#travelplan – Traveler's Notes

Travel tips: How to plan travel to Paris

Since today I’ll also share the posts about how I make my travel plans, which sources I use and the details I specially pay attention more. It will be useful for you before travel. If you want to make your travel plan to any country or city with your certain budget, let me know by comments or by e-mail, I’ll write about that at the next posts.

Today’s travel plan will be about the the city of lovers – Paris. Here are major planning features:

Be sure what you want from your travel and save the travel dates because of this;
Do some search about the places (sightseeing, restaurant and etc) you want to visit and pay attention to the reviews of them;
Know your budget before travel;
Visa (if you need);
Flight booking;
Accommodation booking.

Firstly, you need Schengen visa for entering to France. If you are not sure you need or don’t need visa then look through your country of citizenship here: Schengen Visa Info. If you need visa then pay attention to the which visa type you need (for me it is Tourist Schengen Visa) and specially the required documents carefully: Schengen Visa Requirements.

Alongside with document collecting for visa, book your return flight tickets (it will be used during document collecting process too). My favorite website for online flight booking is momondo.com. Because you can find here deals from other websites of flight booking and choose the one which is suitable for your time and budget. After Christmas tickets from London to Paris are quite affordable I think. For example for the dates 11/Jan/2019-13/Jan/2019 return tickets per person is £60 by easyJet airlines. But keep in mind: price of flight tickets is changing everyday and even every hour, so if you are sure about your travel don’t be late then. Pay attention to the departure and arrive times, because if your home is far from airport it can be difficult for you going there in the early morning like 5 am. By the way, flight tickets are cheaper if you travel on weekdays and in the early mornings as during 12am-5am.

About accommodation. Itslocation is very important. You have several choices: May be you book your accommodation near the airport, in the center of the city or in the suburb of the city. If you visit the city for one day I recommend you to book hotel (hostel or whatever) near the airport, because it is cheaper and it doesn’t worth to spend a lot of money to the hotel in the city center for one day. Transport expenses are also important, for example you can buy Paris Metro Ticket (for tube, bus, tramway and etc) for single daily use with the price of €1.90, for 10 days ~€15. But if you travel for 2 or more days then hotels in the city (not only in the center of course) would be more affordable because of not spending more money for transportation. Prices of accommodations are going lower when you are far from the center. If you are just traveler and want to spend more time outside then don’t pay more attention about little details of hotel, choose the one which is clean, good for sleeping, has a normal bath and of course with the affordable price. I’m not fond of airbnb, so mostly I prefer deals from booking.com and hotels.com . Use mobile application of these websites and get discount of 10%.

And the main part for me: planning the visits to the sightseeings. Here are my list for two days:

Eiffel Tower.

This iron tower with stairs and lifts was founded in 1889. It was a symbol of Industrial Age in France. After taking pictures in front of it you can go inside too. About time schedule and prices you can visit : Tour Eiffel .

2. Louvre Museum

Established in 1793. It would take 100 days to see everything in the Louvre if you looked at each item for 30 seconds, all day without a break. Admission tickets per adult is €17. For the full price list visit this website: Louvre .

3. Notre-Dame de Paris

It has opened since 1345. This medieval cathedral is one of the finest examples of french gothic architecture. This cathedral is entrance free.

4. Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe Paris, the most monumental of all triumphal arches, was built between 1806 and 1836. You can get info about opening hours and prices here: Arc de Triomphe Paris.

5. Palace of Versailles

It was principal royal residence since 1682. It contains over 700 rooms, over 60 staircases and over 1,200 fireplaces.Palace ticket price per adult is ~€16. Get the full info of prices and time here : Versailles .

6. Montmartre, Basilica du Sacré-Coeur

Montmartre
Basilica du Sacré-Coeur
*source:google*

Montmartre’s most recognizable landmark is the Basilica du Sacré-Coeur, constructed from 1876 to 1912. This roman catholic church dedicated to Sacred Heart of Jesus. This church is entrance free and opening hours are between 6am- 10.30pm.

7. Jardin des Tuileries

This garden is situated between Louvre and Palace de la Concorde. Opened since 1564. Opening hours: 7am-9pm.

