Travel 101

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" - Ben Franklin

Some people think it's more interesting just to go and improvise their trip. I'm not that kind of person. I always plan before going anywhere, because I only have limited time to travel in each place and may not have another chance to revisit the place. It would be a pity if I missed anything interesting. So far I never travel with tour agent because it's usually more expensive.

I'm not always the one making the itinerary for our trip, but when I do,  I plan in detail. I have to choose a comfortable (good value-for-money) place to stay, know which places are worth visiting and which can be skipped, what famous local culinary I can try, etc.

More or less, this is what I do. Homework before travelling:

1. Google things to do and where to go in that city. Make selection of the places you will be visiting, since you might not have time to visit all. Read people’s blogs to get more objective insights. Know what to expect in each area and what to bring, wear, or prepare.
2. Choose a place to stay nearby the most visited area, or in location with easy public transportation access. Trip advisor or booking.com and many other websites provide other travellers’ reviews about the hotels/hostels/motels. These reviews are very useful since you won’t be able to look for yourself before booking. Changing hotel each day may not be a good idea considering the check-in/check-out time and your luggage, especially when it will only be a short trip. Since you are planning to enjoy the city and not the hotel, the room size might not be a huge matter, but cleanliness, location, and price should be your top priority checklist. Wrong lodging choice can ruin your mood. Free wireless internet is an advantage, especially when you’re travelling abroad.
   Read also for the reviews of surrounding area, you don’t want to end up in an unsafe place such as drug trafficking or prostitution area. You may also want to find out the nightlife condition of the area, some travellers look for a lively night live, while others prefer a quiet surrounding at night.
   If you want to book through a third party company (travel agent or agoda or booking.com, etc.), you better check out the hotel’s official website as well, for sometimes they have special offering which is more advantageous for you.
3. Search for nearby restaurant/fast-food/convenient store, especially if you look for special dietary meals (such as halal food), in all area that you’ll be visiting. For muslims, make sure you have a general overview of the nearest mesjid location or a comfortable place to sholat.
4. Make travel itinerary so that your trip can be efficient.  Google maps can be very useful in making this itinerary, along with local public transportation website if you prefer not to use taxi everywhere. Buses and subways are usually the cheapest and easiest. If necessary, print the detail transport route that you’re going to take. If you will travel abroad to a non English speaking country, you may want to print out the name of your destination place in local language to make it easier to ask, just in case.
   Plan carefully! After shopping, if you buy a lot, usually you have to plan to go back to your hotel to put all your shopping bags before going anywhere else.
5. Consider the things you will bring with you when you are travelling. If it’s going to be a long walk, sneakers, t shirt, jeans, and backpack are the most comfortable combination for most times. In your backpack, you can bring your jacket/umbrella (depending on the weather forecast), bottled drink, wet and dry tissue (not all the toilets in public areas are clean), snacks, camera, sunglass, etc. For Indonesian, don’t forget to bring jamu ‘tolak angin’ and sambal ABC sachet ;)
6. Make sure you bring enough clothes and undies (or know where to buy cheap clothes at your destination), appropriate shoes/sandals, bathroom amenities, personal medicines, travel adaptor if your destination place use different plug/socket, instant foods/snacks if necessary, etc.
7. Calculate everything in detail and estimate you budget: flight ticket (if any), hotel, accommodation, transportation (bus/subway fares), average meal (such as fast-food price), bottled mineral water price, tourist attraction ticket price, souvenir prices, etc. Prepare for unexpected costs. Some places take only cash in local currency, some only use USD instead of local currency except for small changes, some don't take credit card payment, some don't even have any ATM nearby.
8. If people of your destination place speak in a language you don’t understand, write down several important words in local language such as your hotel address, tourist attraction places you want to visit, “where is the nearest subway?”, “how to go to ….”, etc. You may have your smartphone with you, but not all places are signal friendly and you may run out of battery. In some countries, the price of new SIM card is expensive. Sometimes the local public transportation is not google-able, so you will have to ask the locals.
9. You’re good to go!