TRAVEL TIPS

Travel tips and resources

Travel Resources


Before you set off on your trip, you need to know how to find the best (cheapest) flight, accommodation, insurance. Other destination specific tips can also be of great help. I’m a pretty spontaneous traveler, so I do not over-plan my trips. If you visited my Start here page, you know I’m an international tour guide. Traveling with groups can be so much fun, but in my free time, I usually travel independently. Let me tell you how I plan my trips, which you do not have to follow but may come useful.

I make a rough plan about the places I want to visit. I never book accommodation for the entire trip, only for the first and last night, because I’m not familiar with the destination yet. Traveling solo is not as plannable as being on an organized tour. It takes longer to get from one place to another or you like being at a place so much that you do not want to move on so quickly. It can be the contrary too. You may find out there is not much to see and you move on faster than planned.

Remaining flexible and open to unplanned adventure first time in the country will add to your travel experience.

Also, traveling is constant learning if you set off with a proper mindset and you get fully immersed in the local experiences.

You may find these articles useful before planning your trip:

Tip 1: Make the itinerary and arrange your visa

I make some research on the internet, read books and travel blogs, and based on that I make an outline of my planned trip always leaving space for flexibility. Working as a tour guide for like 12 years I’m quite experienced at setting up a good itinerary. I never liked “typical” itineraries, and I always boosted them with unique cultural experiences.

Here are some examples of the best itineraries:

Depending on your destination you might need to obtain a visa. In some cases you must arrange it at the embassy where you live, while in other cases you can submit the form and the necessary documents online.

If you indicate your country of departure and destination on the iVisa site, you see if you can arrange it directly online and how much it costs.

Tip 2: Book your flight

I check a few sites to find the best price-value flight. Price is an important factor for me, as I rather spend more on cultural experiences than on the flight. However, I do not want to have an inconveniently long transit time either. Also, nowadays, many airlines do not include baggage in the total price, which can significantly add to your costs.

Having compared several flight aggregators, I do the following. First, I check the flights on Google Flights. This simple platform has surprisingly good offers. I also look it up on Skyscanner, which has equally good offers. You can book your hotel rooms via Skyscanner simultaneously, even in Iran, where booking.com and other regular platforms do not work.

Tip 3: Book your insurance

If you are hesitating to skip the insurance, I understand. You may think that you have a bank card that covers some basic things or you think nothing can happen to you. I always had basic insurance for my trips.

And now during the pandemic, there is no way that I go on a trip without insurance that covers COVID-related matters. Travelers have two preferred insurance: World Nomad and Safety Wing.

I used Safety Wing for my last trip and I will stay with that, because

  • it covers almost all countries, including the ones that are excluded from other packages, except Iran, North Korea, Syria and Cuba.
  • It is the cheapest option you can get for 42 $/months and less, if you need for a shorter trip.
  • It is a combined medical and travel insurance, but for the cheaper price it does not cover the damage or loss of electronics such as phones, laptops, cameras.
Get a quote for your next trip

IATI is another reliable travel insurance that you can use regardless of your nationality even in countries such as Iraq and Syria.

I recommend arranging your travel and medical insurance through 1stQuest local company that supports you if anything happens in Iran.

Tip 4: Book your accommodation and transport

The cheapest option is to use Couchsurfing. This is a platform, where hosts from all over the world offer to welcome you in their home free of cost. This is a great way to get in touch with local people, see how they live and make friends.

Staying in hostels is a cheap option. The best platform to book hostels is hostelworld.com.

The other common website to find hotel room is booking.com.

However, during my stay in Lebanon I noticed that once I was outside Beirut, booking.com hardly featured any accommodation. Here, Hotellook proved very useful as it combines the offers of different hotel reservation websites and this is where I could find more options.

Since Iranian hotels and services are not offered on several platforms because of international restrictions, use again 1stQuest tours to book your accommodation, domestic flights, trains, buses and cultural tours.

For public transport, 12GO is a great platform to book your bus, train trips, or domestic flights.

Find a great deal to rent a car with Discover Cars or Rentalcars.

BOOK MULTIPLE TRAVEL SERVICES

If you are a regular traveler and usually book multiple travel services for your holidays through Klook, Tiqets, Booking.com, Rentalcars, Viator, GetYourGuide, or Airhelp, check out the new flight aggregator, Wayaway and consider signing up to the Wayaway Plus Membership program to find cheap flight tickets and get immediate cashback after all your booking. In the introduction phase, you can sign up for the Wayaway program for only 49.99$! Use my discount code to get extra 10% off the subscription fee: VOG

Tip 5: Go on one or multi-day local tours

If you are a curious traveler, who is eager to understand the local culture, politics and daily life, then going on authentic local tours is one of the best ways to interact with local people and look behind the scenes. I always go prepared on a trip and try to get a solid knowledge ahead, but books cannot replace the knowledge and insight locals can give you.

Local tours are often my most memorable travel experiences. This is how I met the police officer from the Balkan war in Sarajevo, the guy who grew up in the world’s most dangerous district, Medellin, and learned about the still visible scars of the Lebanese civil war.

For that, I recommend unique tours throughout this blog, as I do not want you to miss this experience. Viator and GetYourGuide offer a wide range of cultural, nature, or food tours all over the world. Check out both of them.

There are other great alternative local tours not listed on the bigger platforms that are worth including in your trip. I discovered Alternative Tour Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon that offers two types of walking tours with a focus on political aspects and daily life.

The best authentic package tour is the nomadic+classic tour in Iran where you can join the nomads and their animals in their bi-annual migration. It is an amazing lifetime cultural and nature experience! If you use my promo code (IRANomad-VOG) you get 5% discount.

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