Today I really really feel like sharing one of the best thing that I've done from my 'The things to be done at least once in my life' list heee :D That's a hell of a long list (hahaha) but I'll get to that later, on a different post.
TIP #1
TIP #2
TIP #3
TIP #4
TIP #5
DAY 1
So let's talk about my first 'student road-trip' in the UK! It was back at 2016 & I would love to share some tips for first timers out there, cuz I believe normally, overseas student would definitely have this activity in their mind. The structure here might a bit out of order, but I'll try my best to share all the good and bad stuff along this journey so you can get optimum input from these ok :)
TIP #1
Pick your best travel buddies
Traveling can be such a hassle and a painful experience if you travel with the wrong person! It's best if you can plan your first road-trip for 3-4 persons (including yourself) only. 'The more the merrier', yup, but not in this case. Less people, less attitude, less problems, less hassle, less difficult things to handle. Trust me. So you're gonna make sure that you want to travel with the right person especially, on your FIRST road-trip. As for me, it's just the 3 of us hehe :D
*But somehow, you will experience traveling with a shitty person at least once & that's the best way to learn haha :D
TIP #2
Pick a place to explore
I can't recall why and how we ended up picking up Cornwall. I think one of us, probably me, I just love to search for random places to explore and turn out that Cornwall is a perfect location since it's around 3-4 hours drive from Bristol. To those who love sceneries, nature & beaches, Cornwall is perfect for you. It was a long-worth driving from Bristol. Actually, I think it's best to travel here during summer, but we weren't in the position to choose the timing, so there you go, it was March back then, and it was freaking cold hahaha considering Cornwall is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula of GB (means there's a lot of cliffs, higher grounds, beaches etc). You can sneak a peek on Cornwall details here. Cornwall is quite big, so you're not going to have enough time to cover everything. You're gonna need to pick places that catches your attention, base on their location from your hotel, from your starting point etc. That's why, drafting itinerary is soooo important before you start any journey okay :) Next stop : Itinerary
TIP #3
Planning - Do your research & draft a itinerary + budgeting
I'm a planner type of person, so I always plan my trip(s) beforehand. I'm aware that anything could happen, and not everything will necessarily happen as you plan, but at least you have some guidance within your grasp & something to refer to instead of wasting your time in the car to think about what you're going to do next. DOING RESEARCH IS EVERYTHING. Please. Don't expect everything will go as smooth as imagined, don't expect others will do it for you. Everybody should have done it, and later on you'll meet to gather all the information you've got. One of the most difficult thing to do is to decide on a place to stay. Whether it'll be a hostel, hotel, guest house, etc, price that's within everybody's budget, the distance & location etc etc. It will take some time, so make sure to do it earlier (2-3 months before).
1 - Pick a hotel (or whatever suits you) base on price, location, reviews.
*As for us, for this trip, we stayed at Travelodge St. Austell
Some tips on choosing for a place to stay;
#1 LOCATION - perfect location can make a lot of difference especially when is comes to
budgeting. So make sure you check their location based on the estimated
distance (of the hotel & the places you want to go) by google.
#2 REVIEWS - Read thoroughly all the reviews that you can find about the hotel. Have
something to expect. I'm not sure how to emphasise this, but reading reviews
is just so important & surely helpful.
#3 USE OTA - OTA stands for Online Travel Agency i.e Booking.com, Airbnb, Agoda etc.
Other than being an independent reliable source, they usually offer cheaper
prices, it's easy to navigate & got tons of choices. The reviews are very useful
as well.
*As for us, for this trip, we stayed at Travelodge St. Austell
Some tips on choosing for a place to stay;
#1 LOCATION - perfect location can make a lot of difference especially when is comes to
budgeting. So make sure you check their location based on the estimated
distance (of the hotel & the places you want to go) by google.
#2 REVIEWS - Read thoroughly all the reviews that you can find about the hotel. Have
something to expect. I'm not sure how to emphasise this, but reading reviews
is just so important & surely helpful.
#3 USE OTA - OTA stands for Online Travel Agency i.e Booking.com, Airbnb, Agoda etc.
Other than being an independent reliable source, they usually offer cheaper
prices, it's easy to navigate & got tons of choices. The reviews are very useful
as well.
2 - Start to choose on the places you wish to visit. Find the distance of these places from your hotel.
3 - Make sure whether these places are free/need tickets to enter & be aware with the opening &
closing time. Anything suits your budget.
closing time. Anything suits your budget.
4 - If you think some of the places won't work out, (too far, not free etc) just pick other places &
move on.
move on.
5 - The itinerary cannot be done in a blink, so be patient.
