SkyScanner Travel Smart: Living the Yash Chopra Dream!!!

Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

My dream destination has always been Switzerland. Since my childhood days I have fantacised being around Sharukh khan on one of the Yash chopra movie sets. The beautiful Alps in the background, flakes of snow blissfully falling over me and I am dancing hand in hand with the most handsome man in bollywood. Things have changed over the last 14 years since DDLJ was released, Sharukh is no longer as handsome, YRF have explored more lovely places to shoot their romances and I too have reached my 30s. Now I imagine myself with my lovely husband doing campfire, but the Alps background still figures in all my imaginations.



Image Credits: www.englishforum.ch

So I would make a trip to Switzerland as soon as I had saved enough money in my bank account.
The first step is smart planning to maximize the trip in my budget. I do not want to go through any travel agent as they charge unnecessary commission and when all the information is available on the Internet why not utilize it.

Image Credits - Google images

Charting the destinations to go - It is said that Swiss beauty is more in its villages than cities. But I want a mix of both, so I would surf travel sites such as wiki travel, lonely planet, Switzerland tourism to figure out the locations.

Image Credit: http://www.skyscanner.co.in/

Planning for the flights - I would log into skyscanner, the one stop shop for all your travel needs and search for flight options. I will prefer to select the cheapest flight, but I am not sure which airport in Switzerland would have maximum flights from India. So I simply search for "Bangalore" to "Switzerland". The results shows me flights to all the three international airports and a comparative study helps me select the lowest price for my travel dates. I can shuffle my travel dates avoiding weekends to check if further reduced price is available and found one.


Post booking, I would all set with my date of travel and which flights I would go with. Now the next step is to understand the visa formalities and apply for the same.

Travel Insurance: Purchasing travel insurance is mandatory for visa formalities. There are various insurance providers and it can be purchased online.

Image Source: Google

Visa formalities - Since the country falls under EU, I would be required to apply for the Schengen tourist visa. I researched on the vfsglobal.com site and schengen visa site. The procedure described is very easy and does not need an agent to apply for you. Just collect the required documents and apply for an online appointment. The documents requirement mainly include your travel itinerary (day to day travel plan which can be prepared yourself), bank statement (proving you have enough balance in your account) and supporting documents for your itinerary such as travel tickets and hotel bookings.

Once the plan and itinerary is ready, I would go and book my travel tickets. The next step now is to search the right hotel.

Image Credit: http://www.skyscanner.co.in/

Selecting the right hotel - Again skyscanner comes to your rescue with wide range of hotels from different booking sites all at one place. I search for hotels in Zurich first since I would be landing there. The sorting can be done by Price per night and to avoid confusion the rate is shown in Rupees. Since I am budget travelling, I would like to stay in a hostel rather than spend heavily on hotels. So I shortlist few hostels from the list based on their reviews, ratings and distance from the Zurich central station. Taxis can be expensive, especially when you have to pay in CHF, so select a hostel which is nearby the Zurich station.

Similarly I booked hostel rooms for my other travel cities as well.

Travel within the city - Skyscanner offers car hire options to choose from a variety of providers and who would'nt love to roam in the Swiss interiors in a nice convertible.
Most of the country can be covered by public transport and trains. The cities are small enough to be covered on foot with a backpack on. And yes, my research on travel sites/blogs says that most of the tourist spots are close-by to the local station. The country is tourist friendly and have tourist information offices everywhere. All you need to do is just walk in and ask for a map of the city. The map will not only contain the directions, but also the popular tourist spots and how to reach them.
So this is it. I would prefer the public transport system. But to avoid buying tickets at new destinations or being fined for boarding wrong trains, the best option is to go for a Swiss pass where I have the freedom to explore the country in any bus, train, tram or even ferry without any worries.

Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

Swiss Pass - A simple search on google provided me the link to purchasing a Swiss pass. The options were for 4, 8, 15 or 22 days. I would preferably select an 8 day pass for second class and order it online providing my India address for it to be delivered. As promised on their website, the pass arrives in 5 days from ordering it.

Image Source: Google

Smart Packing - I love to travel light, but missing any essentials might cost heavily. So I will make a list of all the important items that need to be carried including camera, phone, credit cards, tickets, visa, passport, some cash, first aid and clothes according to weather.
Check the weather in Switzerland and pack the woolens, jackets, thermals etc properly. I will also pack some packets of cuppa noodles (which can be made instantly by adding hot water), soups and biscuits to survive in case of emergency. Most of the hostels provide coffee makers or boiled water for the cuppa noodles.

