Success for me is seeing all pages in my passport stamped before it expires. I simply want to travel the world, experience different cultures and lifestyles. Somehow I had it in me that by the end of 2019, I should have traveled to at least 5 countries. I still remember that in July'18, I was almost on the verge of going to Europe. So close was I that I was about to enter OTP for payment to the tour organizer but then canceled it. My family didn't think it was safe for me to travel alone left alone a solo trip to a different continent.
Europe has always been a trip of my dreams. So many countries, cities and different styles to be explored, witnessed. Unless I take a sabbatical leave, don't think I can ever cover all of it in one go. Read many articles and had many discussions with friends in Europe on how to plan my first trip, where to go, what to do and what not. Kept looking for favorable tours on social media platforms but each one had a city, not to my liking or else the duration was longer. The only clarity I had in mind was that this definitely won't be my last European trip, so I needn't go all out and spend lavishly. There are many destinations that would make sense only post-marriage. Finally, I managed to narrow down on Eastern Europe. It is very beautiful, well-connected and cheaper as well compared to the western side. And so the cities were: Prague - beer capital of the world; Budapest - beautiful and damn cheap; Innsbruck and Salzburg - Alps mountains, natural beauty. Also, I decided to plan it on my own as tour organizers were charging a lot more along with extra charges for most attractions.
Trust me on one thing - financial planning for a European trip is far easier than planning the travel dates, airlines, accommodation in hostels, inter-country travel and the visa process. A schengen visa allows one the facility to apply for a visa in a country from where you are entering Europe or the country wherein you spend the maximum time. Many shop around for visa fees to decide on the countries to be visited. A trip wherein you spend a minimum of 1 lakh, it's not worth saving a maximum of 1000-1500 rupees for just visa fees and then ends up staying in a country that was not even on the wish list. Before booking my tickets, I had worked on close to 60 permutations and combinations across routes, dates, and airlines! A good part of such trips is that once flight tickets are booked, you can't back out as the cost involved is immense (a typical marwari thinking). Next up was the much-hyped visa approval process. Almost every tour organizer adds a line in their list of inclusions - help in writing visa cover letter and they then mention in brackets 'trust us it helps a lot'! It scares and makes one feel that without their help their visa would surely get rejected. But the truth is, it's quite simple if you follow the clearly mentioned instructions and produce required documents. You may find all the information under the sun on its official website. Finding a sample filled up the form on the official website helped a lot. Travel insurance of a minimum Euros 30,000 had to be purchased which was easily available on insurance aggregator Policy bazaar. It was quite convenient to compare across insurers and their offers which were surprisingly quite cheap.
Before getting into finalizing my cover letter, I had to do bookings for accommodation (temporary - for just the visa process). Yes, you heard it right. This is a trick to save on costs if for some reason your plan gets canceled, visa gets rejected, etc and most importantly - to initiate your visa approval process asap. Simply book any random hostel/hotel in a few countries around your visa-issued country which allows free cancellation (easily found on Booking.com and Hostelworld.com). Once the visa is approved, cancel these and book the real ones. Writing my cover letter reminded me of school days when we were taught letter writing skills. Key to a successful letter is by being exhaustive on your plan - by providing flight details, point of entry and exit, rough itinerary (preferably day-wise); providing correct details of occupation and required list of documents (one can contact me for any help/guidance on cover letter). After getting photographs of requisite size, I booked an appointment through VFS Global for processing my visa. Trust me, they were quite helpful throughout the process even helping out by giving expert suggestions on form filling.
Once the visa application was filled, I now had to get down to book inter-city travels, actual accommodations and planning my detailed day-wise itinerary. Inter-city travel is a blessing and one of the best things to experience in Europe. Train/buses are both equally good and cheap, though I would prefer a train as it is faster and it's countryside view makes it all the more memorable. Tickets can be booked via Trainline (preferable as booking fees are lower) or Omio. It was going to be my first experience of staying in a hostel full of strangers and people across the world. It needn't be the poshest one around as I would only need it for sleeping at night. However, it had to be centrally located, one with good reviews and which provides city tours or pub crawls. Booking platform could be any but I would recommend Booking.com as it is cheaper and has more options. I would highly recommend staying at any of Europe's Famous Hostels and Hostel One. They are a group of hostels heavily spread out across Europe, highly standardized across locations, comfortable and the best part - full of warmth, kindness and helping people. One wouldn't feel out of place ever. I have seen people extending their stay in a city simply because they loved the hostel and its staff. Planning my day-wise itinerary got easier by using the official tourism websites of each city. Not only did it introduce me to unknown attractions, but it also provided official city passes. This is another trick to save tons of money. Each of these city passes come along with free city tours, free entrance to major attractions (most tour organizers would charge separately for this), unlimited intra-city transport across train/bus/tram (you read it right!), free goodies and many more. On a rough estimate, I ended up saving almost 170/180 euros on my total trip thanks to these passes.
Now it was time to plan for the ancillaries - food, sim card, forex card/cash. I am a hardcore vegetarian, do not even eat an egg. My earlier foreign trips had prepared me for what to expect out there. Cup noodles, soup, fruits, khakra (a Gujarati snack), chocolates were there by default. Traveling in Europe is a lot about walking and exploring it. These items wouldn't be enough for survival. To tackle this, my friend gave me advice that I will always remain indebted. She suggested taking home-made dry upma and poha for breakfast/evening snacks. My mother cooked a few other stuff giving me enough to survive. Purchased sim card from Bookmyforex with a 1GB 4G plan (trust me it's sufficient if one doesn't indulge in fancy things) as most places and hostels would have free wifi connections. After much research and suggestions, carried money in a multi-currency forex card (much safer mode) with free withdrawal options and some cash for emergency purpose. I would recommend purchasing these from vendors like Bookmyforex or Orient Exchange as they offered the best rates. I also carried a few international credit cards for emergency purposes. Ideally, everywhere Euros would be acceptable but at times vendors or shopkeepers prefer local currency as well.
Planning of this trip couldn't have been complete without a few special ones. Heartfelt thanks to Neeraj Sir for patiently hearing me out on all my pity concerns, introducing me to one of the best cheapest credit cards for foreign spends. Jayshree, my sister, your food idea was simply amazing, your review of Amsterdam was much needed as it prevented a disappointment. Errol, my friend, you simply made my stay at Austria the most memorable one by introducing me to Hallstatt.
Stay tuned for 'My 1st European Trip Experience'...
コメント