How to plan a good holiday...

1. While starting to plan do make sure what you want to do on the holiday. 

• Is it a honeymoon, city break, lazy holiday or business and pleasure holiday

2. While paying and deciding how you want to spend your money, do ask the travel agent or check the website where you have booked if 

• It is an all inclusive holiday or breakfast only holiday.
• Do the resort / hotel provide pick up and drop to the airport?
• Does the resort have activities going on? Are they free or you have to pay for them?
• There is no shame in asking what's complimentary? We went to a holiday where a bottle of wine was complimentary with dinner.

3. Do plan on where you want to go in advance

• If you are going on a beach holiday then it would be nice to know how to swim
• If it's a skiing holiday then learn skiing before you hit the slopes
• Planning in advance allows you to sort out any visas you need to worry about

4. Packing

• I believe that take enough clothes, but don't take 10 sets of clothes for a 5 day holiday

5. What kind of clothes should one take on a holiday? It depends: 

• Cottons for the hot weather
• Warm Jackets & woolens for the cold
• Always keep an extra pair of socks & undies
• Always good to have a nice shirt for dinner in the suitcase.  you never know the hotel might request its guests to not wear t-shirts at the dinner table
• If going to the Caribbean do not take army shirts or jackets, its illegal to wear them outside. 

6. Last minute checks

• Passport
• Not the expired passport but the valid passport
• Visa
• Yellow fever vaccination card if travelling   to south America or Africa
• Currencies & monies
• Keys, books
• Phone chargers, iPad chargers
• Converter plugs

7. Things to buy from the airport

• While coming back, buy souvenirs for friends and family.
• Chocolates while coming back
• I try and buy some gum at the airport when going out, because I have a tendency to get my ears blocked during take off. Wife has that problem too.

8. To tip or not to tip

• They tip a lot in America but not much in Europe.
• So tip in America. They tip the taxi drivers too.
• If in Europe, the normal tip in a nice restaurant is around 10%. Some restaurants add 12.5% as service charge if there are more than 5 in the party.
• Always check the bill, have they added service charge or not.

I may have missed so many other things. Please do add them on the comments section :-) 

10 places

10 places I have visited and would like to visit again

1. Dubrovnik
2. St Lucia
3. Grenadines & St Vincent
4. Lake Nakuru National park - Kenya
5. Golden Temple Amritsar
6. The Scottish highlands
7. Leh, Pegang Tso, Tanglang La - Ladakh
8. Calangute - Goa
9. Konark Temple - Orissa
10. Tirupati - to see the sheer madness (or belief) of millions of Indians in 1 god!

10 places I have visited & would never like to visit again

1. Mt Abu - It is over hyped and was a not cold. If I had to go to the mountains I would go to the Himalayas why go to Mt Abu?  
2. Jaipur - Didn't like the weather. It was very dry, so dry that my nose started bleeding! 
3. Delhi - Just too loud I must say. 
4. Brugge, Belgium - Was too boring. Might go there once I am 70! 
5. Mysore - was over hyped and boring! Was quite little when I went there and even then I got bored. 
6. Dubai & Abu Dhabi - Would never visit that place ever. The Arabs are racist and treat South Asians as slaves. 
7. Glasgow - Well may be because we visited Glasgow after sending efw days in Edinburgh that I really really didn't like it. Then I have heard its the murder capital of Europe etc etc. Would stay away from Glasgow and would visit only if it is very very necessary! 
8. Tuljapur - I have my reasons! 
9. The London Underground during peak hours. 
10. The London Underground during non peak hours. 

10 places I haven't visited and would like to visit on my next trip

1. The Great Barrier Reef, Australia
2. Machu Pichu, Peru
3. Kruger national park, South Africa
4. Rio Di Janeiro, for the Olympics of 2016
5. The backwaters of Kerala
6. Drive on Route 66 ( or drive from the east to the west coast of USA)
7. Drive from the south to the north of California
8. Bali -  I was born on the beach
9. Angkor Wat - it's the largest Hindu temple on the planet & would like to see, how / when did the stories Ram & Raavan reach East Asia
10. Galapagos - because we all know that, that's where Darwin had his eureka moment