How do I plan my trips – Part 1 – Infrastructure

I often get the question: How do you plan your trips.? What do you use? So I decided to write about this topic. But since it is a vast subject, I will break it into several posts: infrastructure, routes, and any other area you are interested about. Just leave a comment and I’ll make sure your question is answered.

When is about the travel infrastructure, I refer to flights, ground transportation and accommodation. If you want insides about other topics, feedback is welcomed.

A. Flights

When it comes to the flights of my trips, I do the booking in 2 simple steps:

Step 1: Identification of the best flight route, price, time, airline. For this I use:

1. Skyscanner.com because it takes into consideration the low costs airlines and nowadays you can search for the best price of the month.
Besides that what I appreciate the most of this website is that you can search by the cheapest destination on a certain date. For example you have a long weekend and you don’t know where to go, you just insert your departure hub – eg: Bucharest and destination will be Everywhere (yes you can type in Everywhere) and the dates you are interested in. And voila! skyscanner.com tells you the cheapest destinations you can fly to.
This works the best for short, direct flights.

2. Orbitz.com because sometimes it has better prices that the airlines themselves because of the agreements they have. Be aware that if you book your ticket with Orbitz.com all the changes (with any exceptions) you’ll want to make on your ticket will have to be done via Orbitz. This means an extra charge towards Orbitz plus the airlines charge.
Since orbitz.com is an US based company, you’ll not be able to search for destinations where US has embargo (eg Cuba).
Even you don’t find better prices, for long distance flights, Orbitz finds more routes than skyscanner.com.

3. Kayak.com because they may find flights(usually low cost) that skyscanner and Orbitz doesn’t. But this is very rare.

4. Low cost companies website. You may use Skyscanner.com or Google search to identify what low cost airlines flight to/from a certain destination and you get into their website to look for deals. Sometimes they have deals which don’t get into the flight search engines.

Step 2. Purchasing the flight
Ones I identified my travel route, I enter the airline website and I search it. Almost always in the airline website you can find the best price. Exceptions are: Orbitz.com or any other website they have agreements with to give promotional prices sometimes.

Some never ever tips:

1. If you need 2 flights or more to get to your connection, you should book them all in 1 ticket, not separate tickets because in case something happens, the airlines make sure you get to your final destination without additional costs,
2. If you need 2 or more flights to get to your destination, don’t use low costs airlines because usually they don’t get responsible of any missed connection flight, and anyways they let you book only point to point flights, not with connections (see tip number 1),
3. If u have connections on 2 different tickets, or coming from international flight to a national one, leave 2 days in between for missed flights, lost luggage, etc. Of course usually nothing happens. Till it happens.

B. Trains
Europe has got the fantastic German national railway platform – bahn.de. There is an app, an website and even some railway companies use this platform for international (European) connections. Download the app and you’ll never have to worry for your train connections. It tells you times, changes, platforms, everything.
Outside Europe, I use the national railway system of each country.

C. Buses and Ferries:
I just Google Search for all the available bus/ferries companies in the country I am and I get into each website to see which one has the best offers. There are countries (eg Romania, Peru, Argentina) which have a centralised website with the companies, but most of the times the prices are higher, not all the companies are there or the information is outdated. So I play it safe and buy it from the company website.

D. Accommodation

When it comes to a place to sleep, I usually stay in hostels, shared room, and couchsurfing sometimes, but only in Europe for safety reasons. If I travel with somebody, then it can be that a hotel room for 2-3 people to be cheaper than 2-3 beds in a dorm (eg. France).
To find accommodation I look in the following order:
1. Hostels.com or Hostelworld.com – they are the same nowadays because Hotelworld bought hostels.com,
2. Booking.com to check if the hotel rooms are cheaper than the hostels,
3. Simple Google Search for cheap accommodation and the place you are interested in. Some places in the world have their own networks / websites (usually for bed and breakfast) which work better than the ones above,
4. Airbnb.com – it’s very popular now, but not necessary the cheapest.
5. If you go for a 4-5 starts hotel, it may be more convenient for you to book the flight and the accommodation with a travel agency because they have very good deals for hotels.

