Independent travel around the world. How to start traveling around the world cheaply and independently: from Europe to the most distant corners.

Every experienced traveler will say that there is nothing complicated in planning your next trip. But for a beginner, this task may seem not so much difficult as new and frightening. After all, the success of the entire journey largely depends on preparation. Logistics, accommodation, on-site programs, country specifics, local prices and the “right” places to shop are just a small part of what needs to be found and implemented. And for this we have collected useful resources and services that may be useful at the initial stage of real travel.

I don’t know what will force me to buy a ready-made trip from a tour operator now (except for a super unrealistic price that will cover the costs of flights and accommodation), because planning an independent trip is easy and simple. Often the trip turns out, if not cheaper, then much richer and more interesting. So let's get started!

How much

Numbeo- a convenient option to find out how much housing, food, transportation, etc. cost in the country where you are going to go. Just select the desired criterion and estimate the budget for your trip.

How to get there

Kayak- We are looking for plane tickets. In my experience, he was the one who always gave me the cheapest prices for air travel. And, of course, don’t forget about flying out of Russia.

And if you don’t know where to go on a trip, you have a direct route to Drungli. This site will tell you where you can fly cheapest from your city on a specific date or display a table of prices for the entire month.

What to look for: what airport the plane arrives at (important for logistics or transfers), conditions for returning and exchanging tickets, baggage rules, meals on board.

Where to live

Hotels Combined - decent metasearch engine for hotels in different countries, thanks to which you do not have to check all the booking sites you know. On the site Bed and Breakfast you can find a B&B hotel (I just love them). Apart from searching for hotels, there is also a good content section with travel ideas and tips.

But hotels are not the only possible option for stopping while traveling. On service Airbnb you can find an apartment, and on the website Hostelz- find a cheap hostel. The website is useful for travelers with children Kids@Coe oriented towards family travel.

What to look for: Are local taxes, meals, and cancellation conditions included in the price?

What to do on the spot

Personally, I love getting to know real life in every new country and the city where I visit, so I always look for local friends on Couchsurfing. After all, they can not only give practical advice, but also arrange a tour, show you life from the inside, and even feed you lunch. In addition, you can always track parties and other activities organized by “surfers” in a particular city. Meeting similar travelers in person is always interesting and fun.

Second option - organize an official tour with a local resident, for example, using the service Tripster. By the way, here you can not only find a tour from the locals, but also ask the service participants a question of interest.

Smorodina- a startup guide to Russia that will tell you where to go and what to do without leaving your home country. Also from travelers for travelers.

In addition to Couchsurfing and Tripster, there are several other resources for finding travel tips and advice.

TripAdvisor- reviews of hotels, restaurants, beaches, etc. - a huge database of all kinds of objects and activities around the world. By the way, here you can find reviews about the hotel that you liked, for example, by price or location.

Gogobot - is somewhat similar to TripAdvisor, but also has a large community of traveler interests. On Gogobot you can ask a question or make a recommendation to others.

Travelers for travelers– another community of travelers from different countries focused on budget travel and getting to know local life and culture.

Find an expert

Don't have the desire or time to do everything yourself? Increase your budget by 10 - 20 € and order the desired service from others.

GO2- on this platform there is a good services section, where experienced travelers offer their assistance to beginners. For example, developing logistics, searching for plane tickets or housing options. There is no fixed price for any service, so you can negotiate with each expert individually.

Skillflick - A resource for finding local services in London, from excursions to clarinet lessons or professional wedding photography.

I think most of these services are familiar to experienced travelers or have alternatives. However, they will certainly be useful to those who are just taking their first steps in organizing independent trips.

Then this material is definitely for you! Rather, study our advice and turn into a free artist... or rather a traveler, however, this is about the same thing!

1. Start simple

You can start your journey from nearby regions

Try planning at least one trip yourself to make sure it's not a big deal. You can start with something simple: native Russian penates, near abroad(Baltics or CIS countries) or some country already familiar from the package tour. But it’s better for beginners not to get involved with little-known and exotic destinations. By the way, for those who have not yet decided on an idea for their trip, we recommend using our new useful service.

