Controversial Travel Tips

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Today: Controversial Travel Tips (that you wouldn’t usually hear)

Now I am no travel guru, but lately I have found myself spending just as much time abroad as at home - it is safe to say I have the bug. As you may have seen, I have experienced some pretty epic travel fails, but I haven’t shared any of my epic success’. So today, I want to share some of my more controversial travelling tips that have led me to some cool stories (well at least I think so).

1. Don’t plan!

Sounds backwards, but I am a firm believer in the spontaneity of travel adventures.  Don’t take me wrong, I think it’s great to know the main things you want to see/do in a destination, but planning all of your activities, everyday – NO WAY. Imagine you’re at a hostel and everyone is talking about renting a van the next day to go visit some waterfall you’ve never even heard of, but you’ve actually booked some random activity you saw online 6 months ago. Definitely take this with a grain of salt – if you have a dream tour you want to go on, of course book that in advance but leave room for spontaneity I say! The inspired unemployed have suggested it before, but I say (depending on the type of travel you are doing) book the first few nights, then see where the wind takes you after that… I know this isn’t everyone’s style and that’s okay, like I said most of these are controversial and heavily attributed to my naïve optimism.

As an example, when backpacking Europe, a couple mates and I booked our first week’s accommodation, a few nights in London and a few nights in Barcelona. We had a rough idea of our plan, making our away down the Spanish coast then flying to Italy but then… we met two Canadians in our hostel who were going to go to Ibiza… well that sounds fun doesn’t it. So switcheroo, we booked flights and a room the same day we flew over and partied together for days. After that, we were going to go back to the mainland but saw that Ryan Air flights to Germany were just about the same price, we’d had enough time by the beach, let’s go there. My lovely girlfriend also happened be passing through there at the same time on her Contiki tour, so I was able to turn my snap maps off, freak her out, and surprise in the lobby of her hotel. And it just goes on from there – our trip panned out completely different to how we had planned and in my opinion for the better!

2. Use TikTok!!!

This was a big one that I did not expect. Any spot that you’re in, search ‘hidden gems ______’. If you don’t make any local friends who know the hidden spots, this is the next best thing. It is wild how many of our days in Europe were dictated by random TikTok videos. Here are a few examples:

• The best of all, our secluded sunset spot in Santorini. Everyone knows Santorini as one of the best places to watch the sunset in the world – dipping below the horizon on the ocean with the picturesque backdrop of white and blue buildings lining the mountain. But what you don’t realise is that on any given day, there are 5000 odd people trying to catch glimpse of the magic from the ONE main path. It was PACKED to say the least. But one quick TikTok search and I stumbled across a video titled ‘secret sunset spot Santorini’. And sure enough, just like the video showed, there was a hidden cave, no more than 50m off the path, hidden around the corner, empty!  It looked a little like this:

• Everywhere we went around Mallorca, Spain! We knew the island would be home to some beautiful beaches, but we were not expecting to come across secluded natural wonders all to ourselves.  Once again, all thanks to a couple of TikToks; and the same can be said for everywhere we rode around Paros, Greece. Really, I think TikTok is like the new and improved Lonely Planet travel guide.

• Back to Santorini, I think one of the coolest places I have ever been cliff jumping was the result of another ‘secret spot’ TikTok.  I got a few funny looks from my friends as I guided them along a sketchy seaside ridge, but then it opened up to paradise - literally just around the corner from a popular street of restaurants!

3. Fly where it’s cheapest with Google flights

I only became aware of this tool recently and I think it is epic - if you are flexible on locations and dates 🤣. Essentially, Google Flights has a search function where you can enter your city of departure and select any month (within the next six), and it will show you, on the map, the cheapest flights to every major destination in that month. Here is an example flying out of Brisbane in August:

Now most people generally have a pretty good, if not exact, idea of where they intend on travelling, but if you are flexible - say like a backpacker in Europe - this tool should be your best friend. I mean $35 from London to Budapest is crazy (see example below flying out of London sometime in August):

I didn’t know about this Google Flights ‘hack’ at the time, but when backpacking Europe, as I explained, we took this 'fly where it’s cheapest approach’ - and LOVED IT.

In summary, never underestimate the power of spontaneity, TikTok, and Google Flights when travelling :)

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