#familytravel Archives — FORBABYNMOMMY

How to Plan a Trip to Dubai UAE

Travel trip to UAE

In this trip to UAE we visited 3 emirates out of 7 emirates:

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Planning for the visit to 7 Emirates

We started the planning at least 2-3 months before. Planning includes various things like – length of visit, what to see, which time to visit, how to arrange etc.

We checked various travel partners/websites to get the quotation for a 6N/7D itinerary for 2 Adults and 1 kid to UaE. We were getting around 2.6L to 3.2L quotations. Cost of these packages depends on type of hotel and what all things you are including in it plus your bargain skills.

Finally, we checked if we could plan ourselves and if our friends are okay with that or not. Our friends were good with planning the whole trip by ourselves and had same thought that this provided us the freedom to plan as per our requirements.

Basically, with any tour package you get less tension, but you are stuck with them, they decide what to do when to leave where to go etc. With self-planning you have the freedom to decide what to do how much time to spend what to visit etc.

So, first we finalized what all places we want to visit in UAE and what all activities we want to do. Once we have that list, we checked the ticket prices on various websites. Then we checked the cab charges, hotel prices, flight prices and after all this we compared it with packages cost, and it was coming less only as this does not include their commission.

We booked better hotel, we decided what we want to visit, we decided the time when we want to visit, we decided in our leisure time what we want to do etc.

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Cost for Trip to UAE

Our trip cost was around 3.2L for 2 Adults and 1 Kid (6 years age). This includes

Flights, we booked Emirates were little costly than other Indian carriers
Hotel, we stayed in 4* Marriott property that was not too far from Downtown
All the attractions
Taxi fares
Food we eat
Shopping including Duty Free
Visa
Travel Insurance
International Sim
Cab fare from home to Airport and back in India
Shopping for the trip

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One can save some money on hotel and attractions. Like you can book something cheaper say a 3*, we choose to go to 148 Floor of Burj Khalifa which was costly then normal ticket, we booked a private 2-hour boat ride in Marina instead you can do a smaller tour or skip it, smaller tours of Abu Dhabi which were cheaper etc.

Attractions We Visited in UAE

After a lot of research and discussions with our friends we shortlisted:

Burj Khalifa
Burj Al Arab
Abu Dhabi
Dubai Frame
Dolphin Show
Dubai Mall
Ponte
The View At the Palm
Old Dubai Walking Tour
Boat ride in Dubai Marina
Miracle Garden
Ras Al Khaimah

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We didn’t do the Desert Safari had done something similar in Jaisalmer so were not too keen on doing it. Our friends did it later in there stay with some of there relatives and said it was good one-time experience, if you have never experience something like that before.

Also, we missed visiting Museum of the Future as tickets were sold out, Dubai Eye as it was under maintenance.

There are a lot of other attractions/places to see in Dubai & around but you need time, so kept them for next visit.

Visa For UAE

We applied for Visa via MMT (Make My Trip). The process was quite simple and straight forwards. You don’t have to visit any place and can apply from the comfort of your home. We took 30 days Single entry Visa.

Document required:

Passport Scan – Front & Back
Coloured Visa photo

You can use MMT App for the same. Upload all the documents on there and pay. We paid INR 19,800 around for 2 Adults and 1 Kid. MMT say it will take around 10-12 days, but it takes around 3-4 working days to get the visa.

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Flights

Do plan your trip well in advance to save some money. We were little late in finalizing the dates and doing the booking and due to this we paid around INR 20,000 extra. Initially same flight was costing us INR 57,000 and when we booked it 3-4 days later it was INR 77,000 around.

We choose Emirates because of the experience & service, even though we travelled economy but it’s different then Indigo and SpiceJet for sure. One can save some money here as well by choosing Indian Carriers.

If you have some Credit Card/Priority Pass that offer free lounge access, then you can plan your arrival at airport accordingly. We won’t recommend anyone to do this @Mumbai Airport as the Loyalty lounge here is pathetic. It’s so claustrophobic and smells of food all the time & you will feel like coming out of it immediately.

Food was also not good; we had few things there and were out of it in around 30 min. It was much better outside then sitting there. There are other lounges but as this Airport was taken over by Adani, I think they have converted them into but for Business/First class. There are much better lounges on Domestic then on International.

Do note that you’ll need separate cards for all the passengers even for kids above 5-6 years age.

Travel Insurance

We took this from Reliance General as this was the cheapest option. It costed us INR 1000 for 3 passengers with cover of USD100,000 and some add-on features which were common across all other providers.

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Stay

For this trip we booked Aloft Al Mina which is a Marriott property. It’s a 4* property and it’s good. This property is situated right on Sheikh Rashid Road and has a hospital right adjacent to it. Marriott has their Elements property as well in the same compound so, 2 hotels in same compound.

The property is nice and clean with different options to eat and party. We have booked the room with B/F and they have good vegetarian options with good Indian options as well. Food was good, staff was good and helpful. We didn’t face any issue throughout the stay. Only drawback I would say is they don’t have any free pick and drop to the airport.

They do have free pick and drop to Dubai Mall and La Mer beach but that to is quite less, I think only 3 times a day.

Rooms were quite specious and had a great view of Dubai Downtown. We could see Burk Khalifa from one window and sunset in the evening from the other.

This property is near to Airport around 16-17 Km and nearest attraction is Dubai Frame and Dolphinarium. Farthest attraction was Miracle Garden, which was around 30 Km, but the beauty of Dubai is it will only take you 25-30 min max to reach there.

Attractions

We booked the above listed attractions mostly via there official websites and few via GetYourGuide. It’s best to book the tickets from the official websites as it’s cheapest there and there is guarantee that you won’t get cheated.

Only drawback of this is that you must pay in AED which will add some additional cost to your Credit Card, but you will earn points so kind of win-win.

We choose GetYourGuide as it has good reviews and packages, like Abu Dhabi tour, boat ride, walking tour. While booking this we paid in INR only and got a coupon code which gave us 10% discount but only on there App. Using this we saved at-least INR 8,000.

