Covid on Traveling
The Post Covid era has become a Wonderful time to travel. After 2-3 years of literal imprisonment and various regulations with respect to traveling, things are pretty back to normal. People of almost all ages are coming out to explore new things, learn new stuff and make great memories, thereby increasing employment opportunities, contributing to the GDP of our Nation and helping local people with their livelihood.
As the world is getting narrower with the advancement of technologies, everything is turning digital and the same includes traveling. Technology has been helping people to know deeper about all the remote places of the world and one can plan, explore any part of the world by gathering information sitting at his home at any other corner of the world. So planning trips has been literally very easy and that has helped me save a lot and a lot of time and money.
28 States in Two Years Post Covid
Take me as a live example, where I started exploring India just after the Covid ended and it’s been 2 years exactly where I stepped on Arunachal Pradesh last week, thereby exploring all the 28 States of India, that too at the barest minimum cost.
Each and everyone I meet is curious to know my total expenses of each trip, but to sum it up, all my trips including hotels, tickets, food, sovereigns each and everything is yet to reach a 6 digit figure and trust me that was my expense incurred to explore every bit of India. I wouldn’t be wrong if I’d say that I can plan for another trip to make that number reach a 6 digit figure.
It’s all about planning things properly and making the best use of available time, money and resources efficiently at the right moment. So I’ll be sharing a few sites which I personally use on every trip which helps me plan out things better and make the moment a very memorable one.
Tools which would help you plan Trips.
Confirmtkt
This is a 3rd party ticket booking agent, but wait I don’t book the tickets but find an alternate route on the same train to book confirmed tickets. For example, I wish to book a ticket between Bangalore to Hubli and they’re on a huge waitlist. But confirmed tickets are available between Mysore to Hubli, book it and change the boarding point to Bangalore. So you’re getting confirmed tickets and it’s legal, as you’re changing the boarding point later which won’t change the ticket status.
Goibibo
There are a lot of hotel booking websites available online, but I always prefer Goibibo because as far as I have observed the highest number of hotels are listed here itself. So the options are more and the UI is pretty simple, easy to use with some offers on various banks.
RedBus
Once again there are a lot of sites to book bus tickets, but there are few lesser known locations where all the operators aren’t shown. But I have observed they’re listed on RedBus, for example the buses between Guwahati to Tawang isn’t listed on all the sites.
IRCTC Retiring Rooms
Read my article about IRCTC Dormitories here. If you have a confirmed ticket and are looking to book accommodation, then Indian Railways has Dormitory Rooms for both AC and Non-AC options based on how big the station is. You can book them here.
Train Chart
Did you know that you can literally check the chart of each and every train after charting is done. Yes, not the complete chart, but how much ever is required. So you get a seat map of the whole train with the details of which leg of the journey that particular seat is booked.
Where’s my Train App
So this is mostly used by almost everyone to track the live status of all the trains even if the internet is not available with pinpoint accuracy. There is also a feature to check the running history of any trains, Coach Positions, PNR Status.
FlightRadar24
The best site ever to track the live status of your flight accurately on the map. The interface is pretty clear and very well organized with every minute detail.
Indiarailinfo
So if you’re traveling on a very long train journey and wish to check the details of train including where the e-catering is available, tips about the train, forum and news of the train, details of the halts on the way (loco reversal, loco-change ,etc.) and many other such details this site would be of great use.
Trivago
Remember the guy with a unique accent on a very popular ad for Trivago. So this site claims to compare the hotel prices on different sites and hence helps you to choose the site with least price and book it. I haven’t used it and found it useful, just give it a try if you ever need it, especially for International Tourists.
Abhibus
So this site usually has ties with most of the RTCs( State Govt Run Buses) and thus when you search for buses between places, even the RTCs can be booked as well. Also there would be offers available for particular RTCs and I can vouch for it as I have used to book HRTC(Haridwar to Reckong Peo) and MTDC(Shillong to Guwahati) in my recent trips.
RedRail
So this is another 3rd party site to book train tickets. So if you search trains between Mumbai to Kolkata, it first shows directly available options, along with that, if tickets are hardly available then confirmed options from alternate nearby stations, Premium Tatkal and Tatkal Options, confirmed tickets on alternate days, etc. So you can either book tickets with that suggestion there or I’d recommend to book the same on IRCTC site without paying extra bucks for the site.
Conclusion
So these are a few sites which immensely help me to save time, money a lot of times. All the suggestions are based on my personal experiences and they might vary based on conditions too. I have some more to add and will do when I remember. I would also love to see the tools you usually prefer and help you to plan out things when traveling in the comments below. Suggestions are always Welcome :). 
Happy Travelling 😀
Also read more about Dormitory in Indian Railways and Tips to get a confirmed Tatkal Ticket Online.