8. Galleries Lafayette

This is a french department store in Paris. After visiting historical places it would be the different taste for your trip.

Fortunately most of sightseeings are next to each other so you will not lose time on the ways. If you have more days in Paris don’t miss Disneyland too!

Hope you enjoyed the post about travel tips and travel plans in Paris. If you want to get notification of my posts, don’t forget to subscribe my blog. Have a nice trip!

Edinburgh the Scottish pearl

This summer we had a chance to meet with this wonderful city. Since getting out from Waverley station I just amazed by the beauty of Edinburgh.

So, briefly about Edinburgh: it is situated in Lothian county and it’s the capital city of Scotland since 15th century. It is home of Scottish Parliament and supreme courts of Scotland. Also official residence of Scottish monarch is here: Palace of Holyrood. They have their own language as a branch of germanic language and it has different dialect forms. Old and New Towns are included to UNESCO World Heritages list since 1995.

We had 2 nights, 3 days in Edinburgh and for our first day we stayed at Thistle Guest House in Leith. The price for one night was £65 excluding breakfast.

Our first visit was to Royal Yacht Brittania. When we went there it was closed, so we just enjoyed the view of sea. Exploring the ship with audio guide is ~£16 per adults for 2 hours.

For the next day we have booking at Holiday Inn hotel (with IHG points) and whole day for exploring the city, so we began our visit from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. There are 4 main gardens: Edinburgh, Logan, Dawyck and Benmark. My fav was Edinburgh Garden and Chinese Hill in it. Here you can find around 100,000 plants and almost 3000 exotic plants from all over the world. Garden entry is free but you can donate too. Opening hours are 10am-16pm. But you should pay for the entry to Glass Houses: £6.50. Don’t forget to visit Botanic Cottage and Rose Garden here too.

Next destination was Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat. Its height is ~251 m. It’s assumed that the name derived from the legends of King Arthur and his place Camelot. Very beautiful nature views you have to see here:

Holyrood Hill

Then we went to Calton Hill for visiting its popular historical monuments as National Monument, Nelson Monument, Dugald Stewart Monument, City Observatory, Political Martyrs Monument and so on. Here are some pictures from Calton Hill:

Calton Hill
National Monument
Nelson Monument
Dugald Stewart Monument
National Monument

After climbing two different hill we had a rest in front of National Gallery. Then we visited Scott Monument which is in victorian gothic style building dedicated to the writer Walter Scott and was built during 1841-1844. And for the attention of economics students, if you want to see the statue of Adam Smith don’t forget to visit St. Giles church, it is just in front of it.

National Gallery
Scott Monument
St. Giles Church and statue of Adam Smith

On the third and last day we just checked out from hotel and visited our last destination Edinburgh Castle. What an amazing palace! It is unclear at what time castle was built but it’s assumed during 12th century. It is situated on the Castle Rock, which is actually volcanic neck and its extinction and happened 350 million years ago. Here are photos from castle exploring:

Edinburgh Castle

Wanna taste and buy some scotch? Then you have to visit Scotch Whisky Experience! Be sure that you can find excellent whisky for yourself and as the best gift for those who are fond of whisky😎

At the end of our trip we had a coffee at Black Medicine coffee shop where J. K. Rowling wrote some of early chapters of Harry Potter here.

Hope you enjoyed the post about Edinburgh. If you want to get travel tips don’t forget to subscribe to my blog by e-mail. Have a nice trip!

Ancient Roman Bath in UK

Today’s destination is one of the extraordinary cities in UK – Bath with Georgian architecture style. It is in the Somerset county and situated on the bank of Avon river. It’s included into UNESCO Heritages list since 1987. It is also the city of Jane Austen – English novelist, the author of “Pride and Prejudice”.

We came here by train from London Paddington Station. Return tickets were booked from Trainline website for ~£65 for two. We stayed there in Holidays Inn hotel for one night : Holiday Inn . We are IHG Club members and so we had the points for free stay.

Now let’s look through popular destinations in this amazing city. Our first visit here was Circus (originally known as King’s Circus) and Royal Crescent. It is an ideal place to take a panorama picture if you can. Here you can visit the museum No 1 Royal Crescent for £10 per person.

