How to make a travel itinerary on your own? Overview of travel planning services Complex travel routes.

A well-planned travel itinerary is the foundation of any independent travel! How well you plan your itinerary independent travel depend on your expenses, and your comfort, and your impressions. It doesn't matter where you are going - to one country or several at once ... On european holidays, for Asian exotic or from the capital to the village to the grandmother ... The main thing is to know where to start and take into account all the important nuances. If you have good route trips- the trip will be successful!

In this article, we will not touch on an autotrip (traveling by car) - this is a big topic for a separate article with its own subtleties and nuances...

So, where to start travel itinerary?

For starters, don't get hung up and don't consider it a law that must be strictly enforced. Nothing good will come of it if you plan your trip too carefully, planning every kilometer and every minute of the trip... Why?

First of all, you will never be able to follow an overly planned route. It's impossible!

Travel is like marriage. The main misconception is to think that you have everything under control... John Steinbeck

Your route, for sure, will change several times in the process of compiling it, and with a high degree of probability - in the process of traveling. And this is good!

Secondly, You will not get pleasure from such a planned trip. After all, you see, it's not too exciting to have sex strictly on Tuesday at 23:00 and on Saturday at exactly 15:00... In a journey, as in sex, there must be a share of spontaneity, fantasy and impromptu! Only then will you enjoy it.

But, you still have to plan the main stages and take into account important nuances ...

Good travel itinerary. Stages of compilation

Deadlines, estimated dates and budget.

Decide when and for how long you want to go on a trip and how much are you willing to spend on it? And remember - you can travel for almost any money!

Our experience: We spent absolutely identical amounts in ruble equivalent on two completely different trips (including flights, transport, hotels and meals) ... 10 days "honeymoon"in the Maldives(with one round-trip flight) in 2008 and almost 3 months in Asia with two children via Hong Kong, Philippines (Manila and Mindoro), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi), Thailand (Ao Nang, Krabi) and Istanbul (6 flights, ferry, buses, etc.) in 2014. Both of these trips, and made with a difference of 6 years, cost us about 150 thousand rubles. Accordingly, the first trip cost 15,000 rubles a day for two, the second - almost 10 times cheaper for four!!!

The longer the trip, the cheaper it will cost per day.

Destination.

Decide where you want to go? What are you dreaming about? Travel all over Europe or visit all the sights of Paris? Explore all of Southeast Asia or spend a week in Tibet? enjoy the beaches Caribbean or the cities of the Golden Ring of Russia? Whatever your dream is, it's your dream and it can be achieved!

Open the World map and the Internet. At this stage, you will already have a preliminary travel itinerary. You will decide on the country/countries and cities.

Be sure to ask on the Internet about the climate and weather in the region for the selected dates, so as not to fall into the "rainy season" and not to hide in the hotel building from a tropical downpour or hurricane.

Visas.

In most Asian countries, you do not need to apply for a visa in advance - it is issued automatically upon arrival, on average, for a period of two weeks to a month. But in the majority European countries You will need a Schengen visa.

In any case, before traveling, be sure to find out the current visa requirements of the countries you are interested in. The most reliable way to do this is on the websites of consulates and official visa centers.

When traveling to Europe, choose the country of the first entry or the longest stay of those countries in which it is easier to apply for and obtain a "Schengen" visa. For example: Finland, Czech Republic, Spain...

How to get there?

There are many ways to travel! By car or hitchhiking, by bus or train, and of course by plane... Plane is the most popular option. And, when searching for air tickets to the destination, the traveler will be very helpful Aviasales- a search aggregator site that will find the cheapest air tickets around the world for you! Moreover, absolutely for free!

Look for tickets in advance. When searching for air tickets, try to change the dates, cities and airports of departure and arrival. Use "Low price calendar" and "Map of low prices". Tickets purchased months in advance, departing mid-week and arriving at a nearby airport, may be many times cheaper!

You can read more about all the nuances of buying tickets in a separate article: How to buy cheap flights?

Sometimes, when visiting several countries, it makes sense to look directly at the websites of low-cost airlines in search of promotions ... There are many low-cost low-cost airlines in Europe and Asia. And a plane ticket to a neighboring country can very often be purchased for literally 10 euros!