2. Find yourself an “accomplice”

Going on a trip with a friend is much more fun than traveling alone

Getting involved in an adventure, which is the first solo trip, is much easier and more fun in the company of like-minded people. Choose a reliable and interesting companion who will not get confused in a difficult situation and will not let you get bored, sharing the joy of new experiences. The main thing is not to overdo it with the number of fellow travelers: the more people, the more difficult it is to organize them. Ideally, take a step into new world It’s better with experienced people, but this is by no means necessary.

3. Get your finances sorted

You need to be able to control your expenses while traveling

First of all, get a bank card to buy air tickets and book accommodation online. In order to avoid unnecessary currency conversions, we advise you to issue a ruble card. And when traveling, it is better to pay in cash, purchased in advance at a favorable rate. For maximum protection of financial Internet transactions, you can issue a special virtual card. These are often offered by ordinary banks or, for example, you can get a card from Yandex Money.

In addition, to control and systematize your travel expenses (not only by card, but also in cash), we recommend maintaining a travel budget. This can be either a regular notepad or a table in Excel, or a special one mobile app, like Coinkeeper.

4. Prepare your passport

Don't forget about your visa!

Find out about the requirements for a foreign passport (validity period, number of blank pages) and the need for a visa to travel to the country where you are going. By the way, ours will be a good help in this.

To travel to most countries of the world, you can apply for a visa yourself and it’s not difficult at all. You just need to carefully study the list of required documents, and in some cases we also recommend reading the tips experienced travelers in the Internet.

5. Catch cheap flights

Every traveler should know how to save money on air tickets

One of the main expenses for a trip is air tickets, so saving on them is the sacred duty of every self-traveler. Here are the main rules that will help you find the best air fares:

buy tickets in advance, especially for travel to high season(summer in Europe, winter in Asia, and also New Year And May holidays); We recommend booking flights on average.
consider flight options with a transfer, it is often cheaper than direct flights;
be flexible in choosing dates; often tickets for neighboring days can cost much less;
and it’s even better to be flexible in choosing countries and, having a list of desired destinations, buy tickets to where the most profitable options are found;
Subscribe to the mailing list of sites searching for airline tickets and airlines, and also monitor travel forums and groups on social networks to always be aware of promotions and sales.

Learn all the ways to get to your checkpoint

An alternative to flying is often a train or bus. And if the trip is overnight, you can save on hotel costs, because you won’t have to pay for the previous night. Bus and railway companies just like air carriers constantly offer promotions and discounts. In the USA and Europe, for example, it is possible to move between cities for just $1. A ticket at this price, of course, needs to be booked as far in advance as possible, but, on the other hand, it’s not scary to risk that kind of money.

8. Take care of health and safety

Travel insurance is a must

The biggest mistake of self-travelers is the lack of a special one, which will save you, if not your life, then certainly your wallet. For a regular trip, a standard medical insurance policy is sufficient, and if you plan to do sports while traveling ( skiing, bike, surfing, etc.), be sure to take out an extended insurance option.

In case of other force majeure situations, we advise you to write down the contacts of the Russian Embassy in the destination country and emergency phone numbers, although this is usually needed more for your own peace of mind.

9. Prepare technically

In the 21st century, technical equipment can greatly simplify the life of a traveler. We recommend installing a mobile application with offline maps of the required cities in advance, and getting a SIM card to access the Internet on the spot, if necessary. City guides, such as our application, will also be very useful.

10. Find out everything about the destination country

Compilation cultural program responsible occupation

An important step in preparation for independent trip is to draw up a cultural (or not so cultural) program. Here are the main things we recommend doing:

Find out about local attractions and make a rough route along them, but don’t be afraid to improvise on the spot;
Look for free excursions and others tourist attractions marked “free”, for which we recommend using our selection of freebies in different cities;
Study the local public transport system and the names of the types of travel tickets in the original language in advance;
Read about national cuisine and write down the names of the main dishes so that you can try everything and at the same time have the opportunity to eat not only in expensive tourist restaurants with menus in English.

