Top 5 Steps to Achieve A Peace of Mind Trip to Europe

I just back from a tiring but peace of mind trip to Europe. Don’t get me wrong. I felt tired after 3 weeks of my Europe travel MkII this year because of too much walking for sight seeing and photo taking but not wasting any time in searching, booking and checking anything else. This was a total peace of mind trip as we spent all our time to only enjoy our journey in Europe, as well as enjoying each and every meal on our travel. We didn’t search around for anythings else except cheap and good local food restaurants and supermarket; We didn’t check and book for any trains and flights except weather forecast for best photo taking hours and time for our breakfast in the next morning.

How could we do that? How should we prepare our trips in order to have a total peace of mind on travel? These are 5 steps on how I did it for my Europe Travel MkII this year.

1) First, I have to know how long and how many cities we were going to travel in Europe. I knew 3 weeks is the maximum I could get away from my daily job as well as my kids. Within this period, I had to confirm which part of Europe I would love to visit this time. Since I have visited Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome last year, I had planned a preliminary itinerary to visit other cities, which included Barcelona, Luzerne, Interlaken, Berlin, Copenhagen and Brussel;

2) Secondly, search and book for my flight to entry point and from exit point of Europe. Since I had confirmed my period of traveling, searching and booking for my first and last flight is relatively easy. I just needed to wait for low fare sale on Air Asia and grabbed it! Having it booked first also had ensured my round trip to and from Europe. If I was too busy to plan anything else, I could still take the flight there and plan as we go;

3) Thirdly, search and book for transportation from one to another city, not domestic transportation in this case. At this stage, how comprehensive I would book for those connecting trains and flights merely depended on how flexible I wanted for my journey and how much time I had. Since I had only 3 weeks to cover 6 cities, I had to save as much time as I could for other things on travel and went ahead to book all my flights between cities online. However, I still left those local transportation within cities to when we were there to retain some flexibilities. It was good decision as we detoured too much when we were in Switzerland by getting a Swiss Pass;

4) Next, search and book for accommodations. Having my criteria in hotel searching set, what I care most are internet access and privacy of my rooms. Off course, free breakfast, low price and strategic locations also part of my requirement. Again, limited traveling period meant I had to book most of our accommodation before departing to Europe. There are many trusted online hostel booking websites to help us.

5) Lastly, if you are an avid traveler like me, you should sign up for a travel insurance. Annual Multi Trip Travel Insurance is one of those travel insurance packages that will cover you a certain number of days in a year while traveling abroad so you could save more money. With this insurance coverage, I can always enjoy cheap holidays abroad with total peace of mind.

With all these steps performed prior to my actual travel to Europe, we had maximized our time on actual travel to Europe and had gained much more fun and experiences than many other flash packers that we came across, albeit a hot summer sun that burnt our skins so badly. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.