Let’s admit it, planning and researching, and thinking about an upcoming trip is exciting which is why we tend to read and read and read well before we eventually get on a plane and fly off to a new destination. Well, that’s me anyway but if you’re even just a little bit like me, I’m sure you’ll relate 🙂 But this can also be overwhelming at times so I put this guide to give you some ideas that I use when planning and booking my trips!
Inspiration
First things first, where should you go? With the world becoming more and more accessible, options have never been bigger and better. There’re of course things like budget and type of holiday you’re after that’ll give you some pointers but if you genuinely have no idea where to next, head over to my favorite bloggers who’ve traveled the world extensively and have luckily documented the majority of their journey.
Jackson@ Journey Era
Kirstin@ Be My Travel Muse
Anna & Tom@ Adventure in You
If however Indonesia’s making you intrigued and kinda nosy, start off with my Indonesia travel guide which will give you plenty of awesome ideas because let’s admit it, Indonesia’s got it all.
Flights
Let’s face it, flight tickets define a huge amount of where we go and when, especially when it comes to long haul flights which can creep up in price quite a bit.
Over the years I’ve used all sorts of different comparison websites to find flight deals but Skyscanner is the only site that has passed the test of time 😀 . It just works and it works all the time.Sometimes I would check the prices over a few days because deals do change every day but when it’s all decided, I’ve always seemed to have found my deal through Skyscanner so I very very highly recommend it. If Skyscanner doesn’t tickle your interest, head over to Momonzo but chances are you won’t get the best deal on there, just saying 😀
Travel Insurance
I know I know, talking about insurance is boring and annoying ’cause it costs a lot. But let me tell you, if you’re going away for a over 2 weeks, first of all how exciting 😀 , and second of all, you’ll need insurance. We all think nothing’s gonna happen and that we’re somehow protected and will avoid all misfortunes. And luckily 9/10 it will be the case, and I’m talking from experience here.
1.5 months into my first Southeast Asia trip, I was licking my wounds after a fall with a scooter in search of some caves outside of the beautiful town of Pai in northern Thailand. I was good on a scooter, confident, driving sensibly (most of the times) but it happened once and for that one time I was pleased I had bought insurance. I got my insurance policy through Insureandgo, frankly because of the price which was way lower compared to Worldnomad and a few other companies recommended by other travelers.When I fell and had to then make a claim, I was skeptical. I didn’t expect to get anything back or at least I was convinced I’ll be torn to pieces with questions before they eventually paid me anything. None of that though! Not a single question asked, no tiresome explanations. They paid back all my hospital bills within days of making the claim. I was impressed! So yeah, I can’t recommend them highly enough both for the price and the quality of service I never thought was possible from an insurance company. The only bad thing is that their policies are only open to UK residents.
Local Transport
Pretty much wherever you travel, you’ll be able to get public transport. It may not always be comfortable but it’ll be cheap and sociable 😀
For Europe I highly recommend using Flixbus wherever you can. Honestly these guys have the bus business to a whole new level. It’s safe, punctual, cheap and often running at all times of day including middle of the night.
If you’re heading to Asia, 12togo will become your best friend as well as the Grab and Gojek apps.
Regardless of where you go through, if you plan on adventures that will get you outside of the grid with no connection and data, download the closest to my heart offline navigation app called Maps.me. Honestly this app has literally saved my life a number of times and if you don’t get it before your trip, well you’re not doing great at this preparation thing 😀
Accommodation
When it comes to booking your stay, I must have used every single website there is but I always seem to go back to Booking.com and Airbnb.
I recommend Airbnb for holidays where you need to book a place for longer than a week. This is when you can really get good weekly and monthly discounts which can often beat the price you’d get on Booking.com.
But I LOVE Booking.com and especially their mobile App because you can apply a lot of quick filters to get exactly the results that match your budget and other criteria. Also, it’s amazing for last minute discounts which comes in particularly helpful if you’re travelling for longer and need to book a place a few hours before you get to your destination. And, no hidden fees like with Agoda or Priceline which is amazing because honestly these two sites annoy me with a passion 😀
Search Booking.com
Packing
Over the years I’ve become rather minimalist. I’m pretty sure most of my friends either think I’ve completely lost it or I’m just so cheap I say no to buying and packing almost anything 😀 Truth be told, I just realised how little I personally need to feel completely comfortable when traveling. And you know what, whether you travel for a week or a month the amount of luggage really shouldn’t be any more or less and I’ll tell you why. There are essentials that we all need to feel well when we travel and these are the things we would always pack (think your deodorant, perfume, face cream, etc.) but why do some people feel like they need to pack 10 shirts and 15 pairs of socks for a 1-week trip, I can’t quite understand because it makes perfectly no sense 😀
So here is my list of everything you need to pack to feel comfortable during your travel. This holds true whether you’re traveling for 1 week, 1 month, or 1 year. Trust me on this!!!
