Travels & Tips

I enjoy travelling, and, on average, travel to 2-3 new countries a year. And before you ask, no I am not rich. Here are some of the places I've been:

Europe

• Latvia
• Estonia
• Sweden
• UK
• Poland
• Denmark
• Slovakia
• Germany
• France
• Spain
• Austria
• Italy
• Greece
• Belarus
• Hungary
• Czech Republic
• Bulgaria

Asia

• Turkey
• Sakartvelo
• UAE
• India
• Thailand
• Japan

The secret to cheap travelling is being available when things are on sale. Usually, discounts for both accomodation and tickets, are at their peak on off-seasons. In europe, that time is late-autum or late-spring. While in asia, that time is during summer season, due to the monsoons and tsunamis.

Finding plane tickets

I use Skyscanner.

My favorite destination when using Skyscanner:

From: Lithuania, To: Everywhere, Depart: Cheapest month, Return: Cheapest month

You can search by airport, by country, by loose and by very specific timeframes.

The downside of cheap flying is that you have to deal with, sometimes multiple stops and layovers. Once, when flying from Budapest to Vilnius, I had to stop in UK and Denmark for a layover (total around 24 hours), before reaching my destination. Another time, when flying from Japan, I had to stop in Beijing and wait 8 hours, before my 10 hour flight to Warsaw. But hey, it was cheap.

Selecting a flight with a departure and arrival date is fun. What's more fun is travelling via multi-city routes. If you have that much availability, you could travel to every european country (27) in three months for a total of about 250 euro at discount peak in Autumn.

The expensive part of the trip is not the plane tickets - it's the acommodation and food.

Where to sleep

The two obvious ones are Airbnb and Booking.com. They are both similar in price, so it is more of a "pick your poison" situation. I've looked through other options, but even in Asia, these 2 are most popular.

Hostels

If you're just fresh out of highschool and want a different perspective on the world, hostels are the way to go.

Hostels are a blast, if you're travelling solo or with a friend, and looking to mingle with other travellers and do some sightseeing together.

Once, in Madrid, I met these two polish dudes, and we spent about 3 days going to various museums, restaurants and pubs. Another time, in Barcelona, I met two german girls who were hitchhiking to Morocco, and we went out to the beach to enjoy some wine.

Sometimes, a hostel may have bikes, like in Liepaja, which you can rent for a day and travel the city that way. Other times, like in Trieste, the hostel was 7-8 km from the city center, and I had to get around by bus (thankfully, the infrastructure there is good).

There's also a shared kitchen where you can cook your meals, and some of them, like the one in Barcelona and Trieste, even offer free breakfast.

The only problem is that you can't leave your things just lying around. Sometimes there's a locker for your items, sometimes not, so you have to be wary of your possessions at all times. That is why, I recommend staying in hostels only when you're travelling with just a backpack on your back and no extra luggage.

Hostel pros:

• Cheap
• Social
• Rentable bikes
• Good location usually
• Kitchen to cook

Private Rooms / Apartments

If you like your privacy and are travelling with someone, then checking out a room or an apartment is your goto.

Usually, a fair quality to price ratio for an Airbnb is in a 2km radius from the center. In Budapest, a decently priced airbnb for me was 200m from the center, while in Prague, about 2.5km.

Most of the times there will be a kitchen (unless you're in a resort), which eliminates a lot of the food costs and, rarely, there's even a free breakfast included (happened in Zakopane).

Private room/apartment pros:

• Fairly cheap
• Privacy
• Kitchen to cook

Hotels

In all of my travels, I only stayed in a hotel twice, in Nafplio and Innsbruck, only because it was cheaper, at the time, than any Airbnb around.

They are made specifically for one thing and one thing only - to make as much money from you as possible.

Hotel pros:

• You'll find one anywhere
• Privacy
• Perfect for a vacation

Packing

There are only a couple of items one needs to travel in the modern world: clothing, passport, money, phone, a phone charger and toilet paper (also pads for women). Everything else is up for debate.

Never go too crazy with clothing. Socks - 3 pairs - one on your feet, two in your bag. Underwear - 3 pairs - one on you, two in the bag. T-shirts - 2 pairs - one on you, one in the bag. One jumper tied around your waist, a pair of comfortable pants and a pair of shorts. If you're going to a cold place, put on a warm coat. If you're going to a warm place, pack a summer jacket if the temperature at night is below 20 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the jumper will make do.

One thing you shouldn't underestimate is moisture and rain. Always protect your electronics by putting them in plastic bags. Always carry a cheap store-bought plastic raincoat. It will fit anywhere, is super light, unlike an umbrella, and you can dry it out and reuse it. Mine is more than 5 years old.

If you work remotely, you should get a travel-size computer. I recommend getting an older Thinkpad X series (I use X220). These IBM-grade computers are made to last and will handle 99% of any type of remote work (rip 3d animators and phone app soydevs). The best part is that they are cheap (mine cost 100 euros).

Bus tickets

Flixbus for international European travel as well as travelling inside a country between cities. Flixbus was the best way to get around Denmark, Poland and Germany. It is also how I visited Venice, by taking a day trip from Trieste.

However, where English is not spoken so well, for busses between a single countries cities, it is best to just go to the bus station in that city and ask there. It was unplanned but, by going to the bus station in Madrid and asking random destinations, this is how I visited Gibraltar.

As for riding inner city busses, use Google Maps. Pick your destination route, and then select the bus icon, which will then give you a route and time schedule for the bus. You can even view all of the stops your bus will stop at! To buy a ticket on the inner city bus, you can hop on the bus and go up to the driver and ask for a ticket.

For third world countries, ask the locals.

Food

Plan in advance and do more cooking.

Before visiting a country, I look over their national dishes and choose two to four dishes that I want to try while I'm there.

I will then try those dishes throughout my stay, and other times I will cook food (if there's a kitchen).

Hitchhiking

Stand by the road, hold your thumb out and smile. When somebody stops, ask if they are in the direction you're going and if they can take you there. That's it. That is how I managed to go from Utena to Budapest in about a week.

The most important thing when hitchhiking is good shoes.

No snacks or food, only a single water bottle. My plan was to eat as we go and avoid the extra weight. For sleeping, I had a tent in hand, a sleeping bag and a green mat.

Proof

When travelling, I film videos and take pictures for my photo albums.