Saturday 21 November 2015

Planning a Free and Easy Tour - Part 5 of 5 (Maps and Travel Insurance)

Importance of Map

Travelling in a free and easy trip means that there is no tour guide along with you, thus you have to depend on yourself while travelling from one point to another. As you are in a foreign land, having a map with you is extremely important to navigate around. There are several means that can help you navigate around:


1. Use Google Map

Google Map should be your first choice for planning your navigation. It is free to use and its direction function provides you in detail the available modes of transportation (walking, car and/or train) to get from one point to the other, in addition the distance and the estimated travelling time. If you intend to use mobile data while travelling, then you can gain access to Google Map on your smart phone or tablet. Note that access to Google is restricted or partially restricted in certain countries. In this case, you can print screen the Google Map direction and save it in your smart phone or tablet while you are still at your home country. Alternatively, you can also print out hardcopies of the Google Map, so that you do not have to worry that your device's battery runs out and unable to access the digital maps.


2. Use Online Maps

Some of the city government or tourism boards may post their city maps online (in JPG or PDF format) on their websites. These maps are helpful as they typically show the locations of the major tourist attractions and even hotels. You can also find many more maps online when your search for images in the search engine. For example, if you are going to Bangkok, type "bangkok tourist map" in the search engine to look for images and you will find a lot of different maps. Some of them are also physical maps that some visitors have scanned and posted online. Download the appropriate ones (those with good resolution and serve your needs) to your smart phone or tablet. Similarly, you may also want to print them as hardcopies and bring along your travel.


3. Use Hardcopy Maps

Travel guides like Lonely Planet will have maps integrated as part of the book. Since you will be having your travel guide along, thus you can use these maps to help you navigate around. When you landed at the airport, you may find there are free hardcopy tourist maps available for tourist. You will also find some of these free tourist maps in hotels and major tourist attractions. If you are looking for something more professional, then you can purchase proper maps from Periplus for example. Something to take note, since you need to plan your tour upfront at your home country, you will need your map much earlier and cannot depend solely on the physical tourist map when you reach your destination.


Importance of Travel Insurance

As you travel, there are a lot of unpredictable events (flight delay/cancellation, theft, loss of belongings, medical needs etc.) that might happen and disrupts your travel plan. Although money cannot solve everything, but at least you will be compensated in some monetary form when you have a travel insurance to protect yourself from the unfortunate events. Therefore it's highly recommended that you get one for your travel. It is relatively inexpensive and easy to purchase directly from the Internet. The basic insurance plan is typically sufficient for most travelers, unless you have expensive jewelry or golf set along with you.


Follow the links below to the other travel tips:

No comments:

Post a Comment