Hi Travelers!
Our long awaited trip is tomorrow! Here is a time-lapse video of me packing.
As soon as we have the opportunity we will post a complete and detailed list of material to help you out.
Credits:
Camara-man: João Santos
Editor: António Santos (Thank you)
Cat: Izis
Filmed with Go Pro Hero Black Edition
Leonor & João
Hi guys!
Just a few quick notes before we begin. First of all, we are SO sorry for “disappearing” for the last weeks, we have been crazy busy with the end of the semester. Secondly, THANK YOU SO MUCH, we have reached over 1,000 views there on the blog!
Let´s get down to business, todays post is about knowing about your destination. This is really important so you can make the most of your trip by having information ahead of time. It is also useful so you know what to pack, but that will come later. We obviously don’t what to bore you with little things, but they are important, so the post will be in key bullet point format.
We hope this post is useful, it will be divider in three parts. The first part (this post) will summarize all the information you should gather. Part 2 will be specified for Iceland and part 3 for Spain (Barcelona). You can easily adapt to your own destination, just look for the same stuff. In each category we will attach the link from where we got the information for our destinations.
Basics
Map and area
Population
Have a general idea of the size of the country.
Currency
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
Language
Make sure you know some language in common with the coutry. English will do the trick almost everywhere.
Time fuse
Electric plug
Simple things that are super important. Buy an adapter if needed.
To get this sort of info, to go are the country´s tourism websites.
Climate
The weather is the first thing to check out, so you know that is appropriate when you pack your bag (we will make a packing post soon).
Accuweather gives you up to three month prior forecast: http://www.accuweather.com
For other information or historic of weather since 1980, look here: https://weatherspark.com
Culture
History
Today
Have a general ideia of the countries origins as most important marks. It is also key to understand todays rank and important news.
Tourism
Find out what places to visit, how to get there and price.
Gastronomy
Be open to try different things!
We will do our best to post the other two parts this week. We hope it helped! Don´t forget to like and share. Get in touch with us anytime you want.
Leonor & João
6 months: Booking your stay
Hey guys!
Sorry that this post doesn’t follow the time-line, but we just booked our house in Iceland. Here are some tips and, although we didn´t do it, we recommend that o book your stay 6 months before your adventure.
There are a lot of options for booking your stay, we recommend AIRBNB. We compared it to Momondo, Hostelworld and Booking and it was the cheapest for big groups (yes, hotels are COMPLETELY out of the table). Since we are 5, we decided to go for a full house, mainly because it has a kitchen. That way we save money by not eating out… at least not every day.
The website is really simple to use, just enter your destination, days, number of guests and, if you have preference, room type (full house, private/shared room). You can also apply other filters as price range, number of rooms and bathrooms, facilities, house rules, etc.
From there it is pretty simple, they show you the options according to your research and once you open what best suits you they show all the information on the room. Then just make your reservation and pay. Easy peasy!
There is just one thing about Airbnb that we dislike: they add fees to the price you see on the research grill. The price appears per night and no fees, and later they add cleaning and service fees, so just be prepared for that and it will be ok. This fees dont vary with the number of people, this way divided by all it is not too much.
From our experience, most owners are super nice and send you a message once you completed the payment. If you have any “tourist” questions, I am sure most of them will help you.
DISCOUNT
If you choose to book your room on Airbnb, use the following link to open you account (you can make one directly from your gmail, it is really fast) and get 30€ off your first vacation through Airbnb:
Leonor & João
4 months: tips on managing your documents
Hello Travelers!
Today the subject is on how to prepare your travelling documents. It is a sensitive subject for two reasons: first of all, it is a really important matter and second, it may be different from country to country. Unfortunately, we cannot cover all countries and laws, so we are sticking to the case of Europeans traveling in the Schengen area. If you are not a part of the countries in the Schengen agreement, you probably need a visa and other documents, that we will not mention (sorry for that).
What is the Schengen area?
