The Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget
Exploring Europe doesn’t have to strain your wallet, thanks to “The Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget.” This comprehensive guide, updated post-COVID-19, is a treasure trove for budget-conscious travelers. Whether you’re a backpacker, on a career break, a gap-year traveler, or simply seeking more value, this guidebook is your passport to affordable adventures across Europe. From Albania to Turkey, it covers an extensive range of destinations, offering in-depth, practical information and recommendations tailored to budget travel. Plus, it comes with a free eBook, making it an even more convenient travel companion.

Lonely Planet Europe
“Lonely Planet Europe 4” is the ultimate travel companion for anyone looking to explore the richness of Europe. It’s a comprehensive guide packed with up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and the hidden treasures across the continent. From the majestic fjords of Norway to the historic Red Square in Moscow, this guide covers a wide array of experiences. It provides color maps, images, tailored itineraries, and insider tips to help you navigate Europe like a local, saving time and money while avoiding crowds.

Fodor’s Essential Europe: The Best of 26 Exceptional Countries
“Fodor’s Essential Europe” is a meticulously crafted guidebook that serves as your gateway to the best experiences across 26 remarkable European countries. Whether it’s savoring French cuisine, marveling at Italian Renaissance art, or celebrating Oktoberfest in Germany, Fodor’s local experts have you covered. The guidebook is designed with an easy-to-read layout, enriched with beautiful color photos, and packed with up-to-date, honest recommendations. It’s an invaluable resource for simplifying your trip-planning and maximizing your European adventure.

Bangkok is well connected to both Phuket in the South and Chiang Mai in the North. If you plan on heading South, after exploring Bangkok, this 7 Day Phuket Travel Itinerary might turn out to be helpful. However, if you end up going North, then you should check out this 3 Day Chiang Mai Travel Itinerary.

PS – Before you head to Thailand and discover the beauty of the Top Sights and Attractions in Bangkok, during your 3 Day Weekend Bangkok Trip Itinerary, as listed below, check out these 20+ Best Travel Apps, Hacks and Resources, that will elevate your Travel experience to a different level all together.

If you are visiting Bangkok, which is one of the best solo travel destinations in the World, you’ve got to visit the Chatuchak Weekend Market – The Largest Market in Thailand with over 15000 shops. As the name suggests, it’s a weekend market and it’s humongous. You’ll find anything and everything, under one roof at Chatuchak Weekend Market.

Ranging from spices, souvenirs, clothes, junk jewellery, aromatherapy oils, bathroom essentials, cosmetics, home decor – You’ll get it all. And don’t forget the numerous food stalls, serving you the best of Thai Street Food.

Mo Chit Station on the BTS and Chatuchak Park station on the MRT, are walking distance from the market, making Chatuchak Weekend Market well connected by public transport.

The best way to make the most of your time at Chatuchak Weekend Market is to head there when the Sun’s not too harsh. And you have to make sure that you are dressed comfortably and have your shoes on, as there’ll be a lot of walking involved.

If you’re looking for a holiday travel guide, then here’s a list of the top 10 destinations that have been a favourite among Indian travellers that you too should add to your bucket list.

1. Vietnam

In recent years, this South Asian country has been under every travel enthusiast’s radar. Their five popular destinations, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Huế, Hoi An, and Ho Chi Minh City, are big hits among tourists, especially if you want to explore Asia but are exhausted with Thailand and Bangkok. The nation’s diverse landscape, from beaches and mountainous rice terraces to the vibrant cities caters to everyone’s taste

2. Goa

There’s never a bad time to go to Goa. Want to host a friend’s bachelorette party? Or celebrate your parents’ wedding anniversary? Or take a break from work to relax and recuperate? Or have an office off-site? The answer to all of these questions will take you to Goa. From pristine beaches to the coolest bars and restaurants, from exploring the local churches and forts to finding some gems at the flea markets, you’ll find things to do even during the “off-season” months there.

3. Bali

Bali has the perfect mix of adventure and spirituality. You can trek to Mount Batur, or Gunung Batur, located west of Mount Agung, which is an active volcano on the island. You can take up surfing or diving and explore the colourful world underwater. You can join a yoga or meditation course or immerse yourself in the Balinese culture by visiting temples like Tanah Lot, Ulun Danu, Gunung Lebah, and Goa Lawah.

4. Sri Lanka

Two reasons why Sri Lanka should be your next travel destination are that Sri Lanka made visas for India, China, Russia, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand non-mandatory as part of its pilot project till 31 March 2024, and it’s always a good time to go to a beach destination. Whether you’re there for four days or a fortnight, there is much to see and do when in Sri Lanka, that is, apart from exploring the beaches. Sri Lanka has a rich cultural heritage with UNESCO World Heritage sites like Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Sigiriya dotted across the country that showcase impressive archaeological ruins.

Need a guide on how to choose the best travel guide? Carry on reading.

What to look for in a travel guide?
This is what you want to look for:

Date of publication: in which year was it published? Needless to say that the more recent, the better. Tip: ask the bookstore staff if there’s any updated version coming out soon (normally every two years a new edition is published) And book it in advance!
Structure: is it intuitive? Will I easily find the content that I need when I will need it?
Maps: does it contain maps? Are they easy to “read”? Are they detailed enough for my liking?
Content: Are the main topics (accommodation/restaurants/sights) covered? Are there enough options on what to visit, where to eat and where to stay?
Extra content: Is there any extra content that may be of interest? (sport activites in site? Itineraries? Transport links? Useful vocabulary? Activities for kids? Animal-friendly hotels? Etc.)
(Tip: if it’s something very specific you’re looking for and the guide does not even begin to cover the topic, well, I’m afraid you may have to search for it online or buy a more specific book)

Size: is it too big and heavy to carry with me? Is there a pocket-sized version available? Size matters… sometimes!
Esthetic: is the font easy to read? Are the colours or lack thereof going to bore me? (Tip: let the hedonist in you decide on this one).
Once we agree on a destination, we head to the nearest bookstore and we go through this lengthy, painful but necessary screening and scrutinizing process, until we find what we need, be that a guide that covers the whole country or a specific city.

