Search for independent travel. How to start traveling around the world cheaply and independently: from Europe to the most distant corners. Don't buy what you can get for free

Every experienced traveler will say that there is nothing complicated in planning your next trip. But for a beginner, this task may seem not so much difficult as new and frightening. After all, the success of the entire journey largely depends on preparation. Logistics, accommodation, on-site programs, country specifics, local prices and the “right” places to shop are just a small part of what needs to be found and implemented. And for this, we have collected useful resources and services that can be useful at the initial stage of real travel.

I don’t know what will force me to buy a ready-made trip from a tour operator now (except for a super unrealistic price that will cover the costs of flights and accommodation), because planning an independent trip is easy and simple. Often the trip turns out, if not cheaper, then much richer and more interesting. So let's get started!

How much?

Numbeo- a convenient option to find out how much housing, food, transportation, etc. cost in the country where you are going to go. Just select the desired criterion and estimate the budget for your trip.

How to get there

Kayak- We are looking for plane tickets. In my experience, he was the one who always gave me the cheapest prices for air travel. And, of course, don’t forget about flying out of Russia.

And if you don’t know where to go on a trip, you have a direct route to Drungli. This site will tell you where you can fly cheapest from your city on a specific date or display a table of prices for the entire month.

What to look for: what airport the plane arrives at (important for logistics or transfers), conditions for returning and exchanging tickets, baggage rules, meals on board.

Where to live

Hotels Combined - decent metasearch engine for hotels in different countries, thanks to which you do not have to check all the booking sites you know. On the site Bed and Breakfast you can find a B&B hotel (I just love them). Apart from searching for hotels, there is also a good content section with travel ideas and tips.

But hotels are not the only one possible variant for a stopover while traveling. On service Airbnb you can find an apartment, and on the website Hostels- find a cheap hostel. The website is useful for travelers with children Kids@Coe oriented towards family travel.

What to look for: Are local taxes, meals, and cancellation conditions included in the price?

What to do on the spot

Personally, I love getting to know real life in every new country and the city where I visit, so I always look for local friends on Couchsurfing. After all, they can not only give practical advice, but also arrange a tour, show you life from the inside, and even feed you lunch. In addition, you can always track parties and other activities organized by “surfers” in a particular city. Meeting similar travelers in person is always interesting and fun.

Second option - arrange an official tour with local resident, for example, using the service Tripster. By the way, here you can not only find a tour from the locals, but also ask the service participants a question of interest.

Smorodina- a startup guide to Russia that will tell you where to go and what to do without leaving the country home country. Also from travelers for travelers.

In addition to Couchsurfing and Tripster, there are several other resources for finding travel tips and advice.

TripAdvisor- reviews of hotels, restaurants, beaches, etc. - a huge database of all kinds of objects and activities around the world. By the way, here you can find reviews about the hotel that you liked, for example, by price or location.

Gogobot - is somewhat similar to TripAdvisor, but also has a large community of traveler interests. On Gogobot you can ask a question or make a recommendation to others.

Travelers for travelers– another community of travelers from different countries focused on budget travel and exploring local life and culture.

Find an expert

Don't have the desire or time to do everything yourself? Increase your budget by 10 - 20 € and order the desired service from others.

GO2- on this platform there is a good services section, where experienced travelers offer their assistance to beginners. For example, developing logistics, searching for plane tickets or housing options. There is no fixed price for any service, so you can negotiate with each expert individually.

Skillflick - A resource for finding local services in London, from excursions to clarinet lessons or professional wedding photography.

I think most of these services are familiar to experienced travelers or have alternatives. However, they will certainly be useful to those who are just taking their first steps in organizing independent trips.

If you are tired of package tours and your soul demands freedom and new places, you can join the ranks of independent travelers. All you need is a basic English language, a thirst for travel and knowledge of some tricks, how save on air tickets, housing, calls and much more:

Air travel

1. Search engines cheap tickets and hotels on Aviasales you can catch super-profitable special offers from airlines and view the calendar low prices for the dates and destinations you choose. This company has an office in Phuket and regularly orders logo sweatshirts from UniFashion.