Nowadays, there are millions of websites and companies to help you plan your travel infrastructure, but in the end the prices are all the same, so personally I use the ones above to get the best offers in a very short time. If you have any suggestions/things you would like to know on this topic, just leave a comment and I’ll get you the answer.

Enjoy traveling!

Cuba and its regions – What to see and how to get around Cuba

Most of the travelers travel Cuba counterclockwise – starting with Vinales and going towards Est (Oriente) or the other way around – go far east and start coming towards Havana.
Personally did an infinity loop from west to east and return, because since Cuba is so narrow you can go in just a couple of hours from north to south.

1. Pinar del Rio and Vinales
Just 3 hours drive from Habana, Vinales is a very tourist only village. You can do tabaco tours, to the painted wall, lots of hikes or take a horse tour, or rent a bicycle, or jump into the touristic bus.
How to get there: Viazul from Havana, Santa Clara, Vinales, or taxi, no trucks.

2. Matanzas
Known for Varadero – the place to party, beach. Matanzas the city is not touristic.
How to get there: Viazul from Havana, Santa Clara, or taxi. Be careful that some buses go directly to Varadero don’t pass Matanzes.

3. Cienfuegos
The city itself doesn’t have much to offer, but since is slightly less touristic and cheaper can be is a good harbor to go around on day trips to Trinidad, Santa Clara, Rancho Luna.
How to get there: Shared taxi or Viazul buses from Vinales, Havana, Santa Clara, Trinidad. Trunks or jeeps from Santa Clara.

4. Villa Clara
The capital city is Santa Clara which is a mixture between the city of Che and a crossroads city. Is indeed a nice stop for a couple of days just to see the monument and museum of Che, the mausoleum, and the bullet proof train and get the feeling of a heavy history.
How to get there: Shared taxi from near by cities: Vinales, Habana, Cienfuegos,Trinidad or by bus – all the Viazul buses with destinations other than Vinales and Varadero, pass Santa Clara.

5. Santi Espiritu
Known for Trinidad – a small and picturesque colonial city. Expect it to be full with foreigners. Near Trinidad you have Ancon Beach very good for diving and a day by the beach.
How to get there: there is a bus local bus /taxi going to Ancon Beach (2 CUP = ~2 x 1/25 EUR) or the touristic one (8 CUC = ~8EUR).
You can get to Santi Espiritu by Viazul, trunk, shared taxi, taxi.

6. Ciego de Avila
People coming here are usually coming for Cayo Coco – a resorts only island with stunning white beaches. You can get there only by taxi and it’s cheaper to take it from Ciego de Avila (50 CUC=~50 EUR), instead of Moron (60-79 CUC = ~60-70 EUR), even the distance is longer.
Either than Cayo Coco, there is plenty of nature in Ciego de Avila. Around Moron – Laguna de Leche – a nice and quite place for a day or afternoon. You can get there by city bus from Moron. The crocodiles – from Morun take a bus towards Bolivia and ask the driver to tell you when to get off for the crocodiles.
How to get there: To Ciego de Avila you can get by taxi or Viazul or Trucks.
To Moron you can either take a bus/truck, train or taxi. Moron is the harbor to Cayo Coco.

7. Camaguey
The city is on a crossroads so a day stop may be more than enough.

8. Las Tunas
The locals say is a dusty city and the ones who traveled to the province say the beaches are not that nice.

9. Granma
Is only a place full of history and the place for Granma mission. Depending on your interest, it may be worth a visit.

10. Santiago de Cuba
Santiago has a lot to offer in terms of culture, music, parties, small beaches and some mountains located near by.
Be aware that this city can compete to the world record in terms of harassment on tourist and especially on women. If you travel by yourself, try to get along with people.
How to get there:  Viazul from almost any city, trunk from Guantanamo, and other cities around.

11. Holguin
Has a bad reputation of being one of the most dangerous cities in Cuba with a lot of weird faces. Stay in groups and you’ll be safe.
Holguin is the gateway to Guardalavaca – one of the best diving spots in Cuba.
How to get there: To get to Guardalavaca you can take either a taxi or a truck. To Holguin you can get with Viazul or by trunk from the small cities around. eg. Moa.