Other Smart Tips to follow:

Image source: Google

Medical kit: I always carry a small medical kit and it has proven very useful in many of my trips. Generic medicines for headache, fever, body ache such as paracetamol, ointment for muscular pain and first aid will do wonders in emergency. Make sure to carry a doctors prescription along with the medicines, even for OTC as some countries may have restrictions.







Image Source: Google

Credit/Debit Cards: Make sure to carry debit and credit cards which do not charge any international fees. I never ever use credit cards outside the country unless there is an emergency. There are a lot of credit card frauds that are being reported when credit cards are used outside or on airports.  Do not pay by credit cards, carry travellers cheques or withdraw cash from ATM using debit rather than swiping directly. I try to make most of the transactions by cash.

Image Source: Google

Smart Phone Batteries: Since I use my smartphone extensively be it for google maps navigation or whatsap messenger, locating local eateries, train timetables so it is bound to go dead too soon. And while trekking, it might get difficult to find charging points. So I prefer to carry extra battery packs while travelling.






Image Source: Google

Language Translation: Europe is multilingual continent and people may not necessarily understand English. From translating signboards to menu card in restaurants, help is required. Switzerland has four national languages - German, French, Italian and Romansh. So, I download the Google Translator app on my smart phone. If you want to translate the menu card to find out vegetarian options, just click a pic and ask the app to translate.




Image Source: Google

 Important Numbers - I always save the address and phone number of Indian Embassy in my phone. Apart from that, also keep note of police, ambulance and tourist office phone numbers. Keep a scan copy of passport saved on email id just in case all your luggage is lost.

Image Source: Google

Sim card- Having international roaming on cellphone can be very costly. So, I purchase a Lebara sim card from the International terminal in India itself and inform my family about my new number which I switch on after reaching my destination. I only know Lebara which offers 1cent/min calls to India, but I am sure there would be other similar service providers also.


My Smart Itinerary: Where I would go and What I would do

 I would prefer to travel to Switzerland in the summers as during winters most of the Alpine peaks may not be available for Skiing or trekking. Since I would land in Zurich, my itinerary would start from there.

Zurich is known for its metropolis culture and fashion labels, a mile long shopping street with world class fashion labels is walkable from the station. The likes of Armani, Gucci, Guess, Vuitton, you name it and it could be found on these streets. The city never seems to sleep as there is no official closing time, people love to party till wee hours in the morning. I would also love to experience a flavor of the Swiss parties for a day.

Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

 The Zurich lake looks beautiful in the evenings.

From Zurich I would travel to Interlaken, which also means surrounded by lakes. It is about an hour and a half by train. It provides extremely beautiful scenaries to the three mountains Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. I guess Jungfrau is the place where certain Sharukh Kajol scenes were shot, and it is also the highest peak amongst the three, so I would definitely go there.


Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

 Zermatt is another summer destination which is known for Matterhorn, one of the world's most famous Switz posters. It is a car-free destination, so there are no horns, no fussy roads, just some happy people walking around the city. I would click pictures of the serene surroundings and go on hiking, trekking and nature trails.

Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

 The trip should be a mix of nature and cities, so my next destination would be Geneva, which is known for UN headquarters. Apart from UN headquarters, it is the host to a beautiful Lake Geneva and also the worlds smallest metropolitan. A fountain of 140 mt high super jet marks the periphery of Lake Geneva as of symbol of world's smallest metropolitan.

Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

 Continuing with my itinerary, my last destination in this Alpine country would be Montreux region, which is known for its moderate climate and Mediterranean vegetation. It is the home to a beautiful castle which continues to inspire our fairy tales till date. The Chillon Castle is located on a rocky island on the shore of Lake Geneva and provides serene views to the likes of poets and artists.

Image Credits - myswitzerland.com

Wine and Dine: Switzerland is known for its Chocolates and Wine, so I would definitely indulge a little bit in wine tasting and chocolates. I would also go for fine dining to experience the Swiss cuisine and the famous chocolate filled cappuchino.






I hope to travel to my dream destination Switzerland in 2014 and re-live the DDLJ moments in original... 

Image Source: Google

So, If you also want to travel smart, then visit Skyscanner to book your flights and hotels.

This post is exclusively written for Travel Smart with Skyscanner contest in association with Indiblogger.

Visit the skyscanner website for more information: http://www.skyscanner.co.in