How to plan your own trip. How to plan your own trip. Planning an independent trip

Purchasing a ticket from travel agencies is not at all difficult - their websites are full of offers. But when it comes to choosing a tour for a trip with a child, the number of options is noticeably reduced.

As a rule, ready-made tours are not at all designed for small travelers, especially when it comes to excursion programs. To make your vacation enjoyable for the whole family, try turning into a tour manager for a while and planning your own trip with your child. Our tips will help you with this.

Why is it worth working on a custom tour? First of all, because it gives real independence. You choose the dates and duration of your vacation, hotel or apartment, focusing on what your family needs.

Secondly, the entertainment program you have compiled will allow the child not to trail behind his parents and languish from boredom - the child will be able to visit children's museums that are interesting to him and get the most out of it.

Thirdly, you will be able to devote as much time as you like to the sights that interest you without fear of falling behind the group, and if you want, you will completely turn off the tourist path to visit small towns and get acquainted with the local culture.

To give yourself such a vacation, you only need access to the Internet to collect the necessary information and an international bank card to “make your dreams come true.” You will spend most of the preparation without leaving your home.

Planning an independent trip

1. Choosing a vacation spot

The whole world is open to travelers who choose their own roads, even if it still fits on a laptop screen. When choosing a location, you can be guided by different considerations.

Is this your first trip with your baby? Try to choose a resort within the country or any other one that can be easily and quickly reached. Would you like to visit abroad?

As a test, you can plan a trip to a country with visa-free entry. Do you have an open Schengen visa? Study airline promotional offers or pay attention to low-cost flights.

The choice of holiday destination can also be influenced by location. Finally, it is important to find out when the high tourist season begins in your chosen country.

Tip: You can travel within one country by train or bus, but if you are planning a visit to other countries, the fastest transfer will be provided by plane.

2. Budget

It is necessary to collect primary information about the cost of tickets, suitable hotels or apartments, daily expenses for food, travel and excursions. It is also necessary to take into account the costs of obtaining medical insurance and a passport, and obtaining a visa.

Advice: keep your first trip short. For example, have a family weekend. Preparing for such a trip will not be a complex multi-step exercise, but you will be convinced of your own capabilities. If you want to go to the sea with your baby, choose a country with visa-free entry.

3. Stay program

Even if you're heading to the seaside just to soak up the sun, it's still worth making a list of nearby attractions. For children traveling with you, we recommend looking for recreation parks, zoos, aquariums, and children's museums.

When traveling with schoolchildren, consider their hobbies when developing. Also pay attention to when museums have weekends and whether your trip falls on a public holiday (then museums are usually closed).

You can find all the useful information on the Kidpassage website - we select only family excursions, so you don’t have to look for places suitable for families with children.

Tip: Many European cities sell a guest card with which you can travel for free on public transport and receive discounts on excursions. This card is especially beneficial for travelers with children. The card can be purchased at information centers, kiosks at railway stations, and tobacco shops.

Preparation of documents

4. Obtaining a passport and a child’s travel document

To travel to another country you will need a passport, which we recommend obtaining in advance. If you already have a passport, be sure to check its validity period: some countries will not be able to enter if the passport expires within 3-6 months of the planned date of entry.

Important: the child must be included in the parents’ foreign passports or have their own document for traveling abroad (such a document is required when the child reaches a certain age or if he is not going on a trip with his parents).

You will also need a notarized permission for the child to leave the country from the parent who remains at home (in some countries this document is no longer asked for), or from both parents if the child is traveling with other relatives.

5. Purchasing a health insurance policy

Travel medical insurance is required when obtaining a visa - and is very important in principle: if you need medical help while traveling, the costs of treatment without insurance can be exorbitant. Make sure that the insurance company has offices in the place where you are going on vacation.

Advice: pay special attention to the issue of children's health insurance if you are planning an active holiday.

6. Obtaining a visa

The official websites of embassies and consulates, visa centers contain information about the procedure and deadlines for issuing visas, and there is also a list of required documents. Pay careful attention to whether you need to fill out a form for your child and whether his photo is needed.