Taxi

We book all our travel within Dubai via Careem, this is the cheapest and most used app for booking taxi. In non-peak hours it starts from AED 5 around and in peak time which starts from 8 AM to 11 AM & evening 5 PM to 8 PM I think it starts from AED 12.5. For the farthest i.e. Miracle Garden which was 30 KM from our hotel we paid AED 64 which is quite reasonable and something similar we paid in Mumbai for Uber Prime ride to airport.

Uber is too costly there and is not for us mostly used by Europeans and Americans etc. for example same ride in Uber would cost anything above AED 150 easily.

One point to highlight is don’t get into any Black Cabs all Black Cabs are luxury cabs and will cost you way more then Careem. We took one from Miracle Garden to Dubai Mall and it costed us AED 94 this was at-least 9 KM less than what we travelled while coming to Miracle Garden.

International Sim

We purchased Matrix International sim from Mumbai airport for INR 33oo/- after 10% discount. We opted for E sim as our phones does not have duel physical sim options and our friends choose physical sim.

E sim calls were working fine but internet connectivity was a big issue. On the other hand physical sim was working fine. Also the number provided was UK number and not of UAE so our friends & other people in UAE were not able to call us on that number.

Adding to this, whatsapp calling is not allowed in DUBAI, it worked fine in Abu Dhabi.

Don’t take Matrix sim, at the immigration they handed us 2 Du sim for free with 24. hour validity and 1 Gb data. Then we can recharge it for AED 200 I think which will give validity, talktime and data. This is much better then Matrix but not sure how long this will be provided.
Even if they stop then better to buy a sim there only.

Stay tune for more details about the daily planning and attractions details.

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This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.

Golden City of Rajasthan – Jaisalmer

After our 2 nights stay in Shekhawati Region we headed towards biggest district of Rajasthan, The Golden City – Jaisalmer.

Most of us know it is situated in the heart of Thar Desert. It got its name Golden City due to the yellow color sandstone architecture.

It’s around 9 hrs drive, 522 KM from Mandawa via NH 11.

We stopped @ Motel Haveli Resort for b/f and total bill was Rs 200 for veg sandwich, poha and tea. It’s a big place with stay options as well, washroom were clean and place was also clean. Food was ‘Ok’ took some time to come.

There are very less places to stop on this route so come prepared with snacks. For lunch we could not find any good place on the map then suddenly we came across a place called Hotel Shiv Villas. We asked them to pack some aloo pyaz parathas for lunch as we don’t want to waste time rather eat it while driving.

After this we directly stopped in Jaisalmer. We reached I think late afternoon.

We had planned 3 nights in Jaisalmer, I feel 3 nights are good if you want to see everything and visit Longewala.

On the first day we didn’t do much as we were little tired driving 522 KM, so we checked in into this small beautiful Boutique hotel – Garh Meera.

It’s new property, still work pending due to Covid they couldn’t complete the work. Their kitchen was also closed at that time.

It has a wonderful view of Jaisalmer Fort from the roof, which was obstructed (little bit) by a construction on the building in the front.

On this day after some relaxation we went to visit the nearby local market. We booked this place only for 1 day and rest 2 days @ Jaisalmer Marriot. After b/f we left to check in to Marriot. But our room was not ready, so we went to see original Handicraft place.

For Jaisalmer sightseeing we had booked one very experienced guide Mr. Harish Giri Ji. He is really informative and very good human being.

Mr. Harish helped us in doing all the bookings i.e. city tour, desert safari package, taxi service etc.

So, on our second day of Golden city tour, Harish Ji took us to one genuine place to see some of most beautiful Rajasthani handicraft items.

We can definitely see the price difference as we have visited few shops before coming to this place and this place as huge price difference (it was way cheaper).

Harish ji is working as a volunteer in the co-operative place which provides ways to earn to the women living in desert area and keep the real hand craft art alive in this machine era.

You can check the place on Instagram with name Jaisalmerhandicrafts. This shop has amazing products. This was the first time ever we did shop on our trip/holiday. Usually we buy some fridge magnets only.

After this we had some lunch/snacks at a local shop and then headed towards – Kuldhara.

Kuldhara is a haunted village which is 50 min drive i.e. 27 Km around from the main city. Roads are good, there is a diversion which is a single road but in decent condition which takes you to the village.

This village and some adjacent villages were abandoned over night for unknown reasons. As per local stories some say it was due to the persecution of Salim Singh minister of Jaisalmer state.

Before abandon Kuldhara was inhabited by ‘Paliwal Brahmins’ and it is said that they were very prosperous.

It is very fascinating to visit this village and listen to all the stories, now we can only see few feet walls of all the houses and nothing else.

Converted into a tourist spot and there is an entry fee which is Rs 20 pp and Rs 50 per vehicle.

After spending some time here max 30 min as it was hot and there is not much to see, we left for desert safari.

Ours booking was done by Harish Ji and it’s called – Desert Safari Camp Sam Sand Dunes, you can find it on Instagram as well – @desertsafarisamsanddunes

One thing I would suggest to everyone is either stay in the camp or reach little early to properly enjoy the desert.

We reached just on time to have enough time to enjoy the dune bashing by open Mahindra Thar and enjoy sun set in the desert.

After taking lot of pics we headed back to the camp on camels. It was quite thrilling going up and down on a camel. Few times I thought we will fall ?

Back at the camp we had High tea with some snacks post high tea. There was a live folk music and dance performance. We really liked the performance all the talented artists.

After all the enjoyment and fun filled day. We ended the day with a good dinner at the camp and then drive back to the city.

While driving back had amazing experience, watching clear sky full of stars & cold breeze.

This ends our 2^nd day in Golden City Jaisalmer. Stay tuned for our last day in Jaisalmer.

click here to know full details of this 10 day Rajasthan road trip .

