No, writing a fully fleshed out travel itinerary isn’t essential when you’re going abroad. But if you want to have control over the situation, it can help. A lot. And it doesn’t have to be as confusing as you might think. Here are 8 steps to help you create the perfect travel itinerary.
Latest update: 23 January 2022
If you only need to check one particular part of this tutorial or you only need to add a few things to your travel itinerary, click one of the links below to skip ahead to the part you’re looking for.
Planning your next journey and writing out a decent travel itinerary, when done thoroughly, is not something you can just bang out in an hour. If you really want to do this in-depth, you’ll have to get comfortable. So put on some good music, get a blanket and bring out the mint chocolate chip ice cream (Feel free to alternate these variables to your own liking).
Note: before you get on to the next step, it’s probably a good idea to decide who you’re going to be travelling with.
This is arguably the most important and influential step of your travel itinerary. Admittedly, you might already have a destination in mind for your next trip. If you do, feel free to skip ahead to step 3 (just click the link!). If you don’t, great! That’s what I’m here for.
Now, there are a lot of ways to figure out where you want to go next. Let me introduce you to some of them.
Yet another thing the Internet can help you with. Nowadays, there are so many people who tell the world about their travels, one way or another. You can find travel videos, blog posts, pictures and maybe even songs about their wanderlust. You can even find an entire travel itinerary for your trip online, without having to put in any work yourself!
My favourite thing to do is look at fellow travel bloggers’ websites and get inspired there. After all, if people like me enjoyed their time somewhere, why wouldn’t I?
Another Internet-related source for travel inspiration you could use is Instagram. Just like there are thousands upon thousands of travel bloggers, there’s a huge number of Instagram accounts dedicated to bringing you beautiful pictures of the world. (Of course, I have an account as well)
The classic destination decider. Throw a dart at a world map and travel to wherever it lands. Of course, if you do this often, your beautiful world map will be ruined by dart holes. Luckily, there are alternatives that don’t involve destroying your map.
For starters, if you have a globe lying around, you could spin it around and put your finger on it whenever and wherever. Then, you travel to the location under your finger. If it’s someplace you can’t travel to (ocean, restricted countries, North Pole), you spin again until you get a viable destination.
If you don’t have a globe, there are still alternatives out there. More specifically, there are websites that replicate the effect of a dart on a world map. You click the button and the dart gets fired. All without ruining a perfectly good world map! The main problem with these websites is that you get a dart firing into the ocean quite often, but that can be fixed quickly with another click on the button.
One of my favourites is Dart On Map.
If you have any adventurous friends, chances are they would be able to recommend some destinations to you. Even if you don’t have any people like that in your life, you could ask anyone else. After all, virtually everyone has a favourite place they’ve been.
For example, they might recommend you to go to Paris with your significant other. They might send you backpacking through South America. Or, if you’re lucky, they might even tell you to go on a city trip to Tokyo. There’s a whole range of places you might not even know of that opens up. I’d say it’s definitely worth a shot.
Cultural items can have a big impact on what we want to visit/see in life. For example, TV shows like How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) and Friends (1994-2004) have always made me want to visit New York City to see if the big city life is really like that. Oldboy (2003) implored me to visit South Korea and see their beautiful culture and the way it differs from western society, while Cicade de Deus (2002) sparked my interest in Brazilian favelas.
If you’re feeling adventurous, why not let someone else decide where you’re going?
You don’t have to worry about any of the planning and you’re up for a nice surprise.
There are many websites and initiatives dedicated to this concept.
Okay. By now, you should have a good idea of the destination you want to go to. So let’s move on to the next step of your perfect travel schedule!
Read more: My favourite solo travel destinations in Europe
The spine of your journey planning will consist of basic information. As such, it only makes sense for this part to be the backbone of your travel itinerary.
What you want to do once you’ve found your location is look up hotels, restaurants, transport, … of said location.
Let’s assume you’re going to fly to your destination. After all, if you’re driving, you won’t need to plan it out as much; just type the destination in your gps system and off you go. If you need to catch a flight, though, a little more planning goes into it.
Please consider taking a bus or a train if you’re not going far away from home. It’s a lot better for the environment and it’s probably something different than what you’re used to. That being said, let’s move on, assuming you want to fly to your destination.
