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Are you on a trip to a place that isn’t right for you?

We consider ourselves travel planning experts these days. Our experience has shown us how to get the very best out of our travels, find the best restaurants, activities, and most importantly, choose the right destinations.

However, it hasn’t always been that way!

One of our first trips abroad together was booked the old fashioned way. Going into a travel agent in person seems ridiculous to us these days, when so much great information is available online. However, back then it was all we knew how to do. We wanted somewhere hot and sunny, where we could relax by the pool or on the beach, and enjoy the nightlife. Our travel agent recommended Costa Brava, in Spain. Very well, lets get it booked we thought!

Our trip was scheduled for early April. We were told that the weather was great year round, and therefore we could be sure of a fantastic time. Fast forward to our trip, and what do we get? Heavy rain, and chilly temperatures! No sunbathing for us on the first day. Hopefully the nightlife will make up for it. What? All of the bars and clubs in this area are closed? We had really been misinformed by our unscrupulous high street travel agent. In fact, we weren’t even in Costa Brava, but a sleepy resort called Calella. It was clearly the wrong travel destination for us.

What to do if you’ve picked the wrong travel destination

What could we do? The area we were staying in had absolutely nothing to do. There was a deserted beach, a few shops selling the usual tourist tat, and a McDonald’s. Not exactly what we were after. We walked down to the train station, therefore, and had a look at possible day trips. Barcelona was a relatively short ride away. We purchased two tickets for the train, and off we went. In fact, we had such a fantastic time in Barcelona that we ended up going back there every single day of our dreary-weathered holiday.

Don’t just accept it, adapt your plans

It would be easy to stay stuck in your hotel room, or a bar, when the weather is bad on a beach getaway holiday. With resources like Trip Advisor at your disposal these days, and blogs like ours from travellers you can trust, there is no need to pick the wrong travel destination. However, it is never too late to plan a great trip. If you find yourself in a place with little to offer, therefore, don’t just accept it and stay indoors. Take a look at nearby towns, cities and resorts and take a day trip. Our walk to the train station in Calella not only saved our holiday, but provided us with fantastic memories.

Yes, in fact, it would have probably been cheaper, and involve much less travelling, if we had stayed in Barcelona itself. However, when you book a week away, especially with options like all-inclusive or half-board, you sometimes feel inclined to put up and shut up. Don’t. There is always a great time to be had somewhere nearby. It may take a bit of effort to find it, but don’t forget the lesson of this story – it is never too late to plan a trip. Even when you are there!

Have you ever picked the wrong travel destination? What did you do to turn it into a great trip? 

TripHobo is described as a revolutionary new idea in trip planning. We decided to check it out to see how it can help you to plan a perfect trip. Its innovative platform supposedly allows you to settle an itinerary in any of over 14,000 cities in the world in around ten minutes! This includes attractions, hotels, transportation, and tours.

How does it work?

You can either log onto their website, or on their mobile app (iOs or Android). Pick your destination, add the travel dates, and hit plan! You can then choose your attractions and restaurants, and finally book accommodation. There are many pre-planned itineraries for anyone ultra short on time, or planning a last minute trip. We clicked on their pre-planned 9-day London itinerary. As London travel experts, it would be easy to see how workable their plans are.

The hotel that they suggest is a Holiday Inn, mid-priced if rather generic. You can click directly through to Booking.com from their website to confirm a booking. It then suggests a forty five minute journey to the London Eye. It is a modern-day icon of London, of course, and a nice place to get some classic views of the city. However, the timings seem a bit out. It suggests allowing three hours for the London Eye, which seems a bit much unless it is peak season. Then, it has you travelling to the British Museum and spending four and a half hours there.

It is impossible to put a time limit on the British Museum. If you have the interest, it can hold your attention for weeks. For somewhere as truly inspirational as this, we always prefer to start the day there. By having no concrete plans until closing time, you will be under no pressure to leave before you are ready. Of course, this depends on how long your trip lasts for. It would be silly to spend a full day in the British Museum on a three day trip. For us, it is London’s number one attraction, however. We highly recommend allowing as much time for it as possible.

I don’t think TripHobo’s ‘travel experts’ are really experts at all

Another anomaly that is apparent straight away is that Big Ben is scheduled for three hours the following night. Firstly, what are you going to do for three hours at Big Ben in the evening? As British citizens, we have taken advantage of an ultra-rare tour of the clock tower itself. Even that wouldn’t take anywhere near three hours. Secondly, Big Ben is within easy walking distance from the London Eye. The London Eye is open, and more romantic, in the evening, so why not start at the British Museum.

Then, when you have had your culture fill, head to the London Eye. Afterwards, nip over the river to see Big Ben and the wonderful Houses of Parliament. It seems that the TripHobo Travel Expert who wrote this itinerary has just put a bunch of famous attractions together without considering the benefits of seeing attractions based in one area to save on both cost and time. Both of these are precious when you only have nine days to spend in London.

