I usually don’t plan
ahead much when I travel. For me,
planning ahead just overwhelms me because there can be so much information to
research. Therefore, I like to just plan
as I go. Now, I do research the most
important information such as that for passports, visas, visa-on-arrivals,
required medical vaccines, visitor entry requirements and fees, entrance and
exit fees, current safety precautions or current events, and a few other
things. Due to my lack of research in
the past, I had learned everything that I now know about traveling and
different countries due to personal experience and problems that I ran into and
had to figure out on my own. I honestly
wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Although I have stories galore and had to face various problems to
figure out, everything always got worked out in one way or another. The lessons that I learned throughout my
travels are what inspired me to create this website so I can provide the most
important information for traveling while sharing my experiences at the same
time.
You will wonder when is
the best time to book a flight, transportation, or an accommodation for the
next country when you are backpacking.
I know that you will be worried that you will miss out on affordable
prices but, no worries, I am not one to book far in advance at all. The websites for flights and accommodations
that I use are great tools that will still help you save money, even close to
the last minute. When I was backpacking
Southeast Asia and flew to Japan, I didn’t book any budget flights until I got
there. I didn’t book any far future
flights until I got to a country or two closer.
This is for a couple of reasons.
I have made the mistake of booking further in advance and wound up
having to cancel the flight to return home due to an injury. Natural disasters can also be a cause for a
flight cancelation like when I had booked five budget flights with one being to
the Philippines. Typhoon Yolanda hit the
Philippines and I was not able to fly there at that time which resulted in me
having to cancel all of my other flights that I had already booked. I lost out on a bit of money due to
that. Now, I wait pretty close to when
I’m ready to go. The only flights that I
book in advance are for the countries that require an exit ticket upon
arrival. I experienced this a lot in
Southeast Asian countries that are islands and some other countries that are
situated on their own (meaning they don’t have many connecting countries where
you can leave via bus or train). They want
to know when you are planning to leave their country. Therefore, I would book an entrance and an
exit flight at the same time, one country at a time. When you can travel on ground transportation
from one country to another, you don’t have to have an exit ticket
already.
As for accommodation,
it’s similar to that of flights. I don’t
book far in advance. The only time that
you should book far in advance is if you will be visiting a country during a
special holiday which could pose an issue on finding available
accommodations. I ran into this problem
many times such as in Madrid, Thailand for New Years Eve, and Osaka,
Japan. You should Google if the country
has any special holidays during your time of visit if you are worried about
securing accommodations because there are so many holidays that other countries
have that can drive up the cost of accommodations and can limit the amount of
available accommodations. When I first
backpacked Western Europe, I didn’t book any accommodations ahead of time at
all. I would literally just arrive in
the new country or city and walk around to find a hostel. The majority of the time this worked. That’s because Western Europe is such a prime
place for backpackers that hostels can be found almost anywhere. But, I did run into some stressful times
there when I had difficulty finding a place to stay. So, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing
that but, know that it is do-able. If
you are going to do that, then I’d recommend doing so when you are arriving
into a city or country in the morning or day time because the darker it gets
out, the more worrisome you will become.
In Central America, I did the same thing by just arriving into town but,
this time I made sure that I arrived to a new place early in the day. For my longest trip covering Southeast Asia,
India, Eastern Europe/Mediterranean, Morocco, and the Middle East, I did book
ahead, but not by far. I usually waited
until the day before arrival or before a flight. I did that because the countries that I was
traveling to weren’t always the safest for a person roaming around for hours
without a place to stay so I wanted to give my mind some ease and have a place
booked. I used my recommended websites
and booked using my iPad or a computer when I could get WiFi for free. Another good thing about having a place
booked is that you can message them as ask for specific directions and
recommendation on how to get there and how much to expect to pay. You can also ask if they offer free shuttle
or a pick-up fee from the airport or station.
Many places had offered to send someone to come meet me at a certain bus
or train stop and walk with me because the place can be hard to find. Keep in mind that I don’t recommend booking
anything too far in advance because a change in plan may come up or you may
want to stay somewhere longer. This has
definitely happened to me many times.
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