Looking up flights online is all the hype now, and if you know what you’re doing, you can get some great deals out of it. Here are some tips to help you find the cheapest flights possible:
Use multiple websites. Not all meta flight search engines display all airlines, so combine them to get the best possible results. My favourite flight websites include Google Flights, Skyscanner, Cheapflights, Kayak, Momondo, Skiplagged and Cheapflightsfinder.
Set up email alerts. If you’ve found a flight you like but the price is too high, set up an email alert. This way, you’ll get an email when the price for that flight changes and you might be able to do some great deals.
Turn on incognito mode (Control / ⌘ – Shift – N) and delete your browser cache to prevent the websites from using your past browsing behaviour to increase flight prices. (This is one of the most heated debate topics in the travel industry and many people don’t believe this helps. I, however, believe it doesn’t hurt to try)
Be flexible on your dates. The more flexible you are, the more chance you have of finding cheap airfare.
Once you’ve found the flight that is right for you, you can go ahead and book that. Make sure to have a hard copy of the flight reservation as well as a digital one. You never know what might go wrong. (Also, this hard copy is the start of your physical travel itinerary. Yay!)
Note: for some people, it might be a good idea to hire a rental car from the airport to get around more quickly. I don’t know a lot about that, though. I’m just putting it out there that this is something you may want to look into.
As a student, my travel budget is rather limited. This is why I prefer sleeping in hostels over hotels: they’re cheaper and most of them provide similar services of high quality.
My favourite hostel booking website is Hostelworld. Click the image below to go to their website.
Another advantage of hostels is that you can get to know other travelers from all over the world. Other cheap (or free) possibilities include Couchsurfing, overnight transportation, Airbnb (get €35 off your next trip by signing up through this link!), house sitting and sleeping in public places.
Related: How to find cheap accommodation as a solo traveller
I probably spend most of my time working on a travel itinerary looking for restaurants that look interesting.
However, this really depends on your personal taste. Food is something you can spend as much or as little money on as you’d like to. That being said, it’s entirely possible to survive on $25 a day. One of my favourite places to look for restaurants online is Tripadvisor. Everyone knows it, everyone has used it at some time, and everyone likes it. Therefore, I’m not going to explain how it works in this post – let’s just say that’s general knowledge.
If you want to find a restaurant where you can eat like the true locals, here are some tips.
The next step of making your travel itinerary will involve finding activities you want to do. These activites depends entirely on your personal preference and on the personalities of you and your travel buddies.
On the one hand, an advantage of travelling alone is that you get to choose everything you want to do. On the other hand, if you travel with other people, you might do things you never would have done otherwise.
The kind of activities you’re going to include in your travel itinerary depends mostly on what kind of trip you’ll be taking. If you’re camping in the wild, there’s no need to find a lot of projects to do on your vacation. By contrast, if you’re going on a city trip for three or four days, you will have to spend some time figuring out what you want to do.
That being said, there is no right or wrong choice. The point of traveling is doing exactly what you want to do and freeing yourself from the daily grind.
So if anyone recommends something to you but you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it.
There are always people who like to do sports when they’re abroad. If you’re not one of these, feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. If you are, though, allow me to introduce you to some kinds of sports you can do while on a holiday.
Once again, this is a category that pretty much applies to every kind of travel out there. Food is a great way to find out about your host culture and to try and live like a local. Here are some possibilities if you want to add food-related activities into your travel itinerary.
Related: How to find cheap food and drinks as a solo traveller
Admittedly, adventurous activities aren’t for everyone. Some people are born with the adventurous gene in them. These are the people who live for the adrenaline rush. Others, not so much. If you’re one of the adrenaline junkies, or if you want to try something that will scare you, keep reading.
Learning things is a great way to become richer without getting more wealthy. When you learn something, you get knowledge that you can use for the rest of your life. And isn’t that more valuable than anything money could buy?
For this one, I’m not going to make a list of things you can do, because it really all comes down to personal preference. You could take ceramics classes if that’s something that speaks to you, but if it doesn’t, great. This is where you get to be creative and do what you REALLY want to.
One of the main points of travelling is to get a glimpse into the lives of others. You want to know what the differences and similarities are between your home culture and the culture you’re visiting. If you’re only staying somewhere for a short time, however, it could prove difficult to see these things.
