Slovenian Water Tour

Me and my family have been to almost all parts of South and Southeast Europe. The one country we had always overlooked, was Slovenia. And after this summer I have to say that it was a big mistake. Slovenia has a lot of offer - from mountain climbing and visiting karst caves to fantasy-like mountain rivers and lakes, which sounded like the best option in the hot summer.

How To Find Accomodation As A Solo Traveler?

I've always enjoyed my "me-time". I love spending time with my friends and family, but there are also activities which I prefer to do alone. In my opinion, learning to have fun on your own is one of the life-goals we all should achieve. I reached this goal this summer on my first time solo trip and I enjoyed it so much that I'm planning to repeat something similar ASAP.

Even though my trip was quite short, I collected a lot of information and experience that will definitely help me next time - including the tips and my personal experience about finding accomodation as a solo traveler.

There are couple of different ways of accomodation:

Travel agencies

Traveling wit travel agencies is not really a thing for solo travelers in general. If you're looking for a cheap "last-minute" trip, you probably won't find anything like that for a solo trip. Basically, you'll (almost) always have to pay for at least two people (or the full price of the apartment/room/mobilhome..) so even the cheapest offers end up being not very cheap.

That's why solo traveling is usually better when it's planned all by yourself. Not only you'll save money, but you'll have much more freedom in spending your free time.

AirBnB & Hotels

I have to admit I'm not a verz adventurous kind of traveler. I simply enjoy my privacy and comfort. And honestly I don't think it's a bad things. For me, the most important things about traveling is to enjoy the trip as much as you can and the journey itself and the accomodation are a part of my experience as well.

So the most convenient ways of accomodation for me are classic hotels, apartment houses and AirBnB accomodation.

One of the problems about solo traveling is the price - most hotels don't have single rooms, so you just simply have to pay for two or you pay for one but with some added fee.

My first tip to get a cheaper accomodation in a hotel/apartment as a solo traveler, is to BOOK IN ADVANCE. I was planning to go abroad since May but all of my plans were just abstract and at the end I was booking my hotel just few days before departure - while being compeltely desperate because most of the good and relatively cheap accomodations had been already fully booked.

Since AirBnB apartments in my "price cateogory" were full, I decided to book my accomodation through booking.com where I had a pretty bad experience this time. The apartments in Italy often charge you with extra fees for cleaning etc. or they want an extra deposit which they give back to you on the day of the check-out. My original plan was to visit Verona, Blogna and Venice or Florence, with a trip to the nearest beachside town. At the end I booked an accomodation which charged me with a super high cleaning fee - and since I wanted to stay just for two days in Venice, I would pay the same amount for the accomodation itself and for the cleaning. The problem was that I didn't notice this extra fee while booking (it was probably written somewhere with tiny-almost-invisible letters) and in the next step of the reservation, there was no mention about the fee. I confirmed the reservation and then got an email in which I found the "final price" ... At the end I decided to give up the deposit for this accomodation and instead I spent more than a half of my trip in Slovenia instead of Italy.

So while booking on booking.com, pay attention to all the price details or find a hotel on this site and then book it on its official sites.

Workaway

Workaway.info connects travel volunteers and hosts who are looking for help in exchange for free accomodation (and usually food as well). There are many different ways of volunteer work - fruit picking, house keeping, construction work, babysitting, teaching languges, yoga or surfing. The work usually takes abotu 3-5 hours a day 5-6 days a week and you can spend the rest of the time traveling around and exploring the place. Some hosts prefere long-term volunteers - for example for "au-pair" kind of volunteering (usually for couple of months), some allow you to come just for few days.

Workaway membership costs 34 EUR/year and you can also get more convenient membership for a couple.

It's necessary to write as many emails as you can and not so expect, that you'll find a perfect volunteer position immediately. I spent around 2 months looking for a volunteer opportunity but I didn't find anything that would fit. My originally intended Sri Lanka trip didn't work out because of the season (most of the hosts were located on the part of the island where there is rainy season in summer), a lot of people didn't answer at all, they already had enough volunteers, they didn't fit into my dates ... or the journey to the place was so complicated I just gave up (because as a first time solo-trip it was a bit too much). So my plans didn't work out this time but I'm definitely going to try this kind of traveling on my own.

If you don't care what kind of work you're going to do, if you just want to try something new, meet new people, improve your language skills and step out of your own comfort zone ... You can find a lot of opportunities on workaway :)

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is another way to get an accomodation for free. You just simply sign up on couchsurfing.com (for free) and find yout ideal host. Accomodation is for free but it's expected you'll provide the host with some "cultural enrichment" in exchange - coming there, locking yourself in a room and not even talking to your host is a bit rude.

Couchsurfing is not really my style and I wouldn't feel comfortable staying alone with a stranger on my trip. Of course it depends on the host you find but some hosts may expect some more "intimate" enrichment". Always try to choose hosts with a lot of reviews and - even if it may sound like prejudice - solo travelers are not recommended to stay with male hosts. Unfortunatelly I heard some pretty bad experiences even from people I know - and not even just from girls.

Hostely

Hostels are often the cheapest option for solo travelers because in opposite to hotels/apartment houses, they always offer single beds in dorms. You simply pay just for your own place to sleep and nothing more.

Another benefit of hostels is the fact that you can meet a lot of great people from all aroudn the world. On the other hand, you have to be prepared for less privacy, comfort - and in some countries also less security.