11. Prepare to meet the local population

As a rule, you can find out a lot of interesting and useful things from local residents

You will be surprised, but local residents are also a landmark that can tell about their country no worse than the Colosseum and Eiffel Tower. For minimal communication with foreigners, it is advisable to remember the school English course or at least install a translator application on your phone. It would be useful to familiarize yourself in advance with local peculiarities, such as mentality and rules of decency, as well as find out about the dangers that may await in a new country.

If your level of courage and foreign language allows you to get to know each other better local residents, try to do this in advance via the Internet, for example, on the website of the Co uchsurfing hospitality club. This way you can get an individual guide for free and give yourself a real immersion in the culture of the country. By the way, a foreign language is an optional condition for such acquaintance, because “our people” live all over the world!

12. Start early

Do everything in advance!

You need to start preparing for independent trips in advance in order to have time to work out all the details. In addition, let us remind you that purchasing tickets and booking accommodation in advance often saves a lot of money, time and nerves.

And most importantly, enjoy the process of creating your own trip, otherwise nothing good will come of it!

How to travel cheaply on your own? Where to start, where to rent accommodation, how to buy cheap tickets? I will try to answer these and other questions below, based on my own experience.

Remember that to organize a good independent travel It takes a lot of time, but such a trip gives you complete freedom of action and can make your dreams come true.

Is it cheaper to travel on your own?

Traveling on your own will not always be cheaper (but in 60%-70% of cases it will be much cheaper) than going on a package tour, where you don’t have to think and everything has already been invented a long time ago. But the impressions from a “package vacation” will never compare with the impressions and emotions received from a trip planned by you personally. And this is the first and main advantage of independent travel.

If you're about to take your first solo trip, be sure to read on!

How to travel cheaply on your own and how to organize an unforgettable trip?

Airplane tickets

For me, organizing an independent trip usually starts with finding tickets to the desired destination. Moreover, it is not necessary that plane tickets be for this particular country/city.

For example, if we talk about Europe, then the distances between cities and even countries are relatively small. And the difference in ticket prices between them can amount to a significant amount.

It often happens that with the “won” difference in the cost of a plane ticket you can not only get from one city to another, but also live there for several days. And by the way, flights in Europe can be very cheap (often cheaper than other transport); a flight of 2.5 hours for 1000 rubles is the norm there.

Thus, open the map, see what cities are nearby and build a route. Of course, there will be people who don’t need all these hassles.

If the final price from the intermediary and the airline is the same or differs slightly, then it is better to buy tickets on the airline’s website to avoid troubles. By the way, when purchasing tickets from S7 through the application, the promo code S7APP is valid (2-3% of the fare), a small thing, but nice.

are looking for the best prices for a flight;
check prices for tickets from/to neighboring cities;
We compare the cost of tickets on the search engine’s website and on the official website of the selected airline;
Don’t forget to look for a promotional code for your purchase;
We use our imagination in developing the route!

Check ticket prices to neighboring cities and countries. Check prices on airline websites and multi-search. Try to loop the route.

Drawing up an independent travel route

When the initial and final destinations become known, it’s time to start working out the travel route. You shouldn’t gallop and change cities every day, but I personally don’t like staying in one place for a long time. Study information on the Internet, forums, blogs - a sea of information and ideas.

I always use the forums on Otzyv.ru and the Vinsky forum. Various blogs are found by searching.

Forums and blogs are a great source for creating itineraries.

Tickets for transport between cities and/or countries should be looked for on the websites of local carriers. If you really want to save money, you will have to work hard to find the best deals. Or you can simply use the increasingly popular project, which will search for available tickets for buses, trains and planes, compare prices and duration of the trip (works in Europe)!

We are looking for information on the Internet, I recommend Otzyv.ru, Vinsky forum, tripavisor;

you can buy or download a guide with ready-made routes;

we find best options moving between cities.

Selection of attractions and interesting places for independent travel

To get your bearings in the city at least a little, it’s enough to make a list of the main attractions and other places of interest to you (you can also pre-mark them in Google Maps or print/buy a map). On this list, you need to mark in advance the places that you definitely want to see and plan to visit them in the first days of your stay in the city. You should first find out opening hours, weekends, and days when admission is free (and this happens).