When moving around the country or in neighbouring countries one region, do not forget about other transport besides airplanes ... In Europe, high-speed transport is very developed railway communication(For example, TGV trains). And in Asia, you can get anywhere very cheaply. on buses and ferries.

We traveled wonderfully, quickly and inexpensively from Amsterdam to Paris in Europe. And in Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines) they used ferries and buses more than once - to get from Manila to Mindoro Island, to get from Bangkok to Pattaya or Koh Chang, to get from Langkawi to Thailand to Krabi and Ao Nang. .. But initially getting to the main destination is faster and more convenient by plane...

At these stages, your travel itinerary will most likely be adjusted. It will be affected by ticket prices, departure dates, and maybe visa requirements.

Our experience: When we were going to Thailand(Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Chang island) and picked up tickets Emirates airlines with a change in Dubai, we learned about an airline service called "Stop in Dubai" (Dubai Stopover). As part of this Emirates service, you can get a UAE short-stay visa, hotel and transfer at a very good discount. Accordingly, we decided to use the service "Stop in Dubai" (Dubai Stopover) and on the way back from Thailand spent one unforgettable day in dubai .

Our experience: When we were planning a trip to Amsterdam and Paris, we found out that it was very cheap to fly to Amsterdam from Helsinki, and it turned out to be much easier to get a Finnish visa than a French one... And flights from Paris to Moscow turned out to be much cheaper not directly, but through Berlin... As a result, we also visited Helsinki and Berlin.

Attractions.

Where do you want to go, where to go and what to see? This is the most interesting and exciting stage of the travel itinerary. When planning, you will already learn a lot about the culture and history of the country, its cuisine, nature, beautiful places and sights... And anticipation, as you know, increases appetite even more...

At this stage, it is very important not only to choose places and attractions, but to find out how they work, how much it costs to visit and how to get to them! Oh, and don't go after all the sights or the most popular... Choose the sights that interest you the most. And when drawing up a route for visiting them, try to mark the sights on the map and move towards them sequentially, and not rush back and forth from one corner of the city or country to another.

Our experience: Three days in Paris during our trip to Europe, we planned as follows: one day for one half of the city, the second day for the other half, and the third for Disneyland in the suburbs of Paris. As a result, we of course erased our heels, but without hurrying anywhere we saw absolutely everything we wanted, having missed only one single attraction from the planned ones.

When planning your trip, be sure to check holidays in the country of visit. An unexpected event can drastically break all the plans of even an experienced traveler... A major Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist holiday can turn into interesting festive events, as well as a completely "dead" infrastructure with closed shopping centers, shops, banks, exchange offices, restaurants and even pharmacies!

Our experience: Twice, completely unexpectedly for us, we found ourselves in such a situation in Warsaw - on the Catholic holiday of the "Three Kings" and on Easter Eve ... even exchange money...

Hotel selection.

You can stay in another country, of course, not only in a hotel... It can be free couchsurfing, and apartments on airbnb, or renting a house... But the cheapest, most reliable and convenient way, in our opinion, is a hotel reservation on search engine sites Hotellook or Room Guru . Just enter your request in the search form and get the most profitable offer by hotel...

Public transport.

How to move around the city/country/countries? Be sure to search the Internet for information in advance! Otherwise, already being in another country, you will not know anything: neither how to get there, nor where to buy tickets, nor how much they should cost, how to save money...

Now your travel itinerary is already becoming something solid and complete... It's time to move on to the insurance...

Insurance.

Insurance is probably the most inexpensive, but the most significant component of any trip. Some 10 dollars spent on insurance can save you tens of thousands of dollars spent on medical care, save your nerves, time, health and even life!

When searching for any information on the Internet, use only reliable sources. These are the official websites of ministries of tourism and websites of consulates different countries Peace. These are travel blogs of travelers with reports on real trips, Wikipedia, some forums (for example, Vinsky's forum) or good travel portals. Beware of many forums and some even large portals (not to mention small sites), where the same unreliable and irrelevant copywriting information from authors who have never been anywhere is often reprinted ...

Check out our page with secret information for travelers. There you will find links to the best and useful services for travelers, discounts and great deals...

You can also use our new section Sales where you can find very good deals on flights, hotels and insurance and put them together...

