PLANNING A VACATION?
A few
websites and apps that will help you pick a holiday destination, find hiking
trails, reserve budget rooms, navigate new cities without a data connection,
and even track your train on Indian Railways
ROUGH
GUIDES
Whether
it's a vacation within India, or a trip abroad, Rough Guides is a superb place
to start your planning. The site is easy to navigate and packed with
information. You can browse its guides by continent and gradually distil it
down to local regions. You will find sections like where to go, when to go,
landmarks you should not miss, rich galleries of photos, and even the next
place you can head out to if you're planning a multiple-destination holiday.
Rough Guides also has readymade itineraries for most countries so you don't
have to go crazy planning your route.
The
best part: you can also initiate a hostel booking from this website. This,
however, leads you out of the site, and to Hostel
Bookers...http:www.roughguides.com
HOSTEL
BOOKERS & HOSTEL WORLD
And
this brings us to Hostel Book ers and Hostel World resources that help you to
find and reserve budget hostel and hotel rooms around the world. Select your
destination and the dates of visit, and it throws up multiple options with prices
in different currencies, including the rupee.
You
can fine-tune results by ratings of the property, and amenities including
breakfast, air conditioning, internetWi-Fi and secure lockers.
Hostel
World even has apps for Android and iOS, as well as what is known as the
HostelWorld Recommends Programme where the best properties are prominently
displayed to help travellers find the highest quality hostel experience
available.Before you make a booking, try out both services to see which one
works best for you.http:www.hostelbookers.com, http:www.hostelworld.com
THE
CULTURE TRIP
What
better way to discover a new land than by its local flavour.While Rough Guides
gives you a holistic idea about a destination, this website is dedicated to the
local arts and culture scene complete with its ready reckoners on music,
lifestyle, food, and literature from the country you plan to visit. It also
suggests books you can read and films to watch before you embark on your
journey .
Now
while Culture Trip's content for many places is not quite exhaustive, it is
still worth a dekko. And even if you're just an armchair traveller, you can
still sign up for their newsletter and follow the website's Facebook and
Twitter pages to receive notifications for when a new article is posted.theculturetrip.com
INDIA
HIKES
Those
who want to do something adventurous, yet closer to home, should try India
Hikes a place where you can find all the information you'll need for trekking
in the country .
The
site is regularly updated with travelogues of the latest expeditions, details
on new trails, and first-hand news from experienced as well as novice trekkers.
Registering
is not compulsory, though signing up for the newsletter will help you keep a
tab on trekking events and announcements. You can refer to its fitness map to
get in shape before you start trekking, read up on the treks in your state by
month, city or session.
While
India Hikes provides trekking-related information that will help you organize
your expedition, it also sponsors explorations with the understanding that
members will contribute to the documentation on its
website.http:www.indiahikes.in
HOLIDAYIQ
HolidayIQ
is an India-centric app where you can browse over 2,000 cities, 60,000
landmarks, and read travel reviews without registering with the service. But if
you want to share personal accounts of your own holidays or make a booking at
one of its listed 50,000 hotels or homestays, then you will need to create a
Holiday IQ account.
You
can search for a place or “Discover India“ to scroll through a list of cities
from Katra to Kochi and Dwarka to Dibrugarh that have been authored by other
subscribers.
Alternatively,
you can head to Holiday IQ's blog within the app for a quick listing of
attractions and the “Indian festival calendar“ to time your holidays.
Your
own travel reviews should include a 250-word description with details like
facilities for family or couple, whether free or paid, best time to visit,
etc.Android, iOS | Free
MAPS.ME
Maps.Me
is a navigation app that works even without network data access. Just choose
the coun try where you need location serv ices and download the map along with
routing information. There is no restriction on the number or the size of the
maps you can download.
Once
you have these on your handset, you can be offline but with GPS set, you can
be offline but with GPS enabled and you will still be able to search for
important landmarks without consuming any data.
The
app allows you to create waypoints of the places you visit to share with
friends and family .
If
you have `favorited' places in other map services, you can import those into
Maps.Me as well. And since the data is saved locally, the app's response times
for searching, routing, zooming into and out zooming into and ou of an area is
pretty snappy .
Maps.Me
is extremely handy if you plan on travelling outside your network provider's
coverage area.Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Kindle Fire | Free
NTES
The
National Train Enquiry System (NTES) is the official Indian Railways app for
the frequent traveller and tourist. It gives you a near real-time status on the
location of your train and the station it is at (or has passed) at any given
moment. You can use this service to view train schedules while you're on
holiday or, if you want to know what trains are passing through a particular
station, you can check the “trains between stations“ option.
Before
you set off on your journey , for instance, you can check if your train has
been rescheduled, cancelled or diverted. All you have to do is enter the train
numbername, and select your nearest station to get a live update. You can only
check for updates on locomotives for the day before, the day itself, and the
next day. The app's interface is straightforward, easy to use and almost lag-free.Android,
Windows Phone | Free
PACKPOINT
So you've booked your travel tickets
and your hotel room, and you're faced with tedious task of packing. Well, turn
to PackPoint a travel packing planner that will help you organize what you
need to pack in your luggage based on the length of travel, weather at your
destination, and any activities planned during your trip.
Punch in the city you're going to
travel to, the departure date, and the number of nights you'll be staying there
and the service will create a luggage checklist for you after factoring details
like whether it's a business or leisure trip, if you're willing to repeat
wearing basics like shirts and pants and even if you'll have access to laundry
facilities. Once your packing list is built and organized, PackPoint will save
it for you, and then you can choose to share it with friends and family in case
they need help packing too.
Android, iOS | Free
Ashutosh Desai and Savio D'Souza TOI11APR15
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