2. AzAir – search engine for low-cost airlines, which usually do not appear in standard search engines.

3. The Kayak resource searches for tickets to given destinations simultaneously on more than two hundred sites and is sure to find the most Best offer. There is also a trick: the site has an interesting weekend flight button, by clicking on which you will see offers of flights to the desired city and an analysis of prices for the next 4-5 weekend dates.

3. Momondo is a great site for finding low-cost flights. Compares prices from more than 600 sites.

4. Skyscanner has an interesting feature that allows you to select dates that are convenient for you, and then, using the “show me everything” option, searches for places where it will be cheapest to get to. This is my favorite site :)

Housing

5. Couchsurfing is not a site with free accommodation, it is a community of people around the world who are ready to host guests from other countries in their home completely free of charge for the purpose of communication and cultural exchange. You can not only learn more about the non-tourist life of the country and city you visit, but also make good friends all over the world! The site has a system of reviews about guests and hosts.

6. is the largest site for rental housing from homeowners in 192 countries. You can find very colorful inexpensive apartments and rooms, as well as live in completely non-standard dwellings, for example, in a “house for gnomes,” a yacht moored in the port, or a castle.

7. HostelWorld is the largest resource for finding hostels around the world. The system of ratings and reviews of travelers will allow you to choose the best option.

9. Booking is one of the most popular services for booking hotels. Lots of reviews, convenient phone app. Most often I use this one.

10. TripAdvisor is a site where, in addition to the standard functions of searching for flights and accommodation, you can find a large number of reviews and real photos of hotels from users from all over the world.

Cheap tours and special offers

11. Piratesru, TripToDream, Vandrouki, BudgetWorld - 4 of the best sites with ready-made special offers from all over the Internet. In Europe for 1 euro, in China for 15,000 rubles - all this can be found on these sites.

Internal moves

12. AutoEurope – a resource that allows you to compare car rental prices from different companies in Europe.

13. ON the Seat61 website you can find out how to get from one point to another by train, and also see which company serves this section, so that you can then go to the company’s website and book or buy a ticket.

14. On the Thalys website you can view the schedule and buy tickets for trains that travel between Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany. The sooner you worry about buying a ticket, the cheaper it will cost.

15. Viamichelin is an indispensable service for anyone planning a road trip around Europe. Here you can download a map of the country or region you are interested in, and also not only plan a route between two points. There are also interesting options - the shortest route, the most economical, passing through the largest number of attractions, and so on.

16. MyWorldMap and World66 – services for compiling your general map travel. You can mark the countries and cities that you have visited, and the site will automatically draw your world map and show how much detail you have covered in a particular country.

17. Jetseller is a travel community that provides access to highly relevant information and exclusive offers on holidays around the world!

18. Evaphone – a resource that allows you to make free calls to anywhere in the world 2 times a day (1 minute call).

19. Dropbox – can store files up to 2GB for free. You can download all the materials you need for your trip, and then retrieve them using any computer connected to the World Wide Web.

I use Google.Drive and Cloud.Mail.ru. Google is good because it is compatible with everything else and the company’s services, and the Mail cloud gave away 1 Terabyte for free for the new year.

20. Travelpost and Atlarge (English) - will tell you what the quality of WiFi Internet is, whether it is free and whether it is available at all various airports peace

Ecology of life. Leisure: Vacationing on your own for the first time is always scary. To make your decision easier, choose a country that is friendly and convenient for travel. Best of all - no language barrier. Start with any country from our list and you won’t notice how travel agencies will become unnecessary.

Going on vacation on your own for the first time is always scary. To make your decision easier, choose a country that is friendly and convenient for travel. Best of all - no language barrier. Start with any country from our list and you won’t notice how travel agencies will become unnecessary.

Preparing for an independent trip takes longer than buying a ready-made tour, but it is more interesting and not like others. To save on airfare, plan travel and find good accommodation. In this article, we have collected five ideal countries for your first vacation without a package tour.

Latvia

Why Latvia: Close and understandable Europe without language problems.

What about the visa: To travel to Latvia you need a regular Schengen visa.

When to go to Latvia: The best time in Latvia is from May to September. Come lie on the beach and splash in the Baltic Sea from the end of June to the end of August. And in December you will be taken straight to the Christmas markets.

