Hello!
Se você quer ler este post em português, por favor clique aqui.
Starting this year with posts about my backpack and hope it helps someone that want to plan a trip to 2016.
To begin:
1) Forget that idea to buy round-trip ticket in the mad because if u are backpacking mean you will end your backpack in place different than arrived, meaning you will be required to spend more on transport to return to the originating airport (and is more tiring).
I ended up buying round trip by Air france - direct flight Rio x Paris (2,800.00 reais/ 700 euros). What forced me to buy another a plane ticket to Munich.
I discovered is that, despite being good buy ticket in advance, buy well in advance is also bad because the price ends up not being really good because you wont take it in sale.
2) Time of transfers: I made a ridiculous shit on purchases of my airline tickets in transfers between cities and ended up having to sleep in the airport 2x - very crap experience even!
So what I recommend ALWAYS: if you give avoid going by plane because airports are often far from the city center and just you at the mercy of the operation of public transport to get there (taxi is unthinkable!)
Also, choose to travel around 20h / 21h of the night because you do not lose the day in place and have time to go calmly to the airport and arrive at a reasonable hour in the destination city without any problem getting to the new hostel.
I suggest this time 'cause most flights take 1h / 1h and a half, but ATTENTION with time zone and check the hours of operation of trains and subways! My experience here refers ONLY in cities that I’ve been (Paris, Munich, Prague, Dresden, Berlin London, Dublin)!
Another reason I recommend this time (which may seem late) is cuz if you are a backpacker with a gigantic backpack like mine, you will need to dispatched it and some companies demand 2 hours in advance to do it.
So, for a flight at 9 p.m., you will have to be at the airport 07 p.m. Considering, also, the travel time to the airport (usually 1h) and that you probably will need to come back to the hostel to take your backpack (30 min to go to the hostel), your day's activities should end about 17.30 - very reasonable, right?
3) Planning: If your idea is good use of your time and save money you NEED to plan.
Do researches about the destinations and plan routes. Buy the tickets that connect one city to another in advance to get better prices and also to be able to choose the best means of transport.
Book hostels near the train or subway stations. Trust me, no matter how marvelous is you backpack, you will be tired and it can hurt your shoulders/back/neck, so you should not spend too much energy carrying it! It makes all the difference in life not having to move much from their "home" on the back.
Search for the rides you want to do checking holidays, days and hours of operation and price.
And save money to buy water and doing the laundry! I forgot totally to plan that and thank god I always expect to spend more money with food that I really do so the difference cover that kind of waste that I didn’t think about before.
#ATTETTION! There are days when some places are cheaper or for free. Students (and in some places people under 26 years) pay reduced rate!
In museums there is always a day that the opening hours will later - the trick is to streamline the schedule making the day "useful" longer putting this museum as last activity of the day.
4) Another important pre trip thing: search, buy and test your backpack. I tested my 3 times before the trip and I think it would have been nice to test more pq only with handling that we learn how to best arrange his backpack in order to facilitate the achievement of important things. Research to see the pack that best framed in my profile was intense but tb've talked about this in another post.
5) Buying currency: it
is something very important and can harm your backpack. This year we had a huge
variation in the values of currencies which
required a redesign of my trip - the euro rose from 3.40 in April to 4.20 in
August (when I got desperate and bought all the currency I planned to buy at
once).
Worst of all is that the
currency became more expensive in the following months, which increased the
price of things I had to buy with credit card.
So, when you estimate how much
you will spend in your trip, make sure that your are prepared for that kind of
currency problem. In addition, there is great variation in the price of
currencies depending on currency exchange. So I suggest using comparative price
sites on the Internet to find the best prices.
6) Purchase tours and transfer-tickets before the trip: Another
important thing (that I did wrong) is
trying to pay everything that you can before the trip starts (even if that gets
more expensive with credit card charges)
because you will need to but less money and will be less susceptible to
currency changes (expending less money in case the currency gets expensive).
# Be smart: search for online tips - there are many useful sites that
inform the average spending on accommodation, food and transportation.
So guide your plans that way
but be sure to confirm the websites of attractions the updated value tickets.
The site I used was the quantocustaviajar.com and really enjoyed it!
7) Travel insurance: I suggest buying the insurance with the plane tickets,
if you dont have those credit card insurance. If you didn’t buy it at once, look for a good company and check if it covers
what Europe immigration demand.
I bought mine insurance in the internet at Mondia. It was an European
package covering the requirements for immigration in the European Union, and
cost 415.00 reais (about 100 euros).
8) Finally - what to buy before: plug adapters, medicine, soft towels
(unless you plan to rent towel - something I find expensive for this kind of
trip), bag-money and if I remember more things I will put in other posts xD
Phew! Huge post! But believe me and not miss anything this little list! Up until!
Thats all folks! See ya!
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