Travelling in London

Well I’d like to share my UK experience with you all. I’ve been there twice and the best thing I like about it is the weather. People living there might not agree on this as they usually crave for the sun, but since I’m from a very sunny place I enjoy clouds and rain more.

UK is huge and I didn’t explore all of it, went to a few cities. There are a lot of things to do in London. A lot of sightseeing opportunities exist there. Apart from this there is always something fun happening at say Trafalgar Square or Leicester Square or Covent Gardens.

I’d like to start off with by explaining the travel means there in London. The best way to travel is to use the tube. It’s an underground railway network in the London city which we can use easily to travel wherever we want. It is however not underground in the outskirts of the city. There are multiple stations all over the city. All areas are covered by it and I really didn’t find the need to travel by bus. I did use the bus a couple of times but that’s about it. Mostly I was walking there and exploring the city. I think the best way is to walk!

It’s really hard to believe that the tube system there is so old! I was surprised at the different levels of trains moving underground. It really goes in deep underground as you can see from the picture below. There are areas in which a train will be travelling above another (you can’t see it ofcourse, it’s just their tunnel network).

The first thing you need to do is get an Oyster card. It’s an electronic travel card in which you can put money and then use it to travel on the tube or bus etc. There is another card there as well which is supposed to be cheaper, but I went for Oyster, its good.

You can find the tube map at every station and at first it seems very confusing, because you just see different colorful worms criss-crossing each other on the map :) But its quit simple. You can check out the map here. You just have to see the station you are at and then find your destination station. There will be multiple lines (by lines I mean trains) going from your source to destination (in most occasions i.e if you are in central London). Just pick a train which has the fewest stopovers in between and go on that. You might have to switch lines in between as many times the journey isn’t straightforward. But it’s simple enough. Finding the train at the station is also not hard at all. Signs are everywhere giving you directions to the train you want to go to. The lines have different names like e.g. Baker line etc so if you want to go on that then just follow the directions to that line at the station. There are multiple trains at each station but the directions everywhere make it simple.

Now here’s another thing, you’ll find a lot of tour buses there, like the Big Bus company and they can take you on a tour of the city, but personally I didn’t go for that. If you can spare some extra pounds then go for it, otherwise exploring London on your own is much fun and not hard at all. I did however take their map as they give it for free :p It shows all the places of interest and shows the nearest tube station on it as well :D problem solved! The map is available online and you can click here to check it out. I just saw the place I wanted to go to, and the station near it and then went exploring! Simple and straightforward.

It’s always good if you planned beforehand as to what you have to do and where you have to go but the big bus map was a big big help. I’d suggest you take one as well!

UK and Europe Trip - Vacation Planning

So here I am writing my first ever blog! I wanted to share my travel experience on my first ever Euro trip in terms of planning. Who doesn’t need a relaxing vacation? I’ve always loved travelling and it was a dream for me to visit Europe. 

A lot of questions arise when you have to travel. The first thing is the cost, then comes the procedures, the travel plan, places of interest etc. I had to spend a significant amount of time researching on all these aspects. It’s always good to spend a good amount of time in planning before any trip, because you can explore more in the limited amount of time you have.

I was a resident of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the last 5 years and I went for a Euro trip from there. First thing’s first, I searched for available options, travel agents, and vacation packages. Cost was a significant factor and I wanted to choose the best option out there. 

Since it was a first time for me, I wanted a complete package in which there would be accommodation, food and a guided tour. I guess there are many of us out there who do not want to get into the hassle of arranging each and every hotel in different countries, getting a car on rent, or arranging air travel. 

Now here’s an important tip: It’s always a good idea to look for a travel agent in the destination country. Why? Well, because of costs! If you choose a travel agent in your home country to arrange for a trip, chances are that the agent would be contacting agents in the destination country anyway. So essentially you would be paying the local agent plus the foreign one. There are airlines or multinational companies which offer packages, but they too are at times more expensive. If you choose a good travel agent who is not offering very expensive packages, and is local to the destination, go for that! If you do find a local cheap agent then good for you, otherwise this is the way to go.

