ERIC'S TRAVEL TOOLS
As a avid traveller and photographer, I like to share these passions and help other enthusiasts to get more tools so they can express themselves. Here are some travel tools I use myself to plan my photo trips. I hope you find them as useful as I do.
The first tools helps to find your destination. Make some searches about what inspires you and learn about cultures, vaccines, potential dangers, places to visit, economy, ect...
TRAVEL ADVICE
The official travel advice website of Canada is a complete source of information, often kept up to date.On it, we learn about: safety and risks, visa requirements, health and vaccines, laws and culture, climate, assistance, etc...
TRAVEL PLANNER
Click here to go on the best website to learn about your destination. :-)The Internet is filled with information about every single destinations. Even better, search in Youtube to know what to do at your destination, or to discover authentic cheap eats.
GOOGLE MAPS
Create your own maps with your attractions, restaurants, hotels, and all your travel planning, it will be on your cell phone, and you will even be able to load it offline so it's available at all times, magic !
ATLAS OBSCURA
Atlas Obscura is fantastic to learn about off the beaten path attractions.When you identified your destination, the next tools are very useful to find your plane tickets, plan your air travel, and your time in airports.
CHEAP FLIGHTS
Kevin and Andrew from Flytrippers have many tricks to find cheap flights, just subscribe to their newsletter. I personally saved thousands of dollars because of their tips, and it's free! there are other similar sites like YULAir and YULdeals.The trick is to subscribe to their newsletter so you learn about the deals as soon as possible, because these deals go quickly.
FLIGHT SEARCH
Momondo.ca is a search engine for finding cheap flights. Do many searches and try many dates as prices can vary a lot just by moving your dates by only one day. Another excellent search engine, even better than Google flights is Kiwi.com.Depending on the region you want to visit, there are sometimes better deals on Skyscanner or Jetcost
ROUTES
If you are looking to buy plane tickets, it is very useful to know what are the flight routes so you can search better. To see what are the possible flight routes, go on FlightsFrom, it is worth it.
IN THE AIRPLANE
Seat Guru shows you the seat map of you aircraft, you can see which seats are good. A must ! If you are like me, we sometime do not even know our seat number before arriving at the airport. Don't panic! The SeatGuru app is also available for your phone!
TERMINAL INFO
To know how to transit in airports, you can see where are your gates on airportguide.com.
LOUNGES
Airport lounges helps for relaxing before your flight, and when they are free, it's even better. Getting access to lounges, is easy if you do some travel hacking.
TRAVEL HACKING
Getting access to airport lounges is easy if you do travel hacking.I saved thousands of dollars using these tricks !
SLEEPING IN AIRPORTS
If you don't have a choice to sleep in an airport, the website Sleeping in airports is what you need.These tools are very useful to plan the rest : transport, climate, time zone, hotels, currencies, electricity, ect...
WIKITRAVEL
Wikitravel is very useful to learn about your destination, especially about how touse the transport system once you are arrived at your destination.I love this website to find out how to transfer between the airport and the downtown area of my destinations, taxi, bus, train, metro ? All the details are there!
CAR RENTAL
To rent a car, Rentalcars.com is a good tool that looks for the best prices between many car rental companies.Learn also about how is driving at your destination. Driving on the Autobahn with a Porsche and in India with a scooter is not the same, there are written and non-written rules that you must know. Finally, don't forget to get your international driving license.
TRAVEL INSURANCES
Learn about your destination, to know if you need a travel insurance. If you have a good credit card, you might not need more insurance.Aside from the insurance when you rent a car, there are more useful insurances: health, theft, cancellations, ect... Flytrippers have many advice about this.
HOTELS
Hotels.com is a hotel search engine, very useful to filter using specific criteria. By clicking on the map mode, you can also find a hotel near attractions that interests you.Other excellent sites are Booking.com and Airbnb.
ELECTRICITY
Generally, electronic equipment like cameras, laptops, ect, are compatible between 100 and 250 Volts, at 50 or 60 Hertz, but verify and be sure that your electrical devices are compatible with the voltage and frequency at your destination. Worldstandards.eu informs us of electrical standards of all countries.
ELECTRICAL PLUGS
Worldstandards.eu shows all possible electrical sockets and plugs. Don't forget your adapter!By the way, here is the best travel adapter ever. It's light, compact, and compatible with more countries than the majority of other adapters.
DAYLIGHT TIMING
Again, the website TimeAndDate.com is essential for photographers who wants to know when the sun is present. Golden hour is the first and last hour of sunlight, blue hour is about 30 minutes after sunset or before sunrise...
THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S EPHEMERIS
With The Photographer's Ephemeris, one can learn where and when the Sun and Moon sets and rises. Very useful for planning landscape photography.
CLIMATE
Do you know what the "mousson" is ? Or when is the next hurricane season ? You better know before buying your tickets... The website ClimatsEtVoyages.com is a must..
WORLD CLOCK
To avoid being temporally lost, the website TimeAndDate.com is very useful. It helps to plan your jet lag, and to know if you new time zone uses daylight saving or not.
HOLIDAYS
To avoid getting stuck during a Holiday abroad, the first step is to know they exist. Click here to see the potential Holidays at your destination.
TASTE ATLAS
If you want to know what you must taste when going some place, see Taste Atlas, it shows food from all over the world. If you travel for food, this is unequaled!The next tools deals with money. Don't forget to do a budget, and bring some cash, we never know if your specific bank or credit card is accepted at your destination...
CONVERTER
To have an idea of equivalencies in Canadian Dollar, the website FXTop is very useful. You even can consult the historical values if you need to calculate past invoices and have the right exchange rate of that time.
COST OF LIFE
A meal does not cost the same in India or Iceland... Consult Numbeo to have an idea of the cost of living of your destination.
COINS
To see what the coins you will use looks like, consult WorldCoinGallery.com.
TIPS
Do I tip my taxi driver? In restaurants? What about the hotel? To learn about the tipping etiquette of your destination, consult WhoToTip.net.CONTACT
