No more getting ‘bill shocked’

Dreading using your smartphone or laptop abroad for fear of landing with enormous, unexpected roaming bill? Follow these simple tips on how to avoid getting ‘bill shocked’ even while staying connected with your friends and family during travel...

Don't let huge phone bills ruin your holiday

 

You probably have heard horror stories from either your friends or relatives who have returned from a trip abroad with a crazily huge, unexpected and unexplainable phone or tab/ laptop bill. This is a common occurrence among those who tend to use their smartphone or tab to look up travel information, send digital postcards, or even do routine things like check and send texts and emails. Such humungous bills often end up acting as a downer on your happy post-holiday vibes. To avoid getting such an expensive yet unpleasant souvenir in your phone bill, whenever you travel (especially abroad), here are some super smart ways of using your smartphone.

Make sure it will work

The first and most important point is to check, whether your phone will work in your intended travel destination or not? This is essential while travelling abroad, as cell phone providers around the world use various technologies and frequencies, and there’s no assurance that your phone will work with all of them. If you are not sure if your phone will function abroad, it is always a good idea to contact the mobile phone company’s customer support and ask for details. Once it is confirmed that your phone will work in a particular destination, contact your service provider to enable roaming on your phone. You will have to check this beforehand, as most service providers don’t enable roaming automatically, owing to the high costs involved.

Turn it off

Not your phone silly, we are talking about your data roaming. Turn off your mobile data before you board the plane to your destination, and let it remain that way until you get home. Simply switching off your phone won’t help, as smartphones tend to update apps, even when switched off. So, the best way to avoid getting slapped with huge phone bill is to limit your data downloads by opting for Wi-Fi only. Most holiday accommodations now offer Wi-Fi – free or at a relatively small cost – while cafes and eateries can fill in the gaps when you’re on the move. This would help save you a lot of money, especially if you have a habit of checking your emails on the go.

Go local, buy a temporary local number to cut phone bill costs

 

GSM VS CDMA

If you’d prefer to avoid roaming charges entirely, it’s possible to do so with an unlocked GSM smartphone. GSM phones offer you the freedom to replace your existing SIM card with a local number from your destination. These local numbers are relatively cheaper while making calls or sending texts.

Apps for calls

Since you have already put your phone on a Wi-Fi mode, consider using apps like Skype, BBM, Facetime or Google Voice when you need to stay in touch with friends and family back home. Rather than paying high international calling and text rates, these apps let you talk and send texts for free or cheap to anybody around the world.

Kids will be kids, and they will use their phones on holidays, so you better prepare yourself for it

 

Keep the kids in mind

If you are taking your kids along on your holiday, do keep in mind that kids will – despite you telling them not to do so – play games on their phone, message friends or check Facebook, almost every day. While you can’t stop them from playing games on their phone, you can certainly limit their usage by giving them a pay-as-you-go SIM. This way, they won’t be able to turn data roaming back on and spend your money on downloading or playing games.  

Use a payphone

If you have to make local calls like booking a restaurant or calling a cab service, the best way (and the cheapest) to do is by using a payphone. This will save you plenty of cash, especially during international travels. For example, a four-minute call to book a local restaurant in London could cost as much as £5 (Rs 500) from your mobile (depending on your operator), compared with around 15p (Rs 15) from one of the city’s payphones.

Keep these tips in mind and enjoy your holiday, sans any shockers.

Happy travelling and Happy 2015 :)

 

 

Travel your blues away



Scenic and beautiful: Yorkshire

Just back from a mini vacation in Yorkshire, I felt that I absolutely had to write this piece on why travelling/ or taking a vacation is so important. It’s been a year now for me in the UK and I can safely say this, with a hand on my heart that for me, traveling is the new elixir of life.

Ok, so let me put it this way. How often is it that you talk about the trials and tribulations of life? How you feel that your job is getting strenuous and your mind is getting stressful? How you need a break and how you crave for a vacation to relax and unwind. My guess is as good as yours – almost all of us feel the same. And all these are symptoms of a stressed mind and body.

Stress - that’s killing us slowly, that is sucking the daylights out of us human beings and turning us into nervous wrecks. Okay excluding the ‘boss types’, their lives might be a bit easier than us mortal humans but then, they too have their share of decision-making stress. Well, the point is all of us have our own home-grown version of job-related stress. It is time that we do something about it, and what best way to fight it out than by going on a vacation.

Vacations have the potential to break into the stress cycle. Not only would you emerge from a holiday feeling ready to take on the world again, you are also likely to gain new perspectives to fix your problems. Apart from that vacations are the best way of relaxing with your families or with your friends.

While there is no denying that traveling opens up your mind and takes your mind off that undue stress, but an unplanned or unorganised planning trip might add to your stress than take any away. So, it is best to keep certain things in mind before you plan your stress busting holiday. Here’s the checklist:

Plan in advance

This is no 1990s people. You don’t need to go to the library or depend wholly and solely on your travel agent to help you plan and book a trip. This is the internet age and you can finalise the location, the hotel room, the view from your balcony and everything that you can think of all at the click of a button. Go online and browse through the destinations that you would like to go to, then finalise a place as well as your itinerary before packing your bags for the big trip.

