Travelling? Plan your trip carefully!

For the past weeks, because of an impending vacation (I refuse to tell where until we are sure to go), Rick Steves has been my companion. For those who do not know who Rick Steves is, he is a traveler who spends months of research on great vacation spots. His books are such a great help…they’re simple, very useful, and easy to read. But I’ll talk about these books more in some other post.

Why, then, talk about Rick Steves? It’s because I can never overemphasize the importance of careful planning when going on a trip. Yes, I’ve experienced traveling without planning. And a few times, it worked…if you are in a super adventurous mode. But then, there are certain trips where planning is a must.

Where planning is the first step, finding the right sources is the critical part. For the past weeks, I’ve literally scoured hundreds of Web sites, read a number of books, and scanned so many brochures in planning for my vacation. Finding the right hotel, the right transportation, the right places to visit is very important (especially with this type of trip!).

Let me share some tips that you may find useful in planning for a trip:

1. The Internet can be your best friend. Let me tell you why.

        Information: The Internet can give you literally millions of links to information on hotels, transportation, tourist spots, what-to-dos, what-not-to-dos, and many more must knows! This can go against you though, because choosing the important (and authentic) information can be hard. But if you get the hang of it, it will be so much easier!

        Not only does the Internet give you the a wide variety of best options, but it also makes booking for transportation, hotels, and tourist spots/tours easier. I’ve just booked at four hotels thousands of miles away at the comfort of my home! This is certainly a plus, plus, plus! I’ve found the following links to be particularly very useful (especially for international trips; some were from Rick Steves):

        –Transportation

                Sky Scanner Flight Search (www.skyscanner.net)

                Mobissimo (www.mobissimo.com)

                Wegolo (www.wegolo.com)

                Raileurope (www.raileurope.com)   

        –Accommodations

                Hostelworld (www.hostelworld.com)

                Hotelscombined (www.hotelscombined.com)

                Hostelbookers (www.hostelbookers.com)

        -Travel information

                iExplore (www.iexplore.com)

     What I love about these sights is they search the whole database for the right transportation or accommodation for you, according to your preference, that is, by price, by location, by availability, and others. They certainly make planning a lot easier! I swear that I love these sites!

2. Try joining forums, or even just read entries. It is very helpful to read about the experiences of others…what works and what does not, what is worth seeing and what is not. It is very importnat that you do not waste energy, time, and money on sights or places that are not worth it.

3. When you are searching on the Internet, do not be contented on the first results page that appears. Go as far as you can.  Sometimes, the best information come after much searching.

4. Know how to filter information that you read (very important!).

5. Learn from the experiences of others…ask, ask, ask.

There you have it! Know that things might still go wrong after the most careful of planning. But then, I would rather have things go wrong even with planning than things go wrong without planning!