Advice: the cheapest, although time-consuming, way to obtain a visa is to apply to the embassy yourself with the necessary documents. The services of visa centers are somewhat more expensive; you can also resort to the help of travel companies or specialized online services.

Booking

7. Ticket booking

The easiest way is to study airline web pages or look at sites that collect information from different carriers. Such services help you find a suitable flight, compare prices, find out about the cost of tickets for different dates, book and pay for tickets.

Airport websites and Kidpassage resort descriptions have information about what types of transportation are available from the airport. Even if you are unable to get such information on the airport website, you can always ask a question on one of the travel forums or use a search engine that will return similar queries and discussions.

Tip: If you drive a car, you can rent one before you even arrive in the country. A car will serve you not only for a trip to the hotel - it will give you freedom of movement, and you can visit interesting places located in the suburbs or in other cities.

Packing for the trip

10. What to take on a trip with a child

You've probably had to pack luggage before. We recommend making a list of necessary things and documents in advance, which you can easily use later.

Likewise, it’s a good idea to put together a list of the places you plan to visit. It is also advisable to have useful telephone numbers and websites (the embassy of your country abroad, a representative of an insurance company, calling a taxi, etc.) at hand.

Since your baby is traveling with you, make room in your suitcase for baby hygiene items and a baby first aid kit. If your child is too young to walk along tourist routes, prepare a lightweight cane stroller or baby-carrying devices.

Make sure that in your hand luggage there is a small supply of food for the baby, as well as a couple of new toys, a notebook and pencils - with them the move will fly by for the child.

Important: before the trip, make scans of all important documents and send them to your own email. This will help if the originals are lost. In addition, make paper copies of all documents and keep them with you at all times.

Advice: take a phrasebook with you, or at least write down a few useful phrases in the language of the country you are going to.

We are confident that your efforts will be crowned with success, and your independently planned trip with your child will be eventful and memorable.

Sometimes it's so hard to decide. I don’t want to go where I have enough money. It’s dangerous to go to distant countries or you don’t have the money for the perfect trip. And children and health are no longer the same. You want to see Europe, but you still go to a dacha in the suburbs.

Common situation? Something needs to change. For foreigners, independent travel has become something taken for granted. I was overtaken by my grandparents from the USA. They ran upward through the snow. I will never forget this. I met a woman of about fifty from Australia - she came specifically to walk the trail alone and got to know everyone she met on the trail. I also always travel on my own - alone or with my spouse.

Is the topic relevant during the economic crisis?

In most cases, only time separates us from our ideal journey. When in 2007 I first felt a strong desire to go to Rome, and just when the crisis struck, everything seemed to be lost. But a year and a half passed, and I went to Rome and many other cities in Italy. And then in a short time she visited seven countries at once. Some may find the wait too long! But if you don’t dream and plan, then this journey may not happen at all.

The period of crisis and decreased income can be used as a time to decide for yourself what kind of trip you want to go on and save money for it.

You suddenly decided to go to Patagonia, to Argentina (by the way, this is quite a trendy destination, don’t be surprised. Along with Mongolia). A trip there costs from two thousand dollars per person, and, at first glance, the amount is large. But if you really want to go there, you will find this amount in a while. You may have to save money, maybe you will deny yourself something, but at least you will fulfill your dream - you will see the Andes above the Atlantic. Sooner or later, you will see them, and sooner than you even imagine.

How to plan a trip

Everything is very simple! Act in three directions simultaneously:

Set a budget
Decide what you want to do on vacation
Decide on a direction

How to determine a budget

It always seems that there is no money for an “extra” trip, but in fact, if you want, you can always find it at least a year after you set your goal. After all, everything is in our hands. Or you can choose the most budget-friendly place from all the places you want to visit, stay in hostels or hitchhike...

The types of travel budgets are best characterized by the transport you will be using:

Inexpensive solo travel

Moving by ground transport, at best, by train, more often by bus. In cities there is a metro and other public transport. No taxis, especially from city to city. If price is the deciding issue, hitchhike!

Travel for the middle class

Traveling between cities more than 500 km away is by plane, and in other cases by train, around the city, by taxi or inexpensive rented car.

