Winter Trip pt.9: Itinerary
By: Suara Senar Nirwana
Tags: Trip, Travel Itinerary, Europe, Travel

For 10 days, 6 countries, 8 cities, 2 peoples.

Hi there! As the story in Warsaw told you that I took a flight back from Warsaw to Malmo, yes, my trip has ended! It was quite a trip but I am happy that I made the decision before going back home to Indonesia. I mean, who knew we would be facing pandemic this year forcing us to cancel all of our plans of traveling this year. Nevertheless, that last winter trip was a blessing for me and I consider myself lucky to taste it as I gained lots of lesson learned. Well, here, lemme tell you about all I got from the trip.

Timeline

After a 10 days of solo-trip and another 10 days of winter trip with another person, I realized that a perfect time range to stay in a destination is at least 3 days, 2 nights. The first day will be for your arrival and the first night is for rest, preparing to have fun on the next day. So yes, absolutely, on the 2nd day you could fully have fun and exhaust yourself with the trip then rest and pack on the second night. On the third day, you’ll leave either going back home or to the next destination where you’ll repeat this cycle of staying 3 days.

Taking almost only 1–2 days per destination was hella tiring, indeed. I decided to take the journey anyway because at that time, I already booked a flight back home to Indonesia on the very last day of 2019, and my last exam was at Dec 18th. Since I need to do some house chores before leaving my dorm, and by the time there’s a checking I’ll be ready, I decided that

okay, we only have 10 days for traveling and we should maximize it.

So, a good tip is, look upon how long you can travel and how many destinations do you want to visit. If you wish to have lots of leisure time and good amount of energy in each destination, I suggest you to take that 3 days per destination. However, if you have an ample amount of energy and that you’re ready to go to as much destination as you want, that you at least want to explore things like me, you can do one day per destination and by night you’ll hit the road.

p.s: this is a little bit extreme tho. If you’re someone who is not really comfortable with sleeping on the bus, bringing backpack on your own, and wishing to stay at a 5 stars hotel every night, don’t do the one day one destination okay :)

Means of Transport

Well, during my solo trip as you can see, I took bus all bus during the trip. Different with this one, I took plane, train and also bus. For our departure, we took the Swedish low-cost flight, SAS. We decided to do so because we wanted to go straight to Swiss. Taking a bus will take too long and if we take a train, it will cost too much. So our first flight was from Copenhagen to Zurich and the second flight was when we went back home, from Warszawa to Malmo. From Poland, we could actually take a bus because it’s in the upper part of the continent already. But, other than it will take too long (I need proper rest before taking flight to Indonesia), the cost was almost similar with the flight by Wizz Air. If there’s a similar cost but shorter trip time, why not?

don’t talk about carbon footprint with me in this one. I just.. can’t

Well, as for trains, actually we only took trains in Swiss. It was an intercity train so the cost was not as high as international train. Although yes the train price was expensive but that was expensive not because of it was a train, it was expensive because it was Switzerland. hehe. We don’t take intercity bus because wanted to enjoy Swiss as much as we can so we try to cut the trip time.

For bus, yes, we still use Flixbus for all buses. I could say among international bus in Europe, Flixbus will always be the best. Not only that the seats are comfortable enough, but their wi-fi and charger port is really awesome. The service was also easy and I really love to take another Flixbus again for the trip. As you see, the Flixbus that I took was for international trip within the European continent. I mean, yes. Reason why: Train was tooooooo expensive and the trip was mostly at night so we have no objection to taking bus.

Hotel, Hostel, Accommodation.

In my solo trip, I’d be sleeping in either a hostel, or in my friend’s dorm. But not for this one. We stay at either a hostel or a hotel. Mostly hotel because a hotel room allow for a maximum of 2 people so if I book a hotel room for me alone during my solo trip, that would be too expensive and not very much beneficial for me. But during this trip since I was with Mbak Citra, we booked a hotel room because when we divide the price, it is equal to a hostel room for each of us anyway. Noting that a hotel room will have the toilet inside compared to a hostel that provide it outside the room, we obviously choose a hotel.

If asked, when I do a trip alone again, I actually won’t mind to book a hostel rather than a hotel. Even if let’s say that I’ll go on a trip but with someone the opposite sex of me, I’d like to book a hostel and not a hotel even there’ll be two of us and we can split the bill. You know why, you know me. But long story short is because, a hostel is actually not that bad. The toilet, shower room and everything else in most hostel that I have visited was all clean and convenient. Moreover, we will also meet a fellow solo traveler where we could exchange storties, tips, and experiences. Another case would be that if I am rich already (hahaha as in my monthly income is 10times bigger than my current condition), I might still consider a hostel for solo trip, but the reason now is not because of the price, but more to the experience of “traveling alone”.

But if asked, when I do a trip with someone the same sex of me, or when I go to a trip with my significant other, I will probably book a hotel. For more convenient, better rest, and privacy, you know. If you find me staying in a hotel, alone, on a solo trip, that would be because I need a “staycation”.

Money, Money, MONEEEYYY

hahaha try to say it in the tone of Nam Do San from start-up in the Samsan Tech pitching video.

Well, budgeting is indeed something you should not forgot during the trip. You may have lots of money in the account but if you do not set a budget for your trip, you may go home broke. In the trip, we will obviously be tempted to purchase, taste, go, and do many things. But a limitation by the budgeting that you have made will make you a wiser buyer.

I don’t have much tips on this one tho because I might not be able to do so if it weren’t because of Mbak Citra. Nevertheless what I learned was that first, research upon the destinations that you wanted to visit. List all possible things you want to do that will require a fee and then sum it all up. If the sum is out of your budget, cut cost but prioritize to keep the fee for something essentials like transport, hotel, food and something you might not be able to do again another time. Like.. you believe that very chance is the last chance you might be able to have it.

Full budget of my trip is listed in the itinerary below.

The full itinerary can be found here.

Well, I assume that’s all I can tell about the trip. I have told specifically in each story for each destination so if you have read the stories and look upon the itinerary, I believe you’ll have a better picture of the trip. So I highly suggest you to read all the stories of each trip (it may looks like it will take a long reading time but it is not! It is that long because of the pics inside the stories). After reading the stories and look at the itinerary, you might be feeling like you just went on a winter trip. 😜

tack så mycket!

Vi Ses,

Ann ❤