2 . Last year I took a flight to Bangkok managed by Arab Airlines Etihad. The service there was very good. During that flight we were given large comfortable headphones, pillows and disposable cosmetic bags with earplugs, socks, a bandage for eyes. This time my friend and I flew from Moscow to Delhi. The flight was managed by Aeroflot. The service on this flight was not that satisfying.     1    

After we obtained a visa upon arrival, passed through passport control and found our backpacks in the pile on the floor we came out from the airport building.     2    

We approached to the more or less impressive booth that says “Prepaid taxi”,     3     After we paid, the cashier gave us a bill and we were immediately seated into the car. Let’s go.

    4       He made a call to the hotel without any result and tried to explain to us that there were some blocked roads. It was not clear whether he was joking or not.

    5       In a word, there was a mistake in the hotel name on the booking, com website, as there are several hotels of the chain called OYO Rooms, but there were no specific names mentioned in the reservation.

So we barely found one of the hotels of this chain and the man on the reception was not sure that we made reservation in this hotel, but it was late and we probably looked tired, so he gave us a room eventually.

Room was a little bit gloomy. Sheets were of course dirty, but after we drank a cup of tea we successfully fell asleep.

3 . The important things to consider when planning a multi-generational holiday trip

Take the whole family to a beach or a mountain, forming holiday memories that will last a lifetime. Whether those memories are pleasant or not will depend on a lot of things, but the one you can control most is how well you plan the trip. Multi-generational travel is different from planning for just yourself or your family.     1    

Perhaps your family is happy to have one person take control. But you may have newer family members who consider vacation planning a more collective experience. If that’s the case, you need to make sure they feel like they had some input in the process, or you won’t get much participation.     2    

Holiday resorts are likely a better choice than a big house or hotels, both because they offer separate condos (公寓式旅馆) where people can operate on their own schedules and because they offer activities, meals, and other entertainment (消遣) you won’t have to plan. Condos also often come with kitchens, if you do feel like having dinner at home a couple of times.     3     You might not want to share a hotel room with your brother and his wife, for example. But sharing a two-bedroom condo--which is usually about the same price — just feels like being roommates.

So finding a resort with activities that fit as many people’s interests as possible is key.     4     Your cousins may prefer doing food tours. Your father-in-law may just want a big pool. Regardless of what your family enjoys, think about everyone’s interest—or at least what you know of them—and find a place that has as many as possible.

    5     Even if you’re leading the trip planning, leave group-activity planning to the people who want to do it as they’ll have the most drive and motivation (动机) to make it happen. Don’t force anyone into doing activities they aren’t interested in doing. So once you’re there, try your best to have a good time with them.

4 . Travel blogging (博客) is a journal that the whole world can read and it is the main reason behind me for setting up my own travel blog.     1     Nowadays everyone is writing about their travels. Here are seven reasons why you should join the army and get writing.

Remember your trip. The biggest advantage of having a travel blog is providing you with a great way to remember your trip.     2     But writing online means you can type it up, including photos and you can keep your memories forever.

    3     If you keep it basic, having a travel blog won’t cost you anything. However, if you want to develop your blog, it may cost you more such as paying for hosting. There are a lot of free blog hosting platforms out there including Wordpress and Blogger that are worth trying and they won’t cost you a dollar.

    4     It can often take a lot of effort to stay in touch with those hundreds of people you met backpacking (徒步旅行) on your travels. But with all the social media platforms around these days it is certainly a lot easier. Alongside this, if you have your own travel blog, it means you are regularly updating (更新) your adventures online with all your friends.

Inspire others.     5     Along the way you will get to meet so many people who will thank you for inspiring them to take that first trip away from home or you may have encouraged a recent graduate to save enough money to backpack through Asia.

5 . Make a Plan for Your Trip

Choose your location.

When people think to themselves "I want to take a trip", usually they have a place in mind. Where’s yours?    1    "London" is a lot easier to plan than "England". Research it online and discuss it with your fellow travelers. Websites are a great place to browse travel photos, journals and videos posted by real people sharing their experiences. For example, before going on a trip to Japan, do a quick search — you’ll get all kinds of stories and advice from people who recently visited Japan.

Choose when you want to go.

This will be determined by a number of things, but mostly your schedule. How much time can you feasibly take off work? Do you want to deal with winter or the rainy season? How about when it’s hot and muggy?     2    

Be cautious about going through a travel agent.

Travel agents simply must charge booking fees, or they could not stay in business. The largest immediate savings in planning your trip would be to use an online travel website to research, plan and book your travel adventures.     3    

Make your reservations for flights and accommodations.

Once you’re exactly sure of your destination, your travel schedule and the way you want to get around, make your reservations. For flights, book around two months ahead.     4    

    5    

No one has ever said to themselves while on vacation, "I’m so glad I practically packed my entire closet". Leave space for shopping and buying souvenirs. Moreover, traveling with lots of luggage restricts your movement and causes discomfort, so only pack the necessities.

6 . How to keep a travel journal

Are you looking for fresh travel journal writing ideas? Read on these tips to get some ideas for creating a journal you will cherish.

Just do it. A travel journal is not scholarly (学文精深的).     1    There are no rules, and no one is grading what you are write. The best way to get going is to get started.

Pay attention. Your journal doesn’t have to only be about where you go each day.     2    Did you meet someone new? Where and when? What did you talk about? Recording observations will make your travel journal colorful?

Try to write something every day. Make a habit of writing something every day or at least every other day.     3    If you let more time pass, it can be different to remember what you did three or four days ago, especially the brief impressions of those experiences. Your journal will be richer if you keep up with it.

    4    If writing paragraphs doesn’t fit either you or your trip, try something else. You can make lists, such as your favorite restaurants for dinner or the best places to watch the sunset. Try sketching (素描) too and don’t be discouraged if you are not sure as an artist. Sometimes sketching is really the best way to record an experience that would be lost when described with text. As the saying goes, a picture is worth one thousand words.

Take the bad along with the good. For all the great travel experiences we enjoy, there are days when things go wrong.    5    Though they are not be highlight of a trip, they are part of your unique travel story and often are as much fun to tell about in the future as the ones that go as planned.