Riviera dev work hard, travel hard

Want to make the most out of your vacations? Us too! The first time we went on holidays with my wife, we miserably failed to organize it. We lacked information, plans and plan B. We wasted so much time, we almost missed some reservations, we never ever wanted to live through the same experience again.

Since then we developed and fine-tuned our techniques not just to find great quality/price accommodations, but to find cheap and at the same time great local excursions, to avoid tourist traps and to plan our days so that we can make the most out of them always keeping some options open just in case something goes wrong or we just simply finish a bit quicker than expected.

This might sound exaggerated, but even according to those friends and colleagues who visited the same places as we did, planning vacations as we do works pretty well!

Come to my presentation if you never thought that you can enjoy a Michelin starred lunch in Tokyo just for about 10 Euros!

No notes for slide

Aim of the presentation for the audience:
Get affirmed that you are not alone “overplanning” your vacations
Provide some good pieces of advice
Show how you do not want to travel

My aim:
Learn from the audience some of their best practices

The Stoics on passion:
The disposition to make a judgment disobedient to reason is the psychic disturbance the Stoics called passion (pathos). Since passion is an impulse (a movement of the soul) which is excessive and contrary to reason, it is irrational and contrary to nature.

Beach holidays with parents. Usually “last minute ones”.
Physical workers and they wanted to rest.

The family of a friend went on organized tours. They rather wanted to be active. That costs more money.

Question:
Which one do you prefer? Sitting in the bus and get out for a couple of hours without freedom or sitting on the beach?
I prefer to organize my own ones.

No vacation alone, I planned to go Tuscany, but I met my wife and went to London with her. She already had some arrangements, I only had plans.

My father-in-law is an author and got the same apartment from the writer’s association through application

Internships and Erasmus. Coming from the former Eastern block meant less scolarship than the Westerns got -> had to keep on budget.

Organisational nightmare:
Had a list what we wanted to see, but it was poorly scheduled, if it was at all.
We had detailed visits in some district, like in Notting Hill, where we skipped nothing. But missed some important items, like Tate Modern completely.
Unpreparedness
Getting to the city the first night (from Luton): Question? How do you go from Luton to the city? (don’t use to bus all the way to Victoria…)
Waking up late
Left home around 11AM
Museums closed early
Starvation
No food what we wanted when we wanted. Didn’t check places in advance (no cheap roaming back in 2011)
Budget inferno:
Buying tickets one by one instead of London Card (this also meant longer queueing as card holders usually have fast lanes)
Question: Anyone here who recognises him- or herself?

Lot of planning (timings, geographic planning)
Left home by 8AM (Bd Peripherique…)
Knew areas and places to look for food, had some coupons and had the Paris Card, made an “Navigo”/“Oyster” card - we had the ID photos for it
At the end, met a friend who had been living in Paris for 7 years: surprised and horrified by what we saw.

QUESTION to the audience? Which one you like more? London, Paris, Both, Neither?

I’m a developer. A clean coder. I like ORDER. Obviously Paris is my answer.

Anthony Bourdain says that overplanning kills vacations.I disagree. Overcommitment might be a problem. No planning -> surprised that you actually found anything. Overplanning -> surprised by the people who you met
Hosted friends who didn’t even leave the apartment for the day because they were unprepared and indecisive. Be prepared -> fewer decisions needed
Paris was still not ideal, needed a balance. (I complained a lot about being tired)

I don’t give rules. I give a framework, I give some timelines, I share my experiences

This is practical for holidays from of a few days up to 2-3 weeks.

Beyond that, probably would do something else, plan from week-to-week

How to book a cheap:: http://mummysherpa.com/blog/2018/03/09/book-cheap-with-a-toddler

You should know what you want, so you don’t have to discover the whole map each time! You know where you want to go!
Know your budget too!

Why MyMaps?
You can share it
Customize it
App and browser version too
Add notes...

