PLANNING – KNOW BEFORE YOU GO (Part II)
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WHERE TO GO, WHEN TO GO AND WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU GET THERE
6. SO MANY PLACES, SO LITTLE TIME
Settled on a destination but not quite sure where to start? I always do a search titled “not to miss in…” and fill in my desired city. This search will show you the top sites and activities in a given location. If you are into day trips, you can then search for “best day trips from …”. The search parameters are endless. If you’re into a particular activity like deep sea diving or birdwatching, performing searches centered around your activity can provide you with the basis for your travel itinerary. You can also check the tourism pages for a given country for ideas, as they always list popular activities and sites. Let me issue a warning here: Don’t expect to see EVERYTHING a destination has to offer in one trip. Pace yourself! Those search parameters can sometimes produce hundreds of results sending you headfirst down a travel rabbithole.
7. STEP OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
Solo travel is an amazing experience. I spoke more about this in an earlier post but traveling alone really shows you what you’re made of, especially if you’re traveling in countries where you don’t speak the language. So many people have told me how brave I am to travel halfway around the world by myself but I don’t think of it as being brave, I just think it’s all about knowing what I want. I spent my 20’s, 30’s and part of my 40’s waiting for other people to “come with” and I never got anywhere. So, while solo travel wasn’t what I preferred when I first did it in 2016, it is now my preferred mode of travel. Who would have thought?
If I had never stepped outside of myself, there wouldn’t be a need for this travel blog now would there?
8. THE BEST ACTIVITIES AREN’T NECESSARILY TRADITIONAL TOURIST ONES
Some of my best memories are of doing totally normal things. Like when my concierge, Rajesh, at my hotel in Mumbai put me on the back of his moped and took me to get fruit and ice cream after an impromptu tour of the city or walking along the beach in Madagascar and having the little girls run behind me staring at my head full of natural kinky coils in amazement asking me if they could braid my hair (this one still makes me smile to this day).
9. GROUP TOURS OR A PRIVATE TOUR WITH A REPUTABLE COMPANY ARE ALWAYS GOOD IDEAS
In countries with less than stellar infrastructures, it may be easier to join a group tour or arrange a private tour with a guide / naturalist versus driving yourself or trying to navigate a strange city. It’s just not worth all the time and energy doing it yourself unless that’s your thing. Plus, if any issues arise, it will be on the tour company to figure it all out (this is a particularly helpful thing when trying to arrange domestic flights in foreign countries).
10. CONSIDER TRAVELING DURING THE “SHOULDER” SEASON IF YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY AND AVOID CROWDS
For those on a budget, traveling during shoulder season is the way to go. Shoulder season is that period in between a destination’s low and high tourism seasons when the weather is usually still favorable, you can score real deals on airfare and accommodations and the crowds are greatly diminished at the more popular attractions and venues. Win-Win.
UP NEXT: TIPS ON FINDING FLIGHTS AND ACCOMMODATIONS