Harish Ji’s contact details –

Company name – Jaisalmer Tour Guide

Website – http://www.jaisalmertourguide.com/#services

Instagram – @jaisalmertourguide

Cell # 9414761153 & 7014396051

Exploring the wonderful Pink City of Rajasthan – Day 1

Jaipur aka Pink City was formed by Sawai Jai Singh in 1700’s. It took around 4-5 years to complete the construction of the Pink City i.e. construction of main roads and main areas of the city. Present day it’s the largest city of Rajasthan.

Do check out my previous post where I have given details about different regions of Rajasthan we have visited and how we planned this trip.

After check-in to hotel and relaxing for some time we started our tour after lunch. We stayed in Jaipur Marriott. The property is quite big with 300+ rooms. We stayed in Executive room on the top floor and the view was quite good.

There is one restaurant ‘Okra’ which serves good and quality food. We had daily b/f and dinner at this restaurant. There is one more restaurant/bar where you can have high tea or drinks.

Service is very good; we missed our high tea on the first day and requested them if they can send at least tea to room as we were really tired after the tour. We were surprised when the room service came with a big tray.

The chef has sent fresh aloo bonda(aloo Vada) with a sandwich, some cake, cookies etc. Everything was tasty and fresh.

First day we have visited Jaigarh Fort and Nahargarh Fort. These forts are situated above Amber Palace and there is a way to reach Amber from Jaigarh fort which was used by the queens in case there is an attack.

First, we went to Jaigarh Fort and the main attraction in this fort is worlds biggest cannon named ‘Jaivana’. The weight of the cannon barrel is said to be around 50 tons and 4 elephants were used to turn the cannon from one direction to other.

It is said that the only time it was fired they have used around 100 kg of gun powder and 50 kg of cannon ball. When it was fired it travelled a distance of 30+ Km and a small lake was formed in ‘Chaksu’ were the cannon ball landed.

This fort has its own water harvesting system as well, as water scarcity is there in Rajasthan from long time so they use to clean and store a lot of water.

There are small museums inside the fort one displayed the swords, shields, guns, and also a 50kg, cannonball with other smaller cannonballs. Other one has photographs, stamps and other stuff of royal family.

There is a small garden which is quite well maintained but cannot be accessed by public, one can see that from fort walls.

Many movies were shot in this fort/garden area.

View from here is amazing you can see Amer palace and Maota Lake, we can also see the Nahargarh fort walls which are spread over several km. Roads to this fort is in good shape but it’s a single road broad enough that 2 cars can pass.

Timing of this is from morning 9 to 5 in the evening. Ticket price is Rs 100 per person. One good thing about this place is you can take your car inside the fort, ticket price for car is also Rs 100, driver fee is included in car fee but if you are driving then you have to take ticket as we were told that driver can not step out but our guide managed it for that time ?

From here we went to Nahargarh Fort. Opening time is same as Jaigarh but it opens till late in evening due to sunset point. Ticket price is Rs 50 pp and Rs 50 is for car parking. There are 2 parking places one is inside, and one is outside so if you want to visit the sunset point and parking is available inside then do park inside else you have to walk extra.

Best time to visit this fort is in the evening time, you will witness amazing sunset and can click some amazing pics, when we were there a couple came for there pre wedding shoot.

There is one restaurant Padao as well which is operated by RTDC and they charge Rs 100 pp as entrance fee. Our guide said that the food quality is not that good, and we can get the pic from outside as well, so we didn’t went inside.

There is a wax museum at the entrance of the fort and the ticket price is Rs 500 pp, they have built a ‘Sheesh Mahal’ small palace made of different color glass and few other attractions.

We didn’t visit this as well as the price is more, and we don’t want to visit wax museum as we have seen Madame Tussaud’s in NL and Sheesh Mahal is there in City Palace as well.

Nahargarh Fort

In the main building of this fort there are around 9 rooms which are exactly same created for 9 Ranis(queens) of that time king.

We can even climb on the roof of this building and the view is just amazing.

While returning back from the fort to hotel in the evening we visited the Pink city. The city building are well maintained and are maintained by the government. No one is allowed to do any other color inside the Pink city.

Pink city has 7 gates to enter/exit, the wall of Pink city and the gates are still intact and well maintained. This city is well planned city and was constructed as per ‘Vastu’. There was no modification done with any of the buildings(there are new constructions but old is as it is).

We missed taking pics at night as our guide said that lights will be there till late night, so we went out around 11 PM one of the gates was closed so we have to take a de-tour and found that the lights are off.

I am not sure if they close some gates at night daily or it was due to Covid they closed it. There are lights which lit the full pink city at night and the lights are turned off by 10-10.30 PM daily.

This concludes our first day out of 10 days. Keep following my blog and Instagram for day by day trip details.

Soya Dosa – Super Crispy & Healthy

healthy food

Soya is included in my daily diet, so I keep trying different recipes of soya. This one is easy to make and it taste amazing!!

You would love this crispy dosa with coconut chutney. Let’s jump on the recipe.

Ingredients

Dosa

— Rice/ Idly rice – 120 grams
— Urad dal – 50 grams
— Soya chunks– 100 grams (grind well in mixer)
— 1 tsp – Red chili powder (as per taste)
— 2 tsp – Salt (as per taste)
— 1/4 cup soaked poha

Coconut Chatni

— 1 Coconut
— 2-3 Green chili
— Salt as per taste
— 10-20 kadi patta
— 2-3 dry whole red chili.

Procedure

Wash & Soak Urad dal and rice in separate bowls overnight or around 7-8 hours.
Grind dal & rice separately in fine paste.

Add soaked poha in rice while grinding, to make it more crisp and good golden brown color.
Mix both the paste in one big bowl and keep in warm place for minimum 5-6 hours for fermentation.
It should double in quantity after 5-6 hours.
After the fermentation process add 100 grams of soya chunks powder.

