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Six Car Travel Hacks You Must Know Before A Road Trip

5 Car Travel Hacks You Must Know Before A Road Trip

If there is one happy time in your life, it must be the time when you travel. Travelling is an experience whose emotions cannot be explained in words. While for some boring people, travelling just means going from one place to another. For others, it means meeting new people, falling into exciting situations, discovering the world and oneself. Especially for youngsters, travelling is much more beautiful than the destination itself.

When you are travelling by car, you are in a safe zone. You have your own vehicle, you can stop wherever you please, you can drive the car on a speed of your will and you have the comfort of a familiar space. But, there are certain things that you must keep in mind when you are travelling long distances in your car in order to be safe and have a pleasant journey.

5 Car Travel Hacks You Must Know Before A Road Trip

Here are some travel hacks when you are doing a road trip in your car Click To Tweet

Prepare your car for the journey

As much as you get prepared for the trip, you should prep up your car too. After all, your car is the most important thing in that journey of yours. So, get your car serviced a few days before the trip. Wash your car, clean it inside out and get the engine and other technical stuff inspected. Do not forget to check if the wheels are in good condition. Keep a spare wheel in the car so that you can change it yourself if there is a flat tire. The tools must be safe in the toolbox.

Baggage

When you are on a road trip, your car will be carrying all your load. So, you must make sure that you travel light. Just like they do in flights, have a luggage limit for the passengers in your car. One large baggage for each person is appropriate. You can also carry small handbags with the basic necessities. Load the luggage into the trunk and keep a first aid kit with it too.

Fuel

Calculate the mileage that your car gives and make sure that you fill your fuel tank way before it gets empty. It is a road trip and you may not get any fuel stations as soon as you want. So, make sure you have sufficient amount of fuel in the tank until the next stop.

Basics

Have your mobile phone fully charged and ready in case you need to find a place off the internet or to call anyone. Also, keep your wallet prepared with some cash and your credit cards also in place. Cash is necessary because, in some rural places, people do not yet accept cards.

Snacks

One of the most important things that you must carry to make a road trip memorable is lots of junk food. Chips, wafers, cookies and chocolates are a must on a road trip. So, carry them in excess. Especially if you have kids in the car, you will need food to keep them silent in the moving car for hours. Water and cool drinks are also necessary.

Music

Just before you start the trip, load some cool songs to the car’s music system. This will help you enjoy the ride even better. Select road trip kind of songs that are about travelling and discovering oneself. Good beats are necessary to maintain a good mood. Music is the best companion for a road trip.

These are some things that you must get sorted when you are planning a road trip with your friends.

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See Also: Travel to Picturesque Palolem Beach, Goa

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12 facts about the spectacular Miracle Garden Dubai !

Miracle Garden Dubai

Like an oasis in the middle of a desert, right at the centre of Dubai is a miraculous garden that will take your breath away if aren’t prepared for it. The Dubai Miracle Garden, rightly named so, is one of the largest gardens in the world. A recent attraction in the desert city, theMiracle Garden was opened to the public on the valentine’s day of 2013. If the garden was in any other part of the world, it would have been no big deal. But, it is located in a desert city that experiences extreme temperatures. Hence all the fuss.

Miracle Garden Dubai

Image Credit: Flickr.com

Here are some interesting facts about Dubai Miracle Garden that you must know before going there –

  1. The Dubai Miracle Garden has many facilities for its visitors such as open parking, VIP parking, toilets, sitting areas, prayer room, ablution facility, carts for disabled, security room, first aid room, retail and commercial kiosks and so on.
  2. The Dubai Miracle Garden Timing: is open from 9 AM – 9 PM, Sunday to Thursday (the ticket counters close at 8:30 PM). During the weekends, that is Friday and Saturday, the timings are – 9 AM – 11 PM (Ticket counters close at 10:30 PM). The tickets will cost you 45AED for adults and 35AED for children below 12 years old. For children below 2 years, entry is free.
  3. You cannot use professional cameras or drones inside the garden. For professional shoots, you will have to take special permission from the management. With prior permission, you can shoot for engagements, weddings, modelling and TV ads.
  4. The garden is located in Al Barsha South. It is spread over 72,000sqm area. The Miracle Garden primly showcases identifiable structures that are entirely covered with flowers. There are more than 50 million blooming flowers in the garden. From a large aeroplane to heart-shaped pathways, pyramids to butterflies, you can see many shapes and creatures specially made of flowers.
  5. The best attraction is the one in the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest flower arrangement. It is a floral rendition of Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft which is entirely made from flowers.
  6. The flowers of the garden are maintained by re-using wastewater through the process of drip irrigation. About 757,082 litres of water is required every day.
  7. Many movie scenes have been shot inside the Miracle Garden. A scene from the Bollywood movie Hamari Adhuri Kahani was shot inside the garden.
  8. The garden has over 60 different varieties of flowers on display. There are geraniums, marigolds, chrysanthemums, roses, petunias and many other varieties of flowers. Each year, the floral structures are changed to ensure a change for repeat visitors.
  9. The gardens are closed during the summer season because Dubai’s hot summers are unbearable. Also, the 40 C temperature that is there from June to September is not favourable for either flower growing of flower gazing.
  10. The place is also home for the region’s first indoor butterfly garden. The Dubai Butterfly Garden is open all over the year and has many butterfly species living under one roof.
  11. Petunia flowers are the maximum used flowers in the Miracle Garden. They are used for many floral themes on display. Thus, this garden is the home for the maximum number of Petunia flowers on earth.
  12. The Dubai Miracle Garden is so large that you will need a couple of hours to view all the attractions in it. You can walk around the garden, take the cart or just sit at one place. If you are hungry, there are small eateries inside the garden too. If you want to see it all in detail, you will need an entire day.

