I have to exclaim that sharing “reading thousands of books” is not as good as sharing “traveling thousands of miles”~Listening to the scenery is not as good as watching it, people love reading travel records too much, right! Well, it’s almost summer vacation again. Obviously, my family’s new travel plan has been fully put on the agenda, and the main topic of discussion recently is the preparation and implementation of travel projects. Generally speaking, we make sufficient preparations for each trip. Researching and developing strategies is a compulsory content, and organizing records after the trip is over is also in line with the trend. Preparation guide+Happy play+Beautiful records, a series of smooth sailing, perfect~
Why do I need to make a strategy？
Ultimately, making a strategy is an effective way to alleviate information asymmetry.
Travel is the exploration of unfamiliar and unknown environments, which is bewildering, random, and full of challenges. How to go, how to play, how to eat, how to live? Focus on an information gap. If you are not prepared and your eyes turn black, you will inevitably pay the price for the information gap. To be honest, I have seen a lot of promotion information about summer parent-child groups recently, mostly about checking in at regular tourist attractions. We are not sure about the actual weight of the study tour, but the prices really scare me – Beijing’s six day and five night tour can be priced over 10000 yuan, Xinjiang’s six day and five night tour is nearly 20000 yuan, and even regular tourist cities like Xi’an and Nanjing can cost 6000 to 7000 yuan in five or six days. This is still the price for a single person. If the whole family goes out, I really don’t dare to calculate… (I originally wanted to post a picture here, but I was afraid of being hit by someone’s organization. I have a strong desire to survive, haha) When a friend asked me if I should sign up for this kind of parent-child group for my child, I would weakly suggest: “Why don’t you take two days off and do a good independent travel strategy, plus the deducted salary, you won’t spend so much money.” In other words, travel groups earn money from poor information. Nowadays, with such advanced information, if you go to more conventional routes and attractions, you can make some travel guides appropriately. Self guided tours are the most cost-effective way, my friends. (The questioning and refutation of the wealthy are not accepted here.) Conventional routes refer to most cities and scenic spots at home and abroad, such as popular cities for children’s travel – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Nanjing, Chengdu, etc., with convenient transportation, complete supporting facilities, open information, and even a little bit of information can basically fill in the information gap. Unless the research institution has unique resource advantages, it can be seen that most tour groups under the banner of research are not much different from ordinary tourist groups. The difficulty is slightly higher abroad, but when it comes to popular cities or vacation destinations, you can easily access a wealth of online information and put in more effort to get it done. (By this point, it must be boasted that when we went on a 10 day free trip to Europe, according to the guide I compiled, the actual route was almost identical, with a difference of only over 500 yuan between the planned budget and actual expenditure, not including exchange rate errors haha!) Of course, in my lifetime, I hope to have the opportunity to hire travel agencies – when I become wealthy and have the conditions to choose unconventional routes that are relatively niche and high-end, such as wild luxury hotels, climbing Mount Everest, and watching penguins in Antarctica, I will inevitably rely on their professional tourism service resources~
How to make a travel guide?
1.Don’t worry about not knowing how to make a strategy
In fact, we often make travel guides – even if we go to a park on the other side of the city that we haven’t been to before, we will probably check in advance – whether public transportation or self driving, which platform can buy tickets cheaper, which area is allowed to set up tents, what delicious food is nearby… When traveling to other unfamiliar cities, it’s just about connecting and integrating this information, optimizing routes, controlling budgets, and arranging accommodation and meals. So, whether it’s a light tour lasting three to five days or a deep tour lasting more than half a month, you must firmly believe that you can make practical strategies~
2.Select destination
The travel destination is either determined – take your child to Beijing (or Nanjing, or Sanya, or Maldives, or Antarctica) during the holiday, that’s it; Either it’s random – I want to go to Europe, poke a few countries and cities on the map, and then study how to get there.
3.Match budget
When it comes to traveling, it’s important to choose between frugality and frugality.
The budget and time are very sufficient, it is not impossible to travel around the world; The budget and time are relatively sufficient, choose a favorite place to have fun; Due to limited budget and time, it’s also good to stay across cities for a few days.
My suggestion is to plan a budget before traveling and develop strategies within the budget framework. As the old saying goes, if one is poor and wealthy, going out is a place to spend money. Controlling goals and budget is the foundation of happy travel. 3000 yuan has a gameplay of 3000 yuan, and 50000 yuan has a gameplay of 50000 yuan. Choose a destination within the budget framework, for example, a few thousand yuan per person may not be enough to go to Europe for a week, but it is possible to have fun in most cities in China for half a month. Choosing accommodation conditions within the budget framework, if I carry three thousand yuan to Bali and shout that it’s not Bulgari, then I’m crazy.
Set a destination and budget, and start collecting information for the destination. A more useful source of information is:
- A professional tourism community website
For example, Mafengwo, Jiuyou.com, and Lonely Plant. To be honest, I prefer to go to this traditional travel community if it is a deep tour of domestic and foreign cities, or a long-distance route with great horizontal and vertical difficulties, such as Xinjiang, Xizang, the Northwest Ring Road and outbound self driving tours.
Especially for outbound travel, when information was not as advanced in the past, the budget travel guide and Lonely Plant travel guide were simply amazing.
The information published on these websites is mainly based on the personal experiences of travelers, with rich content in text and images, and strong practicality, from which many experiences and lessons can be learned. Moreover, there are many travel and photography experts inside, and just by reading their posts, one can feel refreshed and invigorated.
These community posts are personally reviewed and recommended by administrators, which greatly helps us block marketing and promotional content that is difficult to distinguish between real and fake. Unfortunately, nowadays the PC version is declining, and many tools that were once very useful are now neglected to maintain. More than a decade ago, Qiangyou website had a built-in guide generator that could DIY one’s own travel plans and detailed information, and automatically generate transportation routes and attraction introductions. However, recently I experienced it and found that the functionality is not as good as before
- Little H Book, D Sound
As for travel inspiration, nowadays it is still Little H Book and D Sound that are more in line with user needs. A casual search can bring up a plethora of short, flat, and fast “route recommendations,” “internet celebrity check ins,” and “photo spots,” most of which are actually practical. I personally feel that the algorithm “information cocoon” of these two platforms is too serious. When searching for a keyword, I wish the homepage would be dominated by this keyword for the next week.
Moreover, the information about tourism on these social platforms is mainly focused on “planting grass”, which is more fragmented. The most frequently recommended content is more inclined towards’ how to take life photos and post them on one’s social circle ‘. For these, personally I am quite desensitized. In my personal experience, there are still many ‘pitfalls’ that cannot be ignored here. Taking Little H Book as an example, many content accounts recommended on the homepage are travel agencies, ground transportation companies, chartered drivers, or local private tour guides. Their copywriting styles and routines are often very similar, and the recommended routes are also uniform.
3.Local relatives and friends
When we go to a certain city for sightseeing and happen to have relatives and friends in the city, actively contacting them can seek some travel inspiration. However, if relatives and friends are locals who have lived here for many years, many experiences may not be applicable to foreign tourists. Unless they have extensive experience or are engaged in cultural and tourism work, their circle of daily life and travel may be relatively limited, and their understanding of local tourism resources may not be as good as that of netizens who have just visited. So, the experience of family and friends is likely to only serve as a reference. However, if time or schedule does not allow, or if you do not want to disturb family and friends, then try to come and leave quietly as much as possible
