Countries

Best 7 Day Itinerary for Italy & Things To Remember

August 15, 2020

Most would love to visit Italy, but very few end up going. Italy is a country which offers a plethora of options, the cities are legendary, history is fascinating, food is mouth-watering, wine is a lifeline, and then there is Venice ! Along with being historical, Italy is equally modern and contemporary. For any kind of traveller or tourist, Italy has a lot to offer. And its never a bad idea to live up and experience the proverbs you’ve listened all your live, viz. Rome wasn’t built in a day, All Roads Lead to Rome. The fashion here is eye-catching and food & wine are lip-smacking. I hope this definitely will make you plan a trip to this wonderful country Italy. All this contributed in making our decision for our trip to Italy.

As always, I did extensive research before our travel and finalized the itinerary in advance. This was a 7 night trip wherein we planned to cover the major cities and again, without Rush. Below is the same:

1) Rome (3 Nights)
2) Florence (2 Nights)
3) Venice (2 Nights)

Things to remember before traveling to Italy

It is one of the most tourist friendly places, hence should not worry much on how to travel within the city, where to eat, etc. For the transportation you can opt for Euro Rail Pass, but before that look at your utility and how extensively are you travelling.

In our case we didn’t take Euro Rail Pass and rather opted for daily tickets/passes which are easily available at any “Tabacchi”/ tobacco / General stores, and this commutation is not expensive. Also if you manage to get your Bnb/Hotel in a correct location, you might not need to take a lot of local transport.

Very important thing to remember is to do the pre bookings for all the places/monuments you plan to visit. And ensure you take “Jump the que” tickets by default if not with a guide, coz there is always a huge rush at all these places. Must buy advance tickets for Colosseum (Roman Forum comes along with it), Vatican Tour, Pisa, Duomo. Do these bookings well in advance. Also, you should pre book the rail tickets for between the cities travel, 1 point to remember is even though the trains here are among the fastest in the world but surely not as convenient if you travel with heavy luggage.

In Italy Vodafone works perfectly fine and we didn’t face any issues during our entire trip. Its recommended to purchase the sim from the authorized store only, as if you pick up from any general story or Tabacchi, it takes longer for sim to get activated.

An important thing to remember and avoid doing is to not engage with vendors selling bands or wanting just to
speak to you or try to be over friendly for no reason, they could con you.

The best time to travel is March – April when the weather is moderate an not much crowded but we travelled here in end May and by then the summers had set in.

Countries, Holidays

Switzerland – Best Itinerary for 8 Days

By SuNup on

February 11, 2020

- Countries, Holidays

If you haven’t yet seen “the heaven on earth” then the destination choice is simple. There can no better choice than Switzerland where the nature has so liberally showered its beauty on its lakes, country sides and the unforgettable gasping experience on its hills where its virginity is still protected.
The primary reason which prompted me to finalize Switzerland was to go into the confines of nature where I could engulf it, breathe it and sip its nectar and rewire the brains and body of a robotic life.

Switzerland Itinerary for 8 days, a relaxed yet extensive travel through the Gems of Switzerland

So for starters make sure that you are not travelling with your luggage to lot of places, ensure that during 8-9 day of vacation make 2-3 bases and do day trips. Coz packing and repacking is a lot of hassle and more than that is travelling with luggage. And ensure these base cities are centrally located and have good connectivity to make day trips.
Mind you, there is sooo much to see in Switzerland and any itinerary will not fit in everything. But I tried to do best of all the destinations, because it is important to soak in and enjoy fewer places rather than rushing through to cover all. Hence, below are the places that I finalized that I would endeavour to see:

1) Geneva (1 Night)

2) Interlaken (4 Nights), also read places to see around Interlaken.
• Village towns – Murren, Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, Grindelwald, Engelberg, Stans (we didn’t plan to go), Wilderswil.
• Mountain excursions – Schilthorn, Harder Kulm, Stanserhorn
• Towns – Bern

3) Zurich & Lucerne (3 Nights)

This might seem a lot of places to be covered in 9 days, but Switzerland is a small country with one of the best transport systems. And as I mentioned earlier, I avoid rushing though the places, and when I take you in detail of these, you’ll realize this.

Can also refer : https://www.myswissalps.com/forum/topic/what-all-to-cover-during-8days-in-swiss

Countries

8 Best Things to do and see in Geneva in 1 day

By SuNup on

December 12, 2019

- Countries

1. Old Town

2. Lake Geneva

3. Jet D’eau

4. Palais Des Nations

5. The Broken Chair

6. Park des Bastions

7. St. Pierre Cathedral

8. Art and History Museum

Detailed itinerary for the things to do in 1 day in Geneva (Our Story)

In Europe, the best place to start exploring the city is from the central stations. Hence, we started exploring Geneva from there central station and headed to Jet D’eau, which is 10 min ride from there. Its one of the famous landmarks, but with the relentless rains, it wasn’t such a great experience for us. But its definitely worth a visit along with a stroll around Lake Geneva.