12. Guantanamo
If you want to see nature, Baracoa is a great choice. It has hills, wonderful viewpoints, sea, delicious food and nicer people. You have several day hikes options, boat trips and nice beaches.
How to get there:  If you are coming from Holguin and you don’t want to do a detour in Santiago, take a shared taxi which will go straight to Baracoa, or take a trunk /jeep from Holguin to Moa and a jeep from Moa to Baracoa.

Viewpoint in Baracoa – the Baracoa beaches, bay, Jungue – The Table Montain

Enjoy traveling!

Getting around Cuba – means of transportation and costs

For me the transportation in Cuba has been like a mind game: you had to be really creative, calm and persevere to find the right people, in the right place at the right place, which meant passing over the jenesteros (touts, the direct translation is gigolo).
It is unbelievable, but in Cuba the entire tourism world is built so perfect parallel with the Cuban reality than one as tourist could almost never reach the Cuban society.

It took me tears, money, nerves and harassment to get to the information below, but I succeed to beat the system.

Transportation for foreigners and Cubans:
They say Viazul is for foreigners and Astro is for “nacionales”. The true is that Viazul is for everybody who is willing to pay, and for some routes (Santiago – Havana) there are far more Cubans travelling than foreigners, but Astro indeed is only for Cubans.

By Plane:

1. Flights from outside Cuba. The cheapest way to get into Cuba is still Mexico (about 200 USD round ticket). Then you have direct flights from Bogota, Lima, Paris, Madrid, Montreal, Miami. Yes, there are several daily flights from Miami to the big Cuban cities.
2. Flights inside Cuba. The most common is Havana – Santiago (about 300 USD round ticket). It’s a good way to save time and be hastle free. You can buy the tickets from internet, in or out of Cuba

By Bus:

1. Intercity: The only real bus transportation for foreigners is Viazul. Their network gets into most of the touristic places in Cuba. Reliable and enough confortable buses. They are the only ones I personally recommend if you want to travel overnight.
2. Inside the city: some will tell you that you can’t use the public transportation, especially in and out of the airport of Havana. This is completly faulse. If you can sacrifice a bit of comfort, use it and beat the tourist ripoff. I used it, and it is like a normal city bus anywhere in the world. I costed me 1/25 CUC or 1 CUP (25 CUP = 1 CUC =~1 EUR)

Trucks and jeeps

This is the way Cubans travel the country because even Astro is cheaper, some routes are too overbooked.
The trucks connect all the big cities in Cuba with their proximity big cities. If you go longer distances, you need to change the trucks. They can only be taken in the bus terminals for the Cubans. Ask simple people to indicate you. They are reliable, but very uncomfortable. For the backpackers it is a very good option.
Some routes don’t have trucks, only jeeps, but some will have both. Jeeps are a bit more expensive.

Some examples of connecting inside Cuba: Cienfuegos -> Guardalavaca, There is no direct trunk, so you do:
Cienfuegos -> Santa Clara, Santa Clara -> Camaguey,  Camaguey-> Holguin, Holguin -> Guardalavaca

Taxi Colectivos – Shared Taxis
They run between several big cities, but not everywhere. They are the taxis for which the driver is responsible to fill in the car. There are 2 different prices of course. The price for Cubans is around 2 to 5 CUC, and for foreigners is usually 20, 40, 60… depending on the city.

Taxi
Normal hired taxi which charges you a fixed amount of money independent on how many of you are in the car. Of course you must not be more than the total allowed number of passengers. You can rent them to go between the cities, for the entire day to do day trips, etc.
Be aware that for longer distances they are uncomfortable, and they charge almost double for night drives.

Old car from Cuba

Enjoy traveling!

Galapagos, prepare to enjoy the paradise!

Galapagos is for some of us a dream we never dare to dream, for others a must see in life, a paradise, or a place so unknown and far away surrounded by myths and realities like…

• Galapagos is very expensive! You must have a lot of money to travel to Galapagos!
• It has so more animals than any other place in the world.
• If you go to Galapagos you have to do a cruise or otherwise is not worth the trip.
• It is not a place for backpackers.

How to get there:

By boat. Yes, believe it or not I met people (youngsters) who traveled by boat one week to get to Galapagos. But no, there are no commercial boats going from the mainland to the islands.

