Ten on Tuesday - 9 (Travelling Tips)

Travelling is sure fun.  But planning for the travel is such a pain!  So is choosing your holiday destination.  All of us have urge to leave our comfort zone and explore new people, culture and boundaries.  We want to travel but we are not very sure where we want to go or what we want to do.  A beach holiday, visit to a timeless city, mountaineering, snorkeling or skiing?? Very often people from cold weather countries choose beach destinations to enjoy the sun, beach and get tanned.  I'm not a beach babe.  I cannot sit under the sun and do nothing and on top of that I cannot swim!  But I've promised myself that I will go on a proper beach holiday atleast once in my life. Fine..Here are simple thumb rules to choose your holiday destination.

  
1. What is the duration of your travel? It totally depends on how many days you can take off from work. Very important and foremost thing to be sorted.  The days you take leave helps you decide your destination to a great extent. If you can't travel more than 1 week, then it's viable to choose a location nearby.
  
2. Before even you start day dreaming of you sitting in an exotic location, check how much you can afford.  Work out the cost and budget issues.  Include the flight/cruise/train costs, book guides, required accessories, any special clothing, local transportation, food, visa, accomodation, shopping, touring into your consideration.

3. What do you want to do during this vacation? If you don't know why you want to travel and what you want to do, it makes the whole process difficult. Do you want to explore nature with tons of outdoor adventure activities or sit in beach all day reading your favourite book or enter the oldest cathedral or a castle and take a sip of your favourite coffee from the local coffee shop or visit a few UNESCO Heritage site? Coz there's hundreds of hot destinations out there. For eg: If you choose to visit a city of historic importance, you can nail down from 100 to top 10 destinations of your choice.  

4. Who is going to accompany you during the trip?  This helps you narrow down your options to a great extent.  If it's an "all friends", or "just the two of us" or "a family" trip.  Or are you travelling with children?  For instance, theme park or camping is a great option for family with kids.

5. Check out what kind of festivals /carnivals are happening and you can target the places according to that.  For instant February is when the Venice Carnival happen in Venice.  It's a nice way to visit the place during these festivals to be a part of that grand celebration!
   
6.Choose what kind of weather you would like to enjoy while on holiday.  Do you prefer scorching hot sun, mild summers, or snowy weather condition? If you want a beach holiday, and you hit the place during rainy season you don't get much out of it.  Also check if that's peak or off-peak season. For eg: Best time to visit Dubai is between Nov - Mar, because that's when it is mild.

7. Do you want to visit one country/region or do a tour across various places?

8 Check the visa requirements. In some countries you can get visa upon entry, while in some places you.This might help you reduce some options, coz some embassies are not very co-operative and/or you might not have a particular embassy in the city you live.
  
9. Hope by now, you'd have really dropped down the options to top 3 or atleast top5.  Is there any language barrier in these destinations?  There's absolutely nothing wrong in visiting a country where you don't have a single clue about their language.  Someone invented sign and body language for us.  But it is just one more way to wipe out other options.
   
10. Check the health and safety regulations - Are there any vaccinations required?  Are there any high risk element or violence or riot in the place? If any hurricane or cyclone is been predicted?  

Well..it's not actually 10..there's one more point to add.  Lastly seek advice from people who've travelled to the place already.  Tips from them carry more weightage than what you read in book or web. Let's not forget that this information is honest, unedited and is not available in any glossy looking travel magazines.  It is advisable to check this piece of information even before you choose your holiday destination!

PS: Some of the information are very basic, and you'd have already known.  Just thought of bringing it all together in a single post.  

PPS: Thanks for enquiring about my cold. I am still not feeling very good. Achoo!  Pardon me. This cold is torturing :(