Add salt, red chili powder as per taste
Place iron dosa tawa or non stick pan if you don’t have dosa tawa on high flame
Heat it well, check by putting few drops of water, should evaporate quickly

Pour one big spoon of dosa batter on it and spread it to form round shape
Once its semi cooked add some oil and let it cook well
Cook on low flame for some time and dosa will start coming out easily. For crispy dosa this step is must
Take out dosa with thin steel spatula and serve hot with coconut chatni
You can add fillings of Vegetables, paneer in this dosa if you like

Coconut chutney

Chop coconut into small pieces for easy grinding
Add coconut, green chilies, kari patta, salt in mixer jar and grind into fine paste

Take out in a bowl and Now Make tadka for the chutney
Take oil in small fry pan, add rai(small mustard seed) when it’s hot. Add kari patta and two whole red dry chilies
Now add this tadka to your coconut paste

Enjoy this yummy and healthy chutney with your crispy Dosa 🙂

Florence & Vatican City

After all the thrill to catch the train experiencing Paris evening traffic and finally finding that it is cancelled, we reached Florence. Do ready my previous blog about the journey here.

This blog is about a day in Florence, don’t be shocked I know its way… way… to less and a day in Vatican which is a country.

Pin it

After reaching the Florence station which is called as ‘Firenze Santa Maria Novella’ we tried to figure out how to reach our guest house ‘Affittacamere Benedetta’. It was Just 1 Km walking and 10 min via Tram, there is stop just outside the main station and the stop to get down is next one named ‘Porta Al Prato’ and from there it is around 300 mts.

We got little confused due to Google Maps directions and took us some time and few calls to reach there but we finally managed to reach.

It’s a small guest house which I think has around 4 rooms and our room was the last one and was quite specious or say huge as per normal room standards we have seen in India. It has all the basic facilities and as the owner did not provide any b/f he has arranged some ready to eat stuff which was complimentary ? and such a nice gesture.

Even though room was big but there was only one source of natural light and that was also covered with heavy grill and room was very dimly lit. Over all only drawback in this room was the bathroom and light, light I have already mentioned and bathroom was way too small. Just to compare we use to have bigger bathroom in our flat in Mumbai.

As we travelled for more than 10 hrs. (Bus + Train), so we decided to take some rest and then go out to explore. As this place is in the city so it is near to all the tourist places and market. He suggested one place to eat and that was good and not too costly was not a tourist trap.

Our luck was not that great as first we missed to book the ticket for the Dome which is top of Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore. It has specific timing and slots as it’s a small space on the top and as per the pics the view is Amazing. Other thing that happened that day was rain.

As soon as we reach the main area of the Cathedral it started raining and we didn’t have any umbrella or rain coat, so after taking shelter in front of some shop for some time we finally return to our guest house and it continued to rain for rest of the day.

So, in all we stayed in our room and didn’t see much in Florence ☹ but what ever we saw was beautiful and we need to go again to explore more.

Next morning, we had a train to catch to reach Rome. Rome was 2-day trip and my brother in law and his family also joined us there. This was the first time we had planned something together and it was fun with all the kids.

They were supposed to come by evening, and we reached in the morning. Here we have booked an Airbnb. It was a 1 BHK flat with 2 beds, sofa, kitchen with utensils a washing machine etc. It was a good place with few drawbacks. This place was little far from the center, but tram/bus station was near by.

After taking the keys of the flat and fresh up we stepped out to go to Vatican via Bus. In Paris and here as well there is one good thing about the bus is there is space to park your stroller.

It was amazing seeing live what we have seen only in TV. Once again, we missed the opportunity to book the fast access tickets and on the spot were way to high to visit the museum and basilica ☹. For Basilica there was a huge line to enter and with my little one it was quite difficult to stand in one place for that long.

So, guys do book your tickets early and be there on time as everything work as per slots.

There were so many people that I was afraid to handle her alone otherwise we could have thought of standing one by one. So finally, we just clicked pics from outside and had some snacks at one of the local stalls then went back as my brother in law was about to reach the flat and we only had 1 key.

Rest of the day we spent with family chitchatting and relaxing as we were meeting after a long time.

This is how our first day ends in Rome.

Stay tuned for last 3 days of our trip, in which we covered Rome, Venice & Amsterdam.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. You can read my other articles for this #MyFriendAlexa campaign here #forbabynmommyblogs.

Road trip Bangalore to Mumbai

Road trip to Bangalore to Mumbai

This blog is about our journey when we left Bangalore and shifted to Mumbai…. again ?

We had given lot of thought for choosing the best way to travel with our little one, considering the cost and time. After considering all the options like transporting the car through packers and then coming via flight or train or bus, I had good experience via bus from Bangalore to Mumbai, I have jotted it do read it here.

We finalized traveling around 1000 Km via road. This was due to 2 main reason first being safety of our vehicle as we have heard few bad instances with car transporting through packers. Second I love driving and finally cost as there was not much overall difference in transporting it or driving it.

Route – it’s a straight road means NH 48 via
Tumkur – Hubli – Belgaum – Kolhapur – Satara – Pune and then Mumbai.

After doing a lot of research, going through lot of travel logs of different people (on TeamBHP) we came to know that it is good to leave Bangalore as early as possible so that we can get ahead of all the heavy traffic and cover more distance. So, we decided to leave around 5 AM or before that.

As we are traveling with kid and we has never driven this long in a single day, so we decided to make it a break journey. We finalized Belgaum for our stay as we got a 5* property at a very good price and Belgaum is mid-way for this journey.

Our first stop was Shree Ratnam at Nelamangala at around 7 AM. It was around 1 hr 30 min drive from Bangalore, here had our b/f and it was cheap and good. Washrooms were also clean. Then we continued with our journey. We didn’t take many stops as our thought was to reach the hotel as early as possible and then rest as we didn’t have good sleep the night before due to packing.

In total we stopped 3 time till we reach Belgaum, our second stop was at some CCD and then finally we stopped for Lunch before Belgaum. For lunch we stopped at this place named Hotel The Cult

After traveling for around 500 Km and eating at all those different places we reached our hotel UK 27 The Fern. It’s a 5-star property and the check in was easy and completed timely. The room was quite big with all the facilities. We didn’t try the food here instead went to a place nearby, but yes, they have 2 restaurants right next to reception area which is quite big and nice.