Again, use your imagination. You are no longer obliged to blindly follow the tourist program and run to see the sight with your tongue hanging out, because in an hour you will already meet at the bus. Independence and managing your own time is the fourth advantage of independent travel.

I again get information about attractions mainly from the Internet. In addition, for major cities you can download/buy a guidebook (I usually download and look for “missed” places on the Internet).

Sometimes choosing hotels can be quite difficult (for small towns). Then you can look for the official website of the city, where you can usually find a list of hotels - and search directly.

Can return 1000 rubles, having booked accommodation on Booking using my link.

If you are planning to rent a car, check out the parking information. In some European cities, entry into the city center by car is prohibited, and in many there are problems with parking (not to mention the fact that they are paid). For example, in the center of Amsterdam, just a day parking pass will cost 30 euros!

The ability to go anywhere and at any time using public transport, or even better, a rented car is the sixth plus of independent travel!

We study travel prices and possible travel card options;

We are wondering whether we should buy a tourist card?

For those who drive, be sure to check the parking situation!

Study the types of transport, tickets, and discount cards in advance. This will allow you to avoid wasting time on on-site proceedings.

Visa for traveling around Europe

Many people are scared by the word visa and pay two to three times more money to companies involved in visa processing. In fact, applying for a visa to Europe is not scary at all. IN major cities There have long been multi-visa centers where you can consult and submit documents yourself (primarily we are talking about Schengen).

The main rule when choosing a country to obtain a visa is that documents are submitted to the country in which you will be staying the longest. If the number of days in several countries is the same, preference is given to the country of first entry.

When you have decided on the country of submission, study the list of documents (for a tourist visa, usually these are plane tickets and other transport; hotel/apartment reservations; proof of solvency - a certificate from the bank, a letter from the sponsor, a certificate of purchase of currency; medical insurance; certificate of employment; photos).

You can get insurance without unnecessary legwork on the insurance comparison and selection website. All options are clearly laid out, you can compare several insurance companies. In my experience, buying through this site is even cheaper (I registered in the office for 10 days - it came out to 1010 rubles, another time I bought through the site for 15 days for 740 rubles and with big amount options)!

Well, then you collect it all and serve it, preferably in advance. In my experience, it takes an average of 2 weeks from submitting documents to receiving a passport. If you are not getting your first Schengen visa, then it is better to apply for a multiple visa, and the consul will sort it out.

The seventh advantage of independent travel is obtaining a visa at a “fair” price, the ability to choose insurance with the options you need from any insurance company, and even at a discount.

find out if there is a visa/consular center in your city;

select a country to obtain a visa;

find out the list of required documents;

download the form from the consulate’s website, print it out according to the specified rules (on both sides) and fill it out;

print out plane tickets, if available, for train, bus or car reservation confirmation;

print out hotel or apartment booking confirmations;

we take a certificate of employment at work;

at the bank we get a certificate of account status (sometimes an ATM statement + a photocopy of the front side of the card is enough) or we leave a certificate of currency purchase;

select and arrange insurance, print it out;

we take photos for the visa (sometimes you can take them right at the visa center);

We take all this, the necessary amount of money to pay the fee and go to submit the documents!

If there is a visa center in your or a nearby city, do not overpay to intermediaries, submit the documents yourself! It's not difficult at all. And it’s better to immediately apply for a multiple visa.

What to take on an independent trip, or rather, what not to take on a trip

No need to take 3 suitcases of things with you. Think about how much clothing you will need for 2-3 weeks? Considering that everything and everywhere can be bought if necessary.

For many years I traveled with a small backpack - and there was always extra stuff! Remember that the trend now is that extra pounds and extra bags often come at a price. Typically the size of a suitcase (backpack) that can be carried as hand luggage is 55x40x20 cm, up to 10 kg.

It is also worth considering that liquids (including creams) in containers over 100 ml with a total volume of more than 1 liter cannot be carried into hand luggage. And it’s better to put all liquids in one bag/cosmetic bag and not put them far away - they may ask to show you. I just pour everything into small bottles left over from hotels. :) Similar bottles can be purchased in the store.

thinking about a reasonable list of things;

we buy medicine for the trip (just in case, of course);

Necessarily!!! study the airline rules (at least read what is written on the ticket);

remove all liquids over 100 ml from hand luggage(including cream) or pour into small bottles;

We are packing our suitcase, it is advisable to check the weight before leaving for the airport.

