Overview of online services for self-purchase of the tour. Independent travel: how to organize a vacation. Choosing a vacation spot

Country selection

Choosing a place to travel is a purely individual thing, I usually focus on several points when choosing a country for a new trip. Firstly, it is desirable that this is a new country for me or a place where I have never been, and secondly, you need to think about what you can do there, what attractions are there or what you can do there (I prefer leisure), and thirdly, you need to pay attention to various promotions from airlines, when the price of tickets to a certain place can be very profitable. Sometimes the choice of a country happens completely by accident: friends can invite, or get caught cheap ticket on a plane or I can read some interesting book about this country, there can be countless reasons, for me it doesn’t of great importance where to fly, the main thing is to make it interesting. With basic information about different countries ah, you can check it out on the website.

Flight search

The next step after choosing a destination is to find a suitable and preferably cheap air ticket. First of all, you need to check whether discount airlines (low cost airlines) fly in the chosen direction, for example, in Asia it is AirAsia, and in Europe Ryanair, such companies usually offer the cheapest flights, but this is not profitable in all cases. After checking low-cost airlines, you need to without fail it is impossible to check all airlines, so it is better to use search aggregators that collect price information from many airlines and ticket sales agencies and issue it in a convenient form. With the help of such flight search engines it is very easy to find the cheapest options (offers are sorted by price) on the right direction. There are several such search engines and for the most part they all have similar functionality, but I'm used to using it and have been looking for and buying tickets through them for 3 years now. Search cheap airfare very simple, just enter the direction we need and select the flight dates. (You can check out detailed instructions About, ). Promotions are also posted on the site. Special offers from airlines - this is very convenient for those who have not yet decided where they want to go on a trip. Sometimes you can fly to Europe for 5000 rubles with all round-trip fees for the promotion of some airline.

I have been buying tickets exclusively on the Internet for 4 years now - it's much easier and more convenient, the whole buying process takes no more than 5 minutes and you don't have to go anywhere. During this time, I have bought hundreds of air tickets via the Internet and have never had any problems with this. You only need to buy bank card which can be paid online.

One more piece of advice, for those who do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg - check the price of an air ticket with a departure (arrival) from Moscow (or other places closest to you). major cities), which can be much cheaper.

If you are looking for a flight ticket to a popular tourist destination, you can also check last minute flight deals at charter flights, this can be done for example .

Hotel search and selection

Different hotel booking sites work differently, some offer to pay for the hotel right away, while others book without advance payment, and you need to pay directly upon check-in, the first option gives more guarantees that the room will be booked for you, and in the second case it is easier to cancel the reservation.

The process of searching and booking hotels is similar to searching for airline tickets, the main difficulty is to find the most suitable option(in the case of hotels, reviews can help).

Getting a visa on your own

There are 130 countries in the world where Russians do not need a visa or a visa is issued upon arrival - this is more than half of the world! (WITH complete list visa-free countries can be found on Wikipedia)

At the same time, there are countries that represent big interest for travelers, but where you need to get a visa (USA, Europe, China, etc.), but the process of obtaining a visa is much simpler than it seems at first glance or as travel agencies want to present it. I independently obtained visas to the USA (2 times), Europe (to France), China, Myanmar, and in this case, in no case was there a need to contact a travel agency. All the work of travel agencies is to send documents to Visa Center And for that they charge quite a lot of money. When I needed a visa to France, I saw offers from travel agencies that reached 500-600 euros for assistance in obtaining a visa, this is just a robbery! I collected myself Required documents and went to the visa center of France in Moscow. After 3 days I received a ready-made Schengen visa, it cost me 70 euros (35 euros consular fee and 35 euros for visa center services). You can contact the consulate directly, then the visa process will take longer, but you can save 35 euros.

The process of obtaining a visa is very simple and is described on the websites of the embassies (or consulates) of the respective country. All you need is to find the website of the embassy (or the nearest visa application center if there is one), look at the list of documents required for obtaining a visa and make an appointment (if necessary). Most often, a passport, air tickets, hotel reservations and insurance are enough to obtain a visa. After that, you just need to hand over the documents and wait for the visa to be given to you. There is nothing difficult in this. It is especially easy to obtain a Schengen visa on your own, given that in Lately many new visa centers of European countries are opening all over the country.

