Essential tools and tips for travel
We have listed down many essential tools and tips for travel. Here’s a list of tips across flights, hotels, visa, insurance, currency, immigration, credit cards, loyalty and many more
Flights
Super Aggregators: Skyscanner is typically the starting point to get a broad idea. However, it shows the cheapest option which is usually non refundable or does not include checked-in luggage which I don’t prefer.
Aggregators: I use a combination of sites like Makemytrip, Easemytrip to find the best deal. Most of these sites have promotions running, either by airline or by credit card companies/ banks
Direct airline website: I also do a check on airline website directly. Sometimes, they do have the most preferred pricing since there is no convenience fee. On the other hand, they do not have promos/ credit card offers
We usually book 3 to 6 months in advance to get the best fares, with semi-fully refundable option since it gives flexibility while booking far ahead of time. Round trip/ Multi-city option while booking flights is useful compared to booking single legs separately, both from cost and flight disruption perspective. For example, if one leg of flight is delayed or cancelled, the airline can help accommodate changes across entire itinerary without a fee
Always select the seat option if free and meal option immediately after booking. Vegetarian meals might not be available on international flights by default unlike India. Ensure you book meals 2-3 days in advance as last minute bookings are typically not entertained
Hotels
Booking.com: My go-to option has always been Booking.com given their user friendly interface, all-inclusive pricing visibility upfront including taxes, supplements like breakfast etc. I still do one check on google by property name to see if that’s the best offer
Our typical filters include
- Rating of 8+ on 10 or 4+ on 5
- Includes breakfast
- Private bathroom
- Free cancellation
- No-prepayment
We choose the ones closest to the locations we want to visit in the day or among the lowest priced ones if public transport options are plenty
Airbnb: We end up booking apartments for longer stays or when we don’t need breakfast
Hostelworld is good to find cheaper hostels in major cities
Couchsurfing is a community platform that helps you find places to stay with like minded locals for free
Visa
We apply on our own directly with visa portals of respective countries either online or through consulate offices in Bengaluru or Mumbai
In case you prefer some support, Atlys can help. They have option to pick up documents from most pin-codes in India and send your passport back home. Ensure you proactively provide all required documents to avoid rejections. Their customer service is not very responsive unless you start the application process
We cover details in a separate post: Managing Visas on travel
Food
We are vegetarians, hence have a tough time getting food without eggs/ meat broth. Sometimes, the option is just removing meat in front of us which we don’t prefer. We typically book hotels with breakfast included. For lunch and dinner, we carry read-to-eat packets along with a small kettle for hot water. Triguni Eze Eats is the most economical if purchased directly from their website
We also carry nuts and fruits for quick snacking during the day
In case you want to find out vegetarian and vegan restaurants in any city, you can find them at Happy Cow
Travel Gear
We carry a combination of winter wear, shoes, hiking poles depending in the location. Ensure you carry a couple of pairs of clothes in your handbag. We have had situations of baggage delay and you don’t want to be stranded or wasting time shopping for basics in a new city
You can find the exhaustive packing list we use here
More details on brands we have purchased in a separate post here
Currency
We usually carry some USD which is widely accepted in any country and get a small portion converted at airports for initial purchases like cabs/ emergencies.
For bulk of the purchases in places where I find zero commission exchange offices, I end up converting USD. If they are not present widely, I use a zero international forex fee credit card and withdraw money from ATMs. The foreign bank charges some fee (Flat fee effectively about 2-3% of amount that it allows as maximum withdrawal per day), in addition to fee from my credit card bank (Flat $2.5/ 200 INR per transaction)
In case you prefer having cash before leaving the country, you can use Bookmyforex for doorstep delivery of major currencies like USD, EUR, GBP
Insurance
I typically chose one on Policybazaar like Bajaj Allianz or Care. Most insurers have moved out of Policybazaar, so it is difficult to compare prices, but the difference will not be much. For global option, Safetywing is recommended by others, but I haven’t used any international option yet
Sim Card
We take Airtel roaming from India, typical 10 day plan at INR 2999/ $35. This helps me maintain continuity of my home number and access data seamlessly across multiple countries in a single journey, without changing SIM cards. Local SIM works better if you are planning to stay for more than 10-15 days.
If you have e-SIM, it is easy to purchase roaming plans from companies like Airalo
Apps- Language, Taxi and others
We use Duolingo to learn basics of the country we are visiting. They also have an app to make learning on the go easier. The gamification is really cute, encouraging you to learn everyday. We also use Google Translate to communicate with locals. Remember to download offline version of the language you want. Maps.me is another alternative for navigation
We look for local taxi apps which we cover in individual country posts. Common ones include Uber, Lyft, Indrive, Yango
Immigration
Fast track immigration is possible in major airports of India using biometrics through e-gates. You can register at the official portal, share your biometrics at any major airport during one of your visits (need not be international travel. I gave mine during a domestic trip), and then use e-gates every time after a week. There are no queues, speeding up immigration. In addition, there are no passport stamps, saving pages in your passport
Credit Cards
I use a combination to maximize points and minimize charges
IDFC WOW: This card offers zero foreign currency transaction fees. It does require a fixed deposit equal to the limit required. I use this for small purchases below INR 1 lac (USD 1000), mostly for entrance fees, hotels. I pay before due date to free up limit and use it again if my spend exceeds the limit. For large purchases, I end up doing wire transfer. ATM withdrawal fee is about Rs 200-250 fixed per withdrawal, without any fee based on amount, which is rare. There is no interest charged on ATM withdrawals till bill payment date
HDFC Diners Black card: I ended up getting an offer for lifetime free card. I typically use this for all other domestic and large ticket international purchases since this offers highest cashback of 3.33%. The points can also be converted to airline/ hotel points which is very useful when I am a few points short to make a redemption booking
Scapia: Offers free forex transactions, however ATM withdrawals have charges like Rs 500 per transaction and interest from the date of withdrawal. Reward points are closed loop and need to be redeemed on Scapia travel portal
I also have Amex Travel Platinum and ICICI AmazonPay cards which I use selectively
Lounge access
HDFC Diners black offers unlimited lounge access at all airports. Amex Corporate platinum card offers free prioirty pass membership, which also enables free lounge access. Other cards like Scapia credit card offer spend based access on Rs 10k spend per month/ limited, Amex travel Platinum card offers domestic lounge access twice a quarter
Loyalty
We sign up for loyalty programs across airline, hotels, credit cards to maximize redemptions before every booking. While an international flight of about 6-8 hours might not give enough points to get a full flight redemption, it is usually good enough to get redemptions beyond flights like a budget hotel room/ discount on car rentals, as many airlines have partnerships to offer multiple ways to redeem points
You need not register for all airline loyalty programs since most offer earnings on partner airlines. For Example, Air India is a part of Star Alliance and you can earn points for flights on member airlines like Lufthansa Group, Thai Airways, Egypt Air, Singapore Airlines etc. Earnings are typically maximum when it is on their own loyalty program, so make a conscious call of registering separately if you feel your flight can give you significantly higher miles
We also sign up for family pooling of airline miles where available.
I end up doing business travel with stays at Marriott Bonvoy hotels that helps with points for hotel redemptions in large cities
I’ll be honest here. Redemptions are usually only 10-20% of trip cost at max and only in select trips/ cities. So it is not like this is funding major part of the travel cost. It still helps bring the cost down to some extent and it is more a feel-good factor
Explore other travel tips
How to research and come up with a good travel itinerary
How to optimize loyalty programs