Latvia is a foreign country, but not quite: everyone here speaks Russian, from schoolchildren to pensioners. So they can easily tell you how to get to the street where “Seventeen Moments of Spring” and “Sherlock Holmes” were filmed. Despite the Russian language, the atmosphere in Riga and other Latvian cities is European: narrow streets, organ music, castles, colorful houses, tower spiers and a pleasant crowd on the leisurely promenade. In order not to miss anything interesting, keep your inner fire burning with Latvian cuisine. In addition to caraway cheese and peas with bacon, you will find unexpected bread soup with raisins and cinnamon, and bread ice cream.

Even if you only come to Riga for the weekend, consider that your first experience of traveling in Europe was a success. Moreover, it’s not far from the capital to Jurmala: at the same time you can relax at the sea. The next level is to sit down with a map and plan a trip to the cities, beaches and national parks of Latvia. You can travel by buses and trains - try it, it's not difficult.

Route around Latvia:

1. Fall in love with Riga. Take a walk among the Latvian Art Nouveau houses, find the monument to the Bremen Town Musicians, listen to the organ in the Dome Cathedral and remember the taste of Riga Balsam.

2. Hang out in Sigulda. Take a ride on the bobsled and ski slopes, listen to the echoes in Gutman's Cave and explore the ruins of Sigulda Castle. Don't forget the ruins of Krimulda and the lovingly restored Turaida Castle.

3. Visit Cesis Castle. Climb the tower along the narrow spiral staircase. And then, in the flickering of candles in hand-held vintage lanterns, go down to the basement where there used to be a prison.

4. Wander through the streets of Bauska. Find the ornate town hall and see the ancient cannons at Bauska Castle. At the same time, admire the magnificent Rundāle Palace - it is a 15-minute drive away.

5. Escape from the sea foam in Jurmala. Swim in the sea and frolic in the water park, and when you want something different, follow the Great Kemeri Swamp trail and head to the pretty town of Tukums.

Georgia

Why Georgia: They speak Russian, cook amazing khachapuri and treat guests like family.

What about the visa: Russians can spend a whole year in Georgia without a visa. Just don't forget your passport.

When to go to Georgia: Georgia is especially beautiful in May-June and from September to early October. Trekking in the mountains is good from June to September, and December-April is the best time to ski.

Georgia is good and calm even for those who have never traveled beyond their own dacha before. The locals are so hospitable that it’s easier to find the way the old fashioned way without a navigator, and conversations themselves turn into toasts. Having relaxed, you notice that the handsome Kazbek is floating out of the clouds, ancient temples are looking down from the hills, and even an ordinary stall with churchkhela looks like a treasure chest. The menu in the restaurant makes you want to sing, not read: khinkali, lobio, pkhali, ajapsandali, ojakhuri.

There are activities for everyone in Georgia. Swim in the sea, go to the mountains, take a steam bath in sulfur baths, wander around cave cities or take a winery tour. If you want everything at once, so much the better. At the same time, make sure that your independent journey has nothing in common with the plot of the movie “The Revenant.”

Route in Georgia:

1. Become your own in Tbilisi. See the carved balconies in the Old Town, try healing power sulfur baths in the Abanotubani quarter, take the cable car to the Narikala fortress, and finally buy a wine horn at the flea market.

2. Take a ride along the Georgian Military Road. Cross the Cross Pass, listen to the roar of the Terek and fall in love with the mountain scenery. Stop overnight in Stepantsminda or Gergeti and eat khachapuri with a view of Kazbek.

3. Try wonderful Georgian wines. In two days in Kakheti you will have time to taste drinks in five to ten wineries and wineries, and at the same time be impressed by the size of the qvevri. You can stay in Sighnaghi or Telavi, both towns are just like in the picture.

4. Visit Mtskheta - the oldest city countries. Place the candle in cathedral Svetitskhoveli: according to legend, the tunic of the Lord is buried under it. And also go up to the Jvari temple, about which Lermontov wrote in “Mtsyri”.

5. Delve deeper into cave cities. In Uplistsikhe, where Queen Tamara was crowned, do not miss the ancient pharmacy. In Vardzia, set aside at least half a day to thoroughly explore the secret tunnels, steep staircases and cave temples.