So, from my search, I found a travel company called Expat Explore. They were based in UK and my plan was to go to UK first and then travel to other European countries from there. They were offering very competitive packages, and the thing about them is that they offer a significant discount if you book early. Well, I saw a great package I liked on their website and booked it early, got a good discount as well!

The service offered by them was excellent, the accommodation was very good and they took us sightseeing everywhere. They give free days in between as well in which we can plan everything on our own and that’s also a plus point. Like when I was in Paris, we had one day as guided and the other as a free one. Planning that is a separate thing and I can perhaps cover the details of that in a separate blog.

When to go is another big question. Best time to go to UK and Europe in my recommendation would be around end of July – start of August. If you’re going for some event then you have to plan accordingly for that. The weather is cool, pleasant and very enjoyable. Do not forget umbrellas for UK! You can never know when it starts to rain there! UK can become really depressing in the winters, there is just snow snow and snow. The stores close around 5 – 5:30 pm ish and you can’t do much then.

Another thing which comes in mind is the accommodation cost. Do not, I repeat, do not go for 4 or 5 star accommodation! Unless of course you are heading off to a resort. You will not spend much time in the hotel anyway, it will just be a place for you to sleep at night, so do not go for expensive accommodation. I hardly spent 5-6 hours in the hotel and that too at night when I came back to sleep, that’s about it.

The agents through which I booked were offering a tour guide, complete accommodation (2 or 3 star max), breakfast and dinner on most occasions and some other services. The only drawback I found there was that the entire trip was supposed to be on bus! But I went ahead with that option anyway, and I must admit, it was absolutely wonderful to be traveling by bus – hectic, but more fun and worth it. Made a lot of friends as well. You get to see more places, and the routes are very scenic. If I travelled by air, I wouldn’t have been able to see the countryside, and by car would have meant a LOT of driving and I usually get tired driving long distances. If I was going with a group of friends and everyone took turns, then its fine. I really didn’t see the train cost there but I’ve heard it’s not that cheap. Atleast the ones in UK weren’t that cheap.

Do not forget to take medication with you on the trip, it’s very important. Keep a good stock of antiseptic, headache medicines, bandages, and antibiotics if you can. 

Another thing is sun tan cream! But that’s if you have sensitive skin like mine which gets burned easily. I really faced issues in Italy in that regard because the Sun there is a bit harsh. 

Don’t take too many things in your bags, keep atleast 1/3 space empty for souvenirs, you just can’t resist them!

For the visa, I had to arrange it on my own, but that is not much of a hassle. You would need a separate visa for UK from their embassy and a separate one for the other European countries (France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany etc). That visa is called Schengen visa and you basically have to apply for that in the embassy of the country in which you will stay more. For me, it was Italy, I spent around 4 days there from my total of 12 days so I applied from the Italian embassy. They take their sweet little time though :) so apply well before your travel date. It’s better to apply ATLEAST a month before your travel dates. But from my experience it would probably have been better to apply 2 months before. You can find more information on the embassy’s website. Keep your passport in a safe place!

Well in the end I would just like to share the total cost. This would be for 2 persons because I traveled with my wife there. The total cost for me was about 6850 US$ for the two of us. This included air tickets (Dubai to UK and back on a 5 star airline; Qatar Airways – really good :) ), the agent fees which included guided tour, transport services, hotel accommodation and food (breakfast, and dinner on some occasions). We traveled to UK and stayed there for 2 weeks (stayed with a relative so saved up on hotel costs there) and we traveled for 12 days to France (Paris) via ferry (lovely experience), Switzerland (went to the Swiss alps as well), Italy (Pisa, Rome, Venice, Florence), Austria, Germany (Munich, Boppard, Rhine Valley), Netherlands (local villages and Amsterdam) and Belgium. The costs also included the shopping we did, and we did quite a significant amount! Clothes and souvenirs were a lot, had trouble stuffing the bags with them!

In the end I just wanted to say that if you love traveling then a euro trip is a must! The cost may still seem high, but it’s definitely worth it. I’ve considered it as an investment, as you get to meet different people, you get to see the world and you learn a lot of things. I’m having an urge to share my individual country experiences as well and I might be doing that in my other blogs.