As you know I'm Indonesian but live in Taiwan, so when I have holiday and money (of course) I will go back home. I just have my winter vacation and plan to go to Indonesia in the mid February because my husband has holiday in Chinese New Year, not like me as student who have more than 1 month holidays due to winter vacation. We have this plan since last month because we have to buy airplane ticket at least 2 months before so we can get cheaper price.
But, this trip is kinda different. We will not only going back home, but also trip to another country for several days, which is Singapore. Actually, before we also thought about Hong Kong but then we realized that it's more expensive and not worth enough to spend a lot of money. In Indonesia, we also have to plan our trip because we will go to several cities in 2 weeks. We know it will make us very tired, that's why we need a proper planning for this trip.
When I tried to plan our trip, I realized it's not easy. There are many things need to be considered before choose the exact things to do. So, in here (after my planning finished of course) I want to share with you guys how to plan your trip abroad.
Set your TRAVEL DESTINATION
Travel destination mean country you want to go. For instance, in my case there are two destinations which are Hong Kong and Indonesia. But, you have to set the "main" destination first, so that the "secondary" destination can be changed based on several considerations.
For example, my main destination is Indonesia and my secondary destination is Hong Kong. But after set other things like budget, and things to do, I choose another country which is Singapore.
Set your DATE & TIME
My suggestion for you when set your date and time to go is that find a best date you can find without sacrifice your work. If you are student, wait until holiday. But, if you are master or PhD degree students, finish your research first before go or watch out your prof will angry to you. haha If you are employee, find a weekend (if you wanna go only for 2 days) or long holiday. If you need more days to travel, you can ask leave for several days to your boss as long as it's not going to interfere your works in office of course.
Another thing about time is try to find out the weather in your travel destinations. It's important to know about it because you don't want to be like in a wrong costume party, right?
Set your BUDGET
You have to know how much money you can spend on your trips. Remember to not spend all of your money because in case you need some when you back home. Set aside several amount of money for your living. If you have plan to go abroad long before, you can save your money to your "travel only" saving. So, you will have several amount of money when time to travel arrive.
This budget can be adjust depends on your needs. But remember to follow your budget!!
The budgeting is include the transportation cost (airflight, MRT, taxi, bus, car rental, etc.), acomodation cost (hotel and eat), tickets (if you wanna go to amusement park or museums), etc.
Buy AIRPLANE TICKET
Actually it's kinda tricky because for people who are the first go abroad, maybe don't know about tips and trick to buy cheap airplane ticket. So, I'm here to telling you how.
If you want to go abroad, buy at least 1,5 months before the travel date. So you can get cheaper price.
Wanna buy using travel agent? you can do it. But choose properly. There are several agents that will give cheaper price than in airplane's website but several other will give more expensive price.
Low Cost Carrier (LCC) airplane can be a solution for you who want cheap ticket. But, cheap price means not really good service. Using LCC means need to buy baggage and meal out of ticket price. LCC is good for backpacker who only have one carry-on bag that can be put in the cabin.
But my suggestion for non-backpacker, you can try to find full-service airplane with cheap ticket. But this kind of airplane, sometimes will transit in other country before arrive in destination. If you want to spend more time to search, you can find several airplane which have transit time not too long.
For example, last year when I went back to Indonesia from Taiwan, I choose Cathay Pacific which is full-service airplane (including 20kg baggage, 1 bag carry-on, service is good, the plane is big, entertainment included, and meal - Halal of course) and transit in Hong Kong for 3 hours. But 1,5 years ago I ever used Jetstar Airways which is LCC (I have to buy 20 kg baggage, no meal, the plane is small, and no entertainment) and transit in Singapore for 9 hours. Yes, I was sleeping in airport!!-.-" It's because I arrived in Singapore at 9 PM so I only can go to Merlion then go back to airport due to the MRT closing hour.
In my case, because I wanna go to 2 countries, we decided to buy 2 different airplane tickets. Taiwan-Singapore and Singapore-Indonesia. The result is we will stay in Singapore for two days after arrive from Taiwan, then go to Indonesia, then go back to Singapore again, and back to Taiwan after that. Seems complicated but we can get cheaper price for that.
So, be wise to choose airplane. :)
Find THINGS To DO for SCHEDULE
Even you know what you wanna do, it's not easy to make a planning. Sometimes, people only focus on the "main" things to do in the destination. For example, in Singapore maybe people only think about "I wanna go to Universal Studio and Singapore Zoo" but actually Singapore has more than that. Don't waste your time while you don't know what to do there.
My suggestion is Make a Travel Schedule in each of your destination for each day, including time. You can use free apps about travel planning or make one by yourself using many templates from Office Words (if you use office 2010 above).
You can try to find things to do first. My suggestion is find in YouTube. Because it can give you more preview about your destination rather than see on picture. Sometimes, pictures can lie.You also can find travel review from people around the world from websites like tripadvisor.com or lonelyplanet.com
Don't forget to find cheap tickets, if you wanna go to museums or parks, in their websites. Sometimes they will have Package which is cheaper ticket for 2 places. In my experience, if you want cheaper ticket price you can find several promo in specific dates in that places' website. But, you can also find the cheaper one than that, in coupon's website like groupon.com , livingsocial.com , or ensogo.com . If you are lucky, you can find the most cheapest tickets around the world.
Travel means not only go to "luxury" places but also experience the culture, right? I suggest you to go to many areas in your destinations which have good review to go. For example in Singapore you can go to Little India, Arab Street, China town, etc.
Another considerations to think about are the opening and closing time of the place you want to visit, transportation to go there, and the most important thing especially for woman that the places are not in the "red" area.
For Muslim traveler, don't forget to find Masjid there. Not only because you can pray there, but also you can find that Masjid in each country have different architecture that you can see its beauty. And sometimes, near Masjid, there are may stall that sell Halal Food.
Not only try to find Masjid and Halal Food but also try to find the Prayer Times. I think many websites can provide prayer time for muslim around the world. You can easily find it in Google.
Find HOTEL
Try to find hotel that near your travel places destination. Because you don't want to walk around to far way right? Maybe you can find a hotel that not really far from stations or bus terminals. But, if you go to Singapore, I think no need to worry about hotel place because this country is kinda small.
If you want cheap hotel, you can find in Booking.com or AirBnB.com which is in my experience, the best place to find cheap hotel. I wanna remind you that not all hotel can have "Pay Later" option. You have to carefully look at the hotel description and review. Pay Later means when you book, you will not going to pay at that time. But you can pay when you arrive at the hotel. Using those websites also can help you compare many hotels in your destination,
Don't forget to read the review!! It;s important!!
Don't you ever get an hotel in "red" area which means when night comes many prostitutes around.
PACK your THINGS
After you know what you wanna do in your destination, of course you know what you wanna bring, right? But in case you forgot, I will give you some tips. I always forgot little things but important.
Important things to bring of course clothes, but what other things?
DOCUMENTS (passport, ID, cash), Shoes, Flip flops, underwear, hijab, pins, toiletries, laundry bags, make up, electronic things (smartphones, laptop, charger, etc.), swimsuit (if needed), etc.
My suggestion, print out your travel checklist and while you pack your bag, check on your list. You actually can find printable travel checklist in many blogs or pinterest. Maybe later I will post about my own travel checklist.:)
That's all my tips for you who want to travel abroad. In other post about travel tips, I can show you how to pack my travel things.
Hope you will have a nice tips and trick to plan your trip. ^^
If you have anything to ask, please comment below. I will be happy to help you. :)
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