Remember when Donna Sheridan said, “Life is short, the world is wide?” It’s time to follow through.

“Dreams. Ambition. Hope. Disappointments. So much possibility. So many options. Eager to jump. Afraid to crash. Travel. First day at your job. Hectic days. Sleepless nights. Laughter. Music. Dance. Friendship…Excitement. Confusion, Feeling invincible. Feeling worthless. The feeling that things couldn’t possibly get worse—only to learn that they do in fact get worse, but only until they get better. Making choices. Taking chances. Accepting change—the madness of youth.”

Your twenties are about exploring life and its many nuances. Often, travelling is a huge part of that. Travelling helps you discover places, people, cultures, and, for the most part, yourself. Amidst the din of city life and the endless obligations that come with adulting, taking some time out to travel the world may not be such a bad idea. But it’s hardly as easy as ticking off a bucket list and magically finding yourself at the airport. From budgeting every penny to planning each moment, there’s a lot that needs to be considered before setting out for a trip in your twenties.

Here are five travel bloggers who got to let us in on their secrets and tips to travel, places to visit, and their travel mantra.

Tanya Khanijow

Places to visit: I highly recommend traveling to Southeast Asia in your twenties. Countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia offer a perfect blend of adventure, culture, and natural beauty. These destinations are budget-friendly and provide incredible experiences and activities like trekking through lush jungles, swimming in turquoise waters, and immersing yourself in vibrant local cultures. You can also consider some of the central Asian or Middle Eastern countries like Oman, Kazakhstan, and Jordan.

Budgeting tips: Set a realistic budget based on your income and savings. Prioritise your expenses and allocate funds accordingly, opt for budget-friendly accommodations like hostels, guesthouses, or homestays. Use price comparison websites to find the best deals on flights and transportation for the best dates/months. Opt for local street food or affordable eateries to save money on meals. Finally, consider using public transportation or walking instead of relying on taxis or private transfers.

Planning the itinerary: Research your destination to understand its attractions, weather conditions, and any cultural norms or customs you should be aware of. Create a rough itinerary outlining the places you want to visit and the activities you’d like to do. However, leave room for spontaneity. Consider the duration of your trip and allocate sufficient time for each destination. It’s important to strike a balance between exploring popular tourist spots and discovering off-the-beaten-path gems. Ask local taxi drivers, restaurant owners, reception staff or local shop owners about things they like to do to get the best recommendations. Lastly, use travel apps or websites to organise your itinerary, keep track of bookings, and access offline maps or travel guides.

Travel Mantra: My travel mantra is to embrace the unknown, step out of your comfort zone, and make every journey a learning experience. I love to seek the unknown. It’s important to be open-minded, embrace the local culture, and savour every moment.

Aakanksha Monga

Places to visit: A trip around Southeast Asia to Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam is a MUST in your twenties. The new cultures, food, and people you will meet will change your perspective toward the world. It’s a lot of fun backpacking and going through hostels in your 20s; it might not be as fun later on, trust me.

Budgeting tips: Split your budget between fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are the ones you can know in advance, like flights and stay. Then you have variable expenses like food, transportation, and activities, and researching about these will give you an idea of how much your per-day cost would be. Take along some emergency cash as it will always come in handy.

Planning the itinerary: The itinerary of a trip to any of the countries in Southeast Asia should involve lots of outdoor activities. I loved hiking up the volcanoes in Indonesia.

Travel mantra: Go with an open mind and open heart, never judge any culture, and be open to adapt to different situations.

Prakriti and Ashish

Places to visit: Twenties are easily the best time to go backpacking. In India, we recommend travelling across Ladakh and Spiti Valley to enjoy endless stunning terrains and beautiful views. We also encourage every traveller to try the famous backpacker circuit of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as they are some of the most affordable countries to travel to.

Budgeting tips: Set aside a daily expense allowance and track your spending to stay on the course.

Planning the itinerary: Begin planning your trip at least two months in advance, so you have time to research thoroughly and save up. It also helps to create spreadsheets and lists like places of interest, transportation options, and things to pack. Rely more on detailed travel blogs as opposed to video format information. It’s important to understand that often, watching a video to gather information creates a certain expectation from a trip, which, if not met, leaves one rather dissatisfied, thus defeating the process.

Travel Mantra: Life’s too short to be lived within four walls, we much rather prefer the world as our oyster.

Manav Chhabra

Places to visit: Both India and Europe will offer unique adventures. In India, you can witness vibrant culture, majestic architecture, and diverse landscapes, while Europe will expose you to a wealth of art, history, and stunning landscapes. And both can be budget-friendly.