Lately, as we have been relying on the same travel books for a while now, and especially if we’re short on time, we simply purchase the latest edition online. We almost always settle for either Lonely Planet or Rough Guides. Read a comparison of the two here.

A little note
Unless we are planning a short stay in a city in particular (normally it would be the capital city), we always prefer to opt for a guide that covers the whole of the country.

It tends to have more general info on the city you’re visiting, agreed, but it may give you ideas or useful suggestions on day-trips to famous landmarks that are not far from the city you are based in.

Yet, ditching printed guide books in favour of digital editions has not gone as smoothly as predicted. While most travellers agree that guidebooks are heavy and antiquated relics pushing up your baggage weight and reducing luggage space, the main reason some people have stuck with them is the fact that they find it cumbersome to navigate digital guidebooks, which is obviously not the straightforward page-turning experience associate with reading a novel.

Lonely Planet, for many years the reigning emperors in the travel guide publishing kingdom, has continuously been criticised for failing to format their digital publications in a way that empowers travellers with seamless navigation between relevant sections. Many people also found the lack of inspiring images and informative maps to be a less immersive experience.

The fix, says seasoned guidebook writers, lie in the way digital guides are conceived and formatted. Re-publishing printed guidebooks into digital format will simply not cut it.

Jeanne Oliver, who has forged a lifelong career as a travel guidebook writer, launched her own website croatiatraveller.com and travel e-guides in 2005 after “meticulously transforming, reformatting and reworking” content to fit the e-book domain. PDF versions of these books have also been launched only a few months ago.

She says she had to devote a lot of time an effort to rethink format and navigational options for e-guides. “Prior to writing my guides, I looked at what the big publishers were doing and then thought about what I could do differently and better. I found that I was often getting lost in chapters or unsure, for instance, how to go from general food information to dining listings.”

Her solution was to put a contents listing at the beginning of each chapter and then link to it from each relevant section. So Dubrovnik Dining, as one example, is divided into ‘Restaurants’ and ‘Specialties’ with a link back to the contents page of the dining chapter at the end of each sub-section. This principle needs to be continued throughout the e-guide to allow the traveller to get skip forwards and backwards to relevant information effortlessly as and when they need to.

In fact, she says, deliberate and simplistic internal linking between sections is crucial to satisfy the navigational demands that come with handling a guidebook. She uses many internal links: “So a photo and brief description of a top sight will link to a more extended description later in the book. Then the back button on the Kindle would take you back to your top sights.” Although she warns that certain apps work better than others on your tablet of choice, she believes that internal linking “is the way to go”. It is also crucial that readers instantly recognise if links are internal or if they will take them to an external website.

On the matter of PDF guides she warns that they are more problematic because PDFs do not have much in the way of internal linking and are therefore more difficult to navigate. Yet, PDFs allow her to include up-to-date schedules (like ferry departure times or train and bus rosters), which are normally in PDF format.

“Kindle, and other versions, cannot handle PDF tables well – or at all, however I think having updated ferry timetables is a major convenience for travellers and something that sets smaller PDF publications apart from those of big publishers. I can refer to a ferry connection to various destinations and make it possible for readers to flip to the end for exact details.”

Nielsen BookScan, a company specialising in measuring and analysing book sales and consumer behaviour around the world, says the sale of printed travel guides plummeted 41 per cent in the immediate years following the 2007 financial crisis. This was twice the fall experienced by general book sales. Yet, it is widely accepted that the decline in printed guides was not brought on by the emergence of e-guides. It was rather the ease with which travellers could access destination content online, making perishable printed information obsolete. Travel guides – both printed and electronic – needed to reinvent themselves.

1. Flexibility for Travel Dates
If you are willing to be flexible on travel dates, you can possibly save hundreds of dollars on your flight. Flights may be cheaper if you fly on the weekend as opposed to flying on Monday morning.
Shop around and compare. We have found business class flights on one day for the same price as economy flights on another. (by flying on different dates, we got a business class flight for the same price!)

It pays to look at different days up to 5 or 6 days before or after your desired dates of departure. We use Skyscanner and punch in our dates as flexible. It does a comparison of flight prices a couple of days before our preferred flights and a couple of days after.

All you have to do is click on the arrows to see what prices are the next day or the day before your desired departure.

Check Different Airports for Departures

If you live in a city not far from other hubs, check out their rates to see if there is a better deal at a nearby airport or even a different city airport. We live in Toronto, but sometimes flying out of Hamilton (which is about a 40-minute drive from TO) can be cheaper than flying out of one of the Toronto airports.

Do the same for your destination airport. For Example, Flying into Tokyo’s Narita Airport may be more expensive than Hanita. Plus Narita is much farther out of the city than Hanita, so you may spend a lot more on taxis and shuttles to the city that may end up costing you the price you might have saved on the flight.

Flights out of a city in the United States may be cheaper than flying out of a Canadian departure city for Canadians. If you live near the border, it is worth checking departures from the closest American airport.

Many American airports offer shuttle services from Canada as well. These are all things to consider.