Of course, it all depends on your interests and travel style

The following day recommends three hours at the Tower of London. No way is that enough time to spend at this superb attraction. We have been every year for the last few years from opening to closing. We still run out of time to see everything we want to see. Admittedly, we are most definitely not the sort of travellers that like to walk in and out of a place without exploring every nook and cranny. Three hours would give you enough time to see the crown jewels and take a Yeoman Warder tour, at least, as well as get a rough overview of the rest of the site. Our main issue is that it then has you travelling over to the National Gallery, and then on to Big Ben.

A much better use of time would be to follow a trip to the highly recommended National Gallery with a trip on the London Eye, and then Big Ben. This would involve minimal transportation, as you could walk between the attractions. Even worse, day 8 includes three hours at the Palace of Westminster. Presumably, the ‘travel expert’ doesn’t realise that Big Ben is a part of the Palace of Westminster. You can’t exactly see one without the other!

If you are visiting over the summer recess, it is highly recommended to visit the Houses of Parliament. We recently spent a day there as a guest of our local MP. This involved a tour of both houses and Westminster Hall. We then got to see David Cameron’s last ever Prime Minister’s Questions, as well as a debate in the House of Lords. If you are visiting from the UK, contact your local MP to see what they can arrange for you.

Criss-crossing a city is definitely not a good use of precious time

OK, so now you can arrange your trip even better by combining the Houses of Parliament, with Big Ben, and the London Eye. In case you can’t tell, we’re reviewing this as we read it to get our first time impressions. We’re sorry to say that we are pretty appalled. Three hours on the London Underground???? Seriously? The range of attractions chosen do seem to be good options for the average first time visitor to London, however. Some glaring omissions include the Imperial War Museum, Westminster Abbey, and the Tate Galleries. Strangely, Holland Park makes the list twice, but Hyde Park is nowhere to be found.

On the plus side, Day 4’s combination of the Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, and the Science Museum seems sensible. On the other hand, a day consisting of nothing but Holland Park and Camden Lock Market would be a gross misuse of time in a city like London. It’s not like they are even close to each other. The other main quibble is that the itineraries include nothing to do in the evenings. London is one of the world’s best cities for nightlife. Where is the West End theatre, or even an ultra-touristy stroll through Piccadilly Circus?

We will try to create our own plan using the website’s planner on another occasion. An initial play with it felt very clunky however. Accommodation pop-ups dominated the screen. When we get chance, we will come up with a much better itinerary than TripHobo’s ‘travel expert’ for you all, as well as reviewing the experience of using TripHobo to do so.

Have you ever used TripHobo? Did we just find a dud itinerary out of a sea of jewels? 

Agoda.com – great for Asian travel?

We have recently advocated booking.com and Airbnb as our main go-to sites for booking accommodation. However, we have been told by many in the know that Agoda is worth a look when booking accommodation in Asia. We haven’t had the chance to use them as of yet, but are due to start our exploration of Asia next year. Therefore, we decided to look in detail at Agoda.com. We’ll subject it to the same rigorous reviews that we have given the other sites.

As we haven’t booked with them yet, this review will be based on the site itself. That includes its options for searching, ease of use, and other features. We are intrigued to hear from those of you that have used Agoda, as to whether the customer service was up to scratch. Please do let us know your experiences with Agoda, both good and bad.

Agoda is available in a massive thirty nine languages. It is clear that they aim to make things easy for a large number of people, rather than just English speakers. You can also choose to pay in many different currencies. We always suggest that you pay in the currency of the country you are purchasing from, to avoid your card company charging an extra conversion fee.

The site benefits from 24/7 customer service, which is always a brilliant thing. There is not much worse than being stranded in a far-off land, and not being able to contact a site if there is a problem. It appears that you should avoid this with Agoda.

Agoda doesn’t just sell hotel rooms

You can book all different kinds of accommodation with Agoda. This includes hotels, bed and breakfasts, seaside resorts, rest houses and homestays. The pricing system seems to result in low prices. Their ‘best price guarantee’ means that you should be assured of the best rate possible without doing too much shopping around.

As is usual for sites of this type, you receive a confirmation e-mail when booking. You can also log into your account on the site to see your upcoming reservations. They offer a Self Service section of the site, where you can do common changes all by yourself. These include cancellations, amendments, and sending special requests.

There are a few downsides to the site that we have found. The main one is that prices shown do not include tax and service charges, which can result in misleading pricing. To avoid this, select ‘total price per night’ under the price display. The other is that you have to pay on booking. This is a rather minor inconvenience, apart from when you might need to cancel. We assume it would be more of a hassle at that point.

