Five Gems In Our Travel Kit!

These are five gems that helped us during our travels. They are now indispensable part of our travel kitty. Hope they help you plan your travels well too.

1. Youtrip card

We were travelling to two countries in one trip and we were going to deal with two different currencies at the same time. We were not very comfortable carrying around cash for the entire trip. In search for a viable alternative like travellers card, we stumbled upon Youtrip card, developed by a local company in Singapore (EZlink) in collaboration with mastercard.
The main features which attracted us were:
a. Ability to withdraw local currency at ATMs supported by Mastercard
b. Can double up as a credit card which will show no extra surcharge if billed in local currency
c. Easy to top up via an easy to use app
d. Most importantly – no signing up fees, no annual or cancellation fees
I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out so far. The app gives you instant updates of any withdrawals or cash transactions via mastercard (both mentioning the local currency and in our saved currency in our account).

Click the link to know more about Youtrip card.

2. Skyroam

We still remember the time once in Indonesia (Bintan) we lost sight of our private car and driver after visit to a tourist attraction. We had to request help to contact the driver and were stranded for a brief moment . In a hope to find a good alternative for internet connection overseas, we began the search to resolve our problem. Since we have been dependent on network for most of our day to day activites, especially during a trip.
We were not very keen on buying an overseas sim each time we travel just for getting a good connection. Besides we really didn’t want a collection of sim cards as our mementos for each travel, not to mention sharing our details with so many sources.
We came across this article which helped us make an informed choice that we have leaned to love so far: https://travelislife.org/worldwide-4g-wireless-internet-for-travelers/
We then decided to consider a portble wifi hot spot. Our search led us to Skyroam and TEP wireless.
We were initially seriously considering TEP wireless, since they have an option to call overseas (VOIP services), through the app.  Both devices boasted extensive coverage over 130  plus countries. Both devices offered you two choices:
a. Rent the hotspot device, pick and choose a plan you like, use it for the duration of your travel, and then ship to back to them after the trip is over. The initial investment may seem low but the shipping costs and recurring cost just to ship it seemed to be couterproductive.
Or
b. Buy the device and buy the plan you like. Even though initial expense might seem prohibitive, its a good long term option especially if travel is your favourite hobby.    
After some research we thought we will go with Skyroam, since they have been around for quite some time and the reviews were good. And most importantly we stumbled upon a holiday offer for buying the skyroam device with additional almost 6 daily global wifi passes free along with the deal… and we were sold.. 🙂 (to be honest, skyroam does way more advertiing than TEPP and both are comparable. P.S. We’re waiting for Google Fi though, when it is usable for those outside USA).

In case you don’t need unlimited WiFi, they do have other limited data plans. You can check them out here in the link provided:

https://www.skyroam.com/

3. Agoda

We started using Agoda as an app for hotel bookings since 2017, and we have been pretty satisfied as well. We were also pleasantly surprised and obliged to Agoda team for the option of book now pay later in our bookings. Since we were booking at multiple hotels over different locations in two different countries, the logistics is a bit hard to manage unless we have a centralised booking app or company.
Agoda also has competitive prices for most hotels, with  an option to cancel free of charge even within the last week. Our favourite pasttime was hunting for better deals, and we did rebook atleast three times after our first choice and to good effect. Check out their website to know more

4. GetyourGuide

We wanted to explore good alternative ways to try and explore places for new unique experiences. We had previously discovered Backstreet Academt during our visit to Cambodia, and we were on the lookout for something similar. That’s when we discovered an app called GetYourGuide. They cater to many locations worldwide and have quite a comprehensive array of tours for each destination. The prices were surprisingly comparable and even lower than the prices quoted by the hotel authorities and tourist agencies of the destinations in many cases.
And their response time is prompt, so prompt that it actually surprised us (we landed in Cappadocia and on the spur of the moment, decided to do a tour since we have not planned anything and the hotel was quoting a hefty price for a private tour. We managed to book via GetYourGuide and the hotel authorities were contacted within 10 mins of our booking and we were on our trip within half an hour)   
The support staff is also prompt. They were a great help to us when our hot air balloon ride was cancelled due to weather. They agreed to postpone it first and refunded when the ballon ride was cancelled again due to weather.
We have been really satisfied with this GetYourGuide app since 2018 and would happily recommend it to all.

Note: Though we’d like to mention that we did have a bad experience hiring a  guide in Cairo (who really let us down) . That being said, all our other travel plans through this app has been great memorable ones so far. I guess it wouldn’t be fair to judge the whole team of GetYourGuide app and label them as bad for just a few rotten ones in the lot.

5. Viator

We didn’t use the app, but we used their website to book few skip the line guided tours in Istanbul. We had a great experience with the guides that accompanied us to the main tourist attractions in Istanbul. They do respond promptly via email for any enquiries and other customer care queries.

You can check them out while planning your trip as well. Their main website – Viator

Do share your travel tips that helped you plan your holidays better. We’d love to hear from you as well!

Have a wonderful year ahead!
Achu & Unni,
Couple Travel Tales