Planning the Attractions and Activities
Planning of the travel activities and attractions to visit for the free and easy tour is very much dependent on individual's preference. Some would prefer a slower tempo, such as spending time quietly at the lush green hotel pool side, reading your favourite book or enjoying a glass of cocktail, others would prefer a frenzy shopping trip or embark on a mountain trek for the nature lovers. Nevertheless, the following tips can be considered to plan how you can spend your day at the travel destination:
1. Look out for the Popular Attractions
Every location is well-known and popular for its own unique characteristics. For example, Hong Kong (China) is famous for its metropolitan city skyline, shopping malls/streets and the delicious Cantonese cuisine, London (UK) is famous for its world class museums and musical plays, and Siem Reap (Cambodia) is famous for the Angkor Wat, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can find out the destinations' top tourist attractions from various sources. The first way is through travel magazines or guide books like Lonely Planet. They will provide you with quite a lot of details such as the background/history of the attractions, their significance, what you can do and see over there, how to get to the site and photographs of the site. The second way is to visit the official tourism board websites. Most of the city government/tourism board would have websites to introduce the popular attractions and activities to do within their city or country. The third way is through independent travel websites. Just type in location's name in the Google Search and you can easily find many of them listed on the page. Even the Wikitravel pages (which I often use for my own planning) are useful for you. The fourth way is to take reference from the offerings of the real travel agents. These travel agents would have posted their travel itineraries online, so that you can easily make comparisons with them to decide the popular attractions that you can visit.
2. Filter and Select the Attractions/Activities
You will have a long list of attractions and activities recommended from various sources. Now you will need to shortlist some of them based on the following criteria. First, if you have no much interest in history, paintings and artifacts, then most probably you will give museums a miss. The recommendations would encompass all sorts of attractions and activities, ranging from museums to sea sports or theme park visits. Depending on your own preference, you have to shortlist those attractions and activities that interest you. Second, depending on your available time and budget you have planned for, you have to further trim down the list that will fit into your travel plan. Third, a particular attraction looks awesome from the various recommendation sources, but the admission fee is very costly and you are doubtful if the visit is worthwhile. Well, similar to checking the hotel reviews, you can check with Tripadvisor to go through the feedbacks and reviews provided by hundreds and thousands of travelers who had visited the attraction previously to determine is it of any value to visit the attraction. One advice from me is that you should not miss out any attraction that is iconic to the location. For example the Great Wall in Beijing (China), the Sydney Opera House in Sydney (Australia) and Eiffel Tower in Paris (France) are must-visit attractions if you are visiting these locations the first time.
3. Arrange the Sequence for the Attractions and Activities
Once you have shortlisted your attractions and activities to do, you have to slot them into your travel plan. The trick here is to group the attractions of close proximity together, so that you can save time and money on the transportation. For example it does not make sense if you have to travel to the east for the first attraction, travel to the west for the second attraction and then back to the east again for your final attraction of the day! You can simply use Google Map or any other maps available to check the approximate locations of the attractions. You have to take considerations of the transportation time from one attraction to another in the planning as well. Nowadays Google Map allows you to check the travelling distance and time between 2 locations by walking, bus, train or car (taxi), so it is very convenient for you to perform this check easily. You should also check the opening and closing time for the respective attractions, so that you plan the sequence which attractions should be visited in the morning or evening. In addition, some attractions may be closed on a particular day of the month for maintenance, so it is important to check the admission information so that you do not disappoint yourself to find out the attraction is closed only when you reached there.
4. Meals
While you travel, you still have to take a break to have your meals. Personally, I am not so particular about the choice of food. Most of the time during my own free and easy travel, I will have my lunch and dinner at the attraction or near the attraction, while breakfast is typically at the hotel. I prefer local food, so that you can have a taste of the authentic local delight and cuisines. Each city or destination may be famous for a particular food, which you may want to try it out. For example the Quanjude's Peking duck in Beijing (China), Cha Ca La Vong's grilled fish in Hanoi (Vietnam) and the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant's Chili Crab in Singapore are all iconic dishes of the respective locations. Similarly to the attractions, you can find more about the popular local food and their locations from travel magazines and guide books like Lonely Planet, online websites, and also the reviews from Tripadvisor.