6. Relax by the sea in Batumi. Expose your sides to the sun right on the city beach. Or take a minibus and find yourself in Kvariati, Gonio or Sarpi, where the water is bluer and the scenery more beautiful.

Thailand

Why Thailand: Summer all year round, sun, exotic fruits and smiles.

What about the visa?: If you do not plan to stay in Thailand for more than a month, you do not need a visa.

When to go to Thailand: From November to February there is excellent weather in the north of Thailand. On the Andaman coast - Phuket, Krabi - the season lasts from November to the end of April, then the rains begin. In the Gulf of Thailand - Pattaya, Samui, Koh Chang, Hua Hin- good from January to August.

Everything good you've heard about Thailand is true. The islands and beaches are full of bounty, the palaces are luxurious, the food is unusual and tasty, the locals are friendly. Questions are resolved with smiles, and you can find a common language with anyone, even if you know English at the first-grader level. Trains, buses and domestic flights are inexpensive and comfortable, and figuring out when the next flight to Bangkok is easy. An ideal country for your first exotic trip without a travel agency.

The simplest thing is to choose a Thai resort, lie on the beach and make several forays around the surrounding area. It’s more difficult, but more interesting, to first go around several cultural attractions of places, and then relax by the sea.

Thailand route:

1. Explore Bangkok. Visit the reclining Buddha in Wat Pho, take a river taxi ride along the Klong canals, catch a monitor lizard in Lumpini Park and squint at the splendor of the Royal Palace.

2. Get to Ayutthaya - the ancient capital of Siam. Walk among the acting Buddhist temples and atmospheric ruins overgrown with trees. You can stay overnight in Ayutthaya or return to Bangkok.

3. Set course for Chiang Mai. Shop for cute trinkets at the Night Market, admire the pandas at the zoo, circle Wat Chedi Luang in the Old Town and watch the sunrise at Mount Doi Inthanon.

4. Stay in a bungalow among the rice fields. Come to Pai for pastoral peace, hot springs and waterfalls. If you want to see the entire valley at once, go up to the huge White Buddha on the mountainside.

5. Get a bronze tan in Phuket. Lounge on the beach and take a boat ride to the Similan Islands. Also try durian, ride elephants and leave a massage session a different person.

Czech

Why Czech Republic: One of the most inexpensive and beautiful countries in Europe. Many people speak Russian, especially in Prague. And after a couple of glasses of Czech beer, you can already communicate fluently in any language.

What about the visa: You need Schengen, which is easy to get.

When to go to the Czech Republic: The most pleasant weather is from May to October. In December in Prague - around 0 ℃ and whole month Christmas markets sparkle and exude magical aromas.

The Czech Republic lives up to expectations: it’s a fairy tale country. The streets of Prague are beautiful and atmospheric, Karlovy Vary seems to have not changed since the times of Goethe and Beethoven, the castles are probably haunted, and the beer is much tastier than the Czech foam that we sell here. In addition, holidays in the Czech Republic are significantly cheaper than in neighboring Germany and Austria. And if you don’t immediately understand what dumplings and “boar’s knee” are, many restaurants will bring you a menu in Russian.

All it takes is a weekend in Prague to fall in love with the Czech Republic. This a good option for the first time: no need to bother with the route, transport and hotels in different cities. If you like it, look for tickets to the Czech Republic for a week or two and discover other facets of the country: from mineral spas to the reserve with the true name “Czech Paradise”. You can travel by bus and train, or rent a car.

Route in the Czech Republic:

1. Feel the spirit of old Prague. The capital of the Czech Republic is worth admiring Prague Castle, make a wish on the Charles Bridge, climb onto observation tower Petrin, feel the gloomy Kafka Museum and visit the lemurs at the zoo.

2. Travel back to the Middle Ages in the town of Kutna Hora. View the stained glass windows in St. Barbara's Cathedral, go down the silver mine and count the skulls on the chandelier in the Chapel of All Saints, lined with human bones.

3. Admire gothic castle Karlshtein. It stands majestically on a wooded hill near Prague. You are allowed inside the castle only with a guided tour, but you will learn the story of the Karlštejn ghost - the White Lady.