It is an agreement between 26 countries in Europe that do not have border control. For that reason, you do not need a visa or passport to travel within these countries:
As you can see, it is not restricted to the European Union… hopefully someday, we can travel anywhere with no bureaucracies.
Back to the document issue, both Portugal, Iceland and Spain are a part of this area. So the only documents you need are: your Identification card (mandatory) and the European Health Insurance card.
It is pretty obvious that you need your ID, be sure to check the validation date.
The European Health Insurance card is not mandatory but we find it extremely important. If necessary, it provides temporary (and in some cases, free) health care if you are abroad in one of the 28 countries of the EU, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. In Portugal, you can get your card for free online, in any Social Security service desk or in any Citizen Shop.
Hope this short post was helpful! If you have any questions related to documents or travelling, be free to get in touch with us. Don´t forget to share!
Leonor & João
6 months: Tips on getting your plane tickets
Hello Travelers!
As you know, today’s subject is flying. Basically, we have two words for you: GOOGLE FLIGHTS. We actually just discovered this recently, but it is
most definitely
by far
the best way to purchase plane tickets online.
Once you get to Google flights you will see that it is super easy to use. Just enter to and from where you are going and dates. We choose only “One way” since we are going to different places. This is the part where it gets super exiting! Once you put these on, here is what you get:
As you can see, the calendar shows the price in different days. We are talking just two or three days back and you save almost 120€! It is crazy useful!
Once you choose the day that best suits you, a list of flights from different companies will appear. From there, the airline company’s website will open and you buy your tickets directly.
This is way better than other pages that compare flights because most of them change the price while you are buying, you only get low prices if you pay with a specific card and has tons of adds.
We hope this helps and that you like it as much as we do (I am clearly overly excited writing this post). Whether you choose Google flights or some other platform, remember to search in incognito mode or private browsing and to buy the ticket ASAP!, a few weeks can make a huge difference in the price.
Remember to share, be free to comment or get in touch with us. And yes, the title is a line from Dumbo!
Leonor & João
6 months: Tips on choosing your destination
Hello Travelers!
Not all of us choose to go on adventures during the summer, so choose accordingly. Also, decide what kind of journey you want: a relaxing season on the beach? Going on a nature adventure? Cultural visit through cities, museums or history?
We know plane ticket discounts can be tempting… but there is no reason to go places and when you get there you can’t do much because it is super expensive. Avoid the trendy places.
A concert, a festival, a game… this is our case since we are going to Iceland to attend a scout international activity. Take the opportunity to make a 2 in 1 and live the experience you always wanted
We hope this tips are helpful, we will try to post more often. It has been a hard few months since we were in exam season but thankfully we passed all our courses. Tell us about your plans for your Journey! Don’t forget to share and comment or ask questions.
Leonor & João
Hello Travelers!
As promissed, here is the guide to every post we will make and how to properly organize your journey.
Hello!
The portuguese adventure power-couple welcomes you to the Winter Journey blog!
We started this blog because this year, during the summer, we are going to Iceland. Since it is a big journey, we have been preparing it for some time now. The purpose of this blog is to share that preparation with you and give you the best advice for your own journey.
Our next and first official post will be a travel time-line, to guide you step-by-step in everything that needs to be thought. From there, every post will give you detailed information, useful tips, tools used… basically everything we used so that this can be the best adventure possible.
We depart from Lisbon and are going to be in Iceland from july 22nd to august 3rd for a scout international activity called Moot. From there we will be in Barcelona until august 8th. As you can imagine, most activities are ready for us in Iceland, but we will still need to plan the flights and all of the Barcelona part.
My name is Leonor, I study zootechnical engineer and I´m very passionate about animal welfare. I am used to travel, since growing up my parents gave me the opportunity to visit many places and even live abroad for a few years.
João frequently plays sports and likes to influence young kids into living healthy and actively. He´s an adventure addict, recently went on a one-month interrail and came back with no luggage.
To anyone interested, our adventure starts here. Be free to follow, comment and share.
winterjourneyblog.wordpress.com 