It is worth noting that in some countries (such as Japan) it is much more difficult to obtain a visa without the services of travel agencies, so in this case, contacting a travel company may be justified.

language problem

One of the main problems that stops people from traveling independently is insufficient knowledge of English (de facto English is international language) language. But it seems to me that most people overestimate the importance of this problem. Yes, not knowing English can make the trip a little difficult, but it cannot make independent travel impossible. I have been to places where local population did not speak English language and then I had to explain myself with gestures - this is of course harder, but this makes it even more interesting. Often seen in Thailand Russian tourists who came to rest on a tourist package and do not speak English at all, so these tourists walk around the city perfectly, buy fruits in local markets, while they speak Russian, and the Thais answer them in Thai, and everyone understands each other perfectly . Sign language is a very universal language and can be used to explain almost everything. Let me give you two more examples from my own experience. In China, I once met an Irishman who was going to travel from Irkutsk to Moscow in reserved seat car, during our meeting, he learned five Russian words - that's all he knew in Russian. And another time, in a train compartment, I met a Swiss who was traveling to Tobolsk alone, not only did he speak English very poorly (but in Russia, knowledge of English can hardly help a foreigner, especially in the provinces), so he did not speak at all in Russian, but this did not prevent him from traveling from Moscow to Beijing by train, making stops in many Russian cities and studying them on his own. Upon returning to Switzerland, he wrote to me that he really liked this trip and he was simply delighted.

There is no language problem - there is only fear of this problem.

Search for information. What to do and what to visit.

If you prefer to go on excursions in an organized way, then most of the popular tourist destinations such excursions can be ordered on the spot from local companies (with a Russian-speaking guide), most often, it will be cheaper than ordering excursions from the travel company where you bought the ticket. In countries such as Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, there are many local companies that will gladly organize for you excursion program, but I would suggest driving through the sights on your own, for this you just need to arm yourself with a guidebook.

But I would recommend hiring a local guide on your own for individual excursion, it may be a little more expensive than a group tour, but you can get personalized service and, for sure, very interesting experiences. Programs from independent guides most often more exclusive and you will be able to visit places that you might never see on your own or with a group. There are several sites where you can find and book a tour from independent local guides, I recommend the Russian site, which has already proven itself on the good side.

Travel insurance and security

Buying a ticket in a travel agency does not give absolutely no security guarantees. Your peace of mind is only in your hands, and the travel agency cannot provide any additional security. Most accidents happen to those who come on an organized tour, as they get a false sense of security and lose their guard.

When traveling abroad, always take out a travel insurance policy, this can be done quickly and inexpensively (less than $ 1 per day). For a visa to Europe (Schengen visa) and many others visa countries, the purchase of insurance is required. You can apply for an insurance policy in almost any insurance company or, even easier, you can apply for insurance via the Internet. You can compare the offers of insurance companies and apply for insurance online on the website, where you can choose the most advantageous offer from the largest insurance companies (you can find more details on the instructions for choosing and buying insurance in the article -). An electronic insurance policy has the same legal force as a paper policy. In the presence of insurance policy, in case of an accident, you will need to call the phone number indicated in the policy and they will give all instructions on what to do next, and if necessary, they will call a doctor. Take care of your own safety, no one will do it except you.

What are the advantages of independent travel compared to tour packages?

The main advantages of independent travel are freedom and cheapness. You are in complete control of your journey, you go where you want, not where your guide tells you to go. You don't have to live in the same place for your whole vacation, if you want to move to another place or hotel, you can easily do it. When traveling on your own, you will never find yourself in a situation where your tour company went bankrupt and did not pay for your hotel stay. I think everyone remembers when hundreds of tourists around the world could not return home and were not allowed out of hotels, demanding to pay for their accommodation - when independent tourism this is basically impossible, since only you control everything.