The place we went was walking distance from the hotel named Wild Sugar. It’s a nice small shop with sitting inside and outside, the only drawback of outside sitting is people smoking there. The food was quite good, and we really liked the food, we had Veg pasta, tandoori momos(veg), and there most famous dish i.e. paneer stuffed kulcha.

After having a good night sleep and freshen up we started our rest of the journey towards Mumbai – City of Dreams ?. We started at around 6.30 AM again we want to beat all the bus and truck traffic on the highway.

This time we stopped just once for b/f at Hotel Amar and then directly in Pune at cousin house. We reached Pune at around lunch time i.e. 12.30 to 1 PM. Our initial thought was to directly go to Mumbai but then we thought to stop at there place and enjoy some time with them, also her daughter is of same age as of our daughter, so they enjoy playing with each other.

Overall it was a nice pleasant and memorable journey, one could complete it in a single day also in around 14-16hrs but if you have time then it’s always better to take rest.

Roads throughout the journey was amazing, just few diversions as they are creating some bridge’s/flyovers to bypass the diversion/traffic of small towns on the highway.

One main thing to tell about the rout is that – as you get such a nice highway to be prepared to pay heavy toll charges. In all there were 16 toll booths on this route, and we paid a total of Rs 1,185 as toll, this includes the Mumbai – Pune express way toll as well.

It took around one and half tank of fuel to reach Mumbai, ours is a diesel car so it was little cheap and good on mileage. Total fuel cost was around
Rs 4,000.

Total cost of trip –
Hotel – 3662
Fuel – 4000
Toll tax – 1185
Food – 1550, Total would be around Rs 10,500 with some misc. amount.

But yes, we had freedom to stop anywhere, take pics, enjoy the natural scenery on the way ? We really enjoyed this road trip.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. You can read my other articles for this #MyFriendAlexa campaign here #forbabynmommyblogs.

Paris To Florence Italy

This is 4th evening of our small 9 days 🙂 Europe holiday, do check my previous post. On our last day in Paris we need to board a train to Milan & from there to Florence Italy.

This was the first time my husband forgot’s the departure time and also didn’t thought about the evening traffic. Our train was scheduled to depart at 7.10 PM from Paris-Gare-De-Lyon station and we left the hotel at 6.20 PM.

Ticket cost was Euro 196 for 2 berth in 4 berth couchette and Euro 66 for Milan to Florence in Thello Premium.

We didn’t book flight as the airports were far from Paris city and Florence and also we want to experience the sleeper trains of Italy. There are different categories and early you book cheaper it will be.

There are 6 berth couchette, 4 berth and then business class where it is 2 or 1 berth and in that you will get bedding and other perks. Then there are option to select if you want to book in mix, only women or only men couchette.

Premium cabin
6 Berth Couchette
4 Berth Couchette

We didn’t took the metro because Paris metro is not at all stroller friendly and with luggage and a small kids it will be too difficult if you are short of time.

First there was issue with Uber, the first diver was taking too much time and then cancelled the ride which again wasted some time. Finally we left and there was bumper to bumper traffic in most of the way till the station.

Due to the tension of missing the train and ruin further bookings and plan we were not able to enjoy our luxury ride, can you believe it was Mercedes as our Uber cab.

Finally we reached the station quite late, trying to figure out where to find the Thello authorities. While looking for help, help found us 🙂

As we were on holiday so didn’t check the news. Our luck was on full swing that day, there was strike of workers due to issues related to salary etc.

Because of the strike all the trains were cancelled. So we actually didn’t miss the train :). Thello has arranged buses for all the passengers and were looking for last passengers by carrying small hoardings on the platform.

When we came to know about all this then we got little relaxed. We were the last passengers so in a full 40-50 seat bus we were the only passenger, other than us there were 2 Thello officials.

They arranged for some food and drinks as complimentary due to the inconvenience caused. It was a 2×2 semi sleeper bus. We are not used to travel in bus and with small kid it was quite difficult.

Some how we managed to get few hours of sleep and reached Milan. As it was via road and bus left little late, we reached the Milan station late and due to this the connecting train to Florence was missed.

As it was not our mistake the officials arranged the seats in the next available train ours was in Premium, they were not able to provide the same sitting but it was same category.

From Milan to Florence it was Frecciarossa. There are mainly 3 categories –
1. Standard – very basic with no additional perks
2. Premium – additional perks like better seats, welcome drink and snacks
3. Business & Business Quite – here seats are more comfortable and wider as it is 2×1 arrangement.

Business sitting and features
Premium sitting and features

Finally we reached Florence the capital city of Tuscany region of Italy.

This is for all the people reading this and planing a vacation abroad please double check the scheduled departure time of the trains and buses. Also consider the time you will spend in traffic.

We really appreciate how Thello management took the responsibility of there passengers and managed everything.

Last day in Paris

After amazing day 1 & 2 in Paris, we were getting use to the things here like travel, food, walking etc. Day 3 starts with visit to Notre Dame roof. We missed our timeslot due to the huge line to enter the cathedral and confusion, assuming the entry to roof will be from inside. But … Continue reading “Last day in Paris”

After amazing day 1 & 2 in Paris, we were getting use to the things here like travel, food, walking etc.

Day 3 starts with visit to Notre Dame roof. We missed our timeslot due to the huge line to enter the cathedral and confusion, assuming the entry to roof will be from inside. But it was from outside.

After we missed our first slot (check detail here) we booked it for the next day and made sure this time we are on time else our €10 ticket will be waste. We checked with the Paris tourism office from where we got the ticket that if we can exchange it with some other place, but they refused.

Notre Dame, Paris — One of the tower of Notre Dame view from the top

After seeing the city from Eiffel tower, you won’t be able to justify the view from here, it’s beautiful but can’t be compared to Eiffel. So, our conclusion is you can exclude this from your list, and you can invest the money purchasing ticket of someplace else or eating something good or enjoying French wine ?.

There are lot of stairs to climb and the space is very little. The stairs are in spiral shape and quite steep. After climbing all the stairs, we were feeling so hot that we had to remove our jackets. It windy on top.