In conclusion, Agoda seems to be an easy-to-use, and attractive website. Many people have said that it is the very best place to book accommodation in Asia. We will certainly be trying it out when we plan our own trip to Asia for next year. Their best price guarantee shows their confidence in their low rates. Give it a go!

Have you used Agoda.com? Please share your experiences in the comments. 

Hillman Wonders of the World

One of the first travel sites we ever found that really piqued our interest in travelling the world was Hillman Wonders of the World. Hillman is a travel author who has put together this inspirational list of 1,000 of the world’s top attractions. He hasn’t done it alone, but with the help of a team of other world adventurers.

It was set up in 1996. To be honest, it doesn’t look as modern as many travel sites out there. What appeals about it is the full breadth of the world that the site showcases. It is a list to inspire wanderlust in anyone. The home page contains the top 100, and other sites on the internet have created ticklists based on it. These are great to see how many you have visited. It would be good if he could offer more interactive features like this on the site.

He has created travel guides to many of the top locations in the world. We have used them with great success in the past. However, there aren’t nearly enough countries with full travel guides. The site also contains great advice about cruising, and safaris. There are also lots of top ten travel lists that feature things such as bizarre festivals, adventure travel books, and world cuisines. He also gives a fascinating history of the ancient seven wonders of the world.

Top 1000 World Wonders

From the homepage, you can click through to the full Top 1000 World Wonders list. This is arranged by country, in alphabetical order. A quick glance through it will surely give you the urge to visit somewhere you may not have heard of before looking at the site.

The wonders are ranked by ‘medals’. The top 100 get gold medals, with the next 200 receiving silver medals. The rest get a bronze medal. You can click through to his country travel guides, where available. On many occasions, we have been planning a trip to a certain country, and checked the site to see which Hillman Wonders are nearby. This has resulted in us venturing slightly off the beaten path to experience amazing places that aren’t on the usual tourist circuit. For example, on our trip to Marmaris, we ventured out to Pamukkale. This was thanks to this site. Who would have thought this was within easy reach of the scorching beach resort?

What issues does the site have?

The downside to the site is that there is no social interaction whatsoever. The page has no active Facebook or Twitter. Therefore, it is missing out on the chance for people to submit their own recommendations. However, this project is one that can never be considered definitive by its very nature, so this might even be for the best.

Conclusion

Overall, we love this basic but informative site. Hillman Wonders is one of our favourite travel resources in the planning stages. It isn’t the sort of website you can get detailed information like train timetables or prices, but the sort that shows you what the world has to offer to inspire your trip in the first place.

Have you been on this site before? Do you find it inspiring?

Plan the most amazing trip ever, in nine easy steps

Many people ask us just how we manage to plan such great trips. It seems hard for many people to pack so much excitement into a relatively short time. Therefore, we decided to do a quick post to help you plan the most amazing trip ever, step by step.

1. Pick your destination.

This depends on a lot of things, including:
a) Time. If you only have a weekend, you will be best visiting somewhere relatively close by. However, if you have three months you could even extend across part of a continent.
b) Budget. If you have a larger budget, then you will be able to visit many more places comfortably than if you have very little money. Despite this, certain locations around the world are much cheaper than others, so your money can go much further.
c) Inspiration. Have you always dreamed of visiting the Pyramids? Or maybe Hawaii? Places you have always wanted to visit should always feature in your destinations shortlist, subject to the two considerations above. We love checking out Hillman’s Wonders of the World for inspiration. Maybe you will prefer more visual forms of inspiration, such as Buzzfeed.
d) Activity level. Some people want their trips to be all about adrenalin and excitement. You may prefer a complete relaxation type of holiday, or even somewhere with amazing nightlife. What you want to do on your trip will have a major bearing on where you choose to visit.

2. Check your passport is in date, whether or not a VISA is required to enter the country you wish to visit, and whether you may need to get any vaccinations to travel.

3. Choose your flights.

A lot depends on how flexible your dates are. If you are at leisure to choose any date you like, you are more likely to be able to get a great deal on your flights. However, if you only have specific dates you can travel on, then you are much more limited. Skyscanner and Momodo are our favourite websites to search for flights. Often, costs can go up the closer to your date of travel. It is always worth checking this out early on in your planning.

4. Book your accommodation.

We have used many different sites to book accommodation on in the past. Booking.com is fantastic for hotels, as is Trip Advisor since you can see the reviews right there. If you prefer something a bit different, then definitely check out Airbnb, which can come up with some amazing options. Budget travellers might also want to look at Hostelworld, and Couchsurfing.

5. Plan an itinerary.

We always go way overboard with this, planning our trips down to the smallest detail. However, for us, we find it provides us with a much better experience. Even if you don’t want to plan in detail, you will at least want to look at what attractions, and restaurants you may want to visit on your trip. Many of them will need booking in advance. It would be a real shame to get the other side of the world, and find out that you can’t do what you had dreamed of doing. If you know where you want to visit, you may be able to look for discounts in advance too.