Backpack
Gone are the days when I used to travel with a suitcase. It’s uncomfortable and generally super annoying 😀 especially since most of my trips tend to be pretty active. What am I supposed to do with my suitcase if I wanna go hike up a mountain and camp halfway to the summit? Or go up a semi-asphalted road in the middle of Siem Reap in Cambodia? So the answer is, ditch the wheels and get a backpack!
30-40L Backpack With Good Back Support
There is nothing more promising to ruin your comfort than going on a backpacking trip and not getting a backpack that’s actually comfortable and fit for purpose. So make sure the backpack you pick has straps that can go round your waist so that part of the load is taken off by your hips instead of the back. It makes such a huge difference.
Also make sure it has a breathable back, i.e. that it won’t make your back sweat after a few hundred meters of having it on. This is super important especially if you plan on walking/ hiking with your bag on for hours. I personally have a 30L Osprey Tempest backpack and the reason I recommend that you get a 30L backpack is that you can check it in on flights. People I’ve talked to about this have claimed that they have managed to check in a 40L bag as well but I personally can’t confirm that from experience. But if you want a bit of extra space, go with a 40L and just don’t fill it up to its max before a flight!
My personal recommendation is the 30L Osprey Tempest backpack which honestly is just perfect. She’s been through so much already (yes, it’s a she .. we’ve got a connection 😀 ) but after a good wash, she’s still like brand new. She’s got amazing back support and is so sturdy, I’ve overpacked her to points where other bags would have totally snapped. Not my Osprey though! I did have one incident where I had strapped my bag around my scooter whilst in Vietnam and the lower back straps snapped but I got a replacement from Osprey within days of requesting them. Pretty cool I thought!
Day Pack
A daily bag is super handy for all your valuables (think phone, passport, camera, etc.). It’s the bag you’d carry when walking around, going on a snorkelling trip, or a visit to an elephant sanctuary, whatever it might be that doesn’t require you to have all your luggage with you.
Clothes
- 5 x tops
- 5 x bottoms (shorts, leggings, skirt)
- 1 x dress (ok, make them 2 if you LOVE your dresses 😀 )
- 1 x jumper for the evenings/ early hikes
- 5 x pairs of underwear (easy to handwash)
- 4 x pairs of socks (easy to handwash)
- 2 x bras
- 1 x lightweight waterproof jacket
- 1 x bikini (unless you’re going to Iceland in the middle of Jan 😀 )
Toiletries
All you need is one reusable transparent bag with the following:
- Deodorant
- 25ml perfume
- Facial cream
- Soap and Body lotion
- Shampoo and Conditioner
- Contacts solution
- Toothpaste and wooden toothbrush
- Mosquito repellent
- Sunblock
- Makeup (don’t go wild ladies, just the essentials)
Electronics
- Phone (+ a charger)
- Camera (+ a charger)
- External battery
- Laptop (but if you really don’t need it, leave it at home to travel lighter)
- Universal adapter
Shoes
Depending on the trip you are planning you will need a combination of a maximum 3 of these:
- Trainers
- Flip flops
- Sandals
- Sturdy hiking boots
Talking about hiking boots, I can’t stress how important it is to invest in good quality hiking boots if you plan on walking a lot or do some hiking. Honestly, this is so important! When I was trekking to Wae Rebo in Flores, conquering the summit of Snowdon in Wales and hiking to see the sunrise over Bromo in Java I was genuinely so grateful that I had invested in my Salomon boots. It was unimaginable to do these hikes in anything but Gortex boots with an excellent grip due to how slippery the trails were.
My personal recommendation is to get the Salomon Womens Tibai GTX Mid Boots. They and my Osprey bag are honestly the two most valuable and completely irreplaceable things I have ever bought for my trips so I can’t recommend them both enough. Getting these boots is an investment due to the steep price but they honestly are made to last for ages so if you spread the cost over their life, you’ll realize they’re well worth the price.
Other
These are just a few other things that don’t fit any of the categories above:
- Reusable water bottle
- Microfiber towel
- Nail cutter and file
- Little first aid kit (if you’re going away for over a month)
Solo Trip
Travelling solo, especially for the first time, can be daunting so I’ll keep my tips brief and sweet so you don’t get overwhelmed as early as the planning stage 😀
- Book your accommodation in advance for at least the first 2 nights of your trip.
- Having said that, don’t plan too much. Don’t prebook every flight, every bus and accommodation. When you travel alone plans change super quickly depending on who you meet. Also, this gives you the flexibility to move on sooner from a place you don’t quite like or stay longer where you’ve found some sort of magical connection, like me in Ubud, Indonesia! So allow yourself to be flexible.