Leave the guilt home

Relax and unwind: You deserve every bit of that break

You DESERVE it. Yes. Every human being worth its while has the right to enjoy a few days of peace and calm without a single worry over his head. So, if you are taking time out to go on a vacation, khud par ek ehsaan karna, leave that guilt of – What will happen in office in my absence? Am I doing the right thing? What will my boss think? – home. You don’t need this extra baggage.

Make it an adventure

Now, everyone has a different idea of adventure. For some, adventure is rafting in white waters of Rishikesh and for some it is exploring an unknown destination like villages of Assam. Whatever your idea of adventure is, make sure you do a few things out of your comfort zone. Relaxing at the beach with a book in hand is good, but how about going surfing on those beach waters? Doing something different will make it an adventure.

Be ready for adversities

Though vacations are happy times, god forbid if anything goes wrong, you should be in a position to help yourself and your family. So take this practical advice and keep a medical box handy for medical emergencies. If travelling abroad keep xerox copies of your passport and visa. Travel light, not just in terms of clothes, but also in terms of cash, so that you don’t have to worry about it.

Take home memories

Yes.. I was there :)

Vacations are the best way of making memories and then cherishing them later. Camera rolls ke zamane gaye. Now you don’t have to worry about carrying 10 rolls of film for a 10-day trip. Digital cameras have made life much easier so that you can click hundreds of pictures and make hundreds of memories.

Another way of taking that memory of your vacation back home with you is by buying souvenirs. Those kitchen magnets or those small trinkets make for perfect nostalgic pieces that would remind you of those good old days.

Keep these small pointers in mind and set out to sail. Give that stress a break and go out to reclaim your life… after all you only live once, and it isn’t worth dying behind the desk. Is it?

All pictures copyright: Suruchi Sharma Diwan

 

 

Top 5 destinations for adventurers

For those who enjoy living on the edge and want their trips full of adrenaline rush and adventurous activities, here’s my pick of top five destinations that you should travel to feel pumped up...

Adventurers’ paradise

The ultimate adrenaline rush. Pic: balitourvacation

Multiple adventures, one destination – that’s Bali for you. Great surf, ancient temples, lush jungle, you will find all this and more at one of the most spectacular locations on planet Earth. Known as Indonesia’s paradise, Bali is an excellent place to discover something new. Many a times you must have heard people talking or raving about the picturesque beaches in Bali, however there are a lot of daredevil experiences to be had.

Bring forth the adventurer in you and enjoy the rapids of Ayung River that make for an amazing wild white water rafting ride. To challenge yourself, you can go cycling down the steep slopes of the Mount Batur volcano. If all this sweat through physical activity doesn’t take your breath away, the amazing views over endless green valleys and rice fields, lined with tiny Balinese villages, definitely will.

Under water thrills

Discover the underwater world and be amazed! Pic: cozumelscuba.net

If you are a water baby and enjoy stunts and adventures related to water, especially underwater exploring, then there is no place quite like Mexico’s Palancar Reef. Be it exploring and watching other worldly marine life or challenging yourself with some technically powerful dives, Palancar Reef is the place to be. Diving deep at this huge site off the southwest side of the island of Cozumel, you can even venture into the Palancar Caves to gaze at large brain corals and explore swim-through tunnels, or the Palancar Gardens to look at the tropical fish and perhaps even spot an enormous sea turtle.

Life on a wild safari

Jungle love. Pic: riftvalleyexpeditions.com

As a child, how many of you envisioned a trip to African forests to meet the wild, giant gorilla? At least I did. So, it is but natural that an expedition to an African country to meet mountain gorillas could be a trip that’s on many an adventurous travellers final check list. To make this childhood fantasy come true, all you need to do is pack your bags and travel to Uganda. Gorillas are now an endangered species, and there are only around 800 left in the world. Out of this number, over half of these gorillas live in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Mgahinga Gorilla Park.

Tracking or trailing gorillas can be an arduous experience, however the unimaginable reward of seeing these rare beasts in the wild will certainly make you happy that you pushed yourself.

Bollywood’s go to destination

Awesome natural beauty. Pic: screativeimage.com

While talking about top destinations for adventure, how can we leave Switzerland out? Made so famous by our Bollywood films, Switzerland is an ideal place for those who love doing their adventure in the midst of beautiful surroundings.

Skiing at the Alps is one thing, however if you want to challenge yourself, then get out of your comfort zone and out on the risky Via Ferrata from Mürren to Gimmelwald. This ‘iron road’ of ladders, ropes and rungs, and a petrifyingly high steel suspension bridge, was formerly built for troops making their way through the mountains in World War I. These days, adventure junkies make the dizzying, 2.2km journey on careful harness, just for kicks. Though it is very safe, first timers should rent a guide in order to learn the proper techniques. 