Traveling alone is cheap, the price of your trip depends only on you and your preferences. You don't have to pay for unnecessary services travel companies, you can always choose the best offer. Let's compare the cost of independent travel and tour package on specific example. Let's take one of the most popular directions - resort Pattaya(Thailand) and the largest tour operator TezTour. Let's say we want to go to Pattaya in early November for 7 days (departure on November 6th), one of the tour company's offers includes a flight from Moscow, transfer and 7 nights at the WELCOME PLAZA 3 * hotel with breakfast, the price for this tour package is 68086 rubles for 2 people. Now let's see how much it would cost if we went on our own. We go to the site and look for a flight Moscow-Bangkok with a departure in early November for 2 people, as a result we get a price of 42,880 rubles for two. Then we look for a hotel on the site, enter the name Welcome Plaza and dates in early November into the search bar, we get the price of 9035 rubles for 7 nights with double occupancy. The bus from Bangkok airport to Pattaya costs about 100 rubles per person. Thus, the total cost of the trip independent planning it turns out 52115 rubles, which is 15971 rubles cheaper than the tour package offered by the travel agency. It's simple math, it's up to you.

Or, for example, one more popular destination- Cuba. At the beginning of October (departure 2.10.12) a package with a flight, transfer and accommodation at the Vedado 3 * hotel (reviews about the hotel, by the way, are not very good, but you won’t have a chance to change it) TezTour costs 113,256 rubles for two. If we conduct a search, as we did above, we get that the flight Moscow-Havana-Moscow to dovih for these dates is for 72381 rubles, and the same hotel for 7 nights costs 11311 rubles, which in total gives 83692 rubles, and this almost 30,000 rubles less than the offer of the tour company.

And if you take a non-standard route, which is very easy to organize with independent planning, then buying it from a travel agency can be many times more expensive.

In rare cases, it happens that in a particular direction there is no cheap flights and then it turns out that using a tourist package can be more profitable. But this happens quite rarely, and over time it will become even rarer, especially against the background of the fact that this year tour operators have significantly increased the cost of tour packages against the backdrop of bankruptcies of large travel companies and the appreciation of the dollar.

In fact, you pay travel agencies for the following services:

1. Flight. Often old planes with poor maintenance, but you can't change anything and choose an airline.
2. Hotel. You can't change the hotel if you don't like it or if you want to go somewhere.
3. Transfer from the airport to the hotel by shared bus.
4. Visa. If the country is a visa country (and there are not so many of them), then your documents will be collected and sent to the visa center, but they cannot guarantee the successful receipt of a visa.
5. Excursions. You may be offered excursions, but the price for them will be many times higher than if you went to the same places on your own or through local tour agencies.

This concludes the services of tour operators. No one will help you communicate with the store or the market if you do not know the language, you should also not wait for help from the guide if you have an accident, they are not obliged to help you, this is not included in the list of their services. Really, after reading this article, you will not be able to organize your trip on your own, making it cheaper and more interesting?

If, however, I still didn’t convince you that it’s better to travel on your own, and you still intend to go on a package holiday, then I recommend that you read the instructions - "" so as not to waste time traveling to travel agencies, but easy and convenient to find and book everything online.

Conclusion

The most difficult thing is to take the first step, but you only need to go somewhere on your own once and you will never want to buy a package organized tours. Do not put it off until later, start planning your next trip on your own and you will see that it is much easier, cheaper and more interesting than it seems at first glance.

PS: If you have any questions or want to clarify something, ask in the comments, it is important for us to know whether this material turned out to be useful and how it can be supplemented. Share this article with your friends via social media, let them also learn how easy it is to go abroad on their own.

I remember before there was a lot of arguing about what is better and cheaper: a trip on a package tour or on your own. Which is cheaper: a tour or on your own?
I'm here even.
Now, after the mass bankruptcy of travel agencies this year, these conversations have subsided.

And this is understandable: there is a possibility that having bought a tour on this tour, you will not fly away for “good” reasons for the bankruptcy of the seller.
A seller who is simply an intermediary between the travel tool and you.
And the tool is not complicated, and it is easy to learn how to use it - therefore, a vacation organized independently is more flexible in relation to force majeure and is easily rebuilt if something happens.

“But what about the price?”, - an inquisitive dependent tourist will ask, - after all, a ticket is cheaper than traveling on your own!
You are mistaken dear...