Luxury Style

Intercontinental flights (business class), the most developed countries of the world, car rental, ordering a personal driver, Ferrari convertible - everything will depend on how much you are willing to pay.

By the way, it is in such cases that it will be much cheaper without a tour operator! Save on a few nights at a five-star hotel. For example, at the Four Seasons in Florence.

If you have three to four thousand dollars, you can easily go to another continent and try all types of tourism. If your budget is smaller, come up with entertainment in neighboring countries or your own.

How to calculate how much money you will need

The principle of travel is this: you need to get to the place where you will spend the night, spend as much time there as you have planned, then get to the next location, spend the night there, and so on, until leaving home.

When traveling on your own, you will expect the following costs:

The road there
Accommodation in places of deployment
Transfers between locations and from airport to airport
Nutrition

Plane or train tickets

The easiest way to look up the cost of plane tickets is, for example, on Aviasales or Tripway. Pay attention to flight connecting times and arrival and departure times - after all, sitting at the airport for a long time is sad, and accommodation is expensive. In addition, if you arrive at night, you will have to take a taxi, which is an additional cost. If your goal is to find budget travel, read my article to know how to check if there are even better budget tickets to your destinations.

Accommodation

I always look at the cost of hotels in a chosen location on Booking, and then on all other sites. I often book on Booking anyway, because they can offer the largest selection of hotels (in the destinations where I’ve been, except where it’s better to look for accommodation on the spot and where it’s better to rent apartments rather than hotels). With hotels it’s a little more complicated: you need to decide on the conditions that you need for a comfortable stay.

Internal moves

As for trains, you can not only watch, but most often buy a ticket on the Internet. With bus tickets, not everything is so simple - you often need to extract information about the addresses of bus stations, bus schedules and ticket prices bit by bit from the Internet. Enter phrases such as “bus from Athens airport to Cape Sounion” into a search engine and you will find the necessary information in blogs, reviews and on local residents’ websites. Also budget for travel on public transport, if needed.

Nutrition

The cost of food can be understood by studying reviews on the Internet about prices in a restaurant. In general, food will be expensive in Western Europe, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, and at expensive resorts on the ocean islands. In all other parts of the world you can find very inexpensive ways to eat and spend on food from 10 to 20 euros per day for two. If the country is expensive, budget at least 30 euros per day for two, and preferably 40. If it’s on a budget, 15-20.

Visas

Don't forget to budget for visas. From 30 dollars () to 160 (USA).

How to choose the “theme” of the trip?

Sometimes, when going to an agency for a tour or mindlessly studying Bookingcom, we don’t fully know what exactly we want from our vacation. In fact, we have several ready-made and varied options.

Beach

Everyone loves a beach holiday from time to time. And it would seem that nothing will stop you from getting to the beach. But you want to find the beach of your dreams! What do our people often do? Choose a hotel. But you won’t sit in the hotel all the time and you won’t swim in the pool either.

How to choose the beach of your dreams?

Resort centers where tour operators sell tours usually do not have good beaches - there are too many people. There are exceptions - Barcelona, Rio, Miami, but these are really exceptions.

More often than not, the sea in the city is dirty, there are a lot of people, and prices are high. The farther you are from such a resort center, the greater the likelihood of finding a really good beach. It's a longer drive, but two or three hours is not a problem. On the Google map, the coastal strip is clearly visible from the satellite - the longer and wider it is, the more beautiful your vacation will be. There are, of course, exceptions - small cozy bays. Find out if there are many houses in the vicinity of this bay - the roofs are clearly visible! The more houses, the less space on the beach.

Also pay attention to the number of boats in the bay and umbrellas on the beach, so that you don’t have an unpleasant surprise with the abundance of vehicles that interfere with swimming.

Read reviews about entering the water and how it is with shelter from the sun (for wild, remote beaches). You also need to decide whether you will rent housing on the beach itself or get to it by some kind of transport?

Walking in the mountains

You can walk in the mountains for many days, and then we call it a hike, or you can go out for walks for one day.

It is necessary to choose a trail for a multi-day hike with mandatory access to a source of drinking water or a store with it at least once a day. You will need a tent and other equipment.

