Organisation and Preparation (2) : Itinerary and Accommodation Booking

I have spent many days and nights to create the route & itinerary and to select & book the accommodation. Nothing is perfect but let´s believe that the effort was worth it. (Or Kaczulka will give me that look that all the housework was only on her for no reason. Some of you may understand what I mean. Yes, that stare that is not very enjoyable).

Anyway I really like this phase as it is a great mindset preparation and it always brings new knowledge. Being kid myself, traveling and exploring with a finger on a map. The 21st century web 2.0 way.

Being kid myself, traveling with a finger on a map. The 21st century web 2.0 way.

The Itinerary

Is designed to help us optimize and save our energy and time. We need to balance the transport, sightseeing & action and relaxation. If the kids are tired or bored nobody is having fun. If we are tired, kids might have fun at first, but the feeling of being tired progression is pretty fast worsening and leading towards such an actions kids are not having fun either. So, let´s see how this works out in the true reality test.

The Transport

Airplane - Bus/Taxi - Bus/Taxi - Airplane - Bus - Airplane - Van/TukTuk - Van - Ferry Boat/Longtail Boat - Longtail Boat - Longtail Boat - Van - Bus - TukTuk - Ferry Boat - TukTuk - Private Car - TukTuk - Airplane etc... Yes, it is also a little bit planned. Or at least to the point of being aware of possible choices, approximate time consumption and costs. I just somehow prefer to be part of as little scam tryouts as possible. And moreover, being prepared makes bargaining much shorter and enjoyable.

Median transport time (apart from the Europe-Asia flight) is planed to be around 3 hours but there are some much longer moves which I expect to be the real challenge. The long flights, bus and van rides, the 5+ hours challenges.

I have also booked a car for Malaysia travels through the www.wisecars.com, the car rentals aggregation site, as their total offer was the best I found. I have experience driving in this part of the world, so neither left side nor local specifics should be much of a problem. Malaysia is also considered to be probably the best country for self driving in SE Asia.

The Accommodation

Carefully selected and booked couple of months prior to our arrival. Considering and choosing those with shortest prior to arrival cancelation-free policy as you newer know what will actually happen. This time frame offered some great options for a budget friendly price of 30,- € / night on average.

The main criteria except above mentioned were to be kids friendly and close to a nature, transport hubs or sights. Family room or bungalow were preferred. Variations of triple room with at least 1 double + 1 single bed accepted as Olívie still sleeps with us some nights anyway.

Though I have tried to dig really deep and search through various sites I have ended up using only www.booking.com and www.agoda.com as their offers were always the best. And is especially worth if using their vouchers, discounts and promo.

I have also made direct bookings using Facebook messages and emails to selected places. We will try to present some of them as we go.