I took calculation of the cost of holidays in Dubai which was published on .
The calculation of the cost was taken by me at the Vinsky Forum:.

If you are interested in my review of a vacation in Dubai, then here.

Family 4 adults.
Savages, on my own
Booked at the end of August.
Dubai from 03.11 for 14 nights. Emirates flight from Moscow.
Air tickets 16700*4=66800. The cost of one ticket was returned in miles from Tinkoff.
Insurance - one adult free of charge (TCS card), .
Accommodation :
7 nights - Doubletree by Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Beach, apartments 2 bedrooms with a kitchen (they still have a kitchen there, but a little cheaper) - 75000 (including taxes) booked through booking.
7 nights - Damac Maison Dubai Mall, apartment 2 bedrooms - 74000 with a view of the BH, booked through airbnb.
Visas: 14000

Independently: 216.600 rubles for 4 people

At the tour operator(watched Biblio-Glubus) this tour for the same dates.
True, you can’t choose both hotels there, but since they cost me the same, I looked at two options - Hilton for 14 nights and Damac for 14 nights.
Hilton is slightly cheaper than Damak

Tour package: from 500.000 rubles for 4 people

Conclusion: if you organize your own vacation in Dubai, you can save money.
At what to save decently - more than twice.
Here is such a schedule.

Additional help:

Flights

Or look at flydubai's destination grid — the company flies to Dubai from Rostov, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Kazan, Minvod, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Moscow

Visa

If you are flying to Dubai with Flydubai, then here is a link to apply for a UAE visa yourself (which is no longer needed).

Hotels, apartments

Search and book hotels in Dubai at the best prices (without prepayment): 619 options with tourist reviews

Here they will help and prompt at the beginning in preparation self rest In Dubai

Finally, I want to say this:
if you know the value of money, that is, they come to you as payment for your work, and do not fall into your pocket from the sky, then I am sure that you will easily master the tools independent organization your rest.
In fact, this is a trifling matter and takes a little time.
For example, you can organize your vacation at sea by yourself in 30 minutes of time spent usefully on the Internet. I provided links, and there is more than enough information on this site ...
In general, it's up to you to decide how.

If you are traveling on your own - put like (buttons below). If you prefer to have a vacation on a package, share a link to this article on social networks with a hash tag#cheaptours

Tour on your own

Do you want to have a rest with minimal expenses? To save on a trip abroad, try to buy a tour without a travel agency. Travel planning can be intimidating because you don't know where to start. The most important thing is not to panic. It is important to collect necessary information and well prepared:

• decide on the allocated budget and the country you would like to visit;
• expiration date of the passport (some states will not be allowed if the document expires in 3-6 months);
• check the need for a visa (this can be done online, for example, at KLM. Com or Staralliance.com).

Buy tour online

Everything is sold on the Internet, from souvenirs to travel vouchers to any corner of the world. On specialized services, you can find and pay for a trip without getting up from the couch. The advantages are obvious: minimal time and cost savings.

Even a beginner can easily cope with buying a tour on the Internet. The algorithm will be as follows:

• Find the right online tour market. There are plenty of them on the World Wide Web, including level.travel, novatours.eu, otpravkin.ru, etc.
• Get acquainted with the offers and select a tour of favorable price. Set the appropriate parameters, and the system will give you several options (you can find both budget and premium solutions).
• After choosing a tour, study the details (what is included, when is the flight, whether transfer and medical insurance are provided). Then enter your passport details and book the tour.
• After making the payment, you will receive all documents by mail.

Buying a tour online will eliminate the need to go to the office of a travel agency and overpay for the services of intermediaries.

Making your own itinerary

If a “ready-made” tour does not suit you, you can try to make a trip route yourself.

Having decided on the travel plan and the amount for the rest, it will remain:

• Book an air ticket. It is profitable to do this on Momondo, Skyscanner, Buruki (or low-cost airlines like Wizz Air).
• Pay for accommodation in a hotel or hostel (there are various offers on HotelLook.ru, HotelsCombined.com, etc.).
• Take care of visa and medical insurance. This is especially important if you are planning an active holiday (diving, rock climbing, skiing).

Do not be afraid to travel without the help of a tour operator - the whole world is open before you!

