Visas done, flight tickets booked - now comes the exciting part!
Travel virtually before you actually travel!
Howdy! Just last week, I got an email from a reader telling me that he found my downloadable Excel super useful and is already using it for planning a family vacation to the South of France in September. He, of course, also came with a query, and to quote, he wrote - "I have now got my visas and planned a trip for 10 days from Paris with the help of your Excel. However, I am not sure how to go about my day in each of the places I plan to visit - Can you help me?"
This newsletter is for him and for the rest of you who are now wondering what next after the visa.
It is time to plan a day-wise itinerary
I like it flexible - not necessarily packed!
When I plan an itinerary for a city, I like to keep it a little open. It gives me the freedom to wander around, smell the roses, talk to people, chill in a square and well - just enjoy. That said, I also, like to cover the main sights in the city.
The first thing that I do is travel virtually through blogs, figuring out all the main attractions the city has to offer. Among these, I pick the top two or three that I do not want to miss and start planning around them.
Many attractions like the Taj Mahal in India have timed entrances and limited bookings per day. It is important to note these and book your entrance tickets earlier.
I had quite a time finding tickets to the Alhambra in Spain. The entrance tickets were gone almost 1.5 months ahead of my planned visit. I had to finally buy them off GetYourGuide - which again had only a few tours remaining. Thankfully, I got them!
Virtual travel gives you a sense of how much time you would need to budget for each attraction. In most cases, the key attraction can easily take over half a day of your time. In such cases, I plan the itinerary such that I cover all the places near the main attraction - tips for which I get when I do the virtual travel through informative blogs.
I love walking and cycling!
I am big fan of walking tours and cycling tours in a city. They give you a good induction to the city. I have also, almost always found offbeat places that might not have been on my first list when I am on the tour.
It was in Bikaner that I discovered a whole treasure of havelis. My first walking tour only took me to Rampuria havelis and I was so enamoured by the lanes around it that I returned later to wander and find more such gems.
If walking or cycling is not for you, try a Segway or tuk-tuk tour. I find them almost all the time on GetYourGuide or Viator.
There is no escape from research when building your itinerary!
The only shortcut is getting someone to do it for you. Tour agents have fixed itineraries that do not always cater to your requirements. The other option is to get an itinerary specialist to draw it up for you - a service that I am planning to launch soon. I shall keep you posted about it.
For my own travel, I always search for informative blogs (not the usual websites like Tripadvisor) written by people who have actually traveled to that place. The authentic information has tons of tips on how to book tickets, how early to book, distances between attractions, where to eat etc. The information adds so much perspective to itinerary planning!
Where do you find these websites? - Of course, you have one from Yours truly - www.thrillingtravel.in! ;-) But that aside, I always Google my search term and add the word blog at the end of it. That almost always gives me first-person blogs with authentic information (No AI fluff)
And with that, I think you are now ready to pack your bags for the destination! Until next time!
Love,
Have you seen the new website?
Makes your travel planning easy!
Before I go, I wanted to share the new website look that I have now got on www.thrillingtravel.in. The new homepage is designed to make your travel planning much easier. Hop over and have a look. Let me know what you think
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PLAN YOUR TRIP TO LADAKH
I’ve got your guides to all things Ladakh including the famously beautiful Nubra valley, the lesser-known gem Aryan village – and of course the 3 idiots lake (Pangong lake)!
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