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At this point in the summer you may already have planned where to go on vacation and when; At a minimum, surely you already have a few ideas in your head. Today, planning vacations from home is becoming more common. The Internet gives us all possible resources : flight and accommodation reservations, destination information, etc.
So that the experience is complete and the preparation and realization of the trip does not end up being a headache, in this article we will talk about useful information that new technologies provide us to have everything in order and enjoy a well-deserved vacation. We have divided the text into 3 different periods: planning , carrying out and returning from vacation.
This first article focuses on trip planning , and later we will discuss the completion and return.
Planning
Compare prices
With all the possibilities that the Internet offers us, it is increasingly easy to compare prices through specialized search engines and even find the best last minute offers. Some of the best-known comparators in our country are Trivago , eDreams or Kayak .
In addition, all transport companies are also on the Internet, both land and air, so we can easily check prices and availability through their web pages (to give just a few examples: Renfe , Ryanair , Iberia …).
Most airlines offer the possibility to perform online check-in on their web pages , a service that allows you to print your boarding pass from home, using your computer hours, even days, before going to the airport. The process is simple, only the how and when can vary from one company to another. Renfe also allows us to print the ticket once we have purchased it.
Make reservations
Once we have decided the destination, either in our own country or abroad, an essential complement are the opinion platforms such as Tripadvisor , which will give us a more real image of the places and hotels before booking, since they are based on the opinions and comments of the users. A Yahoo study called “Connected Holidays” reveals that currently there are already 67% of Spaniards who are guided by the recommendations and opinions of other travelers.
Tripadvisor is becoming a fundamental tool for preparing the holidays. Apart from being able to know the evaluation of the clients about the accommodation, it also allows us to know the prices and book if we are convinced by one, thanks to the links that direct us to specialized booking websites, such as Bookin.com , which has long led the ranking from most popular booking sites.
It is very important to check that the page we are on is really the page of the hotel or portal where we are going to buy. For this, it is better if we check if they have “ online trust” stamps or, simply, if they are secure pages (“https” appears in the navigation bar). It is also recommended that we keep a copy of the purchase and the order confirmation pages.
Expense control
In preparing a trip, control of expenses should also be essential, with a forecast of both the budget we have and the expenses we expect to have. Today there is a wide range of applications that will help us in this task. Some of the most used are:
– Toshl Finance (free): Easy to use, it is created especially for those who need simple control, without complex statistics. With it we can create a budget , and add income and expenses. It is in Spanish and is available for both Android and iOS .
– Settle Up (free): It is the perfect app for group travel and expenses. Essential when we are a large group of people, to know who owes what to whom. It is very comfortable to control and share expenses . It is available for IOS and Android .
Time and clothes
Another headache when planning a vacation is the weather and the clothes we have to take. One thing is related to the other, so the problem of clothing is solved by visiting any of the weather forecast websites . The most interesting are the American weather channel Weather Channel (which is also in Spanish), very complete; If not, we have native websites such as Meteosat or Tiempo.com . There are also a large number of applications for mobile or tablets that predict the weather. Among the most popular are the same: Weather Channel and Tiempo.es, in addition to others such as Weather Bug .
Currency conversion
With the entry of the euro as a common currency, currency exchange is no longer as frequent as before. However, most countries in the world have a currency other than the euro, especially those outside the EU, so conversion is inevitable. If we want information about the currency exchange and know the value of the currency of the destination country, the most comfortable option is given by Google : as we explained in a previous article ( http://tublogtecnologico.com/busguedas-eficaces-en -google , only need to write the currency from which we started and the foreign currency. The result will be something like this in the search engine header:
The holidays are to enjoy a period of relaxation. Don’t let planning a trip give you unnecessary headaches. Thanks to the Internet and new technologies, today we can prepare a great plan from home. Remember that in the following article we will provide you with useful information for when you are making the trip.