There are multiple levels here like Eiffel but in this case it’s only 2, Eiffel has 3. One can spend limited time on the roof as there are fixed number of people per slot and there are continues slots. So, they even ask you to hurry up and start your decent.

You will climb through the left tower (if you are facing the cathedral) and come down through right one.

View from Notre Dame, Paris — Beautiful sky & Eiffel at the back

After this we went to see one of the most beautiful Opera house in the world – Palais Garnier.

If you want to walk, then it’s around 3 Km from Notre Dame else you can take a metro station name is Opera.

Opera Garnier, Paris — Front Side of Opera, there are lot of sculptures made on this side

We were very exited to visit this place as we have heard a lot from our friends and family who have visited it. But our bad luck it was already closed for the day.

As it’s a working Opera so continues shows keep happening here. Before planning your visit here do check the schedule on their web site.

So, we just took some pics from the outside and left for lunch. We went to some falafel place which was suggested by one my husbands’ friend. And trust me it was simply amazing.

The falafel was so amazing and tasty and fulfilling. It’s a take away place and there is line in front to place order.

There staff will be on the street to help you decide with your order. It’s located on a small street with very less traffic.

Then we just relaxed a bit strolling on the banks of Seine river. It was amazing, cold breeze, calm.

After some relaxation we wen to place which is one of the most famous and important thing to do in Paris. This place is even featured in some movies i.e. Louvre Museum.

Louvre Museum, Paris — One of the part of Louvre after closing

This museum is one of the biggest and will take a lot of time and walking to explore. It’s located in Louvre Palace and the famous glass pyramid is right in the centre of the palace ground. This place contains antiques from all over the world and one of the most famous possession of this place is – Mona Lisa.

Ticket price starts from €15 and then we have skip the line, guided tours, audio guide tour. So, decide carefully which one you want.

It has all sorts of things in the display like art, paintings, sculptures, prints & drawings. If one has interest in museums & history then this place is like temple for them. So much of history and beauty to admire.

As this place took a lot of time, rest of the evening we spent just strolling on the banks of Seine, it’s nice just to walk on the banks, it’s in the middle of the city but still quiet.

This ends out 3^rd day in Paris. Paris has a lot to see and one would at least need a weeks’ time to visit Paris alone. It should not be like this is on your bucket list, so you planned and spent just 1-2 nights and visit 2-3 places in a hurry.

We stayed here for 4 days and still it was not enough.On our final day we really want to see Opera, this was one of the top priorities. We have already checked the visiting hours on their web site.

As usual there are different kinds of tickets available starting from €12 which is an independent visit ticket. You can check the prices here, this is from where we bought ours.

Stroller can be taken inside, but you need to leave it just before you enter the main area as there are a lot of stairs. So, better take Baby carrier also with you if you have small kids.

This place is mesmerizing. It’s beautiful, you will be lost in its beauty. It is beautiful inside out. There are many sculptures on the out side on the Principle Facade.

One of the ramp through which King use to come

There are 2 pavillon one is on west side which has 2 ramps and it was the entrance for the king, now a day this is used to enter visitors. Second one is on the east side that was designed for rest of the public.

The interior has many corridors, stairwells and huge place for people to socialize. 3 main things to see inside –

Grand Staircase
Grand Foyer
Auditorium

Grand Staircase Opera Garnier, Paris — Grand Staircase

Grand Staircase – as the name say these are grand, white marble staircase which divides into 2 & leads to the Grand Foyer. These staircase is decorated with female sculpture holding torches. Hence sudden royal feeling will come when you climb these staircase ?.

Grand Foyer – this is a long hall with very high ceiling. This is 154 mtr long, 18 mtr high and 13 mtr wide.

Grand Foyer,Opera Garnier, Paris — Beautiful ceiling of Grand Foyer

The ceiling is painted and represent various historic moments in the field of music.

This place was used to socialize and enjoy some drinks.

Both the ends of the Foyer have halls with beautiful painted ceilings.

Auditorium, Opera Garnier, Paris — Main Auditorium

Auditorium – this is traditional horseshoe shape sitting with a capacity of nearly 2000 people.

The stage is largest in Europe. The main ceiling area which surrounds the chandelier is beautifully painted & it depicts scenes from opera of 14 different composers.

The min chandelier was designed by Garnier him self and is very heavy and made from bronze and crystal.

Grand Vestibule, this is from where you will exit, it contains the statues of four composers: Rameau, Lulli, Gluck and Haendel.

Grand Vestibule Opera Garnier, Paris — Grand Vestibule

There is a small museum inside which displays stage sets, photographs, drawings & paintings. Besides that there is a library with huge number of books.

After spending some quality time, we went out had our lunch and then headed to Luxembourg Garden.

This was our final stop in Paris as after this we had to catch train to Italy?

Luxembourg Garden, Paris — Our doll enjoying some time before the rain

Luxembourg Garden is huge spread in more than 20 hectares. It was constructed in 1612. The beautiful gardens are the part of Palace – Luxembourg Palace which is now owned by French Senate. Gardens are known for its lawns, flowerbeds & fountains.

Again, it was our bad luck as soon as we reach and decided to relax for a bit it started to rain. We thought it will stop in some time and waited for it to stop under a shed, but it didn’t and finally we decided to leave as we have a train to catch.

This place has covered sitting area, metal chairs in front of the palace near to the pond. What ever time we spent here it was good and relaxing. You can spend some quality time with friends and family here.

Information about Paris Pass

Paris Pass, it’s a card where you pay one time and it gives you access to certain number of attractions as per the pass. You can buy pass starting from 2 days to 6 days.

This Pass includes travel card with which you can travel unlimited times in central Paris in metro, RER, bus and is valid as per your pass validity.

As per me it is useful and cost effective for those who want to cover maximum in the given period. We didn’t want to rush things get most out of the Pass.

There is a lot more to see like – Palace of Versailles which will take one full day, Disney Land again will take one full day, Montmartre to name which are not to be missed and many more museums if you are a museum fan.