4. Improve your health in Karlovy Vary. Plunge into thermal waters and taste mineral water from a dozen springs. Don’t forget about the 13th: locals claim that Becherovka liqueur is also invigorating and youthful.

5. Find out how Czech beer is brewed. In Pilsen, the beer capital of the Czech Republic, don't limit yourself to tasting the drink in a pub. See the malt dryer and medieval cellars at the Brewery Museum, and walk through a real bottling hall at the Pilsner Urquell distillery.

6. Visit the festival in Cesky Krumlov. At the Festival of the Five-Petal Rose, everyone dresses up in medieval costumes, and knightly tournaments are held in the squares.

7. Get back to nature in Czech Paradise. This reserve features steep sandstone cliffs, dense forest, picturesque paths and miraculous-looking castles, the most famous of which is Trosky.

Montenegro

Why Montenegro: Seaside resort in Europe without a visa and language barrier.

What about the visa: If the trip is shorter than 30 days, a visa to Montenegro is not required. After arrival, you need to register within 24 hours - this is usually done by hotel owners.

When to go to Montenegro: It is best to come in May-June and September-October. In July and August it is hot on the coast and there are crowds of tourists, but it is nice in the mountains. You can swim from mid-May to early October.

Small and cozy Montenegro seems to have been copied from a postcard. Elegant medieval cities, the transparent Adriatic Sea, mountains with combed pine trees and magical lakes - everywhere in Montenegro is beautiful. It’s also inexpensive: you can have a thorough lunch in a cafe for $20 for two, and if you move away from the embankment, it’s even cheaper. There will be no problems with understanding: many speak Russian. And you can easily understand the local language: for example, coffee is kafa, and milk is mleko.

The best way to travel around Montenegro is by car. Ride from one bay to another, and explore the sights along the way. If you love mountains, leave more time for the continental part of the country. You can spend the night in a new place at least every day. And if you don’t want to waste time looking for accommodation, choose a “base”, from where it will be convenient to travel to interesting places in one day. This will not be difficult: in Montenegro everything is close.

Route around Montenegro:

1. Start in charming Kotor. Climb the fortress wall, trample the stone pavements, admire the Venetian style of palaces and churches and choose best route at the local market.

2. Take a ride through the cities of the Bay of Kotor. Just, mind you, without a rigid program. Stop wherever you want, look at the houses with red tile roofs and sit on the verandas of the cafes with a glass of wine.

3. Go to Mount Lovcen. At the top you will find an excellent view of almost the whole of Montenegro, especially from observation deck behind the Njegos Mausoleum. Don't forget to bring a windbreaker: the mountains are cool even in summer.

4. Enjoy the Adriatic Sea. Explore the coastline from Budva to Ulcinj, sunbathe in romantic coves and lose track of time in bougainvillea-covered towns.

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5. Admire nature in national park"Durmitor". Walk along the forest path to the Black Lake, take a swim and pick strawberries. And if you take trekking shoes with you and push hard, you can overcome Bobotov-Kuk.

6. Visit the Ostrog Monastery - one of the most important Orthodox shrines in Montenegro. Be sure to climb to the Upper Monastery to see the temple in a cave on a steep cliff. published

The most useful sites and applications that we and our readers use. To plan a route, search for accommodation, tickets, best places for hitchhiking or looking for food in trash bins. In short, for all occasions.

👾Planning

wikitravel.org- encyclopedia independent travel. All information about interesting places ah, traveling by public transport and between cities. How to use? Search for the city or country you are interested in.

Most information will be in English. But, for Spanish-speaking countries there is often more information in Spanish, for French-speaking countries - in French. So switch the language of the article and use a translator, si tu ne comprends pas;

hitchwiki.org— encyclopedia of hitchhiking. Sea useful information not only for hitchhiking: for example, land border crossing points, where it is better to obtain a visa in neighboring countries. There are articles in Russian, but more information is usually in English;
www.workaway.info is the most popular site for finding volunteer hosts in 170 countries. Registration as a volunteer is paid ($36 for one year and $46 for two);
internationalsos.com- website with up-to-date information about dangerous regions(epidemic, Civil War etc)
forum.awd.ru— the most popular Russian-language forum dedicated to independent travel. Advice: use search;
turbina.ru— tips and notes from Russian-speaking travelers. Advice: use the country navigator;
- the most profitable travel options for Russians. Cheap tickets are often the reason to travel, for example Advice: Subscribe and tell your neighbors and friends.