Budgeting tips: Travel light so you can access pocket friendly places such as hostels. Budget trips are all about making smart choices and embracing local culture.

Planning the itinerary: Besides creating a rough list of must-visit spots, it’s important to have a schedule and also allow flexibility in your itinerary. Embracing flexibility can lead to unexpected adventures and memorable experiences. Understanding cultural norms, etiquette, and practices will help you navigate the destination with ease and enhance your interaction with locals. Finally, consider the climate and activities you want to do at your destination when packing.

Travel Mantra: Ensure the safety of your belongings and enjoy every minute of your journey.

Himani Chawda

Places to visit: One must travel to the northern parts of India such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to be amidst nature and experience the local culture. Trekking and camping in Himachal is a must-have experience.

Budgeting tips: Plan in advance. The more you delay booking the trip, the more expensive it will get and impact your entire budget.

Planning the itinerary: Researching and downloading offline maps to reduce your dependency on the internet and keeping your cash in different pockets of your bag or outfit is a good way to plan.

Travel Mantra: She wanted to travel the world and that’s what she is doing.

Level one of trip planning means that you just decided that now it’s time for a vacation. But you are not aware of anything except this. In this article, I will guide you on how to move further from level one of your trip planning and make your dream trip happen.

From deciding a destination to deciding a budget as simply choosing a destination is not sufficient; you also need to consider other trip preparations, such as seasons, finances, accommodations, duration, flights, etc.

After level one you just need to follow the below step or tips:

Decide a season and be aware of it:

Take into account the season of the year you will be there first. As it affects the budget, this will assist you in further planning your vacation. For instance, if you’re traveling at the busiest time of year, hotel and other accommodation expenses will be prohibitively expensive.

However, if you travel during the off-peak season, you will be able to get cheaper hotels and lower prices everywhere else. But that too depends on your choice of destination.

Decide a budget:

The cost of your return flight or other transportation, the cost of accommodation for a specified number of days, your planned activities at your chosen destination, your planned food budget, your planned sightseeing, and of course, some emergency money, all go into determining your trip budget. You must set a budget otherwise chances are high that you will end up spending more.

Booking in advance is the game changer:

You must book your airline, train, or bus tickets long in advance if you want to know how to properly prepare for your trip after ideation is finished. Because train and plane tickets are erratic in terms of availability and price changes, you can stay within your initial budget by making your bookings a few months in advance.

Research about safety:

Before going there, you should always check to make sure it’s safe by getting information from dependable sources. The location, for instance, cannot be going through civil unrest, war, viral illnesses, or anything else that could represent a major safety concern.

Make a fantastic itinerary:

Plan your route so that you can see all the places you “must see.” How long does it take to get from one town to the other? How much time will it take you to complete these activities? How long would it take you to see everything you wanted to see in this city? If the purpose of the trip is to relax and take it easy while on vacation, the trip planner should just include one or two activities per day.

Keep your first aid kit ready:

Nowadays, everything is accessible everywhere, but we are convinced that some treatments are not available everywhere. For instance, many people are highly picky about fever medications and claim that only this company’s medication would work for them.

In these situations, it is best to prepare a first aid box with basic medications for a cough and cold, as well as painkillers, bandages, and other emergency medications and ointments. It keeps you prepared for things like fever, acute body aches, scrapes, scratches, and other wounds.

Want to take better beach photos? Well, we’ve got 12 tips to help you do just that so next time you’re at the coast, your beach photos will stand out from the crowd.

1. What Gear Do I Need?

• Camera – Compact or DSLR
• Camera bag – Keep your gear safe from sand and sea salt when you’re not using it.
• Tripod – Something lightweight and portable will be perfect as it won’t take up too much room in the car and your arms won’t ache after carrying it around all day.
• Polarising filter – Help reduce reflections and boost contrast.
• UV filter – Protect your lens from scratches.
• Hurricane blower and lens cloth – Make sure your lens is free of sea spray and keep grains of sand out.

2. How To Protect Your Gear

You might enjoy a day out at the beach but your photography gear won’t. Make sure you wipe all of your gear down when you get home and leave it to dry out completely. Spiked feet will stop your tripod slipping into the sand as you’re trying to frame up while a UV filter will help stop sand scratching your lens. When you’re not using your camera, remember to put it back in your bag and if you’re using a DSLR and want to change lenses, try and do it off the beach and out of the wind so sand doesn’t get blown where it shouldn’t be.

