In collaboration with Adlibris.
In the first part of this mini guide we saw how to identify your travel destination, how to search for flights (and save!) and why it is important to be flexible when it comes from which airport to fly. Let’s continue then, shall we?
BE OPEN TO USE OTHER TRANSPORTATION THAN FLIGHTS
Starting with the premise that you are not in a hurry, making part of the journey by other means of transportation than airplane can help you save money. Continuing our December trip example, by deciding to fly from Tallinn, we also agreed on taking a train or bus from where we live to Helsinki and then a 2 hour ferry from there to Tallinn. Also in Italy we’re going to move from one place to another by train.
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know how we feel about traveling by train (if you don’t, take a look at this post for example). The reasons are many: it gives the opportunity to see landscapes one would have otherwise missed, it makes the trip as a whole more enriching and allows to be in contact with local and get acquainted with the culture. So, if you just have the time, consider making part of the trip by train or bus and I assure you you’ll come home with a far more unforgettable experience.
BE REALISTIC AND DON’T CROWD YOUR SCHEDULE
The problem of choosing such a great travel destination like Italy is staying realistic and honest with oneself because there are so many beautiful places so near to each other, that one would just want to visit them all and it’s difficult to stop adding to the bucket list. If it was for me, our three weeks in Italy would have probably been us running from one place to another, no relax and probably a lot of stress. It’s good that the wise Klaus helps me see what’s realistic and what would just tire us out. So we decided to go mainly to four places and have one week of complete relaxation in an amazing place. But more of that later.
LEAVE SPACE TO SPONTANEITY
I know. This might be difficult for many, included myself. I love to do spontaneous things, but there’s part of me holding me back and that would want anything to be planned out in advance, so not to have unexpected events come up and ruin the trip. The truth is, alas, that when traveling we barely ever have the control of the situation, just because there are so many factors that are not dependent by us. Trains or flights can be late or canceled, the weather might be different from what we expected, we might get sick.. Being a control freak leads to stress and disappointment. Of course, a degree of planning is always needed, but from experience I can tell that the unexpected things that have happened in our travels are the ones I remember and cherish the most.
We partnered up with Adlibris to give you this mini guide and also a few tips on what can help you to plan your journey, hope you enjoyed it! A tool we find most helpful when planning a trip is the Moleskine Travel Journal. The features of this notebook are many. As in all the Moleskine notebooks and calendars, there are time zones, yearly calendars and flight durations. In addition to that you’ll find two pages where to keep all the airline loyalty card information, temperatures and days of rain in the main cities of the world, international airports and their distance to the city and finally words & names connected to travel. The notebook is divided in 5 main sections: Wish list, Planning, Weekends, Short trips and Long trips. We love this notebook because it helps gathering all the needed information together and still is quite minimalistic, keeping it simple. I also love that space is left for memories, sketches and photo clipping. For that the Instax mini 9 is perfect: it’s light to carry, takes great pictures in all light situations and makes it possible to create instant memories that one can physically clip immediately to the Journal.
WIN A 50€ ADLIBRIS GIFT CARD!
Ways to participate:
Share in a comment under this post your favorite travel memory
Follow Adlibris’ and our accounts in Instagram and/or Facebook and comment under the photo of the travel flatlay your favorite travel memory.
The more places you participate in, the more chance you have to win! You have a maximum or 5 entries. Only for Finnish residents.
You have time to participate till Sunday, October 22th. The winner will be contacted privately on Monday 23th.