The weather and the weight of things you have to carry can be a problem when hiking. Special clothing that is lightweight and truly protective will help solve both of these problems.
In many countries, there are multi-day routes on which you don’t have to carry a tent: in the evening you will go out to villages and spend the night in a hotel or boarding house. This is a more comfortable type of hike. I described this route in the article.

Wonderful walks can be made from one starting point, for example, a resort. Ideally, there should be five or six day trips in the area around this city that would allow you to enter the mountains from one side and exit from the other. The best vacation, in my opinion.

Ecotourism

Previously, this was called “running away to the country.” True, a lot has changed since then - you can rent a bungalow in a country club, go to a farm, a villa, or just to a hotel in the village and relax in comfort and without having to do housework. Live in nature for your own pleasure - eat fresh village products, read a book in the garden, take a walk around the neighborhood. Don't rush anywhere and truly take a break from the hustle and bustle. If you asked me right now where I would like to go for ecotourism, I would definitely name, or the region of Tuscany, or Greece - the Tiforea region (from there, by the way, it begins), Litochoro (under) or.

Independent travel through cities

The disadvantages of such a trip are that you only see the standard city life that is shown to tourists. You don't see how people live in the village, like much else in the country you are visiting. But many cannot live without comfort and asphalt, then you can travel to cities in Europe or the USA. All other continents are probably not suitable for you - there are too many hardships and dangers. Although some still take the risk of traveling in this way to the cities of South America.

Exploring the sights

Ruins of ancient cities and temples, pyramids, museums and statues, studying history - history comes to life while traveling and you begin to look at it differently than at school at your desk with a boring book.

Pilgrimage

Wherever people go on pilgrimage! And this is not only Mecca, Jerusalem and Buddhist temples - this is Stone Hedge, and Easter Island, and various places of power that are found everywhere in, in the Sonoran Desert, in. You can travel to ancient temples, communicate with spiritual mentors, communicate with God and concentrate on self-development or the development of superpowers. Of course, if you are passionate about your religion, you will always find a way to travel to your shrines. By the way, I recommend not to get involved with any group tours - buy tickets, book hotels, and go ahead. Visas, by the way, are also not a problem; in addition, there are a lot of visa-free destinations.

Extreme tourism

A lot has been written on this topic and many people work in this area and organize various extreme tours. This is where I make an exception to my principle of not using the services of intermediaries - such tour operators are a must for beginners in this field! Rafting, rock climbing, rafting on a tropical river, conquering icy peaks, parachute jumping, mountain biking, survival in the wild and much more help produce adrenaline.

Mix of impressions

Ideally, combine everything in one trip. It is best to divide your vacation into several parts in this order:

first you explore some interesting ancient or modern city with its museums, architecture and other benefits of civilization.
then you go to a village a few hundred kilometers from this city and spend some time in the lap of nature.
As soon as you get bored, head to the mountains along the beaten path, staying in shelters or spending the night in a tent.
After a good workout, you can relax on the beach.

How to choose where to go

Now we need to decide on geography.

I suggest exploring two or three interesting places in each country that suit your taste. For example, you realized that you want to go to the beach and the mountains. Choose countries with access to the sea and mountains approaching it - this will be the ideal solution for you.

There are such popular travel destinations (arranged in ascending order of price (for residents of Eastern Europe):

North Africa– , Tunisia – a combination of oriental culture and ancient civilization, good beaches and tourist infrastructure. A trip here won't be expensive. However, Morocco - also North Africa - is much more expensive, since it is much further away. But it's a beautiful country - beautiful beaches and wonderful Moroccan style.

Eastern Europe– low prices and there is everything for relaxation (except for good sea beaches) – mountains, lakes, interesting cities and history. The most popular countries are exotic, beaches, antiquities. Nepal is the same, but in the mountains. Even tourists go to Mongolia and Azerbaijan for exotic things.

Southeast Asia with its countless beaches and tropical forests: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bali, exotic civilizations of China and Japan.

Northern Europe– many treks and impressive places to visit in summer (for example, the fjords of Norway), and in winter interesting Christmas traditions (most often in Finland).

Western Europe– study of antiquities, architecture, immersion in culture and traditions. Pure nature, high level of civilization. For example, Germany.