If you’re like me, incorporating culture into your travel itinerary is one of the most important things to keep in mind.
But let’s not forget culture in a more specific sense: architecture, music, art, history, customs. These are much easier to notice and look for. Here are some ideas.
By now, the hardest part of planning your travel itinerary is over. Congratulations! From here on out, it’s smooth sailing until the end and you can start looking forward to your next, perfectly scheduled, trip to wherever. I might even say you could stop after this step. But I suggest you don’t, because this is where the fun really starts.
Though you might be tempted to schedule your journey as closely as possible, I urge you to leave some space for imagination, emergencies and flashes of spontaneity. If you don’t do that, you’ll be stuck with your timetable and you’ll find yourself not enjoying your journey as much as you could (and should) be.
Situational sketch: you’re in a hostel on your first solo trip and you’ve made some new friends. One of them asks you if you want to explore the city with them tomorrow, but you already have plans. That sucks.
I made many mistakes when I went to Dublin, and one of the biggest ones was that I over-planned everything.
The point I’m trying to make is that you lose parts of your ability to be spontaneous if you plan too much. I agree that having some kind of security blanket, or something to fall back on, can feel reassuring. However, I’ve also never heard anyone say they regret doing something spontaneous as opposed to regretting NOT doing something.
This step applies mostly – if not only – to people who travel with friends, family, colleagues, … If you’re travelling by yourself (or if you’re creating your travel itinerary along with your travel companions), feel free to disregard this step and move on to the next one.
At this point, you might feel like your travel itinerary is pretty much perfect. It’s not. You’re not the only person who is going on this trip. If you’re like me and you enjoy planning everything out for everyone in advance, you should take some time to consider the feelings and needs of those people you’re traveling with.
Even your soul mate could want and expect very different things than what you’ve been crafting up. Make sure you consult them before finalising your plans and putting the final touches on your travel itinerary.
This step is also very important when you feel like you know your travel mates enough to make decisions for them. I’m not trying to jeopardize any relationships, but you don’t know enough. You really do need to keep them in mind and ask them if they’re okay with what you’ve come up with.
That’s right! Now that you know for sure where you’re going and which activities you’re going to be doing, it’s time to buy a map. Side note: this could also be a great opportunity to come together with anyone you might be traveling with. Get some coffee and food, take out a notebook and start discussing your trip and getting hyped!
A map can be an excellent way to visualize your trip. The kind of map you’re going to be using also depends on the kind of trip you’re going to be taking. If you’ll be road tripping through the USA, buying a map of the streets in New York City isn’t going to get you very far.
Getting right down to it: indicate your activities / stops / cities on the map. This will give you a better view of your schedule and it’ll make you realise whether or not your trip is actually doable. It can also help you find the best way to get from one place to the next.
Yes! If you got this far, be sure to give yourself and your friends a big high-five. This is the last step of your travel itinerary. In this step, you have to carefully and thoroughly go over everything one last time. Check if you:
Once you’ve checked everything on that list and fixed any potential problems, there’s really nothing more to do than pack your bags and wait until you can get going. I truly hope you’ll make the best of your travels, and you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing this guide for you.
By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how to make the perfect travel schedule.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you’re happy with the way your travel itinerary turned out and I hope you found this guide somewhat useful. If you did, please be sure to share it with your friends and to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Are you someone who always plans too much or do you prefer to take things as they come without a fully fleshed-out travel itinerary?
Once again, thanks for reading!
-S
PIN IT!
Travel changes you. We’re all aware of that. But how? Why? What makes travelling somewhere change your views of the world around you, and even the way you see yourself? Today, I’m telling you everything about how travelling changes you, for better and for worse.
Latest update: 11 May 2019
Most people who travel often know how different they are now compared to before they started travelling. Many of them can’t put their finger on how exactly they’ve changed, though. If you’re trying to find that out, you’ve come to the right place.
I put solo between brackets in the title, because travelling by yourself triggers even more change than travelling with others. After all, you are forced to make different decisions, and there is nobody with you that can help you make them. Although this is not a bad thing in many cases, it can be scary. Believe me, I was scared as well. After getting the courage to go to Dublin by myself, though, I’m very happy I did it. And here are some reasons why.