📚Guides

Guides Lonely Planet— the most popular guidebooks in the world;
Guides Dorling Kindersley- can be found on the root tracker as much as 22GB,
Hunter Travel Guides— another line of guidebooks, link to root tracker;
Even more useful texts can be found on the root tracker in the section "Travel and tourism;
And here's another whole one a bunch of guidebooks;

🛂 Visa rules

traveldoc.aero— a service with a database used by airlines to check current visa rules when boarding a flight. For the most part, the information is relevant for entry through international airports;
Timatic— a good old timatic through which you can find out visa rules for visiting countries through international airports.
Visa requirements for Russian citizens on Wikipedia. The article is updated quite quickly.

The same articles on Wikipedia can be found for citizens of other countries (for example, Belarus or Ukraine). You need to google “Visa requirements for ... [for example Belarus]”

Other information and live experience should be sought on thematic forums. For example those listed above.

☔ Insurance

To obtain a Schengen visa, you will have to apply for one in any case. And it's usually cheaper to apply online. Check where it's cheaper from these sites:

Advice: have you ever visited Belarus?! Or if you are passing through, get insurance there. It can be 2 times cheaper than the same in Russia.

🎫 Search and purchase tickets

✈ Flights

There is probably no perfect airline ticket search engine. The best thing is a combination of several. Use what is more convenient.

Here's what our editors use:

aviasales.ru— search engine for air tickets by default.
azair.eu- search composite routes of low-cost airlines Worldwide. If it doesn’t matter where, indicate in the “To” field - xxx Anywhere. And remember, tickets are for low-cost airlines always cheaper on the airline's website;
momondo.ru— airline ticket search engine. We know, we love, we use;
skyscanner.net— search for air tickets. By specifying the city or country of departure, you can find out where it is cheapest to fly without filling out the “to” window. All gurus do this;
Google Flights— flight ticket search engine from Google;
Yandex Air— domestic search engine for air tickets from Yandex;
Ctrip— a Chinese ticket aggregator when you want a little 你好吗. Sometimes you can find prices cheaper than on popular aggregators;
matrix.itasoftware.com— a search engine for geeks, but you won’t be able to buy through it;

⛺ Overnight

- the most popular site for booking accommodation. Operates all over the world;
hotelscombines.com— the service compares prices for different housing booking systems. You can often find housing cheaper than
airbnb.com— apartment rentals all over the world. An excellent option for traveling with a group of 3-5 people. By the way, when registering you can get 2000 rub. for the first booking;
hostelworld.com— search for hostels around the world. Hostels help not only save money, but also find company or hear interesting stories from travelers;
couchsurfing.com is an important site for the industry of independent travelers, the name of which has already become a household name. Community users exchange communication and a roof over their heads. Recently I need to go through paid account verification (20$) . In the free version you can send only 10 applications per month.

Advice: carefully read host accounts and reviews about them.

trustroots.org— searching for wonderful people who are ready to provide accommodation or show their city. Remember that platforms like this and couchsurfing They exist not for free living, but for interesting communication and sharing good mood.
planet.squat.net- one of the official (if such exist) sites for squatters in Europe.

📌 Maps and search for interesting places

🗺 Cards

maps.google.com— online maps of the whole world. Also creates routes taking into account public transport in many cities. And in the application ( iOS, Android) you can download map fragments for offline use.
maps.me— the best application with offline maps.
Galileo— offline maps, some find more convenient than maps.me.
GoogleTranslate- a translator who can also work offline; for this you need to download the languages in advance.

goes through me great amount traveling brethren with backpacks. And the most frequently discussed question among them: how to travel around the world cheaply? Like, where to start? Where to look for these notorious promotional tickets, where is the best place to book hotels, how to plan a route. What are the special features when visiting a particular country?

Nuances, ambiguities and small subtleties...