Paris to Milan Bus — Good Bye Paris, beautiful final evening Of Paris

Our Paris trip ends with a twist which is related to our journey to Florence, Italy which I’ll tell in my next blog so stay tuned for it.

Yercaud – TGI Star Holiday Resort

This was our first holiday of 2019 and a much-needed break from the hectic city life. Yercaud is a small hill station situated in the state of Tamil Nadu. We came to know about this place while searching online for a place not that far from Bangalore. Yercaud is around 225 Km from Bangalore. The … Continue reading “Yercaud – TGI Star Holiday Resort”

This was our first holiday of 2019 and a much-needed break from the hectic city life. Yercaud is a small hill station situated in the state of Tamil Nadu.

We came to know about this place while searching online for a place not that far from Bangalore. Yercaud is around 225 Km from Bangalore. The roads are quite good throughout the journey.

Rout we took was via Hosur – Krishnagri – Selum. We started at around 6.20 AM on Saturday. After reaching the silk board junction we came to know that it is very late if one must go on this rout on a weekend.

There are tolls on this rout and total toll we paid was around Rs 600 in total i.e. for return journey. Plus Rs 90 on NICE Road, Bangalore from Electronic City to Clover Leaf.

There was traffic on silk board & a long queue on the toll plaza just after the Electronic city flyover. It took us around 10 min to clear the toll. Then after the toll there was traffic on the highway as it was kind of long weekend, Monday leave gives 4 days as Tuesday was holiday on the occasion of Sankranti.

Outside sitting area
Quite big car parking
Main hotel building

For b/f we stopped at Hotel Shri Krishna Inn, Shoolagiri. Food here is nice and priced reasonably. This was very crowded and that day and there was a waiting as well. There are 2 sitting option – inside and outside.

There’s a HP petrol pump, Mc Donald’s and Cafe Coffee day all located in the same complex.

After Selum the ghat section starts, Yercaud is around 30 Km from Selum. There are 20 Hairpin bends on this rout and the amazing thing is the roads are very well maintained and are quite broad.

There are mirrors installed but only few are in working condition, rest are either damaged or stolen.

TGI Star Holiday Resort, Yercaud — Entering the resort

This time we wanted to stay in a place where we can spend some quality & screen free time with family. So after googling for some time we came across TGI Star Holiday resort located just 1 Km before the main town or Yercaud.

Resort & list of what all things are there to do

Main reason for going with this property is its family friendliness. This is a 3-star property with some amazing features. There are 2 categories of rooms i.e. Deluxe/Superior cottage and Suit Cottage.

Living Room
Sofa in living area
Bed room with King size bed
Beautiful decoration with towels
Tea/Coffee maker
Sitting arrangement in Balcony
Bathroom
Toiletries
Towel arrangement in bathroom

The main difference in both the rooms is space, in Suit there is a living room with a sofa and one sofa cum bed plus the bedroom is also quite specious. Other one is normal size room. Both the categories have a private sitting space/balcony outside the room.

We stayed in Suit cottage as we need some space for our daughter to run around when we relax in the room ?. Other amenities include a welcome drink at reception, some snacks in the room, good quality toiletries in the bathroom.

In suit it was a king size bed and it was quite comfortable. Lenin and towels are also of good quality and soft to touch. This place is located on a hill slope so first to reach you must get down from the main road and after you enter you must climb up & both the time it’s a steep slope.

There is ample of parking, you can either park at the front of the resort or inside at the end. There are small gardens with different varieties of flowers/plats in front of each cottage, which makes the stay more pleasing.

Chess
Carrom & TT
Swimming pool
Bonfire
Bonfire at its peak

If we talk about the facilities of the resort, then there are a lot of things one can do with family. There is a spa, a restaurant which serves good and tasty food. An indoor games room with games like carrom, chess & Table tennis. A badminton court, swings for adults and kids, separate play area for kids and swimming pool.

Walking on rope
Walking on single rope side ways
Walking on planks
Crossing the net
Walking on sideways hanging planks
Activities for kids are also there

If you are a dare devil and like adventure sports, then there is facility for that too. Adventure activities are conducted inside the resort and the instructor is very good.

Adventure activities..it was really fun

Activities have different difficulty levels and finally there is a zip line. So, if you are planning to visit this place and want to do this then do carry sports shoes.

We took the spa after we were done with our first dose of adventure activities. Me and my husband both took the spa and we really felt good after it. All refreshed and recharged. The massage therapist for male and female are very good, and both were experienced.

Price wise it’s very reasonable starting from Rs 1500 for Kerala massage to Rs 2500 for their signature package. They do have facial and other stuff also.

One of the most interesting and unique thing that I like about this place is there open-air theatre. Yes, you read it correct, they show a movie once it is dark in the garden space b/w the games room and badminton court. That too with a Bonfire ?

First day it was an English movie and second day it was Tamil movie with English sub ?. There is light in the badminton court, so you can play even at night just make sure you don’t make too much of noise as there are rooms just adjacent to the court.

Food here was good, they have buffet for all 3 meals or if you want something else then you can order from the small AA-la-carte menu.

Sitting arrangement
Ambiance
Veg Buffet
Salad on First day Lunch
Salad in Dinner
Rice prepration
Starting with salad and starter
Ordered from menu
Noodles soup
Starting with salad and starter
Paneer 65

In buffet there are 3 veg dishes and 2 non veg dishes with 2 rice preparation and rasam. Chapatis are pre cooked and kept in hot case.

One more thing that I really like is in the evening/night time their housekeeping guys come to every room to refill the snacks, tea coffee and ask if you need any other thing. They also ask you to provide feedback about the room cleaning and their service which was something new to us.

There is free Wi-Fi, but the speed is not good, there is no issue with mobile signals at least with Airtel.

Whole staff of the resort is so courteous and friendly, we really like their hospitality.

We really like the time we have spent in this resort.

