Tips for travelling from one destination to another without getting ruined

Honey, where are we going?

It's no surprise, Yannick and I love to travel. Our objective during a trip is to visit as many places as possible. Being limited in time by our work (we are not always on holiday you know!) we build our itinerary according to affordable flights. This article will give you some tips and tricks. We are far from being a reference to YULAIR or Les voyages d'Alexi (in french) but we intend to give you some small pointers.

First rule: be prepared for lightweight travelling

If you have several flights waiting for you, it is much easier to travel lightly. In fact, during our trip in November 2018, we managed to travel with a personal luggage each measuring 22 cm x 25 cm x 43 cm. Be aware, this is personal luggage and not carry-on luggage! It is the equivalent of a woman's handbag or a 15' laptop backpack. No problem, lots of stuff fits into a small backpack! Proof is right here!

So how do we survive two weeks with only a few pieces of clothing? The rule is simple - bring half the clothes and make a mid-trip laundry load. However, you must be prepared to wear the same clothes during the trip. 

Second rule: be prepared to make a few stops

The goal is to visit as many places as possible without ruining yourself, so you should be prepared to make a few stops. For some, they spend hours shopping online on Amazon, for my part I take great pleasure in browsing kiwi.com to find the best route. Indeed, on their site it is possible to search by return flights, multi-city and even nomad. In our case, we use a lot the multicity and nomad research. That being said, what is the difference between the two?

Multicity

Here we set a precise itinerary with date intervals. For example, I can search for the following criteria: Leaving from Montreal, I want to go to Paris between November 10-15 and November 15-20 in Sicily and then return to Montreal.

Nomad

Here we set ourselves places to visit during a date interval. For example: Leaving Montreal between November 10-15, I want to visit Paris, Barcelona and London each for a period of 3-5 days and return to Montreal on December 1. Note that the order of cities will be determined according to the best prices offered by the search engine!

Obviously, it is possible that prices are not always affordable, so it is important to play with dates when we are not bound by a specific date.

Overall, my experience with Kiwi is always impeccable. They are constantly improving with an intuitive interface and flawless customer service. I already had to cancel a flight booked by mistake which was refunded within minutes of my distress email :)

Our experience in 2018

As part of our trip in November 2018 we had the opportunity to travel with WOW Air (no longer exists!) to Paris. The first stopover was in Iceland at Reykjavik for only a few hours just enough time to eat a Skyr (Icelandic yogurt).

Then to Paris! Benefiting from the time difference, we arrive in Paris at the beginning of the afternoon, allowing us to enjoy the city. Indeed it may seem short but this sunny afternoon has just made us fall in love with the city. In the evening, we take a bus to the city of Beauvais because an internal flight with Ryan Air is waiting for us to Sicily, Italy the next morning!

When we arrive in Sicily we rent a car for 5 days and enjoy the region to its fullest. We visit the towns of Catania, Marsala, Palermo and Taormina among others. Without going into too much detail, the food is delightful in Sicily! Pizza, pasta, eggplants, deli meats, fortunately we walk a lot to get the digestion going!

Next stop: Malta! Once again, we take an internal flight also with Ryan Air to Malta. This 30-minute flight goes at the speed of light! We quickly reach our destination. We enjoy another 4 days of sunny weather in Malta before returning to Paris for our return flight to Montreal with WOW Air.

How much did it cost?

Let's recap. We have made the following itinerary: Montreal-Paris-Catania-Malta-Montreal for the modest amount of $575 per person taxes included. Not to forget that we only travelled with one personal luggage each, but it is absolutely possible!

The pros and cons

The pros

• Visit as many places as possible in a short period of time
• Affordable flight costs
• If the weather is not pleasant at one of the stops, no problem because we are moving to another region! So there's a chance to catch a good some good weather :)
• A taste for adventure

The cons

• The waiting at security. No need to say more!
• Cancellations/delays. No one is safe
• If you don't like transportation, this may not be the best way to travel for you (or with us haha)!