A well-planned travel itinerary is the basis of any independent trip! Your expenses, your comfort and your impressions depend on how well you make an independent travel itinerary. It does not matter where you are going - to one country or several at once ... For a European vacation, for Asian exoticism or from the capital to the village to your grandmother ... The main thing is to know where to start and take into account all the important nuances. If you have good travel itinerary- the trip will be successful!

In this article, we will not touch on an autotrip (traveling by car) - this is a big topic for a separate article with its own subtleties and nuances...

So, where to start travel itinerary?

For starters, don't get hung up and don't consider it a law that must be strictly enforced. Nothing good will come of it if you plan your trip too carefully, planning every kilometer and every minute of the trip... Why?

First of all, you will never be able to follow an overly planned route. It's impossible!

Travel is like marriage. The main misconception is to think that you have everything under control... John Steinbeck

Your route, for sure, will change several times in the process of compiling it, and with a high degree of probability - in the process of traveling. And this is good!

Secondly, You will not get pleasure from such a planned trip. After all, you see, it's not too exciting to have sex strictly on Tuesday at 23:00 and on Saturday at exactly 15:00... In a journey, as in sex, there must be a share of spontaneity, fantasy and impromptu! Only then will you enjoy it.

But, you still have to plan the main stages and take into account important nuances ...

Good travel itinerary. Stages of compilation

Deadlines, estimated dates and budget.

Decide when and for how long you want to go on a trip and how much are you willing to spend on it? And remember - you can travel for almost any money!

Our experience: We spent absolutely identical amounts in ruble equivalent on two completely different trips (including flights, transport, hotels and meals) ... 10 days honeymoon in the Maldives(with one round-trip flight) in 2008 and almost 3 months in Asia with two children via Hong Kong, Philippines (Manila and Mindoro), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi), Thailand (Ao Nang, Krabi) and Istanbul (6 flights, ferry, buses, etc.) in 2014. Both of these trips, and made with a difference of 6 years, cost us about 150 thousand rubles. Accordingly, the first trip cost 15,000 rubles a day for two, the second - almost 10 times cheaper for four!!!

The longer the trip, the cheaper it will cost per day.

Destination.

Decide where you want to go? What are you dreaming about? Travel all over Europe or visit all the sights of Paris? Explore all of Southeast Asia or spend a week in Tibet? Enjoy the beaches of the Caribbean or the cities of the Golden Ring of Russia? Whatever your dream is, it's your dream and it can be achieved!

Open the World map and the Internet. At this stage, you will already have a preliminary travel itinerary. You will decide on the country/countries and cities.

Be sure to ask on the Internet about the climate and weather in the region for the selected dates, so as not to fall into the "rainy season" and not to hide in the hotel building from a tropical downpour or hurricane.

Visas.

In most Asian countries, you do not need to apply for a visa in advance - it is issued automatically upon arrival, on average, for a period of two weeks to a month. But in most European countries you will need a "Schengen visa".

In any case, before traveling, be sure to find out the current visa requirements of the countries you are interested in. The most reliable way to do this is on the websites of consulates and official visa centers.

When traveling to Europe, choose the country of the first entry or the longest stay of those countries in which it is easier to apply for and obtain a "Schengen" visa. For example: Finland, Czech Republic, Spain...

How to get there?

There are many ways to travel! By car or hitchhiking, by bus or train, and of course by plane... Plane is the most popular option. And, when searching for air tickets to the destination, the traveler will be very helpful Aviasales- a search aggregator site that will find the cheapest air tickets around the world for you! Moreover, absolutely for free!

Look for tickets in advance. When searching for air tickets, try to change the dates, cities and airports of departure and arrival. Use "Low price calendar" and "Map of low prices". Tickets purchased months in advance, departing mid-week and arriving at a nearby airport, may be many times cheaper!

You can read more about all the nuances of buying tickets in a separate article: How to buy cheap flights?

Sometimes, when visiting several countries, it makes sense to look directly at the websites of low-cost airlines in search of promotions ... There are many low-cost low-cost airlines in Europe and Asia. And a plane ticket to a neighboring country can very often be purchased for literally 10 euros!

When moving around the country or to neighboring countries of the same region, do not forget about other transport besides airplanes ... In Europe, high-speed rail links are very developed (for example, TGV trains). And in Asia, you can get anywhere very cheaply. on buses and ferries.