Take a reasonable minimum of things. This way you will be more mobile and save money on flights.

These are all the main points when planning an independent trip. Believe me, by following these simple tips, you can travel independently and cheaply!

Just think about how much money you overpay to travel agencies just because some uncle/aunt will “lead you by the hand” from the bus to the next attraction. And often you won’t even be able to really take a good look at the attraction, because it’s time to go to another one!

By planning your trip yourself, you can do everything the way you want!

Is it profitable? buy air tickets A special search engine can help.

And don't forget to fill out insurance every time you go on a trip! I always apply for a policy directly via the Internet, and I recommend choosing profitable options on a special website.

I hope this article helped you learn how to travel cheaply on your own. If the article was useful to you, please share it with your friends on social networks using the special button below.

Happy travels!

Country selection

Choosing a place to travel is a purely individual thing; I usually focus on several points when choosing a country for a new trip. Firstly, it is desirable that it be a new country for me or a place where I have never been before, and secondly, you need to think about what you can do there, what attractions there are or what you can do there (I prefer leisure), and thirdly, you need to pay attention to various Promotions from airlines, when the price of tickets to a certain place can be very favorable. Sometimes the choice of country happens completely by accident: friends might invite you, or you might get caught cheap ticket on a plane or I can read some interesting book about this country, there can be countless reasons, for me it doesn’t really matter where to fly, the main thing is that it is interesting. You can find basic information about different countries on the website.

Search for a flight ticket

The next step after choosing a destination is to find a suitable and preferably cheap air ticket. First of all, you need to check whether discount airlines (low-cost airlines) fly in the chosen direction, for example, in Asia it is AirAsia, and in Europe Ryanair, such companies usually offer the cheapest flights, but this is not profitable in all cases. After checking budget airlines, you must definitely search for air tickets on regular airlines; it is impossible to check all airlines, so it is better to use aggregator search engines that collect price information from many airlines and air ticket sales agencies and provide it to convenient form. With the help of such air ticket search engines, it is very easy to find the cheapest options (offers are sorted by price) on the desired route. There are several such search engines and for the most part they all have similar functionality, but I am used to using them and have been searching and buying tickets through them for 3 years now. Search cheap air ticket It’s very simple, just enter the destination we need and select the flight dates. (You can check out detailed instructions About, ). Promotions and promotions are also published on the website. Special offers from airlines - this is very convenient for those who have not yet decided where they want to travel. Sometimes you can fly to Europe for 5,000 rubles with all round-trip fees due to the promotion of some airline.

I’ve been buying air tickets exclusively on the Internet for 4 years now - it’s much simpler and more convenient, the whole purchasing process takes no more than 5 minutes and you don’t have to go anywhere. During this time, I bought hundreds of air tickets via the Internet and never had any problems with it. To purchase you only need bank card, which you can pay on the Internet.

Another tip for those who do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg - check the price of an air ticket with departure (arrival) from Moscow (or other major cities closest to you), it may turn out to be much cheaper.

If you are looking for a flight ticket to a popular tourist destination, you can also check last minute flight deals on charter flights, this can be done for example.

Hotel search and selection

Different hotel booking sites work differently, some offer to pay for the hotel immediately, while others book without prepayment, but you need to pay directly upon check-in, the first option gives more guarantees that the room will be reserved for you, and in the second case it is easier to cancel the reservation.

The process of searching and booking hotels is similar to searching for air tickets; the main difficulty is finding the most suitable option (in the case of hotels, reviews can help with this).