South America– beaches (Brazil), mountains (Patagonia in Argentina, Peru), antiquities (Peru, Easter Island), city trips. A round trip flight costs about 1000 euros, and prices in South America itself can be compared

Africa– safari, studying ethnography – Kenya, South Africa, Madagascar, Mount Kilimanjaro. Expensive, but very interesting. True, it is not always safe.

Australia and New Zealand– the most beautiful and amazing countries for tourism. Lucky are those who can afford to travel so far! Exotica, beaches, mountains, flora and fauna, civilization, cities, ethnography - everything here requires special attention. Unless there are no antiquities.

How to plan an independent trip? Instructions for beginners.

30.12.2017

I usually plan my trip in the following order:

1. I'm buying tickets. I explained in detail how and where to look for cheap flights.

2. I read information about the country and determine exactly where I want to go and what to see.

Usually all the necessary information can be found on the Internet without any problems. The most useful site, in my opinion, is the Vinsky forum. Here you can always find out the latest information on bus/train numbers, their routes, schedules, prices, etc., that is, how to get where you can go. Find out all the details about car rental, traffic rules, rental companies. Read reports from people who have already traveled, look at photographs and identify interesting objects for yourself. If necessary, here you can ask for advice when planning a route. In general, you can find absolutely any information on the Vinsky forum.

3. I put all the necessary objects on the map.

When moving around the country, I highly recommend offline maps. I do this - on the computer I mark all the objects I need in Google maps, then I open this map from my phone, find the “export to KLM/KMZ” function there, click it, after which I need to select “open in maps.me”. All marks are transferred automatically. Very comfortably! Plus I make a guide for myself - a regular folder with Word documents on the laptop, which I then transfer to the phone into the dropbox.com program. There, too, it is possible to download all the files in advance and then use them offline.

4. I study how best to get where, I plan a route by day, taking into account the location of objects on the map.

5. I determine, taking into account the map and methods of transportation, where it is better to live. After that, I look for accommodation to book strictly in the desired regions. This allows you to save time both on searching for hotels and on moving around once in place. You can read which sites are best to look for housing on.

6. Be sure to buy health insurance. I wrote about travel insurance.

7. When everything is purchased and booked, I calmly compose a guidebook and determine a detailed route for each day, ideally including places for lunch and dinner, so as not to waste time and effort searching on the spot. By the way, information about delicious and inexpensive places in different countries can be found in this. Below are links to some cities and countries.

That's all. When everything is ready, I enjoy the anticipation of the trip and look for ideas for future trips.

Becoming a traveler is very easy. I came to the travel agency, chose a tour, paid money - and that’s it. Congratulations, you are now a traveler and your life will sparkle with fresh colors! For example, you can lie motionless near the pool for two whole weeks, covered in tan and moss, or go on a very interesting excursion to the Louvre or the Vatican, where you will be trampled by a crowd of identical Japanese tourists. And if you get hungry, there are weathered salads from the buffet and tasteless restaurants that have realized that it is easier to pay kickbacks to travel agencies than to provide good cuisine.

What? Did you imagine your dream vacation to be completely different?

Do you want to see not only the beach, but also, and? Or maybe you are attracted to an old brewery in the Belgian countryside, where they make unique things? Would you like to take a ride around, walk around and...?

In this case, there is only one way out.

You need to plan your own travel.

Lake Lac Blanc on the border of Alsace and Lorraine - there are no excursions here, so only an independent traveler can see this beauty

Independent travel: pros and cons

Traveling independently has many advantages, but there are also a lot of disadvantages. I have combined all the pros and cons into an easy-to-understand table, from which I think it will be clear what awaits you.

