The free & easy way

Planning our upcoming trip was a journey of some sorts. It was never as complicated as planning the wedding as we had only the two us to consider, not two families and 400 guests. Here's an account of our trip planning journey ...

1. Making our blue list
The first question that sprung to mind was 'Where to?' Let's draw up our top five destinations and deliberate over it, I suggested. After days of no action, we sat down and unanimously picked Europe.

2. Tour vs F&E
After going through the hassle of wedding planning, we were hoping to just hop on a tour and leave the hard work to someone else. The tempatation was great to sit back and have no worries. For suggestions of places of interest in Europe, we turned to the ever reliable Singaporebrides forum. It was clear we needed to meet the people in the business, so off we trudged down to Chinatown. We visited the usual suspects in People's Park Complex (after mistakenly roaming into People's Park Center) where we quizzed and probed the sales staff over similarly looking tour packages.

The upside? Pay your deposit, sit back, and wait for the confirmation. Cover many must-go places in 10 over days. NO PLANNING needed! They even tell you what to bring, how much money to carry with you and how much tips to pay the tour agent/bus captain each day.

The downside? Only one free day in Paris, plus what is left of a night. Packing off too soon after falling love with the place. Lots of traveling time. Too much in too short a time.

The F&E way started to gnaw away at the fringes of our minds. Some interesting debates in the forums plus encouraging backpacking stories began to emboldened us. Cost was an issue as well as time (time to plan and work the plan). Do we want more time to explore each city? and wander the streets? We took the bait and plunged in.

3. At the drawing block
Now that we decided on F&E, we had to pin down our destinations. Paris was a must. What next? To archaic Italy or the serene Swiss Alps, or the grand old city of London?
Should we get a Eurail pass or take budget flights? Where do we find affodable and good budget hotels?

Endless questions poured in. For answers, I turned to the public libraries with their impressive collection of Travel Guides and many helpful websites like virtualtourist (for pictures and many interesting tips) and tripadvisor (for hotel recommendation).

4. Connecting the dots
Among the first thing we did was to book our air ticket, amidst fears of rising prices due to escalating oil prices. We decided that SIA was a great way to fly, after considering the other cheaper flights that transit in other countries.

Next was to plan the inter-city logistics. After picking Rome and the Bernese Highlands as the other two destinations, it was a matter of which train or flight option has the lowest cost and yet does not compromise on our trip itenerary. In the end, the point-to-point train tickets edged out the eurail passes (best for multiple day trips) and Ryan Air flights (takes up half a day and not too cheap with its extra charges). We reserved two overnight train rides with 2 person bunks that cost close to a night stay in a luxury hotel. At least it will get us to our next destination while we sleep.

5. Cheap Stays
Accomodation was next and we went about with a budget in mind. However we had to settle for rooms of 70-100 euro per night for hotels with reasonable number of healthy comments in tripadvisor. The first choice was not always available so we went down our preferred hotels list. We had only three cities/town to work on, so made our reservations pretty quick.

6. Finer details
The last and final part was to work out itinerary (must-see sites and walks), entry ticket costs (passes vs indiv tickets), trip budget (in euros and swiss francs), and gear (backpack, packing list, camera gear, travel guides).

Now that most of the hard work is done, I just count the days...