Then we visited the most popular and well preserved historical site: The Roman Bath . The entrance fee is £16.50 for adults. This price includes very useful audio guides too. Here is the main spring which was treated as shrine by britons before the invasion of romans and was dedicated to the goddess Sulis (the city was named Aquae Sulis – “Waters of Sulis”) which was mentioned as Minerva in Roman. The main Great Bath is surrounded by statues of Roman Emperors. In the section of “Meet the Romans” you can find the lifestyle of local people of Aquae Sulis according to the archaeological ruins. At the exit of Great Bath you can taste mineral water which was used for curative purposes for more than thousands years. Here are some photos I took in this historical site:

After visiting Roman Bath our destination was Bath Abbey. No entrance fee but you can donate.

Jane Austen Center would be an interesting place for her novels lovers.

After that we decided to visit some parks so our stops were Sydney Gardens, Parade Gardens and then Alexandra Park.

On the 2nd day in Bath our main destination was Prior Park which has very authentic view and was one of my fav places in Bath. This park belongs to 18th century and includes National Trust Foundation. Its opening hours are between 10am-16pm and standard price for adults is £7.40. This park was created by Ralph Allen – an entrepreneur and philanthropist and John Wood the famous designer who was born in Bath. Here you can see buildings in Palladian style (based on Andrea Palladio designs). And some pictures from Prior Park:

After enjoying our visit to Prior Park as long as we can, our last destination was Pulteney Bridge:

Pulteney Bridge

It was lunch time and our choice was Comptoir Libanais which is famous for its tasty meals, kind staff and authentic interior design.

Comptoir Libanais Bath

Hope you enjoyed the post about Bath. If you want to get travel tips don’t forget to subscribe to my blog by e-mail. Have a nice trip!

Istanbul – city of modern fairy-tales (Part 2)

In this post we’ll explore more places in the asian part of Istanbul. Firstly, you should buy non-refundable Istanbulkart for 10TL which enables to use multiple transport types.

I want to start second part with exploring Sultanahmet Mosque or Blue Mosque. It was built 1609-1616 by Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I. It’s still used as a prayer house by muslim population of the city.

Then the destination is Uskudar – where the popular Maiden Tower (Kiz Kulesi) is situated in. That is why we should use “vapur” (ferry) for the crossing to the other side. Until boat comes you can wait inside of any cafes on the shore by having tea. When you are on the ferry from Eminonu you can enjoy beautiful scenery of Marmara. You can see Chiraghan Palace from the shore too.

So here is my favorite part Uskudar and its pearl – Maiden Tower (Kiz kulesi). It was almost sunset which means ideal time to watch this beauty and fully enjoy your trip❤️ So I bought balik-ekmek (fish-bread) and then Turkish tea😎

Here are some photos on the way to hotel:

Destination for the next day was Aqua Florya – the biggest thematic aquarium in the world. It consists of 16 thematic sections like Mediterranean, Black Sea, Indian, Antarctica, Pacific, Atlantic, Amazonian Rainforests and etc. Entrance fee is around ~30£. You can see dangerous piranha (may be you know them from the movie “Piranha” as me) fishes in amazonian section. Diving with sharks for 30 minutes and providing individual certificate for that are also possible here.

After exploring sea creatures in the aquarium it is time to go to Prince Islands. This archipelago consists of 4 big and 5 smaller islands. The biggest one among them is Buyukada and my destination is there. You should go to Kadikoy Bostanji Terminal with “sea bus”. In Buyukada only vehicles you can use are bicycles which you can hire there for hours. You also can use horse-drawn carriage (fayton) for exploring around. For the grand tour you should pay 80TL and for the small tour ~70 TL. Don’t forget: for every additional 15 minutes waiting they will require more 5TL. Prices are for per fayton not per person. The most popular destination here is Hagia Yorgi monastery, if you are keen for hiking and walking for long ways then you should go there too.

When you are in Istanbul don’t forget to try their waffle, because they are quite generous with delicious toppings. My fav place for waffle was “Kemal Usta Waffles” in Beshiktash.

Hope you enjoyed the second part of my Istanbul travel. If you want to get notifications about posts then don’t forget to subscribe to my blog by e-mail.