Conquering the mountains

The charm of mountain life. Pic: travelpod.com

Pic: c14l.com

Yangshuo, a charming former fishing village, has found itself christened the adventure capital of China – partly due to its approachability, but principally due to the rock-climbing opportunities afforded by its several limestone karst peaks that rise extraordinarily from the thick emerald-green vegetation. A lively scene of local and international climbers enjoy, without a doubt, one of the best concentration of climbs in Asia, most of which are accessible by a short bike or bus ride from downtown. Many routes are well secured, though the more daring climber can still find fresh, and in some cases near vertical, routes to master.

What’s your travel personality?

True, everybody needs a holiday, but a perfect holiday differs from person to person. Whether you prefer a relaxing break by the beach or an adventurous trip exploring unknown locations, travel becomes easy and a lot more fun when you know what kind of traveller you are…

 

Explore the world....

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of travel? Does your mind jump to the finances first, making mental calculations of what place or destination would prove more economical or does the hippie in you take over, bringing forth your wanderlust regardless of where and how you will travel?
While there is no debating the fact that in our busy lives, we all crave for that one holiday every season that will rejuvenate you and make you feel alive again, yet planning a travel can be a task in itself. Do you travel solo or with friends? Plan a vacation with family or try going with an unknown group on a Europe or Asian tour? Go bungee jumping and skiing or soak in the picturesque greenery of a countryside? There are countless questions to address while organising a trip, often making the ‘planning’ part of a vacation a big task. However, these numerous ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ can be resolved if you know the answer to one simple question – what is your travel personality?
There are many kinds of travel personalities, and often we’re a bit of a mixture of them ourselves. But finding out your own travel personality will help you a great deal in preparing for your next trip. Here’s a look at some of the travel personalities:

A Traveller or a tourist

If you have travelled around a lot and are through with your bit of sightseeing, but are still travelling to satisfy that inner urge of finding meaning or seeking something new then you fall in the category of a Traveller. The Traveller is not usually a first timer. He/ she has mostly been there, done that in terms of sightseeing and clicking pictures from the window of a tour bus. Now they want something more - experiencing a country and its culture from the inside.
A Tourist, on the other hand, is mostly a first timer, who tends to travel to popular destinations in order to tick off the sights. They like to travel in groups, with a check list in hand, visiting all the famous places and clicking pictures, so that they can later boast about where all they went. Sticking to a given itinerary, they are the ones most likely to buy souvenirs like ‘I love London’ tees or Eiffel Tower key chains and later flaunt them to their friends or family. And the good thing is, they are usually happy doing this kind of travel.

The ultimate adrenaline rush

The Adventurer

Open-minded, enthusiastic, explorer, fun-loving, curious and social – these are the words that best describe the Adventurer. The Adventurer are  more or less an off shoot of the Traveller as they like to explore off beaten destinations and will usually travel more often than anyone else seeking adventure at every turn. There are no fixed schedules or planned tours in an adventurer’s diary. They’re happy to lie down pretty much anywhere, find or make their own routes and interact with people while exploring their culture. Most of these adventurers prefer to travel solo as they love their freedom to move just about anywhere.

The Planner

If you have the habit of preparing excel sheets before every departure and like to travel with a map and a guide book in hand, with destinations dully marked with ETA and all, then you most definitely fall in the category of being a Planner. The Planner usually has everything listed out, right down to places to eat and which tour to catch, on their excel sheets. It is unlikely to find a Planner taking a break in between his/ her sightseeing to enjoy a cup of coffee or being impulsive and taking a detour to visit an exciting exhibition. Weather they are travelling for the first time or not to a certain destination, the Planners like to be in control of every aspect of their itinerary.

The Relaxer

Chill, relax, unwind....

Relaxers don’t really care where they go on holiday they’ve just gone there to chill. These are the kind of people who have worked hard in their 9-5 job, and now just want to soak in the beauty of nature and relax, while doing nothing on their holiday. A Relaxer will typically book into a country house or a beach resort and stay put for the rest of the week. You will find them leaving their room only to go out for dinner – usually at the same place every night – or maybe take a day tour. They are the ones you will find staying in bed all morning, preferring to have their breakfast in their room or sit by the pool or beach the rest of the day. In short, words like explore, adventure, socializing, etc are not in their dictionary. Be careful if you are planning a trip with a Relaxer – it can be real hard work to get them moving.

Spender or miser?

We all must have come across this category at least once during our travel, unless you have always travelled solo. Both these kind of personalities come to the forefront when you travel in a group – someone would want to stay in a cheap hotel to save money, the other might want a hotel with a spa and a pool. While we all must have done frugal travel when we were students and money was always an issue, but for some frugal travel becomes a permanent mode of travel.
 The Splurger, on the other hand, often goes somewhere simply to spend all their monthly savings. They plan their travel keeping in mind all the luxuries available. The Splurger is most likely to be a person who works hard, earns a good pay packet and believes that he/ she deserves a bit of luxury. They are most likely to book into a five star hotel will all the possible treats available. They might not be a part of a group while deciding what all places to see, but will be at the forefront while booking a hotel or while zeroing in on a place to eat.
These are just a few broad categories of travel personalities that one might come across in his/her life. However, this is by no means a comprehensive list and it is possible to have various traits from several categories.

So which category do you fall in?