So, we're going on a family trip to Sri Lanka in January 2016. 6 of us. Usually, we'd hire a tour guide, especially in a foreign country, and let him deal with what places to visit and booking of the tickets (flight, train and all) and processing our VISA. This time, my cousin and I had a bit of time hanging on our hands and we decided to organize the tour ourselves. We'd be customizing it to our tastes as well as saving a lot of time and money:
- We save time because we don't visit places we don't like
- We save money because no tour guide operates without charging a fee.
- As a bonus, we get to set our own pace and decide to spend more time or less at any particular spot.
How about that. Sounds exciting. The amount of homework that needs to be done to have an executable, personalized, best-of-Sri-Lanka and time-optimized tour is phenomenal. I, for one, am hell bent on not taking private or group tours. They suck away all the leisure of the tour. I don't mind dedicating myself a bit. It is nerve wracking to have to figure out everything:
FLIGHT (thankfully all of us had our passports done otherwise we'd have to bother with Passport application)
-when to fly
-where to fly from (we're from Bangalore and Mysore. There are flights from Bangalore but we chose to fly from Chennai because it saves time (Colombo is an hour and half from Chennai by flight and Bangalore and Mysore are well connected to Chennai by train). It worked out cheaper this way.)
-which city to fly to
-which airlines to choose (we chose Sri Lankan airlines for not particular reason. The only other one was Mihin Airlines; they didn't have a local number to talk to and we couldn't locate their office)
-whether to book online or go to the airlines office (we ended up going to the airlines office because they were charging us in USD online; exchange rate + exchange charges! No way. The office charged us in local currency with no extra costs)
-what is the best time of the day to fly
-which round trip is the most cost effective as well as time-friendly (the combination of onward and return times that will be the cheapest and does not require us to board or reach at ungodly hours)
-booking all the tickets (making sure they get the names right! O_O )
VISA:
-whether to book VISA online (ETA) or on arrival (we found it better to book online. Apparently, it saves time at the port of arrival. Why fly there and bother about VISA processing when we have limited time, when you can get it done online and go straight to our tour?)
-applying for VISA and waiting for the approval letter to come in 24 hours (found it in my Junk mail when I looked after a week - it had come within 24 hours only)
TOUR
-which places to visit (there are myriads of places. So many amazing things in Sri Lanka. It was such a task to narrow down our scope to fit our time frame)
-which popular places NOT to visit (we didn't like a few of them)
-which route to take in our 5-days (5-days is a bit too short, but hey, not everyone can afford a month or two of time, most of us are working 9-5 jobs)
-what transportation to use (train, cab, bus, flight(?) )
-where to stay
We're done with the flight tickets and VISA. We're figuring out our tour now. With so many blogs to help us (I'll be linking them to my posts), it is ever-so easy now to plan a trip.
Cheers!
- We save time because we don't visit places we don't like
- We save money because no tour guide operates without charging a fee.
- As a bonus, we get to set our own pace and decide to spend more time or less at any particular spot.
How about that. Sounds exciting. The amount of homework that needs to be done to have an executable, personalized, best-of-Sri-Lanka and time-optimized tour is phenomenal. I, for one, am hell bent on not taking private or group tours. They suck away all the leisure of the tour. I don't mind dedicating myself a bit. It is nerve wracking to have to figure out everything:
FLIGHT (thankfully all of us had our passports done otherwise we'd have to bother with Passport application)
-when to fly
-where to fly from (we're from Bangalore and Mysore. There are flights from Bangalore but we chose to fly from Chennai because it saves time (Colombo is an hour and half from Chennai by flight and Bangalore and Mysore are well connected to Chennai by train). It worked out cheaper this way.)
-which city to fly to
-which airlines to choose (we chose Sri Lankan airlines for not particular reason. The only other one was Mihin Airlines; they didn't have a local number to talk to and we couldn't locate their office)
-whether to book online or go to the airlines office (we ended up going to the airlines office because they were charging us in USD online; exchange rate + exchange charges! No way. The office charged us in local currency with no extra costs)
-what is the best time of the day to fly
-which round trip is the most cost effective as well as time-friendly (the combination of onward and return times that will be the cheapest and does not require us to board or reach at ungodly hours)
-booking all the tickets (making sure they get the names right! O_O )
VISA:
-whether to book VISA online (ETA) or on arrival (we found it better to book online. Apparently, it saves time at the port of arrival. Why fly there and bother about VISA processing when we have limited time, when you can get it done online and go straight to our tour?)
-applying for VISA and waiting for the approval letter to come in 24 hours (found it in my Junk mail when I looked after a week - it had come within 24 hours only)
TOUR
-which places to visit (there are myriads of places. So many amazing things in Sri Lanka. It was such a task to narrow down our scope to fit our time frame)
-which popular places NOT to visit (we didn't like a few of them)
-which route to take in our 5-days (5-days is a bit too short, but hey, not everyone can afford a month or two of time, most of us are working 9-5 jobs)
-what transportation to use (train, cab, bus, flight(?) )
-where to stay
We're done with the flight tickets and VISA. We're figuring out our tour now. With so many blogs to help us (I'll be linking them to my posts), it is ever-so easy now to plan a trip.
Cheers!
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