This is the biggest one. This first reason as to why travel changes you applies mostly to solo travel, but people who travel with friends or family might recognize some of this.
When you’re abroad by yourself, there is no-one there to help you. If you make a mistake, you’re the only one who can fix it. You have to rely on yourself. You’re not dependent on anybody else. But that’s the beauty of it. The experience of succeeding at something is so much more meaningful when you know you did it all by yourself. Admittedly, it is nice when you have someone you can fall back on. But it’s even nicer when that someone is you.
Solving problems abroad may seem like a daunting task, but it can feel so good once you actually do it. Even better, you might get some confidence out of it. The more confident you are in a foreign country, the more confident you will be at home. And let’s be honest – what could anyone have against being confident?
In order to gain new perspectives, it’s a good idea to visit places where the culture is as different as possible from your home culture. After all, you don’t go see your neighbours if you want to know how the whole world experiences life. That would be like someone trying to taste Italian cuisine who only eats bread with olive oil.
You need to see how a Nepalese Hindu goes about his day. You need to see how a Spaniard takes a siesta and stays up late. How a South-African falls asleep listening to the rain and watching the stars. How a Peruvian still keeps traditions alive.
It is only when you realize that none of the 7.5 billion people on this earth have experienced today like you have, that you will come to find that there is so much out there. So many places to be and so many people to meet. It almost seems like a shame to not spend your whole life travelling.
I met some great people on my trip to Malta. For example, I met Daniel, a German guy living in Malta, hosting a guest house. I met a French couple 45 minutes from any sign of civilization, and we watched the sunset together. I met an American family and visited an entire city with them. If you want friends from all over the world, travel. Travel often and travel by yourself. There is nothing to be afraid of.
When you travel, you get an opportunity to meet people you never would have met otherwise. Again, this especially applies to travellers who prefer being on the road by themselves. After all, solo travellers are far more approachable than those who travel in groups. Think about it. When you’re abroad, who would you talk to first: someone with a backpack standing in line to get the key to their room, or a group of friends talking to each other? Exactly.
Some of these people you get to know on your travels could change your life. They could become some of the most important people you know. You might even start a relationship with one of them. If you don’t travel, you could miss out on a lot of things.
When you travel, the way you look at life can change drastically. Seeing how people from vastly different cultures think about every aspect of life has the ability to change you as a person.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: travel changes you in ways that nothing else can.
Honestly, it’s a lot like looking at the stars at night. If you never do that, you won’t realize how small and trivial we are. In the context of a huge galaxy, none of our problems or worries matter. And that is exactly why you should just get the most out of your life. Once you realize these things, your mentality will shift from “I don’t know if I should do this” to “I can’t wait to do this”. And that, dear friends, is exactly the change you need in order to fill your life with happiness.
At the end of the day, we’re all just looking for ways to be happy and to bring meaning to our lives. Well, this is it. Chase your dreams and be wild every once in a while.
Do you have any reasons why travel changes you? Be sure to let me know. Also, don’t forget to check me out on social media (I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)! Thanks for reading!
-S
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Everyone who has ever taken an airplane somewhere knows how boring flying can get. That’s why I decided to make this post and introduce you to my favourite movies. Let’s get right to it! Here are 10 movies you could watch on an airplane in order to make the flight more enjoyable.
Note: in no way, shape or form am I saying these are the best movies ever. Nor am I saying these are the only movies you should watch on an airplane. I just think this list lends itself perfectly for passing some time while you’re flying to your next perfectly planned holiday.
The films I watch are mostly a mix of crime, drama, adventure and a little bit of sci-fi and mystery (or sometimes even a lot of mystery). I realize this is a very diverse set of genres, but I guess I have a very diverse taste, in that case.
I’ll add links to the IMDb page of every movie I list, so that you can look further and decide for yourself which movies you want to watch. I chose IMDb because I feel like that’s the most extensive website where you can find useful information about both films and tv shows. The website’s design is also intuitive and sleek.
Without any further ado, let’s take off! (wink)
For starters, this movie has a crazy cast. Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine among others star in it. If that’s not reason enough for you to watch it, there’s more. Now You See Me is about four illusionists pulling off crazy heists during their live performances and officials trying to figure out how they did it. It also has a sequel, but I feel like the original is a lot better because the concept was new.