3. What About Time Of Day?

The warm light of an evening will give you better results than midday sun or if you’re a morning person, get up early when the sun’s at a lower angle so your shots will be more evenly lit without large, deep shadows running through them. There will be less people around at this time too as most of the day-trippers will have left if it’s later in the evening or not arrived if you’re up at the crack of dawn. Don’t dismiss shooting a few shots of a busy beach though, particularly if it’s a hot weekend and the sand can’t be seen for towels and seats.

4. Don’t Just Look Out To Sea

Sweeping vistas of the ocean and cliffs do look great but do try turning around with your camera and photograph the scene that’s unfolding behind you. Just be careful who you point your lens at as there is a chance it will upset some parents who’ll want to know why you’re photographing their children. Try capturing shots that help tell the story of what happened at the beach – close-ups of sun cream bottles, buckets, spades and dropped ice cream cones make great ‘fill-in’ shots for photo albums and photo books.

5. Look For A Focal Point

When you do shoot out to sea try giving the shot a focal point in the foreground otherwise it can look a little empty. Driftwood, rocks and footprints are just three things you could use to add an extra element of interest to your shot. Just check you’re using a small aperture before you take your shot to ensure front-to-back sharpness.

6. Focus On The Water

To turn the waves into a smooth, dry ice-like motion you need to set your camera on a tripod and dial down to a slow shutter speed. How slow you need to go will depend on the movement of the waves and how bright it is so some experimentation will probably be needed. If you’re struggling to get the speeds you need use a polarising or ND filter to reduce the amount of light entering the lens.

7. Change Your View

If there’s a pier get on top of it to give yourself some height. You’ll then be able to get more of the beach scene in shot. If you’re using a compact camera that has a tilt-shift mode, getting up on the pier will give you the chance to turn the people sat on the beach into model-like characters. If there isn’t a pier try extending the centre column on your tripod to give you more height. You may want to pack a remote release in case you can’t reach the camera’s shutter button when your tripod’s extended. It’ll also help reduce the chances of shake spoiling your shot.

8. Check Your Horizons

You need to make sure your horizon’s straight and try moving its position to draw the viewer’s attention to a particular part of the shot.

9. Shoot A Sunset / Sunrise

You can’t go to the coast without photographing a sunrise/sunset (depending on which coast you’re on). Just remember to have yourself at your chosen location an hour or so before sunset/rise and make sure you pack your tripod as working hand-held in these low light situations will only cause shake.

10. Capture Some Close-Ups

Shells and pebbles are just two subjects you can use for a spot of close up photography on the beach.

11. How To Deal With Exposure Problems

The problem with sand sat against a light sky is that it can confuse your camera into underexposing the shot so try using exposure compensation to deliberately overexpose the scene. It can be tricky getting the whole scene exposed correctly and bracketing can help, however, if you have subjects that can’t stay still, your shots won’t line up when you’re back in front of your computer.

If you’re working with a compact camera switch it to Beach scene mode from the camera’s scene mode or picture mode menu. The Beach scene mode will increase the exposure slightly to compensate but also adjusts the white balance to make the sand look more natural.

12. Photograph People

To capture your kids running around switch to fast shutter speeds and continuous shooting mode. If you want to slow things down try getting them to do something that’ll keep them in one place such as building a sandcastle you’ll be able to get some great frame-filling shots of their faces to show their expressions but do zoom out a little too as this will give the shot context. If you find the sun’s casting shadows on their face try adding a little fill-in flash and avoid positioning the sun behind you as this will only make them squint.

Has London been calling you?

Whether it’s because of the many historical sights, the severely underrated food, the top-notch shopping opportunities or simply that you’re a big fan of The Crown or any other of the many shows and films that take place there, there’s no shortage of reasons why London should be at the top of your travel bucket list—especially since it’s a perfect spot for both first time international travelers and jet-setting pros alike.

If you’re headed across the pond for the first time, though, there are some things you can do to set yourself up for the best time possible. From how to avoid looking like a total tourist to how to not end up going in circles on the Circle Line (if you know, you know), here are some top tips for visiting London your first time.

1. Don’t Bother Buying Tickets for the Train/Tube Within the City

London’s public transportation system is arguably the best in the world, and it’s only gotten better with time. One of the best innovations that’s occurred in recent years is the ability to pay contactless every time you set foot on a bus, train or tube (the London version of the subway system, officially named the London Underground). This involves you simply tapping your Oyster card if you get one or simply your bank card if it’s enabled with contactless payments. It saves you time, money and helps you look like a total pro at getting around the city without delaying busy Londoners who need to get from point A to point B.

Oh, and yes, you do need to stand on the right of the escalators if you’re going to stand—the left is for walking, unless you want to bear the wrath of sighing Londoners who are too polite to actually tell you to move.

