Should you take time out of education or work to travel?

Many people will say that one regret they have is that they wished they had travelled parts of the world before settling down and having a family or taking on commitments such as a mortgage which meant they could not afford to give up their job and take time out to travel.  

So how important it is to travel and what are the pros and cons. Did you really miss out if you didn’t go travelling or is it too late to start now?

 If you really want to explore other parts of the world, then you definitely should try to do it. You may find it easier to do this when you are young as you may feel you do not get the opportunity to have the experience again later in life. Very often students take a year out called a Gap year to travel around. When they come back they often say they have a better idea of what they want to do with their life and find it easier to settle down.

It is likely to be expensive when travelling especially if you are not planning on working whilst you are away. You should always make sure you have enough money to see you through your trip and always have a back up of money for a ticket home should you want or need to return early.

Plan our travel using a sat nav

Sat navs have been used for a good number of years now and where as previously you had to buy a separate satellite navigation system to use in your car, you can download apps for your phone or tablet which can used to navigate you to your chosen location.

One of the most popular sat nav apps is the one by Google. It is free to use and is often very reliable and up to date. It can show you traffic on your route and divert you a different way if it picks up delays. You can usually change the settings within these apps to avoid toll roads, selected fastest route over shortest and avoid motorways. This allows you to still have control over which way it is going to take you.

With these apps you can also look over the whole route before you set off meaning you will have a rough idea of which direction you will be heading in. It will also tell you how far the journey is, how long it will take you to get there and estimated time of arrival which will update depending on driving speeds. You can even view the route in street view which will allow you to look out for places that you can use as markers for turning or to view where nearby parking is.


Travelling abroad with children







Checking what is included in your flight price

When booking a holiday you have the option to book the accommodation and the flights yourself or as part of a package. When booking your flights you may find quite a drastic change in the prices from company to company. It is always worth looking at flying from different airports as sometimes you will get a much better deal from one to the other. The other thing to check is the date you are flying as again you can often save even hundreds of pounds by flying a day or two either side of your original selected date.

Many people use flight comparison sites to check which company is offering the cheapest flights but they may not always give you all the information upfront and you will often need to look in to exactly what is included in the price.

Often there is no baggage allowance included in the cheapest flights apart from cabin baggage. With additional suitcases costing on average £25 per 15kg each way, this can very quickly add £100 or so on to your holiday price. You should also check to see if transfers to and from the airport are included as again this can push the price up.

Driving in France

With the Euros currently taking place in France, many Brits have taken to their cars in order to travel to watch the football. Thousands of Brits travel across the ferry or Euro Tunnel every year to allow them to reach their French holiday destination.

Driving in France is quite different to driving in England and so are the rules. In France they drive on the right hand side of the road and most cars are left hand drive. This can make it difficult when taking a right hand drive car over and trying to adapt to driving on the opposite side of the road to what you would in England.

In your car you should always carry your driving license, insurance documents, warning triangle, spare bulbs, high vis waist coat, breathalyser and maps / sat nav. Some of these items are law and others are recommendations but be sure to check if you have everything prior to setting off.


Planning to go travelling

Some people do not put too much thought in to going travelling, often looking forward to not knowing where they are going to be of what they are going to do next. This can be exhilarating and can give many people the sense of ultimate freedom, but making no plans when going travelling can not only cost you a lot of extra money but can also be unsafe.

Ideally you have at least one person who is not in your group knowing a rough schedule of where you are going to be the majority of the time. That does not necessarily mean they need to know every bar you go to or every beach you visit, but a rough idea of the location is always a good idea.

Also if you do not pre-book any of your travel arrangements you will often have to pay more for traveling on the day.