+ By planning your trip yourself, you can save a lot of money. There are flights, hotels and apartments to suit every budget, and by booking everything directly, you won't have to pay a travel agent commission.	— You may end up spending more. Travel agencies receive good discounts on tickets and accommodation, and traveling in a group is usually cheaper.
+ You are on your own. You don't have to watch what you don't want, stick to a general schedule, and wait for tourists who lag behind.	— You are on your own. You will have to independently monitor the time and solve all problems that may arise during the trip.
+ If you travel on your own, you have the opportunity to visit interesting places away from the beaten tourist routes.	— If you don't want to wait in a long line at a famous museum, the easiest way to avoid this is to come as part of a tour group.
+ By planning your trip yourself, you can experience as many experiences in one go as you would normally get from several guided trips.	— Planning a trip is a long and sometimes tedious task, and the volume of impressions makes your head so swollen that it’s time to take a second vacation to take a break from the first.
+ Stay overnight in cozy hotels in the countryside, dine at farmers' markets, rent a car. Absolute freedom!	— You choose everything yourself. And if your vacation is not a success, there will be no one to blame either.

Take your time, carefully weigh all the arguments, and if the disadvantages outweigh you, don’t worry: it’s okay, maybe you’re just not yet ready for independent travel.

Planning the route

I suggest moving from the general to the specific and first deciding on the direction - where exactly you want to go. Here are some guiding questions to ask yourself to help you make the right decision.

Where do I want to go?

Of course, this is the defining question. What do you want to see or do? Nowadays, it is not difficult to find comprehensive information about any country you are interested in, so the main thing is to be able to formulate your desires. Try to come up with something original, because the main charm of independent travel lies in the experiences that you will never get by going on vacation on a tourist package.

When will I go on vacation?

Seasonality is one of the main factors when planning a trip, and not only if you are going to sunbathe on the beach or ski. Study the weather forecast and average monthly temperature in your chosen country, find out when the rainy season is there, and whether museums, parks and other attractions you would like to see will be open.

Here are a couple of sites where you can find weather forecasts around the world:

Unfortunately, the weather when traveling is not always pleasant - but it’s better to know about this in advance

What can I afford?

The budget for the trip is a key point, because it is in it that you will have to fit all your immense desires. What exactly you can afford will have to be taken into account when developing your route. Here are the main points that can affect the cost of your trip (and on which you can try to save):

Vehicle. Traditionally, it is believed that flying by plane is more expensive than traveling by train, and the most economical way to travel is to travel by car. But over long distances, this statement ceases to be true, since in this case additional costs arise, and if you know how to look for cheap air tickets, the fastest method of travel turns out to be at the same time the most economical.
Host country. Everything is obvious here - some countries are more expensive than others, and require high costs for housing, transportation and food. If we talk about Europe, the most expensive countries here are the Scandinavian countries, followed by Old Europe (France, Germany, etc.), Eastern Europe and the former countries of the socialist camp are even cheaper. The exception, however, is Portugal - the westernmost country in Europe seemed to me one of the cheapest.
Housing. Hotels are the most expensive. The general rule is that the more stars a hotel has, the more expensive it is, but this is only partly true - the location of the hotel, the period of renovation and other factors, including the level of the hotel restaurant, play a significant role. If you are going to cook yourself, take apartments - they cost about the same, but in the end they turn out to be cheaper due to the savings on food. B&Bs are even cheaper - something like mini-hotels that offer bed and breakfast. Finally, let's not forget about hostels - a popular housing format among budget travelers, where you essentially rent only a bed in a room that can accommodate a large number of guests.
Nutrition. I will tell you in detail about how to eat abroad separately, but here I will note that in Europe you can find food for almost any budget, but I personally do not recommend saving too much on this expense item.
Sports and leisure. What are you planning to do? Wind and kite surfing, scuba diving, cycling and skiing - everything that requires additional equipment also requires additional expenses.
Program. What museums and attractions you want to see, how you plan to travel between cities, whether you will fly from the same airport or from another - all these factors affect how much you will ultimately have to spend.

Booking flights

So, the dates and budget have been determined, it’s time to move from theory to practice. And as this very practice shows, air tickets are subject to the greatest fluctuations in prices, so I recommend starting with them first. The most convenient way to buy air tickets online is to use a special search engine that filters offers from different airlines and displays suitable options. One of the most reliable sites that offer such services in Russia is Aviasales.ru. Enter the departure city, destination city, dates and number of passengers in the search form, and you will see all available options:

A couple more sites that have the same functionality:

It seems that everyone already knows about this, but just in case - to book airline tickets, accommodation, a car and any other services for your trip, you will need a credit card (and some rental offices may ask for details of a second card, just in case).