We traveled wonderfully, quickly and inexpensively from Amsterdam to Paris in Europe. And in Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines) they used ferries and buses more than once - to get from Manila to Mindoro Island, to get from Bangkok to Pattaya or Koh Chang, to get from Langkawi to Thailand to Krabi and Ao Nang. .. But initially getting to the main destination is faster and more convenient by plane...

At these stages, your travel itinerary will most likely be adjusted. It will be affected by ticket prices, departure dates, and maybe visa requirements.

Our experience: When we were going to Thailand(Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Chang) and picked up Emirates airline tickets with a transfer in Dubai, we learned about an airline service called "Stop in Dubai" (Dubai Stopover). As part of this Emirates service, you can get a UAE short-stay visa, hotel and transfer at a very good discount. Accordingly, we decided to use the service "Stop in Dubai" (Dubai Stopover) and on the way back from Thailand spent one unforgettable day in dubai .

Our experience: When we were planning a trip to Amsterdam and Paris, we found out that it was very cheap to fly to Amsterdam from Helsinki, and it turned out to be much easier to get a Finnish visa than a French one... And flights from Paris to Moscow turned out to be much cheaper not directly, but through Berlin... As a result, we also visited Helsinki and Berlin.

Attractions.

Where do you want to go, where to go and what to see? This is the most interesting and exciting stage of the travel itinerary. When planning, you will already learn a lot about the culture and history of the country, its cuisine, nature, beautiful places and sights ... And anticipation, as you know, increases appetite even more ...

At this stage, it is very important not only to choose places and attractions, but to find out how they work, how much it costs to visit and how to get to them! Oh, and don't go after all the sights or the most popular... Choose the sights that interest you the most. And when drawing up a route for visiting them, try to mark the sights on the map and move towards them sequentially, and not rush back and forth from one corner of the city or country to another.

Our experience: Three days in Paris during our trip to Europe, we planned as follows: one day for one half of the city, the second day for the other half, and the third for Disneyland in the suburbs of Paris. As a result, we of course erased our heels, but without hurrying anywhere we saw absolutely everything we wanted, having missed only one single attraction from the planned ones.

When planning a trip, be sure to find out the holidays in the country you are visiting. An unexpected event can drastically break all the plans of even an experienced traveler... A major Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist holiday can turn into interesting festive events, as well as a completely "dead" infrastructure with closed shopping centers, shops, banks, exchange offices, restaurants and even pharmacies!

Our experience: Twice, completely unexpectedly for us, we found ourselves in such a situation in Warsaw - on the Catholic holiday of the "Three Kings" and on Easter Eve ... even exchange money...

Hotel selection.

Of course, you can stay in another country, not only in a hotel... It can be free couchsurfing, and apartments on airbnb, or renting a house... But the cheapest, most reliable and convenient way, in our opinion, is to book a hotel on search engine sites Hotellook or Room Guru . Just enter your request in the search form and get the best deals on hotels...

Public transport.

How to move around the city/country/countries? Be sure to search the Internet for information in advance! Otherwise, already being in another country, you will not know anything: neither how to get there, nor where to buy tickets, nor how much they should cost, how to save money...

Now your travel itinerary is already becoming something solid and complete... It's time to move on to the insurance...

Insurance.

Insurance is probably the most inexpensive, but the most significant component of any trip. Some 10 dollars spent on insurance can save you tens of thousands of dollars spent on medical care, save your nerves, time, health and even life!

When searching for any information on the Internet, use only reliable sources. These are the official websites of the ministries of tourism and the websites of the consulates of different countries of the world. These are travel blogs of travelers with reports on real trips, Wikipedia, some forums (for example, Vinsky's forum) or good travel portals. Beware of many forums and some even large portals (not to mention small sites), where the same unreliable and irrelevant copywriting information from authors who have never been anywhere is often reprinted ...

Check out our page with secret information for travelers. There you will find links to the best and most useful travel services, discounts and great deals...

You can also use our new section Sales where you can find very good deals on flights, hotels and insurance and put them together...

Developing a travel itinerary is no less exciting than the trip itself. Here, in our deep conviction, it is very important to strike a balance. On the one hand, plan your time in an unfamiliar country with the maximum benefit for yourself. On the other hand, do not “overheat” yourself with information and leave room for your own discoveries.

