All Blog Posts (16)

I was worried due to more than 2 feet of snow fall in Washington just a week back. The airport Washington Dulles airport was closed just last Thursday. However, the worst seemed to get over and I could fly on time to Washington Dulles airport on Sunday 14th Feb.

Just 20 days back, I was in San Jose and LA, where I mostly stayed in hotels, This time for a change I decided to stay in a youth hostel. It is http://www.hiwashingtondc.org . It cost… Continue

After a 2 day conference at Shimla, I headed to Kullu Manali region in Himachal Pradesh. For so many years after my trips to Switzerland, I have been waiting to visit the hilly places and I rarely got the chance due to too less number of Leaves available in software industry. Now, that I became an entrepreneur and managed to have free time, I decided to travel as much India as possible after this Summer 2009. During the Conference at Shimla, I came across a Vehicle/Car operator (not a travel ag… Continue

India International Travel Mart, has the 3 day Travel and Tourism exhibition at Palace Grounds, Bangalore, near Mount Carmel college from 18th July, 2009. It has 200 participants from 20 Indian states and 15 countries. The timings are: 11am to 7:30pm and the entry fee is: Rs.30. Today afternoon, I and Raghu are planning to head to this exhibition and spend some two hours there. Looks like, one can also get some good holiday deals there. L… Continue

A one month Theater festival takes place at Bregenz, Austria in July-August every year. Bregenz is located on south of Lake Constance near to border of both Switzerland and Germany. Bregenz also contains world's largest floating Opera stage. http://www.bregenzerfestspiele.com/en/ This year's Opera is Aida by Giuseppe Verdi. The Opera will be performed every single evening from 22 Jul to 23 Aug.… Continue

Eurolines, a travel company in Europe offers cheap bus tickets to travel across Europe. One can also buy its bus passes to travel between different cities. Its website says, Eurolines is the brand under which more than 30 companies across Europe work together to provide the extensive coach network in Europe. This network connects over 500 destinations, which services from Morocco to Russia and Bulgaria to Norway. The Eurolines members offer the most competitive fares with no hidden extras. Tr… Continue

Whenever I wanted to travel abroad on a low budget, I prefer youth hostels. Recently, I stayed a few days in Youth Hostels at Beijing and Shanghai. The youth Hostel at Qian Men in Beijing was just walkable distance from Tiananmen Square and Forbidden city. The Temple of heaven is just 2 km away. Similarly, the youth hostel at Shanghai at Pudong was walkable distance from the famous Jin Mao building, Shanghai Trade center and the Pearl Tower. Both these youth hostels were very close to Metro sta… Continue

If you are traveling in Sri Lankan Airways and your connecting flight is after 8 to 15 hours, then Sri Lankan Airways takes the passengers to a Hotel or Resort in Colombo. 2 years back, I had a connecting flight some 17 hours after my arrival at Colombo and they accommodated me in a Resort next to sea. The photos of the resort are at: http://travel.ghoomlo.com/photo/photo/listTagged?tag=lanka Continue

I went to Spicejet website for postponement of a ticket and I found that it has launched a Monsoon Mania offer valid only from 10th to 12th June, offering low cost all inclusive tickets for travel between 1st July till 15th September. For example, Bangalore to Delhi tickets are available only for Rs.1990/- and Bangalore to Hyd tickets for Rs.1490/-. Origin Destination Total Fare in Rs. (All inclusive) Jammu Delhi 1208 Jammu Srinagar 1208 Srinagar Delhi 12… Continue

Tourism Bureau, Rep. of China(Taiwan) has started a website to reward bloggers to write stories about their trips to Taiwan. Well, we had been to Taiwan on a 10 days tour in 2006. I need to start writing about it all. http://www.taiwanbesttrip.net/ Continue

With lot of excitement and some apprehensions, we boarded the Rajdhani Express to Jammu. Though a Rajdhani, the premium train service in India, condition of the coaches of this train were not very pleasing. In fact, all these short distance and overnight Rajdhanis are constructed out of re-cycled coaches of Rajdhanis on popular long distance routes. Anyway, the train had reached Jammu Tawi station before dawn broke. Someone had to wake us up telling that the train is standing on platform. We ha… Continue

Under a special promotion, a trip to Ladakh costs Rs.4500/- per person on twin sharing basis, if its a group of 4 people. More details are at: Ladakh Trips. This package includes, excursion trip to Khardongla Pass 5600m –supposedly the world highest motorable pass, fullday Indus Valley tour includes visit to Shey Palace, Leh Palace, Thiksey, Hemis and Stok Monasteries, which are the among the historically most im… Continue

Sri Lankan Airways is offering tickets from Bangalore to Beijing for Rs.23,692/- in the month of June, July and August including the taxes and fees. If one is interested in a tourist trip to Beijing and nearby places like Datong, Chengde and Great wall, they one can use this offer. However, going to Shanghai can be difficult with this as there are no Sri Lankan Airlines from Shaghai and that means one has to take a two and fro train ticket to Shanghai, which can cost about Rs.7000/-. Visit:… Continue

I and some of my friends have to head to Shimla for a National Meet of one of the NGOs on 15th and 16th of August, 09. So, we booked the tickets for 6 of us in Spicejet. I knew that tickets are cheap when they are booked in advance. However, this is the first time I was booking almost 3 months in advance. We got to and fro tickets to Delhi from Bangalore at Rs.4798/- per person including tax and fees. More guys are expected to arrive at Delhi from other parts of India and we plan to hire one or… Continue

Now, Singapore airlines has started offering two and fro air tickets to Singapore from Bangalore. I tried to check the tickets for 3rd June and return on 10th June and I found the price to be: 10,692/- inclusive of all taxes and fees. Wow!! That's great! Of course, the conditions of this ticket include no cancellation, that is you must travel on the dates for which you booked and you can not cancel or postpone tickets in case of emergencies. Continue

After the trip to Taiwan by me and Apurva together in 2006, I was looking forward to a trip to mainland China. Then, I was busy with job in HP and there was this mad rush to China during Olympics. So, I was thinking that the prices of Hotels in China must drop after Olympics and I can plan a trip after the olympics. Well, being a travel enthusiast, I keep going to all the travel exhibitions that take place in Bangalore. In one such travel exhibition in Kanteerava Indoor stadium, I came across a… Continue

Today, I, Virag and Mithun were discussing about a trip to Europe and we found that some of the flight deals or special fares offered by Emirates are as low as Rs.30,630 to Munich from Bangalore (Fare INR 27545.00 + Taxes/fees INR 3085.00) with onward journey on 21st May and return journey on 03 June. The ticket to Munich from Mumbai or Bangalore are as low as Rs.27,310/- (including taxes and fees) with onward journey on 21st May and return journey on 3rd June. Similarly, ticket to Paris from… Continue