A great site where you can find hotels anywhere in the world (also available as an app) is www.hostelworld.com but many hotels can be also found on booking.com.

#SoloTrip - Day 2: Jesolo Adventure

How to turn a trip to a touristic resort into an adventurous memory? It's easy. Just pack too little food and drink with you, get to the bus station a moment when the bus is leaving and get off another bus on a wrong station. Add a bit of horrible navigation sense, cellphone with 10% battery and powerbank without connector ... And you'll experience a day full of unforgettable memories!

#SoloTrip - Day 1: Verona

This spring (and a big part of the summer) I spent so much time planning and hesitating about the way of spending my last high school summer holiday. I knew one thing for sure - I have to get our. Alone. And even though my megalomaniac plans turned into a one week trip, after few minutes in the bus to Italy, I suddenly felt I'm on my way to collecting some totally unforgettable memories.

Dog Holidays - Traveling around Sardinia

Our dog has already traveled quite a lot during the three years of his life. He was born in Karlovy Vary so as a puppy, he traveled home across the whole country. Soon after his first birthday, he visited sea for the first time - during our short family vacation in Poland. One year later, he was running around the beach in Greece and this year, he can bark about his memories from Sardinia.

The Barrier

One Czech proverb says: "The more languages you know, the more persons you become". I've never been thinking about the depth of this proverb as much as I do recently. Languages gives you an opportunity to become someone else. Sometimes it's simply because your vocabulary is so poor that you can't look like the big philosoph even if you wanted to .. But also sometimes, some things are just easier to say in a language different from your mothertongue ...

Freedom.

A week until my last high school exam. Projects to finish: 5. Unfinished books: 1. Problematic high school finals questions: 4. Summer holiday plans: tens. Realistically planned ones: 0

I've been looking forward to this summer for months. Or maybe years. 3 months of complete freedom. I have tons of free time. Quite enough money. Almost no duties. But as the school year was coming to its end, I realized that freedom is actually quite difficult thing to handle. 

East, West Home Is Best (Or not?)

Some people enjoy staying at the same place their whole life. They have their little cozy house in a little town or village, they go to work five days a week and in their free time, they spend time with their family, they care about the garden or go for walk.

I've never enjoyed this type of life.

I can't stay at one place for one time, I enjoy traveling from one place to another much more and I don't plan to settle in nearest future.

2017 Year Overview

This year is coming to its end nad it's time to make a little recap of the past few months again. When you feel like your life is completely messed up and you experience only negative things all the time ... It's great to find some old photos and realize that there were so many amazing times as well. At the end of the year, I always realize that no matter how hard times I experiences, I got also many beautiful memories, that I will never forgive.

18th Birthday Party

"Last school ringing" 
(Czech tradition when the high school seniors walk around the school with facial colours and vinegar water and a bit "violently" :D ask the students for money for their last high school party)

Majáles (May "carnival" parade)

Yoga & Dance Ostrava festival

Summer academy Hejbej

School social-cultural cours in Prague

Greece

  

    

   

 

  

Yoga training with Deep Kumar 

 Poland - Pieniny

 Garden reconstruction + family BBQ

  

Venice

  

Assisi 

Rome + Vatican

Pieniny - Escape from the Reality

Usually when I tell someone that we go for a holiday to Poland, people look at me and don't understand what the hell could be interesting there. Many people go to Poland for low prices of food ... but spending time in Poland by the sea, visit sandy "desert" or mountains? We always choose places, which are not so often visited by tourists and maybe that's the reason why we often see the countries we visit in a bit different light than other people ... So during our stay in Poland we found out that Poland can offer not only cheap chocolates and coconut oil in supermarkets, but also wonderful nature and castles that take you to your own little fairytale.

Greece 17: Days without water

On the first Friday of July, we moved from Mytikas to a nearby town Zalongo. We're stading in front of the apartment, waiting for someone to come and gives of the keys. When nobody is coming, we decide to call the phone number mentioned on Booking and in a while, a weird duo is coming. Super talkative Greek cleaning lady and her assistans - Armenian who didn't know a word in English and she was always standing by her side, smiling and not knowing what the hell is going on.

Greece 17: Turtles, Mosquitos and Other Creatures

During all the time, spent in Greece we were always pretty lucky in meeting people - all of them vere super nice and always willing to elp. In Serbia, the owners of the house offered us homemade lemonade and rakija and spent nice evening talking with us about everything we wanted to know. In Macedonia, we were pretty suprised by a man who we asked for a help with direction, and he immeditatelly jumped into his car and showed us the way on his own.

Greece 17 - Packing, Injuries and Mekike

According to psychologists (and our own experience), family vacations bring a lot of relationship crises. However we decided to take the risk again. Seventeen days together, four people, a dog, one car and about five thousand kilometres ahead of us.
It was the last friday in June and the bell started ringing on 3am. With sleepy eyes, we were putting the last bits to our lugages. A half and hour later, the car is stuffed to burst, the dog is impatiently waiting in the hall and dad is (traditionally like every other year) sitting at a computer, downloading music to his flash disk ...

Dog At The Beach

This year, we went for a holiday with our dog for the second time. With a dog who hates water and summer. And so we went about 1700km by car to Greece. Well, fortunatelly he loves going anywhere by car and he really enjoys the ride .. What are the things you have to get ready for when travelling with a dog? 
note: This post is about travelling around the Europe.