First, let's define terminology. The travel itinerary in this article implies a basic travel plan - the places we want to visit and the logistics of the trip (i.e. the order of visiting the places and the way to travel), as well as the number of days in each of the places.

Travel route. Stage One: Travel Framework

The frame of the future journey is the first major decisions of the traveler, which determine the further efforts to prepare the trip. First of all, this is the choice of a country (or countries), the choice of a travel format, determining the number of days on a trip and determining the budget. Moreover, all these solutions are closely related.

Choosing a country and travel format

Where to go is a rhetorical question) Your own tastes and preferences, as well as blogs, photos, travel videos and social networks will help you decide on the direction and format of your future trip.

Tastes and preferences largely determine the format of the future trip - some people want to spend their next vacation blissfully on the beach, the second ones rave about wild safaris and the conquest of mountain peaks, and the third ones just want to put a backpack on their shoulders and spend a couple of weeks - months wandering around the remote corners of the world.

Stage two: route development

So, you have found the time, money, fellow travelers and proceed, in fact, to planning the route. At the output, you should get a list of places in a certain order, as well as a scheduled number of days for each of the places and a route map. The easiest way is not to reinvent the wheel and choose for yourself.

If you don't like it, proceed in the following order.

Travel destinations

First of all, read reviews of regions and destinations in and decide on the destinations you want to visit (fix the desired destinations in a list in random order). Make an online folder on Pinterest along the current route and save all useful links. Good idea also make the first card draft (use google maps) and also save it in your bookmarks.

Number of days and overall travel logistics

Learn more about each of the destinations in the created list. What to do and how to get there are the main questions, the answers to which will help you draft your first route draft. At this stage, you may have to give up some directions.

Determine the number of days for each direction. Build the overall logistics of the trip (from where-to-how long-for how much money). At the same time, understanding that it is possible to get from point A to point B by bus in so many hours is absolutely enough to plan a travel route.

Don't waste time and energy on detailed planning of each day and stay in each place. You do not need to search the Internet in search of exact information on which corner the bus you need stops, in which direction you need to turn from the hotel to get to the sights you need and where is the restaurant that someone once liked.

The main thing is to orient yourself with the duration of your stay at the place and find out what is important "not to miss" in a particular place (ours will definitely help you with this). The rest - you will see and learn on the spot. Pick up a map from the hotel with the sights marked on it. Walking on foot, you will find a place where you (and not someone else) have a tasty and pleasant meal. On the spot, you can also always buy a tour, find the right markets, shops, salons, massages, etc., etc.

Housing and budget

The next step is to decide on the format of housing, as well as the budget for each direction from the list.

Choose accommodation focusing not only and not so much on your budget, but on the specifics of the place. Very often, the right accommodation makes staying in one place or another brighter. And also, importantly, it allows you to feel the “right” atmosphere. Conversely, improperly selected housing can easily spoil the impression of the place. Please note that this is not about the price, but about the successful choice of the location of the hotel / guest house and the format of housing in “its” price category.

In each of the places you will find reviews of “where to live”, for cities - orientation in the city and reviews of areas, for resort destinations - reviews of beaches, for national parks- Reviews of nearby villages and campsites. Each of the reviews highlights different housing formats. This is done so that readers have the opportunity to decide on their desired format.

— If you want to plan everything first, book later, read the reviews, choose the area/beach/place, follow the relevant links, turn on the price filters and select housing already focussed, without wasting time on “shooting sparrows from a cannon”. Save the housing options you like right away in your online bookmarks, so that when the time comes, you don’t have to waste time searching again.

– If you are used to combining search and booking, bookmark our “Where to live” reviews so that when you are ready to book everything is at hand, and then according to the above scheme. This approach will simplify and speed up the process.

At this point, it's important to get a budget that looks more or less like the final draft. Although it is possible that you still have to adjust the number of days in a particular place, or change the logistics of movement or the directions themselves (depending on financial capabilities and priorities).

Stage three: route finalization

The main work has already been done at the second stage. You have a route, it remains to buy air tickets and then finalize the travel route. After purchasing air tickets, you may have to make final adjustments to your travel itinerary. Often, the scheduled number of days can change by plus or minus 2-3 days, depending on the air tickets).

It remains to finalize the route by date. There are two approaches.