Getting a visa on your own

There are 130 countries in the world where Russians do not need a visa or a visa is issued upon arrival - that’s more than half the world! (WITH full list visa-free countries can be found on Wikipedia)

At the same time, there are countries that are of great interest to travelers, but where you need to get a visa (USA, Europe, China, etc.), but the process of obtaining a visa is much simpler than it seems at first glance or as they want to present it travel agencies. I independently obtained visas to the USA (2 times), Europe (France), China, Myanmar, and in no case was there a need to contact a travel agency. The whole job of travel agencies is to send documents to the visa center and for this they charge quite a lot of money. When I needed a visa to France, I saw offers from travel agencies that reached up to 500-600 euros for help in obtaining a visa, this is just robbery! I collected it myself Required documents and went to the France visa center in Moscow. After 3 days I received a ready-made Schengen visa, it cost me 70 euros (35 euros consular fee and 35 euros for visa center services). You can contact the consulate directly, then obtaining a visa will take longer, but you can save 35 euros.

The process of obtaining a visa is very simple and is described on the websites of the embassies (or consulates) of the respective country. All you need is to find the website of the embassy (or the visa center closest to you, if there is one), look at it for the list of documents required to obtain a visa and make an appointment (if necessary). Most often, to obtain a visa, a passport, air tickets, hotel reservations and insurance are enough. After that, you just need to submit your documents and wait for them to give you a visa. There's nothing complicated about it. It is especially easy to obtain a Schengen visa on your own, given that many new visa centers for European countries have recently opened throughout the country.

It is worth noting that in some countries (such as Japan) it is much more difficult to obtain a visa without the services of travel agencies, so in this case, contacting a travel company may be justified.

Language problem

One of the main problems that stops people from traveling independently is insufficient knowledge of English (de facto English is the international language). But it seems to me that most people overestimate the significance of this problem. Yes, not knowing English can make your trip a little more difficult, but it cannot make traveling on your own impossible. I have been to places where the local population did not speak English and then I had to explain myself with gestures - this is of course more difficult, but this makes it even more interesting. In Thailand I often saw Russian tourists who came to relax on a tourist package and do not speak English at all, so these tourists walk around the city perfectly, buy fruit at local markets, while they speak Russian, and the Thais answer them in Thai, and everyone understands each other perfectly . Sign language is a very universal language and can explain almost everything. I will give two more examples from my experience. In China I once met an Irishman who was planning to travel from Irkutsk to Moscow in reserved seat carriage During our meeting, he learned five Russian words - that's all he knew in Russian. And another time, in a train compartment, I met a Swiss man who was traveling to Tobolsk alone, not only did he speak English very poorly (but in Russia, knowing English can be of little help to a foreigner, especially in the provinces), he didn’t speak at all in Russian, but this did not stop him from traveling from Moscow to Beijing by train, stopping in many Russian cities and exploring them on his own. Upon returning to Switzerland, he wrote to me that he really enjoyed this trip and was simply delighted.

There is no language problem - there is only fear of this problem.

Search for information. What to do and what to visit.

If you prefer to go on excursions in an organized manner, then on most popular tourist destinations Such excursions can be booked on the spot from local companies (with a Russian-speaking guide); most often, it will be cheaper than booking excursions from the travel company where you bought the ticket. In countries such as Egypt, Thailand, Türkiye, there are many local companies that will be happy to organize for you excursion program, but I would suggest driving through the sights on your own, for this you just need to arm yourself with a guidebook.

But I would recommend hiring a local guide yourself for individual excursion, it may be a little more expensive than group excursion, but you will be able to receive individual service and, for sure, very interesting impressions. Self-guided programs are often more exclusive and will allow you to visit places you might never see on your own or with a group. There are several sites where you can find and book excursions from independent local guides; I recommend the Russian site, which has already proven itself to be good.

Travel insurance and safety

Purchasing a ticket from a travel agency provides absolutely no guarantees of safety. Your peace of mind is only in your hands, and the travel agency cannot provide any additional security. Most accidents happen to those who come on an organized tour, as they get a false sense of security and lose their vigilance.

When traveling abroad, always take out travel insurance, it can be done quickly and inexpensively (less than $1 per day). To obtain a visa to Europe (Schengen visa) and many other visa countries, the purchase of insurance is required. You can get an insurance policy from almost any insurance company or, even easier, you can get insurance online. You can compare offers from insurance companies and apply for insurance online on the website, where you can choose the best offer from the largest insurance companies (you can read more about the instructions for choosing and purchasing insurance in the article -). An electronic insurance policy has the same legal force as a paper policy. If you have an insurance policy, in the event of an accident, you will need to call the phone number indicated in the policy and they will give you all the instructions on what to do next, and if necessary, call a doctor. Take care of your safety yourself, no one will do it but you.