6. Decide how you will get around.

If you will be travelling long distances, you may want to rent a car. If not, you need to check out what the public transport links are. Perhaps taxis are affordable in the place you are visiting. Or maybe the area is small enough to explore on foot. It is always worth checking your options in advance.

7. Check out excursions.

We always used to book as many excursions as possible on our trips. However, we came to realise that we prefer going on our own to places. The freedom that it gives us is worth it. We have spent hours on public transport getting to a place that an excursion takes you in comfort to. However, the freedom to do whatever we want when we arrive far outweighs the negative side for us. Many excursions we have been on have resulted in us having just a couple of hours at an awe-inspiring site. We then spend the same amount of time stood in a tourist shop! For many people though, having less things to worry about is an attractive option. You can often get great deals on tours through local companies, especially if you buy a few of them.

8. Pack your bags!

Make sure to check what baggage allowance your airline offers. Also check that your suitcase is within their size limits, if they have any. Pack enough essentials in your hand luggage, so that you could cope for a couple of days if your luggage went missing. Keep in mind that certain objects aren’t allowed to be carried in hand luggage, though.

9. Enjoy your trip!

Have we missed any of your must-do tips? What is your favourite bit of planning a trip? 

As travel superplanners, we have tried and tested almost every website out there to help with our trips. We have come up with a list of the very best of them to help you plan the perfect trip. This will save you countless hours of trawling through sites that give you unhelpful, out-of-date, or even incorrect information.

So, what sites do we use to plan the perfect trip?

INSPIRATION AND ITINERARY PLANNING

Hillman Wonders Of The World – This unbelievable resource lists the top 1000 must-see sites in the eyes of a group of top travel writers, led by Howard Hillman. It is a great way to see what the world has to offer at a glance. We love using it. It is our favourite place for a bit of quick inspiration as we start to plan the perfect trip.

Trip Advisor – OK, so sometimes the reviews can be manipulated by business owners or people who hold a grudge against a business. However, don’t let that dissuade you from using this mammoth resource. It is a bit of a travel one-stop shop to help you plan the perfect trip. In fact, Trip Advisor is our favourite travel site of all. It features things to do, accommodation, restaurants, a forum for each destination, and some lists that are great for wanderlust. You can read the reviews and book your hotels directly through it for the ultimate convenience.

TripHobo – This is a fantastic resource for anyone planning a trip with multiple stops. You just input in where you want to go, and this handy site will optimise the attractions for you. This means that you can see as much as possible in as short a space as you can.

Lonely Planet – One of the world’s biggest travel brands. They have a book on pretty much any destination you could want to visit, and offer fantastic advice.

Wikitravel – This is a great place to get an initial feel for a place. They feature helpful hints and tips regarding most parts of the travel experience.

ACCOMMODATION

Booking.com – If you want a hotel, then Booking.com should be your one-stop shop. With the world’s largest selection of hotels, excellent 24 hour customer service support, and a best price guarantee, you can get that hotel booked right away, with the confidence that you will not find the price cheaper (and if you do you can claim the difference). They also offer free cancellation on most rooms!

Trip Advisor – As above. You can read the reviews and book your hotels directly through it for the ultimate convenience.

AirBnB – We stayed in our first AirBnB in April 2015. It was so good that it is now the first place we look for accommodation options. The basic premise is that you can rent a room in somebody’s house, though sometimes you can get entire homes. The prices are in general much lower than hotels. We also love the freedom that getting the keys to a house gives us.

Agoda – Especially good for accommodation in Asia, as it really seems to get the best fares over there.

Hostelworld – If you are a budget traveller, then look no further than Hostelworld. As it specialises in hostel dorm rooms, which are on a per person basis, I would always recommend checking out sites like Airbnb too if you are a couple. The price could strangely end up cheaper. If you aren’t comfortable staying in somebody’s house though, this is a great budget option. Most hostels also have private rooms.

Couchsurfing – The ultimate budget accommodation. This involves finding a host in your chosen city who is willing to offer you a couch to sleep on free of charge. This is a fantastic way of immersing yourself more completely in the culture of a country. You can make new friends too.

FLIGHTS

Skyscanner – This fantastic website searches for flights from many different airlines to show you the cheapest (or fastest) options available. It will even let you see how much you could save if you were flexible on your dates, without having to type all of the information in again and again.

Momondo – Like Skyscanner, Momondo searches various sites to find you the best deals on your flights. It often comes up with deals that Skyscanner misses.

Do you have any go-to websites to help you with your travel planning that we have missed off? Please let us know in the comments. Let’s all help each other to plan the perfect trip!