Archives: Answers

My first recommendation would be Tripadvisor as many hotels and tour agents in Asia are registered with them. With this app, you can search for hotels, holiday rentals, tour or holiday packages, and even restaurants! The best part about this app is that you can compare prices between different sites for the same hotel or holiday packages at your fingertips. Do look out for reviews on what they have to offer as it comes from previous tourists who have experienced booking with Tripadvisor. Another recommendation is Klook, they offer various options of sightseeing tours and fun activities which you can book directly through their app. You can choose from theme parks, boat tours, bungy jumping to glamping, spa, and museum sightseeing. Both these travel apps are great to use across Asia and have lots of package deals to choose from that are based on the country you are planning to visit.

Street food is generally considered unhygienic around Africa for all tourists. The reason is mostly no check-and-balance on these stalls as food control departments mostly monitor established restaurants. Therefore, it is entirely up to you to ensure that the process through which the food stall owners prepare food remains hygienic. You could ask the food stall owner to showcase the entire preparation process and then, make a buying decision based on whether you consider it hygienic or not. Moreover, it is also hard to examine whether the person ensures personal hygiene before preparing the food. On top of that, street food is mainly exposed to pathogens and germs present in the air, and therefore, it is highly recommended that you make a calculated examination before buying food from roadside stalls.

You need not be concerned about that because places like those are mostly limited to a designated zone. Massage parlors and Karaoke bars might have some inappropriate images but if you are on a family trip, you are unlikely to go to such places. On the other hand, Thailand has so much to offer for both kids and adults. You must organize your itinerary such that it maximizes the experience for both the adults and the kids in the family.

Bhutan does have a smaller road network as compared to many other mountainous countries but the places most visited by tourists have acceptable roads. For instance, the roads between Paro, Thimphu, and Punakha are well-developed and well-maintained. Tourists could easily cover the distance from Paro to Thimphu in less than two hours. However, smooth inter-city travel is mostly limited to these three cities. If you are looking to go on a trekking trip, you would likely have to bear a drive on a road made of gravel and dirt to make it to the trek spot. However, all these roads are perfectly fine to travel and since the Bhutanese government does not allow tourists to drive, you would have highly professional, local drivers at your disposal. The only downside of not having an asphalt-based road is just that it takes more time to get to your desired destination. All in all, in terms of a family trip, Bhutan is mostly a fairly good and safe place to travel, even for an elderly person and the sceneries are worth the little bumpy struggle that you would have to go through to reach different places.

Although sandboarding falls under the category of extreme sports, it is generally not as risky as other extreme sports. However, just to stay on the safer side, precautionary measures are always necessary. Usually, sand-boarders do not wear some kind of protective gear like helmets, goggles, or knee pads, but in the case of kids, it is recommended to have them wear them. Such protective gears are readily available around sandboarding sites in Egypt. For teenage kids, although it is safe to do sandboarding, it is recommended that they go into action on a smaller slope. There have been some rare occasions when sandboarding on a taller slope resulted in injuries, however, these injuries have been minor most of the time. In addition to that, sand sledding would be a better and safer option for kids because that allows them better control over their slides, which reduces the risk of falling. Kids must use actual sleds instead of planks since actual sleds come with grips, and make it easier to control and practice. 

Yes, the Bosphorus Express, which is also known as Trans-Balkan express, is an international passenger train that runs between Turkey and Romania, laid out over the distance of 840 kilometers between the capitals of both the countries. However, if you have the intention to enjoy the sceneries while on the go, you would miss some of those because the train leaves at night. The journey takes around 20-21 hours and the train usually leaves at 8 pm, which is why it is unlikely that you would be able to see your journey through until 6 am in the morning. Moreover, the Bosphorus express is the cheapest mode of travel between the two cities, however, remember that they do not have on-board catering and you would have to bring along snacks and food. 

Getting your pet in India could be tricky and time-consuming for tourists. For a UK tourist, there are two documents required to take your pet safely to India. First, you would have to get a health certificate approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK. This document ensures that your pet meets the health-related criteria for entrance into a foreign country. However, you would still have to produce all the documents to show that your pet is vaccinated for all dog-related diseases, specifically rabies. Second, you would have to get a NOC from the Indian department of “Animal Quarantine and Certification Service”. This is usually done through an agent and could take multiple days to be approved, which is why it is recommended that you designate a specific period of time (at least a month) for the process before the trip.

Even with all that, it is likely that your pet might be quarantined for over 14 days depending on its health. After getting through all this, you would finally be able to take your pet anywhere in India. To take your pet to Nepal, you do not need an import permit, just the health certificate and a document that shows the ownership of the pet will suffice. As for the Maldives, its government has banned bringing dogs into the country. It is recommended that you leave your dog in the care of a professional pet sitter in India before flying off to the Maldives.

 

Hokkaido offers all four seasons. The climate in Hokkaido remains pleasant even in summers while Southern Japan could get annoyingly hot in summers.

To top it off, Hokkaido manages to circumvent the heavy rain season that occurs all over Southern Japan; it’s not as if the region does not have any rain, it’s just that you would not have to worry about not being able to go sightseeing for a week straight.

On the other hand, winters in Hokkaido start from December and last till the end of March. Most of the time, all of Hokkaido remains covered in thick snow for four months and with that, ski resorts start booming. The Hokkaido Snow Festival is not an event that any tourist would want to miss.

Lastly, Spring and Autumn offer the lush-green landscape and culminate into an ideal environment for someone who is fascinated by nature. All in all, if you are someone looking for summer adventures but dislike the hot weather, Hokkaido is the right place for you. Or, if you are someone who enjoys a long-lasting winter with a lot of activities to do, Hokkaido is the right choice. The latter is highly recommended.

Both of these transit modes are entirely dependent on what you like. Let’s say, if you are a photographer and you would want to stop at every point where you find a beautiful view for some photographs, it is recommended that you use a car. On the other hand, if you have planned out all your destinations, it would be better to use the local trains to reach there. Note that traveling by train is generally faster than traveling by car because Switzerland has inter-city railway lines with high-speed trains, and you could save a substantial amount of time. Moreover, the trains are, in itself, a part of the Switzerland experience. So, if you have a time constraint or you are on a tight budget, the train would prove to be the fastest and most efficient mode of travel in all of Switzerland.

In general, a cloth mask is preferred over not wearing a mask at all in every country that has been gravely struck by the virus. However, health experts have increasingly emphasized the use of medical-grade surgical masks over cloth masks. On top of that, it is common knowledge that different cloth masks provide a different level of filtration and protection, and for a common person, it is difficult to identify which cloth mask would provide maximum protection. In the particular case of Germany, the government has mandated the use of medical-grade surgical masks (FFP or FFP-2), of which N95 and KN95 are considered most effective. Therefore, the answer to your question is no. It is recommended that you wear a surgical mask, and these masks are conveniently available on the vending machines around all the airports in Germany.