What are the advantages of independent travel compared to tour packages?

The main advantages of independent travel are freedom and low cost. You are in complete control of your journey, you go where you want, and not where your guide tells you. You don't have to live in the same place for the entire holiday; if you want to move to another place or hotel, you can easily do so. When traveling on your own, you will never find yourself in a situation where your tour company goes bankrupt and does not pay for your hotel stay. I think everyone remembers when hundreds of tourists around the world could not return home and were not allowed out of hotels, demanding to pay for their stay - at independent tourism This is basically impossible, since only you control everything.

Traveling on your own is cheap, the price of your trip depends only on you and your preferences. You don't have to pay for unnecessary services travel companies, you can always choose the best offer. Let's compare the cost of independent travel and a tour package for specific example. Let's take one of the most popular directions - Pattaya resort(Thailand) and the largest tour operator TezTour. Let's say we want to go to Pattaya in early November for 7 days (departure on November 6th), one of the tour company's offers includes a flight from Moscow, transfer and 7 nights at the WELCOME PLAZA 3 * hotel with breakfast, the price for this tour package is 68,086 rubles for 2 people. Now let's see how much it would cost if we went on our own. We go to the website and look for a Moscow-Bangkok flight with a departure in early November for 2 people, as a result we get a price of 42,880 rubles for two. Then we look for a hotel on the website, enter the name Welcome Plaza and the dates in early November into the search bar, and we get a price of 9,035 rubles for 7 nights for double occupancy. A bus from Bangkok airport to Pattaya costs about 100 rubles per person. Thus, the total cost of the trip at independent planning it turns out 52,115 rubles, which is 15,971 rubles cheaper than the tour package offered by the travel agency. It's simple math, it's up to you to decide.

Or, for example, one more popular destination- Cuba. At the beginning of October (departure on October 2, 2012), a package with flights, transfers and accommodation at the Vedado 3* hotel (reviews about the hotel, by the way, are not very good, but you won’t have a chance to change it) from TezTour costs 113,256 rubles for two. If we conduct a search, as we did above, we will find that the Moscow-Havana-Moscow flight for these dates costs 72,381 rubles, and the same hotel for 7 nights costs 11,311 rubles, which gives a total of 83,692 rubles, and this almost 30,000 rubles less than the tour company’s offer.

And if you take a non-standard route, which can be organized very easily if you plan it yourself, then purchasing it from a travel agency can be many times more expensive.

In rare cases, it happens that in a particular area there is no cheap air tickets and then it turns out that using a tourist package may be more profitable. But this happens quite rarely, and over time it will become even less common, especially given the fact that this year tour operators have significantly increased the cost of tourist packages against the backdrop of bankruptcies of large travel companies and an increase in the dollar exchange rate.

In fact, you pay travel agencies for the following services:

Flight. Often old planes with poor maintenance, but you can't change anything and choose an airline.
Hotel. You won't be able to change the hotel if you don't like it or want to go somewhere else.
Transfer from the airport to the hotel by shared bus.
Visa. If the country requires a visa (and there are not many of them), then they will collect your documents and send them to a visa center, but they cannot guarantee the successful receipt of a visa.
Excursions. You may be offered excursions, but the price for them will be many times higher than if you went to the same places on your own or through local excursion bureaus.

This is where the services of tour operators end. No one will help you communicate in a store or market if you don’t know the language, you shouldn’t expect help from a guide, if you have an accident, they are not obliged to help you, this is not included in the list of their services. Really, after reading this article, you won’t be able to organize your trip yourself, making it cheaper and more interesting?

If I still haven’t convinced you that it’s better to travel on your own, and you still intend to go on vacation with a package, then I recommend that you read the instructions - “”, so as not to waste time on trips to travel agencies, but to easily and conveniently find and book everything online.