2. Download the Citymapper App

Speaking of TFL (Transport For London), you can navigate easily with the little help of an app called Citymapper. This green logo app will help you figure out the best way to get where you want to go no matter which form of transport you want to take, and it’ll give you times and prices that are as accurate as possible. Like any big city, you can expect some delays, but this app will help you to not be so clueless when you realize you can’t necessarily get to the place you want to go directly from just any bus stop or station.

3. Don’t Limit Your Food Options

British food gets a bad reputation, but we’d argue that this is all misrepresentation. From traditional English delights like a Sunday roast (they have vegan versions as well nowadays) and sticky toffee pudding to a literal world of cuisines available on every corner, you can find options for whatever you’re craving. With so many options to choose from, one of our top tips for visiting is to avoid limiting yourself to quick fixes and American staples. Although the McDonald’s menu may technically be different abroad, you should still try to go for something a little more unique during your travels. Looking for a pro tip? Head to the markets. From Brick Lane to Borough and even Camden (if you can bear the barrage of tourists), these markets are packed full of delicious delicacies of every kind, and each person in your group can get something different if they so choose.

4. Consider Getting a London Pass

Since it‘s your first time in London, you‘ll want to see as many of the main sights as possible. Some are free if all you want to do is look from below—like “Big Ben“ (Elizabeth Tower) or Tower Bridge—but most will cost you a pretty penny to actually enter. If attractions like the Tower of London , Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, a river boat tour and even the Shard are on your list for your trip, you might want to consider investing in something called the London Pass. This is basically a card that you can purchase for specific dates (you can buy it online before your trip) that gets you:

• Access to some of the main attractions
• Discounts at plenty of shops and gift stores throughout the city
• Easier transportation
• Express/skip the line access at some spots

While the London Pass isn‘t exactly cheap, it is a more cost-effective option that can save you money if you want to do a lot of the main “touristy“ (but still worth seeing) things in the city. It even gets you free access to a lot of activities you might not have known existed, like walking over Tower Bridge and entering a haunted house at The London Bridge Experience.

5. Take Advantage of the Free Museums

Whether you‘re willing to drop some cash (well, technically pounds) on tickets to the main city attractions or not, there‘s one thing you should do that won‘t cost you a dime: go to the museums! London is home to some of the world‘s most famous works of art, not to mention an array of historical artifacts ranging from mummies to dinosaurs and even pieces of the Parthenon, and they‘re all absolutely free to see. While most museums will ask you to make a donation when you enter, it isn‘t required and you can walk on in without paying a thing (unless you want to see a special exhibition, which is likely to be ticketed). Keep the following ones on your list to check out while you‘re there:

• The National Gallery
• Tate Modern
• The British Museum
• The Natural History Museum
• Tate Britain
• The Saatchi Gallery
• The Victoria and Albert Museum

6. Get a Gorgeous View of the City for Free

London’s skyline is absolutely breathtaking, no matter what the weather may be like during your visit. And while there are plenty of ways to see that skyline in full view, some of them will charge you to go up to a viewing area. However, there are a number of places where you can go to soak up the beauty of the city for free, and they’re worth a visit even if you do decide to pay for one of the other viewing opportunities. One that will take some planning is the Sky Garden, which is at the top of the famous “Walkie Talkie” building at 20 Fenchurch Street. This one is an indoor garden at the top of the skyscraper, and it comes accompanied by expansive views of the entire city. You’ll have to book a ticket (slots open two weeks in advance), but it’s worth the extra admin for the experience alone.

Another one that might be closed during your visit (but that’s worth a try anyway) is the 10th floor viewing platform at the top of the Tate Modern museum, where you’ll also find a nice café to rest your feet and re-caffeinate while you take in the view of St. Paul’s Cathedral across from you.

7. Know Your History

To best appreciate any city that you go to, you’ll want to know what exactly it is you’re looking at. While just about everything in London is marked by history in some way or another (pro tip: look out for the blue circular plaques that mark historical people who lived in the area or building while you’re out and about), you’ll want to be able to appreciate knowing the difference between Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, not to mention the difference between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Pick up a book or look up an online crash course on the city before you go to soak everything up properly and feel like a real history buff by the time you get back. There’s also likely some sort of walking tour that you can do depending on your unique interests, whether you want to go on a full-on Harry Potter experience or would prefer a slightly scarier tour along the lines of a Jack the Ripper tour through East London.

While there’s plenty to know before you go to London, we’re absolutely positive that you’ll fall in love with the city no matter what. And of course, we couldn’t forget to mention all the photo ops that you’ll come across while you’re there.