This movie’s most impressive actors are Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. Douglas’ character, Nicholas Van Orton, is a rich banker. His brother gives him a real-life experience as a birthday present but it doesn’t really go as he had planned. I won’t spoil the rest of the movie for you, but the story line of this movie really is superb.
You might be discouraged by the fact that it came out before Y2K, but let me tell you something. Some of history’s best movies came out a very long time ago. In contemporary cinema, there is not a lot that can excel these classics. The Game is one of those classics.
Predestination is one of the most mind-boggling films I have ever seen. Even after seeing it about three times, there’s still parts of it that blow me away. Again, I won’t spoil anything, because then there’s not really a point in even watching it. But I will say that this is definitely a movie you won’t soon forget.
The story involves incredible performances by Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor, tracking criminals, time travelling, a very odd love story and a few identity crises. If these are things you’re interested in and you haven’t seen this movie, you should definitely watch it.
Another movie with a great cast that includes Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo. In ESOTSM, Carrey and Winslet play a couple that split up. In order to forget about each other, they decide to undergo a procedure to erase their memories, and they soon find out that that wasn’t the best idea.
This movie won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, which should tell you a lot about how good the story actually is. Furthermore, seeing Jim Carrey act in a role that’s nothing like Ace Ventura or Dumb & Dumber is quite fascinating.
Another great storyline with impeccable acting and an impressive cast. Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley all give their best. This movie, released in 2010, tells a story about a U.S. Marshal in the 1950. He is sent out to investigate how a woman charged with murder was able to escape from a Guantanamo Bay-like prison for the clinically and criminally insane.
Being a big fan of Leo’s works, I feel like this is one of his best acting efforts. You’ll have to watch Shutter Island to find out why that is, but I can only tell you that you will not regret it. (Also, Martin Scorsese directed it!)
After holding the Academy Award for Best Picture for about one minute, the cast and crew of La La Land had to give it up for Moonlight. Beside this unfortunate mix-up, I really cannot find anything wrong with this movie. It was probably one of the most anticipated movies in recent history, which only added to the experience of actually seeing it.
The impressive cast included Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone giving their best in a way we’ve never seen them before. Moreover, it included a minor role for J. K. Simmons, also known from Whiplash (another one of my favourite music-related movies and coincidentally also directed by Damien Chazelle).
You really don’t need to know more than the fact that this movie is about love. Love for jazz, love for other people, love for culture and love for the acting efforts of Gosling and Stone. Go watch it. No, seriously.
In spite of being ranked #1 on the list of top rated movies on IMDb, The Shawshank Redemption did not win any Academy Awards. Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman and director Frank Darabont managed to transform Stephen King‘s short story into a magnificent piece of classic cinema, though.
The story is about Andy Dufresne, who is wrongfully locked up in Shawshank Prison for murdering his wife and her lover. There, he develops a friendship with Red and his partners and they go through a lot of things.
In essence, The Shawshank Redemption is a prison movie, but it’s unlike any prison movie you’ve ever seen. Even though it’s now praised all around, it originally didn’t even make enough money to cover production costs. Nowadays, it’s one of the biggest cult movies ever made. And it has good reason to be.
Yes, 1957. Now, before you say this is something you would never watch, listen up. I thought the same thing. I used to think the only good movies were the ones that came out after 2005. That was until I gave 12 Angry Men a chance. You should do so too, and here’s why.
It’s ranked #5 on IMDb’s top rated movies. The whole story goes on in one room (except a couple of minutes), and still manages to be enthralling through its exciting dialogue. It’s in black and white, but there are so many shades of grey – a lot more than 50. It’s a movie not a lot of casual watchers know, so you can impress your friends with it.
Are those enough reasons? If not, the story itself might convince you. A young man has been put on death row and 12 jurors have to decide whether he’s guilty or not. All the jurors seem to agree and it seems like the process will be over quickly. But one of the jurors is not so sure. This is the story of that juror’s train of thought.
Let’s get over the basics quickly, because really, everybody knows this movie. Even though nobody’s supposed to talk about it. IMDb top rated movies #10. Major roles for Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, and a minor role for Helena Bonham Carter. 1 Academy Award nomination. Initially didn’t make enough to cover production costs, but grew out to be one of the biggest cult classics ever made.