Are you on luxury resort, in an all-inclusive hotel, enjoy the sea, the sun and a tropical cocktail. And you are so cool and good that you can’t even believe that there are still two weeks of vacation ahead. But then suddenly you are asked to look at the hotel manager. He reports simply amazing news: the travel agency did not pay for the hotel room and you have two options - pay yourself or spend the next night under a fence. Two hours later, it turns out that the flight home was also not paid. You understand that those 3,000 bucks that you paid off for a trip for your family ended up on the accounts of a bankrupt travel agency. And you will have to find another bag of money to get out of this mess.

"Vietnam up and down with a small child ... Well, you are monsters! Yes, I have tourists who are afraid to go to Turkey in a five-star hotel on all inclusive go on your own!". I received something like this comment from one blog reader. But really, where does this fear of doing something on your own come from? What makes people give money to intermediaries for something that is so interesting to do it yourself? Plan a trip, a real adventure - and instead of one resort town see the whole country!

Very soon we will go on a new journey of seven months. I planned it in just a few weeks. Everything is spelled out perfectly. For example, I know that on December 29 we will fly from Goa to Bangkok, and on March 20 - from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur, and then to the island of Java. Air tickets bought, hotels found. It is this precise planning and early booking allows you to save a lot of money. Now tell me how much would this cost? individual tour"to four countries and a dozen cities, ordered from a travel agency? A lot? A lot? So why are you paying a lot of money for a two-week vacation in which there is nothing to plan?

Three reasons to go on vacation without a travel agency:

1. You are sure that your tickets and hotel are exactly paid for, because you yourself bought a ticket from the airline and rented a room in a hotel room.
2. You may not be limited to standard and densely populated resorts, but instead of one city, see the whole country, or maybe even two or three.
3. By learning how to organize a small two-week trip, you have acquired skills that will last a lifetime, so next time you will not be afraid to go even around the world. Why not!?

Now I will teach you how to do everything yourself and absolutely free.

Choosing a vacation spot

If you just want to extend the summer and go to the sea no matter where, the main thing is inexpensive, then you can use the "Travel Map" service on the Aviasales website. This is how she looks.

You specify your data in the settings:

1. The city you want to fly from.
2. Holiday time: you can select exact dates, you can set a blurry filter, for example, "autumn", "October", etc.
3. Visa-free stay in the country, you need a visa or Schengen countries.
4. Length of stay - number of days.
5. Travel budget. Here you indicate the amount that you are willing to pay for a round-trip flight per person.

Then click search - and right on the map, see the options on the map where you can go. While searching for tickets on the map, I immediately recall my childhood, when I sat for hours with a globe and poked my finger at small islands in the hope that when I grow up, I will definitely go there.

Important clarification! If you do not live in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv or other major cities Russia or Ukraine, you may not see budget options flight. In this case, try to look for flights from neighboring metropolitan areas with large international airports. It will probably be much cheaper to fly from there.

How to buy a ticket online

In order to buy a ticket, it is not necessary to leave the house and look for a ticket office. Go to the website of the Aviasales ticket search engine and look for a suitable flight option there. I have already written a very detailed search and purchase of air tickets. There are many screenshots, it explains what and how to do, so you can figure it out without difficulty.

If you are traveling within Asia, for example, from India to Thailand, then you do not need to know the websites of all Asian low-cost airlines by heart. It is enough to use the Makemytrip service, which finds the right flight and compares prices from all discounters and regular airlines. And in some countries there are such universal search engines that look not only for air, but also for train and bus tickets. For example, in India it is Cleartrip.

Of course, sometimes it is easier and cheaper to buy a ticket for a charter, which is ordered by tour operators. My friend, a very experienced girl, recently revealed to me terrible secret that you can buy such tickets directly from the tour operator, bypassing intermediaries in the face of small agencies that wind up their percentage on this. I don’t know at all how the situation is in Russia, I will give a couple of useful sites for my countrymen - Ukrainians. So, catch burning offers at Pegas, Joinup, Teztur. By the way, there are also tours to Egypt for 300-400 dollars for two a couple of days before departure. I saw it with my own eyes about a month ago.

