Travel Planning Kit – The Sequel

Missed part 1? Long story-short:

• Search for flights on Momondo.
• Find a cozy room/ apartment on Airbnb – sign up here and get £16 (or the equivalent) travel credit
• Meet some great people in colourful hostels – here and here.

Today’s heroes

City tours

Oh, no, no, no, don’t you snooze on me. The word tour just makes you want to go to sleep, I know. But what about free, young, fun tours? Now you’re listening!

This is probably the first thing I do when I visit a new place: go on a free tour of the city to learn a bit about it’s history, legends and things worth doing. It’s a great starting point as you can see the main attractions and then find out about what else is there, all through the eyes of a local.

The concept is simple: the guides are young, passionate about the city they live in and  don’t get paid to do this. So you’ll be welcomed by enthusiastic people, who’ll tell you lots of secrets about their city with a cheeky sense of humour, some urban legends, random facts and a bit of history. The best part is that you can ask more about what seems interesting to you and you also get brilliant recommendations on where to eat, drink, party and learn, all depending on your schedule and budget. For all of this, you leave a tip amounting to whatever you think the tour was worth. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed as the guides will do their best to entertain and inform you – their income is in your hands (literally). And if you really dislike the tour (guide), you are free to go at any time – no strings attached.

The most well-known company is Sandemans New Europe. I’ve seen Prague, Berlin, London, Barcelona, Paris and Lisbon with them and loved every single one of them! If they are not in the city you want to go to, look for local companies. I recommend Bucharest’s Walkabout and Warsaw’s Free Walking Tour.

Couchsurfing

Image source

I think pretty much everyone has heard of Courchsurfing by now. I don’t know about you, but I was very reluctant at first. What, so do I just go and sleep on a stranger’s couch? What if something happens? *insert 100+ scenarios of all the things that could go wrong*

Now I’m not saying things can’t go wrong. But is it that hard to believe people would genuinely offer a piece of their home to some strangers just to make sure they have a good time? No need to answer that, let’s just leave it there. But seriously, have some faith in humanity. I tried couchsurfing in Zaragoza. Me and my friend, Daniela, stayed at Edu’s place (hi, Edu!) and we didn’t only get a couch; we got a whole room for ourselves, yummy food and *drum roll* the most adorable kitten in the world (don’t trust on that though, I find them all adorable)! Edu took the time to show us the city and he was an excellent guide! He also taught us the difference between calimotcho and cachirulo (still took me a while to remember that).

City Maps2Go

City Maps2Go is an app which contains a series of offline maps that will prevent you from getting lost. In most cases you’ll be able to find wi-fi in cafes and restaurants, but unless you have mobile data abroad, Google Maps won’t be be able to come to the rescue. This app is a good compromise. You can’t search for directions from A to B, but you have a detailed map with all the streets and a database of the main attractions and restaurants that you can mark on the map (or add your own). On the main streets, it will also tell you what bus/ tram numbers are on that route. This is what my Warsaw map looked like:

One drawback is that the app can be quite slow at times, but it does most of the job and it’s free, so you’d better say “Thanks!”. Don’t forget to download it before you leave, as it is quite big and it’s going to take a while to install.

BlaBla Car

Ah, I love BlaBla Car! This startup has grown a lot in the past few years and it’s expanding quickly across Europe and beyond.

BlaBlaCar is also present in Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Romania and the most recently Mexico. Source

How it works: people have empty seats in their car. You are looking for a ride. They advertise their empty seats on the website, against a fee they choose. You contact them. They accept you. Travel sorted!

I’ve used BlaBla Car a lot in Spain and I found it really flexible and convenient. I’ve met some really nice people and travelled cheaper and faster than by train and sometimes coach. However, the golden rule applies here as well: check reviews!! You’re trusting your live in the wheels of a strangers, so you need to get a confirmation of their driving skills from fellow adventurers.

City guides

If you still love paper travel guides and magazines (I am one of those old-fashioned ones), then my heroes are Lonely Planet and TimeOut.

Lonely Planet has an extensive collection of standard guides as well as various books grouped by topic and plenty of up-to-date travel suggestions, both online and offline.

TimeOut is not only great as a city guide, but also reviews local events and pop-ups, ranging from outdoor activities to theatre, concerts and food fests. If you live in London, pick it up every Tuesday from any tube station and you’ll definitely find at least one cool thing happening that week.

(Talking about London – subscribe to the Londonist to get the best of daily London – there’s so much going on and it’s all collected in one place, for you!)

Drungli 

Drungli is a great flight-finder (never tried their hotel section) for those days when all that matters is that you want to go somewhere. You select your location and dates (or month) and it shows you the cheapest flights. Even though it might not have such an extensive database of airlines, it can give you an idea of cheap destinations and dates, and you can take that inspiration to scour the internet for better deals.

However, I think lately the site hasn’t been as good as it used to in terms of flight prices, which is why I left it towards the end. But it’s still on my list of sites to check, for old times’ sake!

I can’t go without mentioning my good old friend Trip Advisor. It’s so integrated in our lives that there’s not really any point mentioning it. I just want to make sure you do have a look – reviews are the closest thing you have to a friendly advice, and if you want to avoid tourist traps, you need an insider to point you in the right direction.

That’s all (for today) folks!