The facade of the Mariott Hotel in Ghent is interesting with an ancient image of two swans swimming away from each other. In the Middle Ages, this sign designated brothels.

Booking accommodation

Like air tickets, it also makes sense to search for accommodation through special search engines, which contain information about the availability of hotels and apartments of all categories around the world. Some sites specialize exclusively in searching for accommodation, others, like Aviasales.ru, combine search functionality for hotels, air tickets and other services that a traveler may need:

Here are a few more sites where you can also look for hotel rooms and apartments:

The choice of additional options, such as a navigator, child seats and extended insurance, can be left for later, but it is better to book them with the car.

Well, looks like you're ready to travel?..

Renault Renault, in which we drove all over Portugal from south to north

Final preparations

Finally, I’ll give you some tips on what preparations it makes sense to make immediately before your trip.

Prepare your documents in advance. You will need a passport, insurance, air tickets, hotel reservations, train or car reservations, and if you are driving your own car, then car insurance.

Prepare your finances. In most European countries, it is very difficult to find an exchanger where they will sell you local currency for rubles, and the exchange rate there will not be the most favorable. It is better to immediately exchange a sufficient amount of money, and a bank card will be very useful: credit cards are accepted almost everywhere, and the rate will be much better than at the exchange office.

Update your maps. Update the maps in your navigator, download maps and applications to your phone and tablet - in a word, get ready to navigate in an unfamiliar country.

Optimize your mobile connection. The easiest way is to buy a local SIM card upon arrival - this can usually be done right at the airport. If you are not going to change SIM cards during your vacation, study the tariff options of your mobile operator: it is quite possible that there is an opportunity to reduce the cost of calls and mobile Internet in roaming.

Buy a guidebook. Or, if free time allows, take a summary of the reviews of other travelers on the Internet that particularly interested you, print them out and take them with you.

Eat and drink! Vacations are always short, and to get the maximum impressions, you need to go to trusted places, and not to tourist restaurants. First, you can install apps that will recommend cafes, bars and restaurants to you based on ratings based on reviews from other travelers:

Secondly, upon arrival, it makes sense to buy a red Michelin guide or another guide to local restaurants. I wrote about why you need it and how to use it in the article.

Finally

Re-reading the already completed article, I understand how voluminous it turned out to be. It is quite possible that all my advice will not be useful to you right away, but some of it is already known to you. Still, I cherish the hope that the information I have presented based on my experience of independent travel will be useful to you. I encourage you to bookmark this page so you can come back to it whenever you need the information and links it contains—and would appreciate it if you add your own experience to it. Thanks in advance for sharing this article with your friends!

I will not now highlight any service in first place, and this order does not give preference to one or the other. They all have their pros and cons, more or less equally.

Let's start with Agenda.

A Russian travel planning service that recently began to gain momentum and received investments. The design of the service is pleasing to the eye, it is convenient, nothing superfluous. Excellent calendar grid displaying planned flights.

The emphasis of the Agenda is mainly on the purchase and reservation of air tickets, hotels, transport, there is also the possibility of booking trains and buses, but unfortunately mainly only within the Russian Federation. The service is closely connected with Panaramio, which allows you to see photos of interesting places, and Foursqare for selecting attractions in the city where you are going. Compared to other services, there is a big disadvantage to adding interesting places to view, and if you are planning a big trip, you will have to work hard to add them to your calendar. It would be great if there was synchronization with the calendar on your phone or tablet, but I didn’t find one. It’s not clear how the creators missed such a moment in all their travels as the lack of Internet. Since there are no applications for Android or iOS, it is not clear how to use it while traveling. Timeline export to pdf is very poor.

Yes, it is quite possible to buy tickets, book hotels and cars here, and besides, the search is also carried out on low-cost airlines. But even during test trips to book a hotel or car in Asia, he didn’t find anything for me.

In general, there are some shortcomings that I hope will be improved in the future.

Next Mygola

An English-language service, also with a good interface, but less convenient. Compared to the Agenda, the calendar grid is less easily understood, but nevertheless quite convenient and understandable.