Here’s the story: an office worker suffering from insomnia is trying to find a way to change his life. On his path to doing so, he meets a soap maker who seems dedicated to making his new friend’s goal come true. They start an underground fight club that eventually grows out to become something neither of them could ever have imagined.
And finally, my personal favourite movie ever made (so far): The Prestige. Let me try to convince you to watch and love it as well.
Once more, the cast is nothing short of impressive. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johanson and Michael Caine all made this movie what it is. Even David Bowie has a role in it. The Prestige was directed by Christopher Nolan, one of the most critically acclaimed directors around the world. (You might know him from Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Man of Steel or Interstellar)
Well, there you go! That was my list of favourite movies to pass some time with. I can honestly say I would watch these movies every time I get the opportunity to, and so should you. If there is anything you would change about this list, feel free to let me know down below!
-S
Hey! In this post, I’ll be telling you the travel story of How I Took The Best Trip Ever. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing the obnoxious “capitalize the first letter of every word” thing all the way through. This story involves my dad, hours of driving in a car and meeting an online friend. Buckle up!
Disclaimer: the image quality in these pictures is pretty bad because I took them with my smartphone. Sorry about that.
First, some background information. Normally, my family and I go on holiday together every year. There’s not one specific place we return to every year, but we’re always together. 2016 was the year that changed. We decided to switch it up a bit: my dad and I went on a three-day trip to the south of England and my mom and sister went on a city trip to Barcelona. I was excited as hell, because I got to choose our destination, as long as it wasn’t too far away and we could do it in about 3 to 5 days. So, I originally chose Brighton. But then we quickly found out that there isn’t enough to do there to fill four days, so we made a road trip out of it.
On the first day, we woke up very early. It was around 5 am when my dad came into my room to wake me up. We had to wake up this early, because we were supposed to catch a boat trip and we still had a two-hour drive to go until we got to Calais, where the boat was waiting for us. Once we arrived in England, we disembarked in Dover and drove to Lewes. After driving around to find a parking spot, we walked through the town center. We found out that there was some sort of food market going on and we decided to go have a look. This was what we found.
The entrance of the food market, already looking cozy as all hell.
One of the food stalls, selling all kinds of organic and vegan foods (I think).
After having discovered this little gem, we strolled on. In the city centre, we found some large store chains and a lot of little quirky shops. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. These were on every corner and they all looked the same. I wanted to go inside every time, but my dad didn’t. Sad.
I’m only adding one picture because frankly, all the quirky shops looked like this.
We found that there wasn’t really much else to do in Lewes, so we went to a tourism bureau and asked for recommendations. The wonderful lady there pointed us in the direction of the Seven Sisters, a formation of chalk cliffs with a nature reserve attached to it. So, we headed up there and had lunch before embarking upon what would turn out to be a two-hour walk in between the cliffs, a field of goats and a golf terrain.
Our assorted lunchbox, coming from the aforementioned food stall.
Not too bad for a lunch view, if I do say so myself.
After having lunch atop this hill next to the actual cliffs, we started walking through the beautiful hills and such. After seeing the cliffs and scaring my dad by pretending to jump off them, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. We discovered that somehow, our only option was to go all the way around a huge field where sheep were grazing peacefully in order to get back to the car. Eventually, we made it back and we drove to Brighton. For me, this was the absolute highlight of our trip.
Our view as we were driving into Brighton.
Right now, it’s about 2 pm, which means we have a whole afternoon to discover the beauty of the city I had been dreaming of for months. The first thing we did was check in to our hostel. My dad had found a beautiful little hostel right in the city centre. After everything there had been taken care of and we had dropped our luggage in our room, we headed out. The one thing I wanted to see the most was the Brighton Pier. It was just as I had imagined: playful, huge and gorgeous.
What the entrance of the Brighton Pier looks like.
We walked around the Pier for a while and went inside to the casino part after that. That was pretty magical as well. The atmosphere inside was so different from outside though. On the pier, people were sunbathing and enjoying the company of strangers, while inside, it seemed like there were only money-hungry gamblers.
This is what the inside looked like. A couple of seconds after taking this picture, my dad pointed out that we weren’t actually allowed to take pictures inside. Oops.
The next thing we did was check out the famous, peculiar shopping district, The Lanes. I really loved spending time here for some reason. Maybe it was the spirit of generosity and animosity, maybe it was all the cool shops. Maybe it was a little bit of both.