By plane. There are no international flights to the Islands in order to control the access and to protect the islands. Therefore, you can fly either from Quito or from Guayaquil. There are 3 main airlines (Avianca, TAME , LAN) which fly to the 2 airports (Balta in Santa Cruz Island and San Cristobal) of Galapagos Islands.

The cost of the flight to Galapagos varies around 450 USD for foreigners. This is what all the travel agencies tell you in Ecuador. The reality is that you can enter by yourself on Internet and buy your own ticket without them. You may not be able to buy it from the airlines directly because they may not process your foreigner credit card, but you can do it very well on Orbitz or other such websites. And depending on the time of the year, you may get your ticket as cheap as 200 USD only one week before or even one day before the flight. There is no supra tax for the flight in the airport for foreigners.

Taxes:

In the airports you have to pay the ticket/tax to enter to the Natural Reserve of Galapagos. For foreigners it is 20 USD paid in Quito/Guayaquil and 100 USD paid in Galapagos. There are no other taxes/costs to be paid. All the payments are maid in cash only.

Transportation:

There are 4 inhabited islands in Galapagos: Santa Cruz, Isabela, San Cristobal and Floreana. From Santa Cruz you can go to any of the others in just 2 hours by ferry. The ferry is actually a yacht style boat. In 2015 the cost was of 30 USD for any ferry you may take.

If you want to go the the uninhabited islands the you have to take either a day trip or a cruise. There are islands where only the cruises are allowed or others which you cannot enter at all.

Accommodation: 

Depending on your expectations and budget you have options from 15 to 400 USD/night. A simple, but very nice and comfortable accommodation will around 25-35 USD/person.

Food & drinks:

Lunch on Calle de los Quioscos is 4-5 USD for soup, main course and a drink, but dinner starts with 10 USD depending on what you want to dine. An appetizing lobster is around 20-25 USD and drinkds start with 7 USD/cocktail.

Activities:

Diving: 150-170 USD per day and it includes 2 dives, snack, sandwich, soft drinks, water)
Snorkeling: 100-120 USD per day and it includes same as diving.
Renting of snorkels and fins: 3 USD only for snorkel, 5 USD for both. The company with whom you dive or snorkel will rent you the equipment for free.
Cruises: the cheapest you can get starts with 800 USD for 5 day( which is actually 3 days of tour) and 600 USD for a last minute offer. A decent price boat will start from 1200 USD for 5 days, 2000 USD/8 days.

To make a parallel with the prices from Europe, Galapagos may get as expensive as Europe, but the unique marine world you discover may be worth every penny you spend there.

Wildlife:

Only in the inhabited islands and diving you can see almost all the animals living in Galapagos, however there are species (eg albatross) which can be seen in the uninhabited islands (eg: Espanola, Darwin and Wolf) which are further away. Only the cruise get to these islands and depending on your personal preference/time/money it may go for it or not.

Enjoy travelling!

Romie and Boobie together with the Sea Lion on San Cristobal Beaches

Funny translation mistakes at Middle of the World Museum

Being in Ecuador is a must to visit the most touristic attraction of the country – Middle of the World or Mitad del Mundo. It is located 22km outside Quito and you can get there in about 1.5 hours by public transportation.

How to get there?

Depending from where in the city you board, take the metrobus which till take you to Ofelia station. Get down in Ofelia – is the last stop, so you don’t have to worry you ma miss it. From there you take the bus to Midad del Mundo. Be careful that there are 2 buses with almost the same destination: one goes to the Mitad del Mundo you want to get to and one goes to the city/village with the same name. Usually the ticket collector will shout very loud Mitad del Mundo when you get there, but just in case ask people when to get down, and as a landmark, you have to get down when you see a big building with lost of flags.

What can you see there?

There are several tourist points in the Mitad del Mundo complex:

The monument and the artisan village. This is basically the middle of the world. The artisan village is just another nice complex of nice houses from where you can buy some souvenirs.

The planetarium. It has a half an hour movie about how the sky is seen from Mitad del Mundo – what starts, what constellations. Keep your expectations at minimum level in order to be gladly surprised. The planetarium has a waiting hall which plays a movie all the times, but the real movie you paid for is behind the doors and you must in the waiting hall exactly at the time shown on the schedule to can get in.