Follow the links below to the other travel tips:
Part 1: Weather/Public Holiday/Passport/Visa
Part 2: Flight
Part 3: Hotel
Part 4: Attractions and Activites
Part 5: Maps and Travel Insurance
Planning of the travel activities and attractions to visit for the free and easy tour is very much dependent on individual's preference. Some would prefer a slower tempo, such as spending time quietly at the lush green hotel pool side, reading your favourite book or enjoying a glass of cocktail, others would prefer a frenzy shopping trip or embark on a mountain trek for the nature lovers. Nevertheless, the following tips can be considered to plan how you can spend your day at the travel destination:
1. Look out for the Popular Attractions
Every location is well-known and popular for its own unique characteristics. For example, Hong Kong (China) is famous for its metropolitan city skyline, shopping malls/streets and the delicious Cantonese cuisine, London (UK) is famous for its world class museums and musical plays, and Siem Reap (Cambodia) is famous for the Angkor Wat, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can find out the destinations' top tourist attractions from various sources. The first way is through travel magazines or guide books like Lonely Planet. They will provide you with quite a lot of details such as the background/history of the attractions, their significance, what you can do and see over there, how to get to the site and photographs of the site. The second way is to visit the official tourism board websites. Most of the city government/tourism board would have websites to introduce the popular attractions and activities to do within their city or country. The third way is through independent travel websites. Just type in location's name in the Google Search and you can easily find many of them listed on the page. Even the Wikitravel pages (which I often use for my own planning) are useful for you. The fourth way is to take reference from the offerings of the real travel agents. These travel agents would have posted their travel itineraries online, so that you can easily make comparisons with them to decide the popular attractions that you can visit.
2. Filter and Select the Attractions/Activities
You will have a long list of attractions and activities recommended from various sources. Now you will need to shortlist some of them based on the following criteria. First, if you have no much interest in history, paintings and artifacts, then most probably you will give museums a miss. The recommendations would encompass all sorts of attractions and activities, ranging from museums to sea sports or theme park visits. Depending on your own preference, you have to shortlist those attractions and activities that interest you. Second, depending on your available time and budget you have planned for, you have to further trim down the list that will fit into your travel plan. Third, a particular attraction looks awesome from the various recommendation sources, but the admission fee is very costly and you are doubtful if the visit is worthwhile. Well, similar to checking the hotel reviews, you can check with Tripadvisor to go through the feedbacks and reviews provided by hundreds and thousands of travelers who had visited the attraction previously to determine is it of any value to visit the attraction. One advice from me is that you should not miss out any attraction that is iconic to the location. For example the Great Wall in Beijing (China), the Sydney Opera House in Sydney (Australia) and Eiffel Tower in Paris (France) are must-visit attractions if you are visiting these locations the first time.
3. Arrange the Sequence for the Attractions and Activities
Once you have shortlisted your attractions and activities to do, you have to slot them into your travel plan. The trick here is to group the attractions of close proximity together, so that you can save time and money on the transportation. For example it does not make sense if you have to travel to the east for the first attraction, travel to the west for the second attraction and then back to the east again for your final attraction of the day! You can simply use Google Map or any other maps available to check the approximate locations of the attractions. You have to take considerations of the transportation time from one attraction to another in the planning as well. Nowadays Google Map allows you to check the travelling distance and time between 2 locations by walking, bus, train or car (taxi), so it is very convenient for you to perform this check easily. You should also check the opening and closing time for the respective attractions, so that you plan the sequence which attractions should be visited in the morning or evening. In addition, some attractions may be closed on a particular day of the month for maintenance, so it is important to check the admission information so that you do not disappoint yourself to find out the attraction is closed only when you reached there.
4. Meals
While you travel, you still have to take a break to have your meals. Personally, I am not so particular about the choice of food. Most of the time during my own free and easy travel, I will have my lunch and dinner at the attraction or near the attraction, while breakfast is typically at the hotel. I prefer local food, so that you can have a taste of the authentic local delight and cuisines. Each city or destination may be famous for a particular food, which you may want to try it out. For example the Quanjude's Peking duck in Beijing (China), Cha Ca La Vong's grilled fish in Hanoi (Vietnam) and the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant's Chili Crab in Singapore are all iconic dishes of the respective locations. Similarly to the attractions, you can find more about the popular local food and their locations from travel magazines and guide books like Lonely Planet, online websites, and also the reviews from Tripadvisor.
Follow the links below to the other travel tips:
Part 1: Weather/Public Holiday/Passport/Visa
Part 2: Flight
Part 3: Hotel
Part 4: Attractions and Activites
Part 5: Maps and Travel Insurance
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