A little extract of what the Lanes look like.
For some reason, this jeweller’s shop reminded me of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.
We hung out around the Lanes for what was left of the afternoon. We then got back to the hostel and prepared ourselves to go out for dinner. When we were sitting at the dinner table and my dad was making some small talk with the people on the table next to ours, I remembered my friend Ryan lived near Brighton. I had gotten to know him online and during the past year or so, we had been joking about meeting each other.
I figured out that was finally an actual possibility, so I asked my dad if he’d be okay with me abandoning him to meet up with my friend and he said he would be. So, I sent Ryan a message asking to come to Brighton and hang out, and he did. He took a train, and I waited for him at the station (luckily, the restaurant we were eating at was right next to the train station).
Ryan and I obviously had a little chat about how great it was to finally meet in real life before heading to town. When we were about to enter a pub, I noticed I had left my wallet (which had my ID) at the hostel, because I figured I wouldn’t need it anyway (at the time we left the hostel, I had no idea I would meet up with Ryan). As I didn’t have any proper identification, none of the bars would allow us to go in. At this point in time, we decided to go back to the hostel and go get my ID. About half an hour later, I emerged from the hostel, wallet proudly in the hand. We hit a pub near the hostel, had some pints and played some pool. It was honestly a great night.
This is Ryan (left) and me (right) after hanging out at the pub, both looking like we smoked about twelve joints each. I swear we didn’t.
After this great adventure, I headed back to the hostel room, where my dad was waiting for me to tell the whole, amazing story. We fell asleep watching some football game on television.
The second day, we woke up around 8:30 am. We decided to grab one of those delicious, full English breakfasts in some kind of breakfast bar we had spotted the day before. Soon afterwards, we returned to the hostel, packed our bags again and headed out to Eastbourne. After finding a parking spot just outside the city centre, we walked around for a while. We quickly discovered that there wasn’t too much to do here, so we decided to check out the mall.
Following the trend of the rest of the city, the mall was nothing special. We had seen everything inside in about 10 minutes, if it even took us that long. It was less glamorous than I had hoped it would be.
After wasting a full morning in a town we could have gone through in about fifteen minutes, we made our way to Hastings. Yes, it’s the same Hastings where the battle took place in 1066. One adjacent town, Battle, reminds the inhabitants of Hastings of that every day. The main part of Battle was a big historical reserve dedicated to exactly that battle. One of the best things we encountered in between the ruins of some old castle was what I assumed to be an actor playing a soldier from the 11th century who was play-fighting a kid who had brought a sword with him. It was so cute.
I absolutely loved spending time in this gem of a castle (ish), but my dad wasn’t too keen on it, so we moved on. After all, he’s still my dad and the person who drove the car, so I didn’t really have a choice but to follow.
After another short car drive, we arrived at our sleeping accommodation for the second night. We were sleeping above a pub that had about 6 visitor rooms. After unpacking and refreshing a little bit, we went out and discovered the old town centre of Hastings. We discovered that the main part of Old Town Hastings was a recreation of the fisherman’s neighbourhood, which was conveniently right near the harbour. We visited a small fishing museum and found another couple of quirky shopping streets like the Lanes in Brighton. Here, I bought a cool, vintage-looking poster.
We explored the old part of Hastings all morning and afternoon, and eventually we found ourselves at night in the pub. We played chess, drank beers and listened to the live music. It was pretty great. When the music was over and people were leaving the pub, we decided to go have dinner. We ate fish and chips in a cozy little restaurant nearby. Honestly, there wasn’t much else to this night. After having dinner, we went back to the pub and went to sleep.
The next morning, right after having breakfast, we got going again, this time with Canterbury as our destination. I was very excited about this, even though the thought of going to Canterbury hadn’t even occurred to us before we left from Belgium. My family and I had gone to Canterbury once before, and I loved it then, so I figured I would love it again now. I was right.
In the morning, we walked around the city admiring the atmosphere and architecture. Canterbury is filled with houses that look like they’re still standing from centuries ago (and some of them probably are).
I somehow really liked how these buildings looked. Anyway, we soon found out that we didn’t have that much time left so we went and got lunch at some Asian place. Afterwards, we decided to go on one of those boat trips that take you through all the city’s tracts with a funny tour guide. I’m glad we did that, because our guide was hilarious and I actually learned a lot as well.
