Passion of travelling and a busy family

Being a full time Homemaker,  makes it difficult for me to travel whenever I wish. We as a family of a school going kid and a full time professional,  have carved some ways to fulfill our passion. And I know this is the problem with most of us, when the child has holidays, the husband has important projects to finish. When husband is somewhat relaxed!!!

child is having his tests and assignments. We don't want to disturb neither the studies and off course nor the important projects. In the past we missed some of our planned holidays due to this..... Not now, as we have found some ways. I am jotting down them the way we have devised

1. We have divided holidays in two parts.. Indian and Out of India... again Indian holidays into Mumbai and near Mumbai (as we live in Mumbai) and Others.

2. When there are 3-4 consecutive holidays, which happens at least once every year, we travel in Mumbai or to nearby places. There is lot to explore.

3. Every alternate year we have started going out of India. Plan is..... one year we will go to nearby countries, which can be seen in less days and next time a faraway country

4. When we travel more, we realise that every tourist attraction mentioned in the book, whether in India or out of India, is not worth spending time. e.g. every hilly area may have waterfalls, we skip the common types. There are cable cars or gondolas in many places, if not of some special type or not necessary to travel by, we don't waste time in that. Rides in theme parks may be common with change of name or a slight variation in design, which can be easily skipped.

5. To increase the tourism of a particular place, every park, every museum, every hill or every waterfall is mentioned as its tourist place. Wisely we can choose the places to visit as per our choice. Whether we are interested in history, nature, man made wonders, art and culture or a mix of all.

For us it is always a mix of all.

6. When we decide to visit a particular place, first of all we make a list of all the things unique to that place with the help of www.lonelyplanet.com or Lonely planet guide for that place or from  www.tripadvisor.com . Then we read reviews from Tripadvisor or blogs on Internet and sort the list. Then as per days available for travelling, we make the crisp and clean final list with final itinerary. Here to fill time, we again add some nearby park or beach etc.

7. Itinerary should never be very tight. Some relaxation time in between adds to the enjoyment. These parks or beaches serve that purpose and we can enjoy watching local crowd too.

8. It is desirable to visit all tourist attractions of a particular place but it is not at all necessary that just to add to the list we pay a visit of touch and go.

9. Travel by local transport adds to the charm of travelling, though private cab may be fastest way to cover all the places of interest. Local transport helps to get the feel of that place.

10. Various blogs by locals or seasoned travellers help reduce time of travelling. Tiny tit bits of tips poured by them here and there make travelling more enjoyable.

We always take time to walk around local markets or alleys like locals... this is our way of travelling.

 

 

Looking forward to many more such trips