I am back from my trip to Spain with my loving partner and growing baby in the belly! Further to my experience, I would like to share my thoughts on how you can use Bitcoin to book your next trip and some organizing tips that can help you plan efficiently.
Don’t you just love that wonderful feeling of finally taking some time off the daily routine and traveling to another place in the world?
Well, even if you are the adventurous type and want to have a free itinerary to decide what to do on the spot, you still want to make sure you have everything well organized before traveling. Here are my tips:
1. OneNote
Big fan of organizing tools, this digital version of a huge notebook is great for creating all types of checklists. It’s free, easy to use and you can install it on your computer desktop or mobile phone. Once you have OneNote installed, you can create a Travel Notebook tab and then add pages according to your research and travel planning. OneNote offers a free template that you can customize according to your destination, here's a snapshot:
2. Research
Let’s assume you have already chosen your destination, have a good sense of your budget, the length of your stay and the type of trip you are looking forward having. Once all that has been decided and your OneNote notebook is ready, you want to start your research for the different aspects of your trip. This may include research for your flight, accommodation, activities, restaurants, shopping, travel insurance and even Day-Tours!
But where to start?
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Before diving deep into research, I’d like to recommend getting a printed version of the Lonely Planet of the country or city you are visiting (maybe borrow from someone or your local library, if you don’t want to spend).
Getting the latest version of this guidebook, not only gives you a thorough description of the country and useful travel tips, it also gives you the ability to highlight and tab information you can use as a reference during your trip. The guidebook is not heavy nor big and fits just fine in a backpack or travel purse. Besides, it’s a good read when waiting long hours in an airport before a flight!
3. Book your flight, accommodation and transportation...with Bitcoin!
This may be the most appealing part of my post for you since Steemians are known for their wide interest in cryptocurrency. As the title says, some websites now allow you to purchase your flight, accommodation , nd transportation by paying with Bitcoin. The website we used for our trip is https://destinia.com/.
There are a couple of other websites that accept bitcoin. However, we found this site to be the most convenient. The only downsides we found when booking with Destinia, are that prices are fairly higher than other websites where payment by bitcoin is not accepted and the payment process is slow.
If you are patient enough and have some bitcoins to spare, why not book most of your trip all in one place? Besides, there are some interesting deals on flight & accommodation featured daily.
4. Make a “suggested itinerary’’ with interesting activities
On your OneNote Travel Notebook Tab, you can create a page with a “suggested itinerary’’ of your trip. Why “suggested’’? Well, because it’s a good idea to organize a couple of activities for the length of your stay, but also wise to leave yourself a certain freedom to decide what you feel like doing on the spot.
I recommend booking a couple of Day-Tours to places that you absolutely want to visit in advance and then just write down other activities you might want to do for the rest of the time.
Here is a snapshot of our itinerary for Spain:
Keep in mind that certain activities are best booked in advance. For example, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona which is quite popular. You can avoid waiting long hours in line by buying the tickets for an early morning visit online. Believe me, it’s worth it!
5. Purchase travel insurance
This is really important and is worth every penny. You never know what can happen and it’s better to play safe. Most banks offer special travel insurance deals and you can select one that best suits your needs. In my case, a health insurance for traveling was absolutely necessary, considering that I am pregnant.
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6. Checklist of essentials before leaving
Here is a list of certain things I consider essential for any traveller that is taking a trip to another country:
- Passport (make sure it is valid for the length of your stay). Some countries require it to be valid up to 6 months after your return date.
- Earplugs
- Flight pillow
- Selfie-stick
- Mini sanitary essentials (and they’re so cute!)
- Converter-adaptor (if the country you are traveling to requires)
- Small backpack
- Healthy snacks: granola and protein bars, dried fruit, whole wheat crackers
- Water bottle
- Wifi for your travel: buy a SIM card or look for wifi hotspots
7. Install Google Trips app
This was actually my partner’s idea. I’m a bit more old school and kept my Lonely Planet Guidebook and local city maps handy in my small backpack. However, this app is pretty cool when you want to plan your itinerary on the spot. It was very helpful and you don’t need wifi!
Here is the link to download the app: https://get.google.com/trips/
I hope these tips can be helpful for you. Please share with us any other tips you may have for traveling and I am sure all steemians would appreciate it. Using Bitcoin to travel still has a long way to go, as we are early adopters, but in time I’m sure we will see things evolve, it’s the future!
Stay tuned for the upcoming post series of my travel to Spain. I’m really excited to share my thoughts, photos, and videos with you from this amazing country!
View of the roof of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain
Really nice, vraiment belle la Sagrada Familia, mais il faut se lever tôt pour y aller ;) sinon c'est long juste pour acheter le billet...
Thank you
Oui en effet! C'est pour ça qu'on a acheté les billets à l'avance en ligne. A 9:30 am on a pas eu de file d'attente à faire. C'étais génial! :)
Je ferai cela pour la visiter 1 de ces 4 ;)
I shall add destinia to my list. I have previously used BTCtrips (they accept BTC and LTC) and another hotel booking site that takes BTC.
Cool! Thanks for the tip on BTCtrips, I'll check it out :)
Nice! I can see myself coming back to this post on my philippines travel :) Hope soon they will accept Litecoin payments. You really put all the tips and tricks on this subject in an organized way Very great comeback to steemit and great travel post! :) Upvoted! Check some of my posts whenever you can to see what you missed during the last 2 weeks xD
Nice! Yeah, I really hope that the whole travel industry will embrace the use of cryptocurrency for payments. We must be patient! I heard that Japan is already accepting bitcoin payments in several restaurants. Hopefully, others will follow. Thanks for the compliments! I'll be sure to check out your blog.
Yeah, we need more merchants accepting Bitcoin and Litecoin as payments in order to be mass adopted! :) And no problem, Jessica!
I look forward to hearing more about your trip to Spain, and congrats on the new addition to your family. What a blessing! Thanks for sharing about how you organized your trip. I will be sure to check out Destinia.
My wife and I volunteered in Spain for about 7 weeks after we were married. We really enjoyed our time there.
Thanks @sumatranate! We are really happy and my boyfriend even proposed at the Sagrada Familia, so now he's my fiancé! :D It was totally unexpected. Spain is indeed beautiful, I am eager to share more about our time there. A lot of photo editing to do over the weekend! Yeah, Destinia is one of the sites accepting bitcoin, they're slow but trustworthy. Expedia accepts bitcoin also, if you don't mind using coinbase though.
I learned a lot from your article. I am a traveler too whenever I am free from my work. First time to know that getting a travel insurance when you travel to another country is very much needed for your security and safety. Your article is very helpful and I am looking forward to your more adventures in life.
I'm so happy to know that it was helpful to you! Yeah, we tend to neglect the travel insurance but you can select what is most convenient for you and not spend too much. Most of the time, flight cancellation insurance is the most expensive but it is really rare you need it. It's important to read about the pros and cons. In my case the health insurance was necessary. It really depends on your case ;)
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