So here's my itinerary for Bristol - Cornwall road-trip. (Yup, I make draft itinerary up to this extent hahaha)
Budgeting
We are not exactly very good at this hahaha. But of course, we tried to look for best option as well. So here's a little info on what we spend for the trip;
We are not exactly very good at this hahaha. But of course, we tried to look for best option as well. So here's a little info on what we spend for the trip;
Hotel = £132 for 3 nights (£44 pp)
Car rental = £80 for 5 days (exclude insurance) (£27 pp)
*we rented the car for 5 days because we want to stroll around to other places near
Bristol
Gas = £30 (I think, can't recall) We received a full tank car, so we need to return full tank
Food = £3-6 per day (average) (we're not picky when it comes to food, sometimes we ate a lot,
sometimes we starve till late at night, sometimes we eat like normal human haha)
So that's around £104+- for 5 days road-trip + extra places. I'm pretty sure you can create better budget friendly trip by finding a better/affordable hotel, cheaper car rental etc.
Car rental = £80 for 5 days (exclude insurance) (£27 pp)
*we rented the car for 5 days because we want to stroll around to other places near
Bristol
Gas = £30 (I think, can't recall) We received a full tank car, so we need to return full tank
Food = £3-6 per day (average) (we're not picky when it comes to food, sometimes we ate a lot,
sometimes we starve till late at night, sometimes we eat like normal human haha)
So that's around £104+- for 5 days road-trip + extra places. I'm pretty sure you can create better budget friendly trip by finding a better/affordable hotel, cheaper car rental etc.
TIP #4
Renting your car
It's a roadtrip. Other than needing a valid license obviously, you need to allocate certain budget for renting a car. ESPECIALLY WHEN NON OF YOU CAN DRIVE MANUAL CARS ON THE LAND UNITED KINGDOM HAHAHAH >.<
If you are as mentioned above, then be prepared cause it's gonna be really expensive to rent auto cars. The price can be twice (or more) more expensive compared to renting manual cars. Huhuhuuuuu.. Plus the insurance per day. Because of an unwanted occurrence that happened to me before, I tend to be very very careful and read almost everything (well, thoroughly) about the policies (the ones you usually tick on the small box before you proceed to payment) of practically each policies I've encountered before I proceed to anything haha. And that's how I know all of the rules, which are actually important, but they (usually the seller - of anything) not exactly hide it, but they won't tell you clearly, but they just make you agree to them. So if any problem arise, & you didn't notice (which people normally don't) to the rules you agreed, they can cancel your bookings (base on the virtual agreement) & they benefited everything & leave us hanging like a stupid donkey. So make sure you understand everything & aware of what you have to agreed upon before you release your payment to anything okay?
Normally a manual sedan can be rented at the average price of £7-£12 per day (not including insurance charges), depends on the type of car, location & branding of the dealers (not sure what you call them). Insurance can be up to £16 per day (could be less or more). But, to rent an auto sedan can cost you about £20-35 per day. Can you see the difference! And that exclude insurance!
You do have the option of which not to pay for the insurance (cause it makes a lot of difference as you're paying for each day, but they never suggested this option) where the driver/booker (the one who made the booking must be the driver of the rented car) must have a valid credit card with the driver's name to be charged/hold the amount of £3000 (if I'm not mistaken) (some sort like a security deposit). So if anything happen, you can be charged up to that amount. In which, I don't think is gonna be the choice for most of the students.
You do have the option of which not to pay for the insurance (cause it makes a lot of difference as you're paying for each day, but they never suggested this option) where the driver/booker (the one who made the booking must be the driver of the rented car) must have a valid credit card with the driver's name to be charged/hold the amount of £3000 (if I'm not mistaken) (some sort like a security deposit). So if anything happen, you can be charged up to that amount. In which, I don't think is gonna be the choice for most of the students.
But different companies have different policies, so make sure you're clear with everything. So I guess, just make sure you can drive the freaking manual cars unless you don't mind spending hee :D
TIP #5
Hope for the best!
Despite having all these plans & research, anything could happen! Some place might be closed due to bad weather, probably renovation, some place might not be as good as expected & there will be other unexpected things during your trip. Not everything goes well with what we have planned anyway. We need to improvised here & there, and it did consume/waste some of our time. But that's just how it goes. So, just hope for the best & enjoy the rest of your trip.
Good luck! Hope this helps :)
Just sharing some photos throughout the trip. These are taken with only iPhone 6s, iPhone 5s & a gopro hero 4. We don't own a good camera back then. But regardless, we did take some good photos!
Good luck! Hope this helps :)
Just sharing some photos throughout the trip. These are taken with only iPhone 6s, iPhone 5s & a gopro hero 4. We don't own a good camera back then. But regardless, we did take some good photos!
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
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| That's it! Thank you for reading :) |