Have a nice trip!

One of the most amazing view couldn’t be forgotten- Seven Sisters Cliffs Park

As we know there are few amount of sunny days in UK, we have to appreciate them. In July we went to Brighton from London by booking return tickets of 15£ from trainline website for 2 adults (with Two Together railcard) and it took 1.5 hour to get there. It was mid July and quite hot there.

And here you should visit Brighton Pier for amusement arcade and having drinks, ice creams, waffles and of course fish and chips 😎

If you want to try seafoods I can recommend you Riddle and Finns The Beach seafood restaurant (they also have gluten-free options) : http://www.riddleandfinns.co.uk/?utm_source=tripadvisor&utm_medium=referral you can find menu options here.

After having lunch we took our direction to Seven Sisters by bus. It will take almost 2 hours to get there. Firstly you should go to Eastbourne Pier (by bus Coaster 12x) for approximately 1 hour and then take the Hop on Hop off Eastbourne Sightseeing bus and go to Birling Gap NT station for another hour. After that you’ll have 15-20 minutes to get Seven Sister Cliffs Park.

After reaching park you’ll have a long journey ahead.

After “almost hiking” you can find Seven Sisters Cliffs. You should climb this hill for watching the amazing view.

And here is the promised amazing view which combined blue water of English Channel and white chalk cliffs in itself:

We took some homemade sandwiches with us in advance and had them there, because after long way you’ll get hungry and it’s difficult to find any place for eating around the park. So don’t forget to take some snacks and water with you. And wet tissues, because it’s chalk cliffs and you’ll be all white if you sit somewhere there.

Hope you enjoyed the post. You can subscribe my blog for travel tips by e-mail. Have a nice trip!

Oxford – the old professor of UK

When heard the name of Oxford the first thing we think is Oxford University and popular genius graduates of it. But what is else in Oxford? Let’s explore together.

There several popular destinations in Oxford:

Oxford City Center

2. Christ Church Cathedral – which belongs 12th century but got cathedral status in 16th century.

3. Christ Church College – may be some of you noticed this popular college from Harry Potter scenes, additionally want to say this college was for only men students till the end of 1900s, first female students were enrolled in 1980.

4. Radcliffe Camera – is one of the buildings of Oxford University and now it is a reading room of Bodleian Library, where a copy of every book published in Britain is here.

5. New College

6. Bridge of Sighs (Hertford Bridge) is a replica of Venice Bridge of Sighs. When it was known that students of Hertford College was the most unhealthy among other ones, the bridge was closed to make them use the stairs like extra exercise.

7. Sheldonian Theater

8. Oxford experience cruise by boat – here includes 50 minutes sightseeing tour and price from 12£. You can get detailed info from here: https://www.oxfordrivercruises.com/oxford-experience-tour/

We closed our whole day trip with friends from Oxford with having british mash and pie at “The Living Room Oxford” , but this restaurant is closed permanently now.

Want to mention that we bought our train tickets to Oxford from London from the website https://www.thetrainline.com/ Price of tickets changes because of trip day and trip hour, our return ticket was around 20£ for 2 adults. We use Two Together Railcard for saving and get sale prices because of its discount. We bought this card for 30£ per year. If you are a regular traveler with your partner I recommend you to buy this card for saving 1/3 of rail fares throughout Britain. For detail visit this website : https://www.twotogether-railcard.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA8f_eBRDcARIsAEKwRGdLpsuKeLltNaFRL_t3NpT64tTFBhDE2lNplSESY30CiPtxIl_7laMaAkMfEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Oxford is the place from where you can return with precious memories, so hope you enjoyed from this post. Have a nice trip!

Istanbul – city of modern fairy-tales (Part 1)

Visiting Istanbul was one of my travel dreams and it came true when I had winter holiday during university times. I traveled there for 12 days because I wanted to enjoy every single part of this city. So, I bought my direct round trip flight tickets around ~500$ (it was sale!) from Seoul by Etihad Airlines for 31st January – 11th February.