Finalization and booking along the route

The first is the so-called hard finalization. Schedule your itinerary and make all necessary reservations, including local transportation and lodging. First of all, book domestic flights and trains, as you may have to shift the schedule when booking, depending on the availability and cost of tickets.

After that, book all the accommodation along the route, focusing on your indicative budget (see recommendations above). At the exit, you are all set to travel. All vouchers in hand. Small questions (a la local buses, boats and tours can be solved on the spot without any problems). It remains to go and have fun without thinking about anything and without worrying.

Floating travel itinerary

The second approach is floating finalization. This approach works best. If you are going on a long trip (a month or two), as well as traveling in the off-season. You have on hand the same itinerary, scheduled by date. adjust the schedule if necessary. Book accommodation upon arrival / arrival on known, non-floating dates.

And then you orient yourself on the spot - somewhere you will want to stay longer, somewhere to leave early. Do not bother with a specific choice of accommodation before the trip. Take with you our Where to Live reviews for each destination. Book accommodation at the next point along the route on the spot, when you know the exact date of departure / arrival. Often you will have to book "today for tomorrow", so this approach does not work in high season. Housing will either be “best of the worst” or expensive. In the off-season, on the other hand, you can book excellent accommodation with good discounts.

Please note that you will have to spend time searching and booking accommodation on the spot. And therefore, if you are going on a trip for no more than three weeks, it is better to do a tough finalization of the route.

There are many websites designed to make life easier for travelers. Some of them help you decide on the choice of transport, others help you book a hotel, others help you rent a car ... and some resources try to collect everything you need in one place.

Moreover, to make everything as convenient as possible, without a confusing interface and the need to deal with the functionality for a long time. One of the most successful such attempts is the site Rome2Rio.com, which we will talk about now.

We will figure out what the site is capable of, why it is good, and how to lay a travel route with it.

We note right away that we are by no means alone in our opinion that Rome2Rio is an extremely convenient and useful site for the traveler. Since 2012, the resource has collected a number of awards in the field of tourism, and many people use it.

Not so long ago, Russian localization even appeared - but so far, unfortunately, partial. So for full-fledged work with the site, it is desirable to have at least a minimum knowledge of English language... is it a minus? On the one hand, yes, but on the other hand, how can you travel without such minimal knowledge?

Rome2Rio – why and for what?

The root idea of ​​the site is to allow you to lay out online route travel of any complexity "from door to door".

All types of transport are presented on one site: you can not switch from window to window, but immediately lay out a complex route that includes travel, say, successively by plane, train and car.

Trains, buses, planes, ferries… on every continent Rome2Rio works with hundreds of local carriers, including 670 global airlines. Here you can really find absolutely any transport.

At the same time, there is no difference how far the path is ahead: with routes within cities and through the entire Earth Rome2Rio copes equally confidently.

Additional site features

The Rome2Rio interface also includes the ability to book hotels (integration with Booking.com), and rent a car. They are available both when working with the route, and separately, through the tabs on the main page.

However, these functions were added rather in order to achieve the full effect of "one window": they are implemented quite standardly, and the main charm of the resource, of course, is not at all in them.

Let's move on to the main thing: how to use Rome2Rio.

Working with the site

In fact, everything is quite simple. Rome2Rio assumes that you are building a route between two points. In fact, apart from specifying them in the appropriate fields on the main page of the site, little is required of you.

It is interesting that the site constantly changes the views on the “substrate”, and also randomly suggests the starting and ending point of the trip – who knows, maybe thanks to this you decide on an unexpected trip?

Site interface

But first, let's take a look at the interface. The screenshot above shows the central part of the main page, the most important for us. Fields for start and end points, a search button, three tabs that we have already talked about.

And in the upper right part is the main menu, it looks like this:

Items "Hotels" and "Cars" duplicate those already described. The pages to which the sections "About", "Information" and "FAQ" lead, alas, are not translated into Russian, as well as the site's blog. Next is the button that calls the form feedback, and buttons that allow you to quickly tell your friends about the service.

Switching the language has already been mentioned above - alas, there is not as much sense from it as we would like. Don't be afraid of the dollar sign - the service is completely free, this icon only switches the currency in which transport and hotel prices are displayed. By the way, there you can switch between kilometers and miles.

That's the whole main interface: as you can see, nothing complicated. It's time to lay your first route!

