Most of us would include Europe in the travel bucket list. It seems everyone’s dream to appreciate arts and history, dine, shop, and experience European culture. I am nearly halfway to achieve my travel goals and Europe is my third continent to visit. I am way too excited, ecstatic, and at the same time nervous because this is something big.
Here are some steps I took to prepare for my dream European Tour which will come true by next week. This is actually during the pre-planning stage until I got the Schengen Tourist Visa.
Since I still do not have my own EU photos yet, I just got royalty-free images over the net so, CTTO – Pexels
1. Firmly Decide and Have that Mindset to Pull-off European Tour
For someone like me, who belongs to the wage-earners class, planning to go to Schengen states would be a little heavy. I have to save money, I need to conserve my vacation leaves and get permission, and I have to exert more time and effort to prepare for the necessary documents, do the research and create the itinerary. If you are totally decided and conditioned your mind to do something, through God’s grace, everything will follow.
2. Surf, Research, and Watch
Surf the net to get ideas about what to do, where to go, and how much is the budget. Research and create a high-level plan of countries you wanted to visit and how long will it be. Watch travel vlogs to spot interesting areas and activities.
Tip#1: Go over to blogs and vlogs because they mostly make the reliable reviews and share first hand experience. It will align your expectations.
It is a continuous process until the departure date from your home country comes. Take notes, save links and print necessary details.
3. Plan-out the Routes and Number of Days
Once I got a clearer plan for the places we wanted to visit, I created a private map using Google Maps. It is much easier to plan where will be your entry and exit point and also, it is more convenient to look for accommodation. I will make a separate post showing the steps on how to do it.
Make a realistic number of days to spend on each country or city. Due to limited time-offs at work, we decided to leave 2 weeks for the European tour. Our planned trip is mixed of chill and exhausting days. As much as we wanted to maximize the trip, we had to prioritize and skip other cities to at least enjoy each place. I initially planned out to visit 7 or 8 countries for 15 days but later on, we realized that it seems too much and exhausting so we cut it down to 6 countries.
4. Make a Savings Plan
Since you did a little research already, you can at least grasp how much you will spend on the whole trip. Set the budget. It was about a year ago when I and my friends decided to go for a Eurotrip. I religiously save a part of my salary and allocate it to my travel fund. Here are some ways to increase the savings: Trim down the expenses, do freelance for extra income, do buy and sell some stuff to earn some and save part of the incentives or bonus pay. If the timeline is tight for saving up and hitting the budget, adjust the timeline.
5. Sign-up for Airfare Price Alert
I used Skyscanner for price alerts to set my benchmark and find a good deal. It will give you the idea what airline is the best for your trip and how much does it cost for the time being. Paris, France is our entry and exit point. I find it cheaper than the other nearby countries or multi-city booking. It took us around 5 months of waiting until we hit a very good deal, it was the lowest rate since I track the price. I knew it was good since the dates also fall on weekends and to think it was just a few months before the intended trip. So, we bought it already.
We booked the airfare tickets before applying for the Schengen tourist visa. We were so confident of getting approved due to our good travel records. In good faith, the odds favored us. But, this is not advisable at all. Having a positive travel history does not guarantee to get a visa.
Tip#2: Do not ever book airfare tickets without the visa approval. Take precautions in booking airfare ticket ahead. Check first if it is refundable.
It is safe to make flight reservations for visa application than sorry when the results turned the other way around. Signing-up in airfare price alerts will just aid to find the best airline and gauge the cost.
6. Prepare to Apply for Schengen Tourist Visa
We applied for a short-stay tourist visa in the French Embassy through VFS Global. By far, this is the visa application I went through that requires a lot of documents. You can start to apply the visa 90 days prior to the intended trip.
Here are the required documents to prepare:
- Accomplished application form for Schengen Visa
- Travel document or Passport, valid for at least 3 months
- Pre-booked return ticket
- Travel Health Insurance
- Proof of accommodations (Hotel reservations or lease agreement)
- Detailed Itinerary
- Proof of Employment
- Proof of Income (Income tax return, bank statement, pay slips)
I will be creating a separate post detailing on how to get Schengen Tourist Visa for Philippine passport holders.
Tip#3: Apply the visa as early as possible. So if approved, you can grab a cheaper accommodation and local transpo tickets. If not, you will have enough time to re-appeal or re-apply
I will stop my post from here. Again, this is just the pre-planning stage. I will create a detailed guide on how to plan out everything after getting approved of a Schengen Tourist Visa.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” –Matthew 7:7 ESV