I stayed at L’onde Business Suites hotel, because I stayed for 10 days there was quite sale and additional day stay for free (I used hotels.com mobile app), but you also have plenty of choices for guest rooms, hostels and hotels. It is in the district of Shishli and next to Gayrettepe tube station. It is also 30 minutes away from Jevahir Shopping Center, Canyon Mall, Trump Towers, Istanbul Sapphire and etc.

View from Shishli

Night view of Istanbul from Sapphire plaza

I stayed at European side of Istanbul, but I should mention that most of sightseeings are in Asian side of the city. From European side you should visit Istiklal Jaddesi, Taksim Square and Galata Tower:

Taksim Square

Istiklal Jaddesi

Galata Tower

One of the most beautiful and “white palace” I’ve ever seen is Dolmabahche Palace which was main residence of last Ottoman Sultans. It situated in Beshiktash region. Entrance fee is 40 turkish lira or ~6£. Next to it if you want you can visit Chiraghan Palace. They don’t allow to take pictures inside of Dolmabahche palace so I enjoyed the garden and view around it:

With the some night view pictures of Rumeli Hisari and Fatih Mehmet Bridge I finished main sightseeings of european side. But if you want you can visit Miniaturk Museum too. When I was in Istanbul it was under repair so I couldn’t go there.

Then exploring of asian side of Istanbul began. Firstly I went to Topkapi (means Cannon Gate) museum which will take your whole day to explore it. It was built in 1459 by the order of Fatih Mehmet (Mehmet the Conqueror). Entrance fee for Topkapi main palace was 20 tl (~3£) and entrance fee for Harem is 15tl (~3£). But now fees are like this: Main Palace 60 tl (~9£) and Harem 35 tl (5£). Here are some photos from Topkapi Palace Museum:

Then another enigmatic museum which one I liked mostly is Aya Sofya or Hagia Sophia. It was built as orthodox cathedral during 532-537 and served as main church of Byzantine Empire until conquered by Ottomans. Then it was converted to mosque but without any changes to the building except additional minarets. Entrance fee is 40 tl or ~7£.

After visiting Hagia Sophia I had lunch and directed to Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici). Comparing other places I visited in Istanbul this place seems more mystical I think. It was built between 3rd-4th centuries by 7000 slaves during Byzantine Empire. During Ottomans period it was main water providing system after addition of water filter systems. Entrance fee is 20 tl or ~3£.

For next post I will share my experiences of Blue Mosque, Prince Islands, Florya Aquarium and so on. If you want to aware of my daily posts then subscribe by your emails from contact page of my blog. Hope you enjoyed today’s post. Have a nice trip!

Singapore – country of luxury and fines

When you read news you can see Singapore always in the highest places for being super safe country, having super educational system and etc. But in reality, is it true? For being sure I got packed my rucksack and traveled there for 3 days.

I bought round trip flight from Seoul by having stop in Kuala Lumpur for ~ 235£ at the end of July. We traveled there with other student friends so booked taxi for around ~50£ and shared prices among us 🙂 We booked hotel 81 Dickson Singapore in Little India quarter. We only went there for sleeping, it is in quite good place not far from center and only 20 minutes from airport. Staff was quite helpful and kind. But personally I didn’t like because of spotty bed sheets and blankets, fortunately I had something for replacing bed sheet. Price also was good for Singaporean price level, ~60 singaporean dollars for night.

Singapore is small country I think 3 days are enough for exploring. So, we went Arabian quarter, had a breakfast there (its name was Working Title). You can find plenty turkish, persian and lebanese restaurants here. We took a lot of pictures here including buying souvenirs. People are more kind, friendly and a little bit more talkative here, especially old sellers. Don’t forget to visit Masjid Sultan, it will remind me the cartoon Aladdin.

After exploring arab street and fulfilling our pockets with souvenirs we took our way to Sentosa – Universal Studios. Ticket for Universal studios is ~70$ per adult. It will take the whole day if you want to explore each of attraction here. If you want to meet with your childhood I recommend this place to you.

For the next and last day we went to the center – downtown. You will see plenty of luxurious restaurants, shops here and busy people around here. Most iconic places which make Singapore as Singapore are here. After taking pictures of Marina bay Sands- the most famous hotel here, we booked our tickets (~20£) for the night view. Don’t forget to visit Gardens by the Bay, quite big and wonderful garden with rare species of plants. Besides these, enjoy your walking in the boulevard. Don’t be afraid if you see any otters around there, but don’t try to approach them or feed them.