It seems like I’ve been traveling for several years now, but I’m constantly encountering new quirks. Either they don’t let you on the flight, then they refuse a visa, then the card is blocked... Especially where, if it’s not an airport, it has its own coordinate system, where it’s somehow not appropriate to go into it with your own regulations.

And you have to constantly keep your finger on the pulse: read, communicate, ask. It's good when you have time. What about those who have planned the route in advance??? Of course, take advantage of your existing experience! That’s what this article will talk about!

It all starts with the map. Research your arrival and departure locations. And it doesn’t matter: whether you go abroad to Europe, whether you trip around the world or ride around your country. All this is easy to do without travel agencies and large labor or material costs.

For example, I have long wanted to see with my own eyes the monument to Duke in Odessa and the Potemkin Stairs, so I built a very strange route, although not without a certain internal logic.

What I usually do:

I always look where the airport is located on the map in relation to the city. Or, for example, a train station in relation to an airport.
I'm looking for public ways to get into the city. Often the airport is connected to the station by some route vehicle: train, shuttle bus, tram, etc. IN major cities except mine hometown, Almaty, there is such a thing! Immediately saves a lot of money on taxis
I'm looking for hotels closer to transport hubs. In China, for example, I always found hotels within walking distance from train stations. The latter, thank God, were almost always in the center (except perhaps in Kashgar somewhere on the outskirts)
I read electronic versions of Lonely Planet. You can easily find it on the internet.
I look at thematic forums. For independent travel to India or Thailand, I always study the Hindustan forums (this is generally a treasure trove, the collective mind works there) and bpclub. Less often - the Vinsky forum. Thematic blogs also help. For example, before my first trip to Thailand, I read life-trip.

Useful tips on transport

Uber taxi. (using my link you will receive a nice bonus of about $5 as a discount). For lazy people, here is the Uber promo code nbq1zaduue. Roughly speaking, these are private owners who register in the Uber system, each have their own rating and can take you anywhere, even in super-luxury cars. I used it in Indonesia, the official price from the airport to Ubud is from 250,000 local rupees (just under 20 dollars), Uber gave 150,000.
Bla-bla-car. If you're going to travel far, take advantage! Also a service for finding travel companions. Lots of options for choosing drivers, cars and departure times. And if you are driving yourself, then this great option Save some money by finding a travel companion for your trip.

Once you have more or less decided on the route, you can start packing your things. Read about the contents of your luggage and how to pack your backpack.

By the way, you can travel just as cheaply through. Of course, there is no such high-tech backpacking there, but it is quite an interesting option.

Here is the roof of the Nepalese bus carrying my things

In general, I am all for learning how to manage finances. Therefore, a little earlier I wrote an article both at home and while traveling. This article can be expanded with all the recommendations available there.

Now it's time to buy air tickets

There will be a separate article about the nuances. Here I will give general recommendations.

I always use only 2 sites to find cheap air tickets:

Option times

Wonderful metasearch engine with the opportunity to choose the most cheap month flight or find the most cheap city in the country you are flying to and from. In general, a huge number of settings and search options.

If you are looking for tickets much in advance (which I highly recommend to find the lowest price), you can subscribe by email to the route and the system will send you email notifications about price changes.

Option two

Their trick is a low price card.

Otherwise, the functionality is a little more modest than that of the Skyscanner. But the tricks of subscribing to a number and direction are also feasible.

Once you have found the ticket you want, do not rush to buy it right away. Visit the airline's website directly. There may be additional sales and discounts there.

So, I managed to find an excellent Moscow-Colombo option from S7 at a price of 17,200 rubles. Moreover, this offer was not listed either on Scyscanner or aviasales, and the carrier was Qatar Airways, which are famous for their service and comfort. For the Qataris themselves, the price for this flight started at 22,000.

Sometimes people ask me which country to start traveling around the world from? I answer: with my own! I'm sure in the most close proximity You have a lot of opportunities for interesting life and adventures.

Go!

This is the algorithm I always use to organize independent travel for both myself and my friends. This is how, for example, we rode. Each of them, of course, will have its own characteristics. However, the main idea always remains the same: use the Internet. Every point is mine personal experience, sore and valuable!