- I know that sometimes we want to be in our bubble and that’s ok but if you want to hike a mountain, do a snorkelling trip, get on slightly riskier adventures, stay in hostels. This way you guarantee yourself to make a friend to join you for whatever it is you want to do and it’s important that you’re reasonable when it comes to taking a risk when travelling on your town. This is how I met Malou, one of my best friends now and the wild gal I trekked to Wae Rebo with.
- Smile, A LOT! This can honestly help you so much as people quickly realise you’ve got good intentions and tend to be so much more open to help you out.
- Buy a local SIM card and get enough data. Trust me, wherever you travel you don’t want to leave yourself vulnerable by not being connected at all times plus being able to call a friend if you happen to feel lonely or bored helps a ton.
- Be sociable! Whether you meet people in your hostel, at a tourist site, in the restaurant or on the bus, try to have a little conversation. You never know if people aren’t doing the same thing as you and if you need a buddy, that’ll be a great way to get yourself one.
- Pack light! Honestly, I can’t stress this enough. The less you have with you, the less you’ll have to worry if your phone is here, or your laptop is there or whether your favourite top hasn’t gone missing. You want to limit the things you need to look out for to as little as possible and the sure way to do that is by simply taking less with you in the first place. Also, the less you have to carry around, the more willing you’ll be to do stuff and move around and that will come in handy.
Sustainability
I’ve personally become very passionate about reducing waste but don’t get me wrong I don’t claim to be zero waste and this is not what this is about. Eliminating all waste is so difficult that unless we fully and completely commit ourselves to it, it’s just not obtainable. But there are things we can and should be looking to do to at least do our part in reducing the truly unnecessary waste we can so easily leave behind us if we don’t stop for a second to think.
I’m not here to judge. I’m not here to preach this and that. I’m just here to give you little pointers because if you’re reading this blog, chances are you ARE conscious about the excessive plastic waste and want to contribute even a tiny bit to less plastic in the ocean and rubbish to landfills. So here are my little teasers that can help you next time you’re on the road.
Pack a reusable water bottle
This is literally so easy to tick off. I see people buying 500ml water bottles from the supermarkets, especially in places where the water from the tap is perfectly drinkable, like in Europe for example, and I genuinely wonder WHY? Why don’t we just spend a bit on a reusable bottle and refill it again and again and again? It honestly saves money and time having to rush to the shop every time you need a sip of water.
Go with bamboo
A lot of small businesses out there have committed themselves to develop all sorts of alternatives to plastic toothbrushes, plastic cotton buds, plastic cutlery, plastic straws. And the all-time solution in most cases is BAMBOO! So next time you need to buy a toothbrush or your cotton buds have run out, see if you can buy bamboo ones instead. And NO, don’t throw away everything plastic you still have just to get it out of your sight. But next time you need to make a purchase, maybe make a sustainable choice.
Carry a canvas bag
Honestly, this one will change your life completely! I know, I sound too passionate about this but honestly, how many times have you genuinely NOT wanted to get a plastic bag but just didn’t have enough hands to carry all the shopping home. I know, it sucks but it’s a process … next time you’ll remember! These days I carry a bag that one of my closest friend’s grandma specially made for me and I gotta tell ya, I carry that bag around proudly and happily and I hang it over in supermarkets, laundry places, fruit markets, everywhere! Just think how much plastic you’ll be saving even just with this little change.
Reuse! Reuse! Reuse!
Let’s face it! We all have plastic at home – plastic tubs, plastic bottles, plastic anything. And sure we can put it in the bin and pretend it was never there OR we can reuse it and at least make it last longer before it all goes to landfill. In my travel toiletries, you’ll find a lot of plastic – little bottles that I keep refilling with shampoo, contacts solution, conditioner, all sorts. And sure I’m not proud I carry so much plastic with me but the point isn’t to just throw it away. The point is to reuse it so many times until it literally cannot serve its purpose anymore. So next time you get a takeaway in a perfect plastic box, don’t bin it. Pack up your lunch for tomorrow in it.
Refill
Now, you might think that I’m extremely cheap 😀 but I’ll take the risk nonetheless. You remember when I said that you should take small bottles of shampoos, conditioner, body lotion, etc. Well, after a week or so they will run out so book yourself a nice place for a night and use the hotel’s supplies to refill your bottles. They bulk buy these things so they cost them much at all and sustainability mindset on, it’s better to do this than buying 3-4 bottles of the same things you can simply refill. Ideally, you’d refill at a plastic-free shop but let’s be honest, that just ain’t gonna happen so look cheap if you will but be sure that you’re doing right good !!
Disclaimer: The Global Eyes is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC and Booking.com affiliate programs through which if you make a booking via any of the links within this page, I would get a tiny commission at absolutely no extra cost to you. 20% of all commission earned goes to support charitable sustainability and children education projects