How to book a hotel online

In order to reserve a hotel room, 10-15 years ago you had to look for phone numbers hotels, call them, find out prices. Now everything is very simple. You go to the Hotellook website and choose from hundreds of options that suits you personally. There will also be filters, just like on the flight search site.

You will be prompted to choose:

1. The price per night you are willing to pay.
2. Whether or not you need WiFi.
3. If you need a hotel with breakfast, also do not forget to check the box.
4. Swimming pool, fitness center, restaurant and laundry... Choose the items you want.
5. If you do not want to live in a hotel, but do not mind renting an apartment or house, check the box next to the appropriate type of accommodation.

Detailed step by step instructions. Feel free to read this post. There are many nuances.

Or maybe an apartment instead of a hotel?

Rent an apartment even for a couple of days unfamiliar city It can be not only more convenient, but also more profitable than a hotel. Judge for yourself if you are exotic country in Asia, then having a kitchen can be just a huge plus when traveling with children. No need to think about what to feed the child, because you can cook anything on your own.

An excellent service for booking apartments around the world is Airbnb. It is very comfortable. Enter the city, choose the price range within your budget and go ahead to look at the pictures. We are planning to rent a two-room apartment in Bangkok in NG for only 190 euros per week. And this is in a compound with a pool. Well, isn't it a fairy tale?

Just fill in the city in this form and choose the right apartment in any city in the world!

If you're not yet an Airbnb member, you can use our affiliate link and receive a free $15 coupon. to receive such a gift.

How to organize transfers from the airport to the hotel and back?

In many hotels, when booking a room, it is possible to order a transfer from the airport. For example, in our favorite in Bangkok, where we stay all the time, the transfer from and to the airport costs 2-3 times cheaper than a taxi, just a couple of dollars. But this is rather an exception to the rule. It is usually cheaper to take a taxi or take the airport bus to the city center. In most cities around the world, you can get from the airport in at least three ways: by bus, aeroexpress or taxi. Read the forums and decide which option is best for you. So score in Google: "How much does it cost to get from the airport to the center of Ho Chi Minh City", for example. There will be many answers.

If you want to plan everything in advance and not think about how to get to the hotel upon arrival, you can use the international airport transfer system. Fill in the form below with the city of arrival and destination and find out the cost and conditions of the trip.

How to organize self-guided tours?

Many tourists buy excursions along with tours in agencies. I want to upset and surprise you, but on the spot the same excursions are MUCH cheaper. For example, in Russian travel agencies in Moscow, an excursion to southern islands Nha Trang sell for $60 per person. On the spot in Russian travel agencies, it already costs $ 35. But if you buy this day trip on a boat with the Vietnamese, then pay only 7 bucks. Unexpected, right?! Yes, in expensive tour you will be given a free bottle of wine, and the food on the ship will be a little more extravagant. But think, is it worth $53 per person?

We organize all our excursions very simply. If the attraction is on land, we rent a scooter (I am writing about Asia now), stock up on a map and go to our destination. We buy entrance tickets on the spot, sometimes when we really, really want some interesting story we are hiring a guide. Believe me, such an independent trip is much cheaper than a purchased excursion, where you are taken on a bus along with two dozen compatriots. At any moment we can turn around and go to another place or, on the contrary, stay somewhere longer. And if you're tired, go home. By the way, if you don’t drive a scooter, you can rent a car for a couple of days and drive around the whole country on your own.

If the excursion is by sea, you can always try to find a boat for rent or, in extreme cases, buy an excursion from local agencies. Experience shows that Russian-speaking guides are usually more expensive.

Quite another matter - author's excursions. For example, the guide lives in Bangkok, Nha Trang or Hong Kong and is ready to show you such interesting places that are hidden from view ordinary tourists. This service has many thematic excursions: you can look at architecture all day long, plunge into the culinary world new country or go to visit unusual people. Also, excursions organized by a guide make sense if you have little time, but there is a desire to see as much as possible. For example, only one day in Bangkok. If you try to see everything on your own, then spend a lot of time moving from place to place, looking for attractions on the map. With a guide, this issue is solved quite simply. He himself knows how to see more in a short time and get to the right place faster.

