Tips for a DIY holiday

I've had enough with travel companies cooking itineraries for me, offering me packages, and planning my trip. So, this time when we decided on Egypt, I decided to do it all by myself...and it's been the best trip ever...in all ways...we had the *mostest* fun and the logistics and finances were better than the best.

So, these are my tips, if you are planning a holiday on your own.

1. Planning - Research, research, and research. You are gonna thank yourself for this. Once you decide on your destination, find about these things:

• Places to visit/see - Make a list of the must see and must dos. Check costs - entrance tickets of places, costs of excursions you may want to take with local agencies there. Decide on the number of days this would take you.
• Travel - Mode of transport available (cabs, metros, buses). Are there cabs available on call or you can hail them on the streets. Are there tourist buses? Do they have a specific point to point service?
• Where you would like to stay...right in the center of the city or a little away. It makes sense to stay near to locations you would like to spend time at. But, keep in mind that city center/downtown accommodation would be more expensive then  hotels a little bit away.
• Find out the good places to eat/party/shop. 

2. Getting there - Once you have finalized your dates, get around looking for airfare.  I suggest looking up several websites. Check the airline websites and compare the fare with travel company websites. You may get discounted airfare on sites like yatra.com, makemytrip.com. Booking online maybe cheaper and more hassle free.
For your visa, i recommend that you still take the help of your travel company. They will take their fee and take care of the running aorund to the consulate.

3. Staying there - Look up the hotel sections on websites like - yatra.com, makemytrip.com, thomascook.co.in. You can search by the city and you will be surprised at the cheap tariffs you can get for the best of 5* resorts and hotels. Again, compare the tariff with the hotel website. Specially, if you are traveling abroad...the tariff available for hotels to Indian travel companies are pretty low.
Also, very important - go and read real tourist reviews of the hotels you shortlist on websites like - tripadvisor.com and virtualtourist.com.These are extremely helpful website and give you a very real picture of things to do, tourists traps, where to shop, eat, and stay. You can ask your questions to travelers and get fast replies based on their experience. I swear by these sites.

4. Get your travel insurance. Again, go online, check the premium, and buy a policy...It's that easy. If you want to compare policy quotations/premiums...i found this quite useful - policybazaar.com. I compared the premiums and found what suits me and then went to that insurers website and bought my policy online.

5. Reconfirm - Once you have got your tickets, hotel vouchers, insurance policy...call up the airline and hotel and check/confirm your reservation. Place any special requests you may have with the airline or hotel.

With all these basics covered, you should be packing you bags and be good to go. Also, it would be good if you got yourself a handy map and a travel book, or betters till you can download information from the internet about the places you wanna visit.


Our DIY trip this time was awesome and everything went as planned and very smooth. We took our holiday at our pace and time and did not have to rush through or visit places we did not want to go to. We stayed at the best of places, which the travel company was not offering us in the package deal. We ate, made merry, slept, lazed, danced, shopped...everything we wanted to do! We had lots of fun and got a chance to meet locals and see their life.

And you will be surprised, in terms of finance we saved between 50% - 60% on the total cost that the travel companies gave us for a package tour. We had got package quotes from 4 travel companies and they were all too inflated. Im happy we did it our way and could spend that extra cash on shopping  :)

This makes me wanna plan another trip soon :)

Oh! to be a child again...

If you have grown up in India, you know this one by heart -
Jab mein chota baccha tha, badi shararat karta tha,
meri chori pakdi jaati.....

Childhood is the most special time of our lives....What do you think when you think of your childhood? what images, thoughts come to your mind? Many many many...everyone is flooded with different childhood memories, but yet they are all so alike...Some of my favourite ones-

Hating to get up in the morning to go to school...Result being dragged out after all the loving polite reminders.

Dozing off in the loo, only to be woken up every time when mom would bang on the door. I was deaf to knocking...sorry could never hear it!

Running after the school bus..(see i told you sleeping in the loo can be bad)
School bags, homework, the favourite and hated teacher (hated the arithmetic teacher forvere and always!). Oh! how did i forget my favourite water bottle, fancy pencils, pencil boxes, the smell of new books and copies...aaah! i just loved it :)

Coming back to yummy home made food..sluurrrpppp
Play time in the evenings, cycling, board games...there really were no video games at my time...thank god for that!

Fights with my younger brother and my parents trying to calm us down and the ocassional spankings that we both got..he he..so much fun now to think of it...although we hated and howled about it then! Wow! time has a great way of changing at how we look at things!
Ya, of course the international bookfairs that papa took us to! he got me lot n lots of wonderful books always...no wonder he is an educationist. And of course the picnics...zoo, museums, parks, fairs...oh! i loved them all!

Hey! yes the birthday parties, when we wore our best new dresses, cut the cake, and waited for the gifts...aahhh...those days! couldnt wait to open the gifts...and hoped people would go back home soon, so I could have my time with MY gifts...Mom, dad you should have let me open the gifts as soon as somebody gave them to me...that way I would have never waited for the guests to leave ASAP!!

My summer vacations, the most eagerly awaited 2 months of the year. Last day before vacations, when we happily wished everyone Happy Holidays (polite way of saying good riddance to you for 2 months, dont show me your face again!) My summer vacations are flooded with memories of boarding a train and visiting my granparents place, farms, climbing trees and scraping knees, mangoes, litchis, playing with cousins, making friends with farm animals, roaming the fields, fishing, fetching water from the village well, taking a dip in the lake, counting stars lying on the open terrace with cool breeze touching my face, my granpa's clinic, his garden which he used to take great care of, my granma's stories.
Those were the days my friends...thought they would never end...aaahhh this is endless... I dearly miss those days!

Wow! this turned to be a good exercise...i feel like yesterday once again with a song on my lips and a lighter fluffier child ike heart :)