From there we headed Palais des Nations, which is the headquarters of League of Nations and home of UN office, while you can book pre book your tickets to go inside and discover behind the scene perspective of UN activities. Just outside of this is another landmark of Geneva, the Broken Chair which also attracts number of tourists. This is a 12meter tall sculpture echoes the message to remember the victims of land mines and urge your government to promote a ban on the same.

After spending our evening seeing these places we headed back to the central station, relaxed there for a while with a cup of coffee and then headed back to our Bnb. Cooked our ready to eat dinner and retired for the day. Due to relentless rains and constraint of time, we could not see other major places of interest but as there were many things around to see, we decided to start our next day quite early to cover as much as possible of them and then to proceed on to 2nd leg of our trip to Interlaken.

Next morning, after having the breakfast we headed to the Old town which was 15 min walk from our Bnb and along the route we had Park des Bastions (a must visit beautiful park which is famous for Reformation Wall, big chess board at the entrance and lot of green lawns with big trees), Place de Neuve, Art and History Museum and St. Pierre Cathedral. Old town was typical of any European city, with clobber stone roads, lot of hustle & bustle and good amount of history to be witnessed. After soaking in the old town, we headed back to our Bnb using the bus, checked out and headed towards the central station to catch our train to the main destination of Switzerland, Interlaken.

Countries

Best Time to Travel to Switzerland

By SuNup on

December 12, 2019

- Countries

Switzerland is literally a heaven, so anytime you go is the best time. But still basis what you want to do and the purpose, a little run though of the best time to visit Switzerland :

April to mid May and Aug – September are the period which should be preferred to visit Switzerland, since it is not very touristy and crowded (which is a real boon), weather is moderate and most of the excursions are open.

June-July are the busiest months. People with family and also few others due to their leave schedules prefer to travel during this time.

Oct – Nov & Jan – Mar is for Adventure junkies, skiers, etc. as this period is most suitable for them with snow covered swiss land.

So depending on your purpose and availability, you can pick your best time to visit Switzerland.

Countries

How to Make Best use of Swiss Rail Pass | Tickets, Cost & Benefits

By SuNup on

December 9, 2019

- Countries

Swiss Rail Pass

A detailed look through on the most important decision of Switzerland – Swiss Rail/Travel Pass – To Buy or not to buy

Switzerland’s transport system is the most efficient one, but at the same time very costly and reason for the same is that you get the state of the art travel across most difficult of terrains (read hills) with utmost comfort and punctuality (you can actually match your watch with train timings). Hence, it is an important decision on whether to buy the Swiss Travel Pass, rent a car or buy individual tickets. While this is dependent on how extensively you are travelling, which places, etc. Individual tickets would be really really expensive, and to give you an heads up, if I would have gone for this option, I would have spent approx. 60k, which is much more than the amount I spent on buying Swiss Travel Pass. Renting a car is a good option as its slightly less expensive than Swiss Pass, it gives you flexibility, but with this comes right hand drive, parking related hassles, local rules and still need to buy tickets for village towns and mountain excursions as most of them are not accessible by car. But if someone has an experience of driving in Europe, this would be a very good option. Renting a car for 8 days would cost approx. 25-30k.

The option that we chose was Swiss Travel Pass and 1 reason was, the excursions and villages we were planning to travel were all included with the Pass. For once, it pinched to spend 56k (28k/person) for transport. But by the end of the trip we were glad that we bought the Swiss Travel Pass. There are various denomination in which Swiss Travel Pass can be purchased. The same can be done online or at any SBB office. For online you’ll receive your Pass via e-mail, shipped to your home or hotel, or collected at the airport. The children upto 5 years can travel for free. There are group discounts as well for bulk bookings and as well there is an option of Swiss Family Card.

Types of Swiss Rail Pass

There are 4 types of Swiss Rail Pass, which are as follows:

Swiss Travel Pass
Swiss Travel Pass Youth
Swiss Travel Pass Flex
Swiss Travel Pass Flex Youth

Price and denominations of the same is as follows:

Swiss Travel Pass : Normal Pass for various denominations of consecutive days

Denomination	Price in CHF in 2nd class	Price in CHF in 1st class
Swiss Travel Pass 3 days	232.00	369.00
Swiss Travel Pass 4 days	281.00	447.00
Swiss Travel Pass 8 days	418.00	663.00
Swiss Travel Pass 15 days	513.00	810.00

Swiss Travel Pass Youth : This can be purchased by travellers aged under 26. It entitles the holder to the same advantages as the Swiss Travel Pass or Swiss Travel Pass Flex, but costs 15% less.