What you can see on the photo above is a low bridge our boat had to go under. The guide, who normally was supposed to stand up while paddling, was forced to go low as well. Anyway, the thread-like structures on the archway are actually spider webs. The guide told us about this, but only when we were about halfway through. This led to a lot of people panicking and screaming. It was pretty funny.
The funny part about these webs is that the city of Canterbury is not legally allowed to get rid of them. They belong to some sort of protected spider species and if they clean up their webs, their entire species would be in danger of extinction.
That was pretty much the most exciting part of our trip. After the boat tour, we had to go back to Dover in order to make it to the boat on time. Congratulations to you in case you made it through this entire post. I realise it’s quite a long story and it might be a hassle to read it all. But honestly, there wasn’t anything I could have left out.
During this trip, I had the time of my life. I’d do it all over again any day of the week. However, this is where I leave you. If you like this type of posts, let me know and I’ll make more of them.
Thanks for reading this long travel story!
-S
Hey! I thought it would be fun to take you through some travel pictures of my adventurous past. All of these are from holiday trips I took with my family (parents and sister). I hope you enjoy these and maybe get a good laugh out of them!
I’ll make one big distinction. The first big category will contain some funny pictures from summer trips (mostly sunny countries like France and Spain). The second category will include travel pictures from – you guessed it – winter trips. This is limited to skiing trips, because that’s generally the only type of travel we do during the winter. I’m not complaining, though.
Me looking like I’ve had it with life during a gas station pit stop on our way to a nice family summer vacation in Saint-Matré [2004]
The start of my alcoholic career. Sipping on my mom’s sangria and thinking I’m drunk in Sevilla [2005]
Once more, me having had it with life in my dad’s arms in the centre of the shopping district of Madrid [2010]
Casually looking as if I had smoked weed (which I obviously hadn’t) while being sunburnt at the airport of Porto [2014]
This is probably one of my favourite pictures of myself. Even though my arms look like skinny straws and my face looks like I’m dropping a massive deuce, my hair was on point and this picture brings back good memories of Amsterdam [2015]
Yet another time, I look like I’m about to give up on living life. Somehow I manage to combine looking like this with a joyous activity like making snow angels. Kronplatz (Italy) [2005]
You see where I’m going with this. Somehow, I had decided I was so done with it all that I just kind of put my head in the snow. I probably did this to get a funny travel picture, though. Obergurgl (Austria) [2012]
Somewhere in the 2015-2016 area, I decided to stop looking terrible (yet hilarious) when pictures were taken. This one in particular is a cheeky selfie in a pair of ski goggles while I was waiting for my lunch. Kronplatz (Italy) [2016]
This is the only travel picture I’ll include that doesn’t have my beauty of a face on it. This was what it looked like from the ski lift on our third day here. There was heavy rain, snow and hail and you basically couldn’t see anything. It was pretty terrifying. Kronplatz (Italy) [2016]
As you can probably tell by the older pictures (basically anything from before 2009), I didn’t used to be so keen on being photographed. However, now, I absolutely love having the opportunity to look back at something that happened years ago and still remember how it made me feel at the time, just because of one photograph. These trips with my family will be things I’ll always cherish and I’m very thankful to my parents for taking me (and my sister) with them on holiday.
I recently purchased a GoPro Hero 5 Session and as far as I’ve used it – which is basically only shooting short fragments of no more than one minute at home – I love it. So I think that I’ll resort more to travel videos instead of travel photos. This won’t mean I’m not taking any more pictures, but I feel like I can convey a lot more in a video than I ever could in a couple of pictures. Anyway, we’ll see how that goes. (UPDATE 30 November 2018: I now love making travel videos more than I like taking pictures and I’ve made quite a few of them!)
Lastly, I apologize for this not being an incredibly long blog post. I felt like a collection of pictures didn’t really lend itself to me typing long paragraphs of text in between each one, so I decided to keep the gist of the talking for the end of the post. If there’s anything you’d like me to do differently, please tell me! It helps me make posts that better suit your needs 🙂
Do you have any funny or embarrassing travel photos? Be sure to let me know on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Thanks for reading!
-S
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