Travel Tips

1. GPS or Navigation Satellite (Navsat) set is a must. Most preferably to bring your own set rather than renting from the car rental company. You do not want to spend time unnecessarily setting your location upon arrival, do you? It is the most useful tool of all . We travel in 2 cars. In many occasion we try to stick together but separated due to heavy traffic. However alhamdulillah we meet again based on the latitude & longitude set for each location we were supposed to arrived.
2. Europe map cost RM300 if you consider purchasing them from the outlet. I downloaded them for free from the internet.
3. Do a lot of research to places you are planning to visit. Have all of them marked in the GPS. If planning to drive more than 1 car, each must carry a GPS with the same location saved on both.
4. Allow sufficient time taken between each stops considering fatigue
5. Bring right power plugs for the different countries eg Netherlands, Germany, France have different power points. No problem with UK since they had same power plug like Malaysia.
6. All logistic are done at home in Malaysia. Use the internet to book the car, hotel and ferry prior to departure. It is cheaper that way. Imagine ticket for Wax Museum cost GBP12 booked online as compared to GBP25 if purchased on arrival. Same thing with accomodation. You do not want to sleep in the car, do you (especially winter).
7. Give some buffer time travelling to each destination. Some motels front desk do not operate 24hours.
8. Strictly follow the itinerary.
9. Bring enough warm clothings, glove and socks (if winter).
10. Bring rice cooker to prepare your food. We cooked rice and sardines for dinner
11. Bring food extras to complement food in the foreign countries eg 3in1 drink pack (milo), sardines, instant noodles (maggi mee), kicap, chilli sauce (they don't have local flavour chilly sauce)
12. If you are using Air Asia, consider to purchase additional luggage on the return leg. Excess luggage is very expensive ie 10 pound per kilo, 5 times more as compared if you pre-purchase them.
13. Do not forget to purchase local mobile SIM card or register Malaysia SIM card for roaming. Roaming will be expensive, you even have to pay for calls made to you.
14. Try not to go during school holidays of the destination country since most of the attraction will be crowded and rates are high.
15. Be mentally prepared to switch driving lanes from the left to the right side of the road soon after you leave the ferry from UK to mainland Europe. In France and the rest of Europe, driving is on the wrong side of the road just like in the Hollywood movies. Even at the round-about, you have to circle the other way round, i.e. anticlockwise.
16. For those who like shopping, December is the best time to go due to year end big discount.
17. It is better to spend at least 2 days at each destination rather than 1 day like we did. You can see more things. But likewise you have to spend more. A small bottle of mineral water in Amsterdam cost 1 Euro i.e RM5
18. If you are checking-in in UK airport, only one hand luggage is allowed. A laptop bag is considered as 1 luggage.