Product	Price in CHF in 2nd class	Price in CHF in 1st class
Swiss Travel Pass Youth 3 days	198.00	315.00
Swiss Travel Pass Youth 4 days	240.00	381.00
Swiss Travel Pass Youth 8 days	357.00	566.00
Swiss Travel Pass Youth 15 days	439.00	692.00

Swiss Travel Pass Flex : The Swiss Travel Pass Flex is the perfect ticket for quick deciders. It Combines scope and services of the Swiss Travel Pass with the advantage of increased flexibility.

Valid: on 3, 4, 8, or 15 freely selectable days within one month

Product	Price in CHF in 2nd class	Price in CHF in 1st class
Swiss Travel Pass Flex 3 days in 1 month	267.00	424.00
Swiss Travel Pass Flex 4 days in 1 month	323.00	514.00
Swiss Travel Pass Flex 8 days in 1 month	467.00	742.00
Swiss Travel Pass Flex 15 days in 1 month	563.00	890.00

Swiss Travel Pass FlexYouth

Seat Reservations with Swiss Rail Pass

For the most part, you can hop on nearly all Swiss trains with just your rail pass in hand. Designated scenic routes (those with names, such as the Glacier Express), and some international trains (such as to/from France and Italy or night trains through Germany) do require paid seat reservations.

Benefits of Swiss Rail Pass

A lot of comfort, flexibility and efficient travelling.
Travelling in all the public transport (trains, busses, cogwheel, funicular, cable cars, boat ride) across the country is included. And where its not 100% included, you get substantial discounts there.
It even covers lot of good excursions, such as Schilthorn, Rigi Kulm, Stanserhor. For all other excursions except Jungfrau you get 50% discount and on Jungfrau you get 25% discount.
Entry to over 500 museums, including Einstein Museum in Bern.
Golden Pass Line is entirely covered.
Along with the pass you should download “SBB App” to keep track of the train timings and also google maps to know the bus/tram number & timings.

Refer links : https://www.sbb.ch/en/timetable.html ; www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass ; https://www.rentalcars.com/

Countries, Uncategorized

Our 1 st Airbnb/Bed and Breakfast experience and things to remember

By SuNup on

September 28, 2019

- Countries, Uncategorized

The Travel Totes helps you with our 1st BnB experience, which might convince you to explore the Bnb. Ever since We’ve been traveling, the spends on stay was something which always pinched. But since I didn’t want to compromise on stay, we were always booking Hotels. The primary reasons were security, professionalism and most importantly, Breakfast. But during my trip to Italy, I was forced to opt for Airbnb as we decided for our trip only 30 days in advance and it was the peak season in Italy, hence we couldn’t find a good deal on any hotels and I didn’t want to compromise on location or breakfast. That’s when we decided to opt for Airbnb, though a bit apprehensive regarding staying at a strangers place, unsure of the host, etc, etc. But a little bit of information and reading helped. We filtered for Superhost with a 5 star ratings to be sure on our host and thoroughly read the reviews and had conversations with our hosts before eventually finalizing our stay.

In all the 3 cities we took Airbnb and it was a best decisions of our travelling. In Rome our Bnb was at the most central location, viz Corso Vittorio. We were welcomed by 2 lovely ladies, Rassica & Zuleica who run this Bed & Breakfast. They were very warm and welcoming and helped us thrashing out our travel plans in a better way day wise. There suggestions were extremely helpful since that help us save time and money. They were available on whatsapp for any help/suggestions, and it happened on 1 of the days that my wife got a bad shoe bit and could walk. I pinged Rassica to check on pharmacy to get some medicine and bandage. She got concerned on knowing this. Since she had left for some work, she immediately called on of her staff to attend us and provide us bandage, etc. this was really a nice gesture. Even they helped us for the booking of Vatican and our Airport/Train transfers.

In Florence, we were hosted by Marco in his apartment. And it was a lovely, cosy room easily accessible by public transport. During our stay he was constantly in touch and was sharing the places to see, eat and chill along with there map coordinates. He was the one who suggested us to visit Piazza Michaelangelo around sunset, and indeed it was an awesome experience. And this is the best part about staying with a local, you get to know hidden gems, local hacks, etc.

In Venice, we were staying at the apartment of Massimo. He was a helpful host. He came to the train station to pick us up and helped carry our luggage. He explained in details on how to enjoy Venice and suggested us not to carry a map, as its better to wander around on the island. During 2nd day we were to visit Marghera which was 15min bus ride from the room and I just checked him which bus to take, and he immediately offered to drop us there. But this was not it, next day we had a slight early morning flight at 11am for which we had to reach airport by 8 and he voluntarily asked us if he can drop us. This gesture really touched us. Airport was almost 40min drive, so he arrived at the room at 7am and gave the ride. Thanks to him, we saved on time and hassle of looking for mode of transport in the morning.

As you can see, these were unique experience by some lovely and helpful people. This trip changed my entire point of view, and infact they seemed more professional than any hotel can be. Now during my recent Switzerland trip, out of my 3 stays, 2 were Airbnb and again lovely experiences.