The museum of the Mitad del Mundo. Upstairs it is the viewpoint of Mitad del Mundo and inside it has a museum which presents the ethnicities of Ecuador, traditional outfit and insides about the culture, gastronomy, tourism. It also explains some basic things about astronomy, electromagnetic experiments, myths and useful information.

The funny thing about this last museum is that at the time I visit it, I discovered that the information provided in English language about the Summer and Winter solstices were wrong.

December Solstice: it should be in the northern hemisphere, there is the shortest day of the year and the longest night and in the southern hemisphere there is the longest day and the shortest night of the year. But it is the other way around.

June Solstice – Translation mistake at Middle of the World Museum

June Solstice: in the northern hemisphere, there is the longest day of the year and the shortest night and in the southern hemisphere there is the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

June Solstice Translation Mistake at Middle of the World Museum

In Spanish the information is correct. just in English it is translated wrongly.

I told the lady who was there to support the visitors, and she couldn’t believe it. She told me: we have this museum opened for years and nobody told us this is wrong. Wow! You have a very good sense of observation. Thank you very much! We will correct it.

So dear reader, by the time you’ll visit Mitad del Mundo Museum, the information provided to you will be right!

Potosi – between silver and dust

At 4800m above the sea level lies the highest city in the world – Potosi.
More than 500 years ago it used to be the world’s richest city because it practically exists on a gold and silver mountain, which even after five centuries of exploitation still has minerals to give to the world. Today it is a city with centuries of stories to tell.

From all the cities I’ve been in Latin America, this is the place is impressed me more for the blend of feelings it waked up in me: enjoyment for colonial architecture of the city, astonishment for the wealth of the glorious history, the pity for the basic working conditions of the mine workers, wrath for seeing children who live their childhood working illegally in mines.

As many of the tourists visiting Potosi, I’ve took the mines tour. Lonely planet, trip advisor, and the whole the internet talks about the Potosi mines and the improper working conditions. But there are sooo many such places in the world than one takes it as such. Just that the mines of Potosi were special for me: they had people, they had living stories, they had children and lives with stolen dreams.

In the tour the guide, former miner, took us through some tunnels of the mines, got us in contact with the miners, let us really get close to them and discover their live stories. So one talks to the miners, drink potable alcohol (96 degrees alcohol) with them, eats coca leaves with them. And they are dressed with simple cloths, gum boots, a helmet and a lamp. No mask, unless they work in literally heavy clouds of dust. They are working in the mine for even 24 hours, without having a resting norm, breathing the arsenic permanently, no regular medical checks, not always using gloves, doing almost everything manually as 500 years ago, instead using modern machines.

We all know the working conditions in a mine are hard and affect the health, but the states, companies and miners improve the working conditions permanently to minimize the risks on short and long term. But not in these mines. While I was talking to the miners, they were all so used with the idea they will die young – at about 35- 40 years old, without seeing their children grown up, but their only objective is to make money in the mine for their wives and children on their 20s, but not having better working conditions. Children coming from needy families work illegally in mines because they see them as the way they can help their families, while the mother takes care of the mining tools.  These children do not get the right to have a dream.

When I see stolen childhoods seen as normal, when I hear short and improper living taken as given, makes me ask myself: what is the thing I can do personally to contribute for a better world?
And the same answer comes into my heart: work hard on what you like, work with passion or if you can’t move away on what you like, meet your dreams while young or they will be your frustration as elder, play it fair and try to don’t create more blame in this world. I do believe that if we all will do these simple things, we will live in a different world.

In my travels I faced regularly these situations several times: when visiting Dharavi slam in Mumbai, when volunteering on Mother Teresa of Calcuta’s houses, when getting to the stories of the beggars from India… living in India itself, visiting Bosnia & Herzegovina, Palestine…
I think all these help me remember myself regularly that what I have is not for given, but I have to give it back. And my way of giving it back is not by giving money to the beggars, but to bring the taxes to the government to offer a proper live for people, is doing tourism in a proper way, to can improve the working conditions in tourism, is talking to people to learn from their stories, share about my country, be a Romanian ambassador, share my culture and inspire with my passions.

