The Maproute

Recently we (family) are planning a trip to Dubai and Bahrain. It was long pending as our Uncle has been staying there for quite a few years now. I figured its a good opportunity to take off on my own for a bit as I don’t really have a limitation of how many days I can be on the road! I can always work online and it would be exciting to explore digital nomad lifestyle abroad too! Hopefully I get lots of free wi-fi

First things I did was to research out possible places to visit and how feasible everything would be in terms of safety, costs and culture (it being Saudi and I being a woman).

Step 1 Maps: Google!

I took a look at the map of Saudi in Google maps and scouted out places that look nearby. I saw Abu Dhabi very close to Dubai and then there was Oman. Ideally I was looking for places that I could visit on road – this keeps cost reasonable and I actually get to see the entire landscape of the place!

Step 2 Local Person

Post that I zeroed out on a few contacts who live in Dubai/Abu Dhabi. From them I can find out lot of local information. How feasible is it for me roam around in jeans and tee? Is inter-city travel safe? What sort costs would I be looking at? etc… This has to be done after looking at the map, because often the local person may not be into traveling themselves. So while they may not suggest good places to travel, once we know the place they can definitely provide on the ground knowledge.

So turns out UAE and Oman both are pretty cool. There are good buses available for me to travel in the two countries. I checked out the rates and they are reasonable enough. Oman is a bit more expensive tho…

Step 3 Travelogue Blogs

This is the part I really like, I am not talking about informations sites. I am talking about personal travelogues about having visited a place! These can be a wealth of info about some fun stuff to do, budget tips and other travel related info given by another traveler!

Oman turns out to be not so popular, I found just two recent blogs which I thought were very helpful!

http://havbootswilltravel.travellerspoint.com/2/ —–> quite a bit of useful info though some of it like renting cars is not something I will be doing.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelblogs/53/99297/Sur%27s+up?destId=361106 —> he gives the link of the bus website which is pretty useful!

So I read other blogs too they are very interesting.. but they didn’t really give me an idea on any actual tips that I could use. In fact thats something I myself should probably remember while writing travel blogs!

After these 3 steps, I now have a decent idea of where I want to travel and what transport I would be using to get to places.

A little bit of search for hotels, hostels etc.. gives me an idea of the rates I would be looking at. In fact Oman has an official tourism website which lists hotels, I think they would be good ones.

So now its a matter of figuring out the best rates for booking flights and hotels. This needs to be co-ordinated with my family. We would mostly go to a travel agent as its a group booking, and we have been told (by contacts) that if we book everything – flights & hotels to gether its a lot cheaper!

Once this is done and the trip is fixed, I will again spend time talking with the local people who can give me an idea about what to visit in each city and other tips about transport.