These are some interesting facts about the Dubai Miracle Garden.

See Also: Fun in the Sun at the Picturesque Palolem Beach, Goa

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Fun in the Sun at the Picturesque Palolem Beach, Goa

PICTURESQUE PALOLEM BEACH

Pristine Palolem Beach, Goa

Goa, tourist hot-spot and the place to be on vacations or the New Year, has numerous beautiful beaches that many see as a getaway from the daily hustle and bustle of city life. Calangute and Baga are probably the best known and the most crowded of the numerous Goa beaches, especially during the tourist season, specifically, from October to May. Palolem beach, Goa, however, is like a breath of fresh air.  For a clam, serene, lazy albeit wet day at a ‘Goa beach’, head to Palolem!

Palolem beach

Location and Accessibility:

Palolem Beach is situated in South Goa, specifically in Canacona, at an approximately 40-minute drive from Margao depending on the traffic conditions. It is also accessible by rail and the nearest railway station is Canacona. The closest airport is Dabolim which lies at approximately 67kms from Palolem. The road toward the beach past Margao covers a mountainous stretch and is serpentine here with many sharp turns. But the road itself is broad and well paved and so the ride is smooth, although a bit hair-raising, especially at night. The view, however, is picturesque during the day.

The Beach:

Palolem is one of the few beaches in Goa that has still managed to maintain its pristine aspect, on the whole. The beach is clean, you won’t find garbage strewn around, and although there are shacks along the shore, a large expanse of the beach still remains free of these or any other kinds of structures, and is present in all its natural beauty! The green waters are clean too, some of the cleanest in Goa. The beach is beautiful; it is a crescent-shaped bay, with rocky promontories covered in green vegetation at both ends of the crescent. If you look toward land from the sea you will first observe a green belt of trees primarily composed of coconut palms, interspersed with residential and commercial structures alike. As your eyes travel further up toward the horizon, a range of mountains come into view, that provides an amazing backdrop to the beach. During the tourist season, a row of restaurants run in shacks or temporary wooden structures, and residential stand-alone wooden huts that are rented out to tourists, crop up along the beachfront. The owners of these business establishments also live alongside these temporary structures in more permanent buildings made of brick and mortar. The Northern end of the beach, however, had almost no manmade structures when we visited and one got the feeling of being completely surrounded by nature.

The waters at Palolem beach are calm and you won’t see huge waves breaking on the shore which is again probably due to its bay shape. The seabed too slopes away gently, due to which the waters remain shallow and wadeable even up to hundred meters into the sea.

When we visited the beach in December, we waded in at the Northern end (which happened to be the less populated part of the beach when we arrived) during low tide and I probably walked, at the insistence of my five-year-old, up to around 20 meters out from the shore. Yet the water only came up to my chest, the sea undulated calmly below me, and I still had the seabed below my feet. No big breakers! It was bliss; it had been years since I was tempted into taking a sea dip.  I was afraid to go any further, being a non-swimmer, but the swimmers and the more daring in our group did explore the waters further out. One can wade through shallow, ankle deep, waters to gain access to the island at the Northern end of the beach, during the low tide. However, high tides cover a major portion of the beach cutting off access to this island on foot.

For food and drink, we sought refuge at one of the shacks along the beach. The food and drink were both good. The food was primarily from the seafood menu and the prices did not burn a hole in our pockets! We also rented out one of the huts for the day to freshen up in after our sea dip with a freshwater shower. We had to bargain a bit, it being the tourist season, but we got the hut at an arguably reasonable price as well. It was a raised wooden structure on stilts, with a small veranda, a bedroom with a double bed and the bathroom. It was clean until we brought the sand in on our feet!

Other features:

If you plan to spend more than a day at Palolem (you need at least a day to soak in its waters and unwind!), possibly in one of the huts on the beach, there are a few other activities that you could also try out.

Trekking:

The island at the Northern end of the beach, or the raised promontory or hill, is known locally as ‘Monkey Island’. There is a sculpture at the highest point of the island which is known locally as the Monkey Stone. If you have more than a day to spend at Palolem beach then you could attempt a trek through the jungle to the top of the hill at low tide with the help of local guides.

Boating:

The local fishermen now offer boating trips that probably last about forty-five minutes to an hour that take you dolphin spotting and to the Butterfly and Honeymoon Beaches along small islands further North.

Silent Noise Disco:

Toward the southern end of the beach among the rocky outcropping is a Silent Noise Disco that you can check out if you are ‘in’ to discos. The peculiarity about this disco is that the dancers on the floor wear headphones and sway to the beat leaving the dance floor completely silent!

Travel Tip:

Get to Palolem beach a bit early in the morning (before 10 a.m. or earlier, if possible) if you are visiting during the tourist season and plan on using your own set of wheels to get there. Finding a parking spot becomes a hassle later on in the day as the beach gets more crowded.

So, that was Palolem Beach for you, a beach that is not as crowded as most Goa beaches. We spent a wonderful, unforgettable day there. Do check out the beach when you’re in Goa and you probably will too!