Here are some night views from Observation Deck:

So if you want to travel to Singapore be careful of fines for spitting, not to flash public toilets, feeding pigeons, littering, painting graffiti in public places, jaywalking, singing in public places and etc.

Hope you enjoyed from the article. Have a nice trip!

Cherry blossom (beotkkot) festival in South Korea

We love spring because short days are over warm weather is coming, trees are blooming and so on. I love asian cherry blossom festival because it is indescribably beautiful and peaceful. During my study period I enjoyed this fest as much as I could. The ideal time for this fest is end of March till the mid April.

The most popular destination during cherry blossom is Jinhae Gyeongwa Station where you can see abandoned shuttle train which is called “mugunghwa train” in Korea. This place includes into the list “50 most beautiful Places in Korea” by CNN.

Shortly about fest history: Firstly it was held to commemorated naval admiral Yi Sun-sin of Joseon dynasty, but then it became a traditional fest which is celebrated by everyone and every year at least 2 million people come here for this fest.

During that time lived in Daegu so I went to Jinhae by bus from Dongdaegu bus station with the ticket of ~15£ (~20,000 korean won).

In Jinhae don’t forget to watch Yeojwacheon stream and cherry trees along with it, it is one of the most beautiful view there.

You can go any part of Korea during this time because you can find cherry blossoms everywhere, even the view in our university campus was astonishing.

Except Jinhae there are other beautiful places you can go:

Seoul Grand Park and Royal Palace- Gyeongbokgung
Yeoido Hangang Park
Jeju
Hwagae Park
Jecheon

Hope you will enjoy from your cherry blossom festival for the next spring. Have a nice trip!

Georgian UNESCO treasure – Mtskheta

Firstly I want to mention that Georgia is one of Caucasian countries which has borders with Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan,Armenia and Black Sea. This country’s name is actually “Sakartvelo” among georgians and means “land of kartvelians”. Probably name of “Georgia” comes from persian origin “Gorgan” that is “land of wolves”.

The city I want to talk about today is Mtskheta – Georgian UNESCO heritage and “sacred city” which is situated just 20 km from Tbilisi (the capital city) and on the intersection of Mtkvari (Kura) and Aragvi rivers. The churches in this city are listed by UNESCO in 1994 and this city is counted as one of the first birthplaces of Christianity.

Most popular church here is Jvari and it is famous for its location among tourists. So from the yard you could watch the beautiful view of rivers confluence.

Another popular church is Svetitskhoveli, which is the part of medieval Caucasian architecture, where you can find the manuscripts in the ancient georgian alphabet.

You can find Armaztsikhe acropolis and its history belongs to 3rd century BC. Here is also Pompey bridge which is assumed built by roman legionnaires of Pompey the Great in 1st century BC. Don’t forget to visit Samtavro monastery.

After visiting historical places and enjoying beautiful view of mountainous nature, it is time to visit local market here. You can find here everything from souvenirs to wines.

After finishing your “job” with the market your instinct of hunger will lead you to eat the national cuisine. Georgia is famous for its national cuisine and my favorites are khinkali (look like dumplings with bacon and beef), khachapuri (cheesy bread with cheese) and lobiani. So in Mtskheta I recommend you Zgapari restaurant where you can find delicious meal and amazing nature view. And LEMONADES. The best lemonades our georgian friends recommend us are Zedazeni and Natakhtari. They also have special lemonades which are called “laqidze” and its preparing technology is also included to UNESCO since 2014.

Georgia is famous for its mineral waters as Borjomi, Likani, Nabeglavi and Sairme.

In case of local wine brands you have plenty of choices here. You can try fruity chacha and gvevri wines. If you like red wines I recommend you “Ilerco” (red and dry grape wine), “Saperavi” and “Mukuzani”. If you prefer white and light wines then you can try “Rkatsiteli Gvevri Glekhuri”.

Here are my short tips about Mtskheta and georgian culture. Hope you enjoyed it.

Have a nice trip!