This same service is more geared towards sightseeing. A large selection of places with detailed descriptions and a link to the source or website of this place. There is an application, but it is no different from the website. You can look at all the points on the map, but you can’t see each point individually, and this is a minus, since it’s not possible to jump on the link to Google maps and get directions.

A huge advantage of Mygola is the route search and its preliminary assessment. At the very beginning I was very surprised, because you usually find such information only on some blogs. There are a large number of options for traveling between points, using a variety of transport. From a taxi with its cost, to public transport, for which the cost is also sometimes indicated. It is not clear where this information comes from, but it is quite possible to estimate the cost.

Again, there is no export at all. There is also no synchronization. In conclusion, it can be noted that when planning a trip, the Mygola service can be used to find cheap routes by public transport.

Youroute

Another Russian-language service. The service attracted me with its simplicity. Nothing superfluous, easy interface, everything is simple and clear, come in and plan. Of course, like all of the above, it also has disadvantages. But let's start with the advantages, the first of which is a large database of attractions from all countries and cities of the world. Conveniently add objects to your route. The service is also connected to Panaramio and you can conveniently view photographs of objects. From each point you can go to Google maps, you can get directions, but then there will be a service in which it is a little more convenient to do this.

A route immediately creeps between points; transport can always be changed. You can also easily change the order of sightseeing.

At the end you get this kind of route

As you can see, the route can be saved as a pdf and printed if desired. The stages themselves look rather boring.

I would add flight times, they can, in principle, be written down in notes, but nevertheless they are not displayed in the PDF, and links to a map for each point, preferably on Google. But there is information about these places, in a completely digestible form.

Well, the service is quite excellent, but it lacks something; if it added a little from the first and second, it could turn out to be a better service for travel planning. Of course, the application is still missing. So guys, developers, I hope you will finish this service in the future.

Gogobot

Initially, I learned about it as an application. The first thing that caught my eye was that he posts all your actions on facebook, but this is disabled in the account settings. The service is English-language and has a large database of attractions that you can easily add to your trip. Add in bulk only from the table view; from the map you have to go to the object page. But in the application this does not cause much discomfort. There are selections of restaurants and hotels that can be booked.

There are interest clubs in which thematic places are selected.

The travel plan looks quite simple, like a pdf file, but nevertheless contains all the necessary information about the objects, with links to the page of these places in Gogobot.

Here is a type of PDF file that can be minimally customized

An undoubted advantage is the presence of an application (for iPhone and Android), where you can view your travel plan and use navigation for each object.

Decent service, unfortunately not in the native language. Another app for iPad would be great.
Well in the end

Tripomatic

The web service is not particularly striking in design, but the application is quite good (again, the iPad was bypassed), and with support for the Russian language.

It’s quite convenient to add places to your trip plan; the route and approximate travel time immediately creep in between them, which will give you an understanding of the time spent on travel, but unfortunately not about its cost. He also automatically builds the route of the day in such a way (well, at least he tries) so as not to make detours around the city, but to visit all the places along the way with the least amount of time. You can book a hotel on the website, purchase and viewing takes place on Booking.com. You can add travel by transport, for example between railway stations, unfortunately the time is not displayed, and there is no search for ticket prices either. But that doesn't matter here.
I also liked that after completing the compilation, you receive a schedule for your trip. It shows how many of the main attractions you missed.

Export to PDF is good, with all links to Google maps. By clicking, it immediately plots a route. The line of the day is not very clear, but you can figure it out.

The application is very good. With some nice features. For example, the object page shows the distance to it and a rotating compass that shows the direction of movement. Many attractions also display opening hours and entrance ticket prices. For some reason, the screenshots from iTunes show a translator, but I didn’t see it in the program itself.

In addition, the Tripomatic application has a paid, but very useful for tourist, offline map function. For 129 rubles. you can buy a map of the country, for 449 - Asia and Australia, and for 549 rubles. you can download maps of all countries that are available on Tripomatic (358 places). In general, the application takes place on the traveler’s smartphone.

In conclusion, I will say that there are quite a few services for compiling and planning a trip, in my opinion these are the most prominent. There are still many social travel networks where you can also get a lot of useful information, but they do not have such functions as planning.

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