MyMaps with a systematic approach (use icons, colours, layers)

Best room booking sites: Hotels.com, Booking.com, Airbnb if necessary (AirBnb doesn’t provide FULL free cancellation, you don’t get back some transaction fees)

Use map based search on Hotels.com

Worth to check some aggregating sites like Trivago

Comments for free cancellation:
- Check again later on the same place
- Why not cancelling it and go prepaid
- Book multiple ones if you are not sure yet at different places either

Take into account your budget, the prices and the map you created

Already seen people selling rooms that they forgot to cancel - easy to avoid it if you are organized

Why to use a calendar
Can be shared with your travel partner
Can be synched to your phone
Can be enriched with links, desciptions
Easy to write a diary afterwards, tag your pics, etc

What is in your budget - if a personal tea ceremony is too expensive (look for a cheaper option) just don’t include it. You don’t want to mourne, you want to feel good
What is too long - standing hours at Wimbledon hoping for a free ticket is too long, just don’t go. You might have some luck, but more probably you’ll waste a couple of hours
What is too far & risky - Fuji if there is any chance of clouds…

You cannot have it all but a too dense calendar is fine for the moment. It’s okay to have multiple entries at the same time, but it’s not okay to assign too short time slots.

Know you needs and habits!
How much time you need for lunch...
How much time you need in a museum...

Look for relevant information:
Links for description
Summary on most important details
How you will get there, have some bus numbers if needed
Have some notes translated (Especially when travel to countries with completely different languages/alphabets)

Have alternatives in case of:
Bad weather
Reconstruction
Closed
Food needed

To grab lunch is not enough:
Where to grab it?
For how much?
If you know that it’s a foody neighbourhood, it’s okay to have a shallow plan. If not, check in advance, especially if the program is packed.
E.g. Lisbon, Belem. We knew which supermarket to go to. In the end, we chose on another, that was more on the way and.. But we didn’t have to spend extra time. Which time is more precious the one you have tonight or the one you spend in another city?

Have multiple sources
Journalism: One source means you have no information.
Recent problems I encountered was due to one source of info - (Checked Google search result, without opening links)

There are people who just share their experiences on their blogs. It’s fine. But it’s about themselves. It’s for them. It’s a public diary, not so useful for you.
There are other people who in the meanwhile want to help their fellow travellers. Look for them:
Good source of info for timings, alternatives, real life experiences (Sintra, 10 mins by bus every 20 mins, one blog says to walk, 300 metres)
Thailand, based on blog we knew how to get to floating market cheap
Contact places for info (how to get there, opening hours) in advance (Thailand, tiger place - that tiger place didn’t add drugs to tigers, so they were dangerous - mention it!)
Check for local extremes. If you read enough, you’ll know what to look for:
Food in Japan (michelin star for ~10 Euros per person).
Experiences in Thailand (tour guides for example)
BMW in Portugal, sandwiches :P
Counter example: don’t eat sea fish in Hungary, but you can get good alcohol for low price :) Mid/high quality restos are comparatively cheap.

If you go in high-season, book it before. As we are frugal and prefer to go off-season, we keep car bookings at the end.
Have your own GPS, don’t pay for it. Bring your childseat. Read and search!

Check the insurance. You can lose a lot of money there - cheaper companies sometimes end up being more expensive.

Choose wisely your suitcases. City-hopping with public transport, or just taxi from/to airport?

Weigh everything!

Pack wisely, pay attention to differences in hand luggage sizes.

Show an example how to pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIk8v__Osm8

Think about what you can buy, what you can buy cheaper what is that you need definitely from home.

Don’t overcommit. It’s not that important who you’ll look like at the hotel.

Have clothes that are light, but warm, if needed. Otherwise if summer, weight is not that important.

Have a checklist - it can be country specific (adapters, etc)

Necessary apps. Google map, google translate, picture translate, gps…
Which is more expensive? Hotel in city center or a cheaper place in the outskirts + public transportation?
Fast-track tickets for museums!
Don’t rely on technology, have some printed stuff
Ask. Everywhere. Keep is stupid simple. Alternative communication. Show pics.

Insert some pics

Swapped order of visit in Japan, meant that we didn’t have to rebook all the hotels.

Used gourmet blogs in different languages
Used the Michelin guide
Important to prepare in advance, because there are tons of places everywhere and by sheer luck, you won’t find the hidden gems

Decided to go to a combined one South + Lisbon + Hungary to save a ticket and some time

This meant having separate PNRs. You might not seat next to each other in EU (US it is a must with babies). So you pay…

Car rentals, really cheap as out of season in a not so expensive country

Lot of options in the South to use as a base, but Faro is suboptimal as it is in quite in the east.
Time vs city niceness when we chose.
Booked multiple ones in the first turn, so decision can be made later based on additional data - free cancellation!

Riviera dev work hard, travel hard

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