Car rental abroad

If you do not drive a scooter, but do not want to depend on dishonest taxi drivers, then car rental is good way drive further and see more. It is best to use an international booking service that monitors the health of your cars, arranges accident insurance and allows you to take a car at one end of the country and return it at the other. For example, you rented a car at Bangkok airport and returned it at southern province Krabi.

All about roaming and communication abroad: how to contact relatives from abroad.

Especially for those who want to join the slender ranks individual tourists, we have prepared a visual step by step instructions: how to organize your own trip.

Think about where you want to go and why

This is not such a simple question as it seems at first glance. Many famous resorts specially “unwind”, while a kilometer from them you can find much more pleasant and little known places. Perhaps one of the most odious examples is Pattaya. This Thai resort is popular as a family resort only with clients. Russian tour operators. In fact, it is the capital of dubious entertainment, and the nature there cannot be compared with the nature of the neighboring islands, which can be reached in a few hours. Be sure to read the reviews and discussions of the place on the Internet - for example, in our section "Question - Answer". Keep in mind, there are cases when organizing a trip on your own is completely unprofitable from a financial point of view. This applies mainly to mass beach destinations, where tour operators buy tickets and hotel rooms in bulk at a discount.

Think over logistics and make a route

Very often, a ticket directly from point A to point B costs five times more than to point C. At the same time, point C can be very close to point B. Of course, sometimes you have to sacrifice convenience for the sake of price, for example, change planes for buses. Let's take as an example the same Thailand beloved by Russians: the minimum price of air tickets from Bangkok to Koh Samui was about 15,000 RUB. At the same time, getting to Koh Samui by night train + ferry cost approximately from 1000 to 3000 RUB, depending on the class and level of comfort. In Europe, where distances are short by Russian standards and there is a large concentration of airports, it sometimes makes sense to fly to another country and get to a neighboring one by train in half an hour - say, from Spanish Girona to France. You can compare airfare prices using numerous online aggregators, such as www.skyscanner.com. Oh yes, guidebooks are a very useful thing, buy at least one and read it BEFORE you travel.

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Take care of safety

Buying insurance on your own, you have the opportunity to choose the necessary options, such as luggage insurance or liability to third parties. Just in case: we strongly recommend taking out insurance. It is now easy to buy a policy online in five minutes, and in which case this very little money will save you from big trouble. “If you are going to very far and exotic places, ask the insurance company which assistance company they work with, advises Intouch Insurance Director Valisy Busarov. - Assistance is an intermediary company, it is she who will resolve emerging issues and communicate with a medical institution if you need help. Assistance works only with certain clinics with which it is associated with an agreement, so it is necessary to clarify in advance whether there are medical institutions with whom the contract has been concluded. As a rule, there are no problems with this, but in places very remote from civilization it is better to be sure that there is such an agreement with the nearest hospital.”

Book your accommodation online

In addition to searching for tickets, the Internet and mobile applications provide countless opportunities for independent travel arrangements. You can book a hotel room at www.booking.com or sleeping area in a hostel on www.hostelworld.com, or you can rent a room or a treehouse from private owners from different countries on www.airbnb.com. Another interesting service is www.couchsurfing.com. It allows you to live absolutely free all over the world with volunteers who support the idea of ​​​​such a friendship of peoples. In return, you are expected to host some other community member in your home when he travels to your city. Is it true, free accommodation, as a rule, implies the need to communicate with the owner, observe at least minimal secular decency and experience all the delights of neighborly life.

“As part of the tour, the operator, as a rule, limits the choice of hotels with which contracts have been concluded for good conditions. Online agencies give a larger range of hotels, as well as alternatives accommodation not available to the tour operator. These are, for example, hostels and apartments - and in combination with flights they are more attractive in price. In addition, you yourself choose additional services (transfer, excursions, new year's dinner in a hotel, etc.) that you need, while the tour operator includes everything in the package, which, of course, is reflected in the price,” commented Andrey Osintsev, commercial director of Svyaznoy Travel.

And in any incomprehensible situation, we advise you to remember this quote from Mark Twain: “In 20 years, you will be more disappointed with the things that you did not do than with those that you did. So depart from the quiet harbor. Feel the tailwind in your sail. Move forward, act, open!”