Laying out a travel itinerary

Let's start. Where are we going and where are we going?

The service itself suggested that we find routes from Saratov to a small coastal town in Australia - why not? It will turn out very significant, because such a trip can hardly be called banal! We click on the "Search" button, and what do we see?

That's right: Rome2Rio has found three ways to get from Saratov to Cable Beach. You can switch between them in the menu on the left.

Please note: the proposed routes include, in addition to the obviously necessary aircraft, also travel by train, taxi and bus.

For each of the stages of the route, you can immediately see the travel time, distance, necessary transfers, frequency of departure - in a word, the most necessary data. You will see the exact prices if you specify the date of the trip, otherwise - approximate.

At the same time, for each stage of the journey, Rome2Rio, if you click on this stage, is ready to provide the most detailed information. What is in Russia, what is in Australia - the service knows everything!

As you can see, you can even see photos of the buses you have to ride. Recall that we are building a route to a place where, perhaps, the foot of a Russian tourist has never set foot ...

Want to view the schedule? To book a ticket? The corresponding buttons are at your service in the same window. Alas, booking is not always available, this button may not be there.

So, we talked about how to work with routes. But, as you may have noticed, there are two more items at the bottom of the menu: "Hotels" and "Things to do." Let's pay attention to them.

Hotels and attractions

How many attractions do you think Rome2Rio will find for you in an obscure provincial Australian city and its surroundings?

They didn't guess: exactly 61! And all interesting places are divided into categories and displayed on the map by clicking, which is very convenient.

As you understand, in major cities There will certainly be no problem finding places of interest using this menu: Rome2Rio will show you everything that might interest you.

The functionality of the hotels is also very interestingly implemented. If from the main page the site refers to, in fact, built into its own Booking.com interface, then inside the route everything is different:

So, in front of you are the nearest hotels on the map. If you still want to see them in "Booking mode", then click on the "List" button.

But it is more convenient to work directly in the route window. The proposed hotels can immediately be filtered according to several criteria:

  • The number of "stars" (standard five-star system);
  • Rating from Booking.com users (by the way, only hotels with an average score equal to or greater than 6 are marked on the map);
  • Type of hotel (regular hotel, resort hotel, motel, hostel, and so on);
  • Various services (Wi-Fi, transfer to the airport, availability of a gym, and much more).

In a word, choosing the right hotel a minute after you have decided on the route is easy and simple! Many will find that Rome2Rio is even more convenient to work with hotels than Booking.com itself and similar sites.

What haven't we talked about yet?

For example, the fact that the information you see can be easily printed out - for this there is a corresponding button in the upper right part of the screen.

The interface for working with routes is built on a convenient “window” system, which, alas, is difficult for us to show on screenshots - but when you visit the site, you will definitely appreciate its convenience!

When it comes to booking rental cars through Rome2Rio, the site does not offer anything extraordinary in this regard. The corresponding menu tab brings up a quite ordinary search window for several hundred rent-a-car companies:

Note that with the help of Rome2Rio it is very convenient to lay a car route:

You will see the distance, and the estimated time, and even approximate cost fuel, subject to local prices. True, it is difficult for us to check how wrong the site can be in this matter - just in case, it is better not to trust it too much with regard to the calculation of gasoline.

And in general, it is still better to use special aggregator sites to book a car, or contact the company directly - this is too serious a question that has a lot of "pitfalls". By the way, we posted a number of materials on this topic!

Conclusion

In many ways, the Rome2Rio website is unique: it really successfully combines "all in one", provides extremely detailed, full information, and - in the most convenient form for working with it.

Separately, I would like to note those smallest details that the service takes into account. You could see for yourself in this example.

At the same time, some functions look superfluous - first of all, work with car reservations, which cannot compete with aggregators. Many interface elements are duplicated, and not obvious enough, which creates confusion.

Some features are missing, first of all - laying a route through several key travel points. Such a function is necessary for long, multi-stage journeys, but the creators of the site did not think about it.

And, of course, the “half-hearted” Russian localization is frustrating: it just looks frivolous.

All the listed shortcomings, however, in no way overlap the advantages of the site. Rome2Rio just has a lot of work to do - but we're sure it will get even better with time.

But already now it is one of the best resources for the traveler. Be sure to try!