Maybe my story above is not the reality of all the mines in Bolivia and Potosi, but I do hope that in 30 years from now, I’ll be back to Bolivia and the Potosi mines will have a better story to tell.

Zorro and Batman run in Cusco

Today in Cusco, maybe the most touristic place in Peru: what should I take for Plaza de Armas?
Answer: El Batman (the Batman)
No, no, sir, what bus should I take to go to Plaza de Armas?
Answer: Yes, yes, El Batman
Somebody else: Excuse me, Zorro is going to the bus terminals?

Myself is speechless. It seems that in Cusco the business have names instead of numbers.

The Batman (El Batman)

Expreso El Zorro (Zorro the express)

CorreeCaminos (Run the ways)

Los Leones (The Lions)

Satelite (Satelite)

Servicio Andino (Andean Service )

Rapidos (The fasts)

Servicio Rapido (Fast service )

Enjoy travel!

Peru – the country where Cola Cola marketing failed or Inca Kola and Fanta Inglesa (English Fanta)

Today in the supermarket I saw a Fanta Inglesa (English Fanta) after yesterday I saw absolutely everywhere a soft drink called Inca Kola. I don’t know yet if it is because the Peruvians are very proud of their cuisine, or a proud nation, but it seems that Cola Cola never succeed to penetrate the Peruvian market and to dethrone the local brands of Inca Kola and Fanta Kola.

Inca Kola is a soft drink with strong taste of lemon verbena (Hierba Luisa as known by people) which was created in 1935. It has been advertised as a national drink and along the decades it gain a lot of popularity and even the status of national symbol. Fanta Inglesa, created in 1912, is another soft drink with a kind of bubble gum taste.

In the ’90s, when the military regime went down and the market got liberated, Cola Cola tried to enter in the Peruvian market. They tried multiple marketing strategies, but it seems that the Peruvian nationalism and pride won in the favor of new American products and the Peruvians rejecting completely to drink Cola Cola with their food. In consequence Cola Cola could never sell more than Inca Cola and Fanta Inglesa and had to get satisfy with getting advantage of a financial crises to buy the 2 brands.

Nowadays, the both are Cola Cola brands, but continue to use their original names and tastes.

Inca Kola and Fanta Inglese

I had a dream: quit my job and go travel

They say once you’ve got the travel virus, will be on your blood for ever. I admit it. I’m one of the travel addicts who had stationary life for almost 5 years, travelling only in well defined doses, but always with a dream in mind: do long term travel again.

In 2011 my dream of long term travel started to take shape. Back then I had only the destination: Latin America, nothing else. Since in 2010 I traveled for half year in Asia and Europe, it was somehow too early to start traveling long term again. So, I setup some prerequisites for myself, started saving and working hard for what one day will be a dream made reality.

The time passed over, I made several trips in the Americas in all these years, I got the feeling of what Latin America is about and one day… at the beginning of 2015.. out of nothing… I found a great deal for one way ticket to Latin America. I bought it few weeks after, when I knew when all my working duties will be finished, and.. the rest is history.

Since then it has been several months in which I planned absolutely nothing. I only did the basics: got an insurance, checked the visa requirements for Bolivia, weather conditions to know what to pack, a high level overview on the mountains I want to hike, moved my stuff at home, closed all my contracts and spent as much time as possible with my beloved ones.

I received a lot of questions about my trip which I can’t answer yet, but as I’ll go along my trip I will answer them all in my blog.

In the meanwhile, today I take my backpack, my new travel buddy – Romie and take off to live my dream and to write a new chapter of Anca, traveler of the world!

First destination: Lima, Peru.

And the prize for the most beautiful library goes for… Romania!

Some time ago I was writing about the fact that Romania has the world most beautiful driving road. Now, in this post, I want to share a master piece from my hometown – Iasi, Romania: one the world’s most beautiful libraries – the library of the Technical University Ghe Asachi. It is located in the building of the first university from Romania – Al I Cuza, which was built move than 150 years ago.

Here you can get to know more about it.

Enjoy!

Most beautiful library in the world – Iasi, Romania