Finding the Best Travel Places to See and Explore

Since I don’t do much research beforehand and definitely not on attractions or activities, I find other ways to learn the best places to see and explore.  If I know of someone who has already backpacked or visited where I plan to go, I will message or ask them about it.  Some people have been in places due to volunteer work, the Peace Corps, and more, so I will ask them if they had a favorite place to see.  I had a friend who was in the Peace Corps in Macedonia and saw that I was going to that region of Europe so she recommended that I go to Lake Orhid, Macedonia.  Not only had I never heard of Lake Orhid, I didn’t even know where Macedonia was exactly located.  I picked her brain about the best way to travel in that region.  Lake Orhid, Macedonia is now one of the most beautiful place that I have ever seen.  I ask people that I meet along my travels who have either visited or are heading to a certain area and I will ask if they have a favorite place to see there.  This is a great way to learn about local secret hide-aways that not many know about whether they are sky-high waterfalls, beautiful parks or bodies of water, awesome views at the top of a hill or hike, or a small town that many don’t visit.  I love visiting places and seeing things that many don’t go to so word-of-mouth is an excellent way to find such places.  Again, this is all done as I go with little or no planning ahead.  Like I said, too much planning can become too overwhelming. 

How Much Ahead Planning You Should Do When Traveling

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.

What to Expect When Going Through Immigration and Customs

When going through customs, be sure to fill out your customs card that is provided to you usually on your flight or as you are walking into the immigration area.  Customs wants to know if you are carrying anything dangerous, harmful, drugs, weapons, a lot of money, really expensive items, animals, plants, what foods that you are carrying with you, and other stuff.  Be honest on your customs card, the last thing you want is to get in trouble for not being honest with officials.  It always asks you to write down the items that you purchased on your travels and their monetary value.  They aren’t very strict on this.  It also asks you to state the countries that you visited on your trip.  They want to know for health and other purposes.  I always claim all of my food.  I stand in the line to get my bags check and show them that I have dried fruits, some whole fruit, nuts, and seeds all for snacks.  They always appreciate the honesty and let me through. 

Make sure that you do NOT take any photos in the immigration or customs lines.  They take it really seriously.  There are always signs posted but once I saw someone get in a lot of trouble and taken away from taking a photo and the flash went off in immigration line. Expect that in immigration, they will always ask you where you are going, for how long, your purpose for the visit, where you staying, the name and contact of where you are staying, and some other questions.  When my passport began filling up a lot and in some countries that were not as common for tourists, I would get questioned a bit more at immigration.  They weren’t sure why a girl, traveling alone, from America, was traveling so much.  It definitely got awkward a lot of times.  Thankfully, I have a new passport now, with extended pages!

Keeping in Contact when Backpacking

There are different ways to keep in contact with your friends and family back home.  Some ways are through social media like Facebook and Twitter, sending emails, sending postcards (this is very old school and not many people do anymore), calling home, using WhatsApp, or video chatting like Skype or FaceTime.  I also loved using Vonage to call my mom anytime that I had WiFi.  I mainly used Facebook, email, Skype, and Vonage.

For my first backpacking trip ever, I had a dinky little flip phone and no other devices with me.  Since I was in Western Europe I didn’t face many problems trying to find a way to keep in contact with my mom and friends.  Almost every hostel will have free computers or free WiFi to use or will have computers to use for a small free.  Some places will even provide a free 20 or 30 minutes a day on their computers or devices.  I had this in Rome.  They gave iPads to use for free for 20 minutes a day.  In Berlin, they gave a credit to use on their computers for each person every day.  I noticed that a lot of people had their own devices.  Many people let me borrow their laptops, notepad computers, smartphones, or tablets to use.  When I was going to Central America, I got an Android phone which allowed me to use the internet when I could get free Wifi.  Many cafes will also offer free WiFi or if you buy something. 

When I was preparing for my longest trip in 2013, my mom and I both bought IPad Minis so that we could Skype one another as I traveled.  It came is great use.  I also download t.v shows on it to watch as I traveled too.  A friend suggested that my mom and I download the Vonage app on our phones and IPads.  Vonage enabled us to call one another just like a normal phone does but for free, as long as we were connected to WiFi.  Some hostels offered free use of their phone for a certain amount of time a day.  My hostel in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, which was pretty much in the middle of a jungle, allowed each visitor to make a call for free for 20 minutes a day.  Many people also use phone cards but I never have.  They are usually pretty cheap and can be found almost everywhere.

There are many ways to keep in contact back at home these days thanks to technology and the kind people and establishments all around the world. 

*Just about everywhere you go and stay will have free Wifi so I’d recommend

bringing along your smartphone or a small PC.

*You will also come across internet cafes and some accommodations offer usage of

their computers for a fee usually.

*check with your service provider about international phone charges. I usually

had my phone on airplane mode and just used it as a clock.

Tracking Your Travels

It’s really important, not only for your friends and family but, for you to track your travels.  With the continual creation of new social media tools and applications, there are so many ways to keep track of your travels, both personally and publicly. 

Some common ways to share your travels are through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, SnapChat, and others.  I personally only use Facebook and Instagram, and sometimes Pinterest.  I take a lot of photos and I love to upload them to share with my mom and friends as I travel.  I use a lot of my photos to inspire my paintings and I also love to print them out when I get home and put into photo albums and to hang on my wall or make collages with.

I love to keep a journal as I travel.  For my first backpacking trip which was to Western Europe, I used computers in all of my hostels or that I borrowed from a friend for a few hours to write in my blog on Blogspot.com.  I didn’t keep a handwritten journal until I went on my second trip which was to Central America.  I then began to transfer my journal to add to my blog but I then realized that what I was blogging was essentially my journal.  I also realized that when I try to find travel information, it’s kind of difficult to find exactly what I am looking for and in a timely fashion.  Therefore, I decided to stop that blog for now and to begin this new one to provide the important information needed for all travelers while also sharing my experiences.  I kept two notebooks.  One was my personal journal and the other was a notebook that I used to keep track of every bit of important information for each country including: currency, estimated budget spent there, entrance and exit fees, visa and passport information, food and shopping prices, where I stayed and cost, best means of transportation and its cost, and anything else that I felt is important to know.  Your journals are memory holders that you can keep forever and they are a great way to express yourself as you travel, especially when you are traveling alone.  I deal with really bad anxiety so writing in my journal helps me to cope with my anxiety as I travel.