E-book, Life after Lessons available now!
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