Small tour of the beautiful Property of TGI Hotels

There are quite a few things to see in Yercaud. Some of them are –

Kiliyur falls
Yercaud lake
Ladies seat
Gents seat
Rose garden
Few temples

We checked about the falls and came to know that there is no water in the falls so it’s not worth visiting it. Also, there are steep steps to reach to the falls, around 250 to 300. Going down is easy but climbing up is a tedious task. So if you are visiting in rains then only plan else you might regret.

Out of these we saw only few like rose garden, lake, ladies’ seat and while coming back from ladies’ seat I noticed a small aquarium just beside the lake.

Yercaud is a small town and the resort is located just 1 km from the lake. There is no proper or designated parking space at the lake, you have to park on the road side. Beware if you go on Sunday morning then there is a flea market on both the side of the road.

There is boating facility at the lake and one can choose from paddle boat, boat with oars or a motor boat. There are few good points to click pic with lake as background. Rose garden is 1.5 km around from lake.

Beautiful yello rose
Some buds ready to turn into beautiful flower

The road is not in good shape and just before the main entry of the garden it is a single lane. So, if some vehicle is coming from other direction then one must go reverse. One can park vehicle inside the gate of rose garden or on the road side, parking is free.

Rose Garden, Yercaud — Inside Rose garden

Ticket to enter garden is of Rs 30 and for us it was not worth as there were only few plants were, we could see some roses. The garden was maintained well. From rose garden you can either walk to ladies’ seat it’s just 100 mtr. Or you take your car and park it there.

Ladies seat is just a valley view point and nothing else. There is small shed from where you can see beautiful valley below. But what we feel is it will be worthier to visit in/after rains as the view will be clearer. This time it was all foggy/cloudy. But still it was beautiful.

Gents seat is located again some 100 mtr from ladies’ seat and it’s a valley view point. So, we skipped it. While coming back from ladies’ seat google maps leads us to a road which was closed at the point where is meets the main road. So, we have to take a U turn.

On the same road there is a small aquarium which has 17 varieties of fishes including ‘Piranha’. The entry ticket to this place is only Rs 10 pp but parking outside is Rs 30. It’s a good experience for kids.

Over all we really enjoyed our 2 days of stay @TGI Star Holiday Resort and in Yercaud.

Note -
All the pictures are from our trip taken by us.

Europe Trip – Hotel, Paris Metro/Bus ride & Seine River Cruise

This is our day 2 in Europe and Day 1 in beautiful city Paris.

Day 2

After going through all the trouble at Paris Nord and Paris Metro station near to Pairs Nord we finally reached our hotel all thanks to Uber. (If you have not read my previous blog do read it here)

For our 3 night 4 days stay in Paris we have booked MERCURE PARIS BOULOGNE APARTHOTEL. It’s an apartment hotel where you get a small kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave, ceramic hotplate, dishwasher. Safe, television, telephone, Wi-Fi. Bathroom with bathtub and hair dryer.

We choose apartment hotel due to 2 reasons one and major one was our daughter, as she was only 1.6-year-old, so we need to make food for her second in a medium long trip of 10 days we don’t want to eat outside junk food both the time. Eventually save some money ?

We really didn’t cook full meals but cooking B/F as it was not included in the booking and dinner which was mostly a ready to eat Indian meal like pre-cooked rice, dal, pulao, chole etc.

Mercure is a mid scale brand of hotels b/w 3 & 4-star properties run by its parent company AccorHotels, a French multinational corporation.

Our’s was an around 32m sq. room with a double bed and 1 sofa bed. Bed was comfortable with lights on both the side of the bed, a small shelve on the full wall behind the bed to keep the things like phone, wallet etc.

There’s a small dinning table places beside the wall in the kitchenette, space after you enter the room where we can keep the stroller and other stuff, one wardrobe to store all the luggage and one small stool.

There is a storage cabinet above the sofa cum bed and beside it was a small TV. This storage was very useful during our stay as we kept all our raw/ready to eat food item there.

These was a big window on one of the walls, our room was a front room, so we could see the front road. This hotel is in the quitter residential area, sometimes it was nice to open the window and let the fresh air in.

So, after reaching and settling down, relaxing a bit after a tiring Metro run we went out as today evening we had our Seine river cruise.

Beautiful art on one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris – Pont Alexandre III

Deliberately we have opted for evening time as that time we can see the beautiful monuments in the day light and witness the beauty of Paris in the artificial lights.

To travel locally in Paris, you have metro & bus. Regular ticket cost 1.90 or say 2 Euro if you purchase per ride but there is a little cheaper option i.e. ‘Carnet’ which is a book of 10 tickets cost 16 Euro.

At Nord Station the machines through which we can buy Carnet was not accepting international credit card, but at other station it worked.

You can take help from local people there, they are helpful.

Green Metal Bridge, there is a metro line 6 above the roads

With the help of Google Maps, we found that we can take direct bus from a stop near to our hotel directly to the center where all the attractions are. So, there is no changing metro, no climbing stairs, we were very happy ??

For the next 4 days we only used Bus, well most of the time say 95% as once you reach the centre then you must walk…walk…walk & walk… Saying it again stroller and baby carrier is a must if you have small kid(s).

If one doesn’t want to walk then there is an option of Hop on Hop off bus, in these buses you can ride full day on a single ticket. You can Hop off at any attraction on their specific route visit the place and then Hop on again in the next bus to go to another attraction.

We have done our booking from Vedettes du Pont Neuf after going through review of different service providers at different platforms. Normal ticket w/o any add on would cost maximum 14 Euros pp.

The boats are quite big and have 2 type of sitting options one is in open on the top and second is close below it.

The tour is of 1 hour with live commentary informing about the monuments and places that are covered during the tour. If you choose the evening tour which might end up in late evening or night, then you can witness the beautiful monuments and bridges in night light.

Art on one of the bridges out of many bridges in Paris

Beautiful Cour De Cassation – Civil and Criminal Court Paris
Beautiful Pont Alexandre III at night

It’s all Altogether a different experience in artificial lights. It’s amazing experience sailing in the Seine river.

This concludes our first day in Paris.

Stay tuned for more updates and details of the coming days in Pairs.

Note - All the pictures are from our trip taken by us.