Conclusion

The most difficult thing is to take the first step, but you only have to go somewhere on your own once and you will never want to buy packages again. organized tours. Don’t put it off for later, start planning your next trip on your own and you will see that it is much easier, cheaper and more interesting than it seems at first glance.

PS: If you have any questions or want to clarify something, ask in the comments, it is important for us to know whether this material was useful and how it could be supplemented. Share this article with your friends via social media, let them also find out how easy it is to go abroad on their own.

If you're tired of package tours and the soul demands freedom and new places, you can join the ranks independent travelers. All you need is a basic English language, a thirst for travel and knowledge of some tricks, how save on air tickets, housing, calls and much more:

Air travel

1. Search engines cheap tickets and hotels on Aviasales you can catch super-profitable special offers from airlines and view the calendar low prices for the dates and destinations you choose. This company has an office in Phuket and regularly orders logo sweatshirts from UniFashion.

2. AzAir – search engine for low-cost airlines, which usually do not appear in standard search engines.

3. The Kayak resource searches for tickets to given destinations simultaneously on more than two hundred sites and is sure to find the most Best offer. There is also a trick: the site has an interesting weekend flight button, by clicking on which you will see offers of flights to the desired city and an analysis of prices for the next 4-5 weekend dates.

3. Momondo is a great site for finding low-cost flights. Compares prices from more than 600 sites.

4. Skyscanner has an interesting feature that allows you to select dates that are convenient for you, and then, using the “show me everything” option, searches for places where it will be cheapest to get to. This is my favorite site :)

Housing

5. Couchsurfing is not a site with free accommodation, it is a community of people around the world who are ready to host guests from other countries in their home completely free of charge for the purpose of communication and cultural exchange. You can not only learn more about the non-tourist life of the country and city you visit, but also make good friends all over the world! The site has a system of reviews about guests and hosts.

6. is the largest site for rental housing from homeowners in 192 countries. You can find very colorful inexpensive apartments and rooms, as well as live in completely non-standard dwellings, for example, in a “house for gnomes,” a yacht moored in the port, or a castle.

7. HostelWorld is the largest resource for finding hostels around the world. The system of ratings and reviews of travelers will allow you to choose the best option.

9. Booking is one of the most popular services for booking hotels. Lots of reviews, convenient phone app. Most often I use this one.

10. TripAdvisor is a site where, in addition to the standard functions of searching for flights and accommodation, you can find a large number of reviews and real photos of hotels from users from all over the world.

Cheap tours and special offers

11. Piratesru, TripToDream, Vandrouki, BudgetWorld - 4 of the best sites with ready-made special offers from all over the Internet. In Europe for 1 euro, in China for 15,000 rubles - all this can be found on these sites.

Internal moves

12. AutoEurope – a resource that allows you to compare car rental prices different companies in Europe.

13. ON the Seat61 website you can find out how to get from one point to another by train, and also see which company serves this section, so that you can then go to the company’s website and book or buy a ticket.

14. On the Thalys website you can view the schedule and buy tickets for trains that travel between Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany. The sooner you worry about buying a ticket, the cheaper it will cost.

15. Viamichelin is an indispensable service for anyone planning a road trip around Europe. Here you can download a map of the country or region you are interested in, and also not only plan a route between two points. There are also interesting options - the shortest route, the most economical, passing through the largest number of attractions, and so on.

16. MyWorldMap and World66 – services for compiling your general travel map. You can mark the countries and cities that you have visited, and the site will automatically draw your world map and show how much detail you have covered in a particular country.

17. Jetseller is a community of travelers who provide access to very up-to-date information and talk about exclusive offers on how to spend your holidays in different countries of the world!

18. Evaphone – a resource that allows you to make free calls to anywhere in the world 2 times a day (1 minute call).

19. Dropbox – can store files up to 2GB for free. You can download all the materials you need for your trip, and then retrieve them using any computer connected to the World Wide Web.

I use Google.Drive and Cloud.Mail.ru. Google is good because it is compatible with everything else and the company’s services, and the Mail cloud gave away 1 Terabyte for free for the new year.

20. Travelpost and Atlarge (English) - will tell you what the quality of WiFi Internet is, whether it is free and whether it is available at all at various airports in the world

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