About ExploreMoreinLess
Hi, I’m Arka De. A software engineer by profession and a traveller by passion. With 8-9 working hours a day and very limited vacation days, in my early days, I struggled a lot planning for a perfect vacation with low budget and time.
Are you in the same boat with me? Do you very often ask yourself:
- How do I reduce expense for travel without missing the top attractions?
- How do I plan my itinerary?
- How do I minimize overall cost?
- How do I maximize my time?
Fellow Travellers! You have come to the right place. The purpose of this website is to help people across the globe having dream vacations in mind but at the same time are very tight in budget and number of vacation days. With every blog I write about a destination, I always provide a one-page infographic which you can download and save in your smartphone as an image and can refer anytime offline to get a complete visual itinerary. Worried about cost? Read my blog and you hardly find any cheaper alternative.
I strongly believe that you can live the life of your dream without having to leave your job, education, or sacrificing your family.
Born and brought up in India and setting foot abroad on late 2015 for the first time, I have traveled over 15 countries. From meeting the original Santa Claus to relaxing in an overwater hotel or spending a night in the Arctic chasing for Northern lights or photographing the picture postcard angle (As the Google says it), I want to show you that even if you are not earning in one of the strongest currencies and if you are from a non English speaking country, if you can plan properly, you can explore a lot more in less time and money.
Married for almost 4years, my recent travels are with my wife and some with our parents as well. In all of our trips, we rely on public transport or group tour and always managed to find private room/apartment in budget (Think Tromso, how about 32$ a night? That too reachable in a 15 minutes bus ride from the City).
Sounds like a dream? How about missing the last bus in a Snowy evening so that you had to walk 5km in complete darkness or you are surrounded all around by street dogs at midnight with your packed dinner in hand with no more cafes open for the night? Like every rose has its thorn, #exploremoreinless also comes with challenges and constraints. Be confident, believe in your presence of mind, you can keep ticking off your bucket list.
Dream big and fix your focus. If we could do it, so can you!
More About Our Story
Growing up in a metro city of India, with schools and universities very nearby, I never spent a single day outside my home (except when I was on a tour with my parents) till the age of 22. Then I got into corporate and got posted in a city 2400 km away from my hometown, in a land where the weather is different, food and culture are little new, signboards around the streets are written in a different script and people outside the office don’t speak my language.
Although I only spent there 3 months before coming back to my hometown, I made many friends there. I met with people from different culture, tried learning new language and miserably failed. But most importantly, I caught the travel bug. With friends, I spent whole weekends roaming popular as well as off-beaten paths and returned home only to sleep for the night.
From that moment, I got attached to travelling completely.
The following year, I got a long term deputation opportunity at Singapore. Within a month, I traveled so many places that my colleagues who were there for more than 2 years didn’t even know some names.
It was then I realized that many people aim for a dream vacation plan, even save money for it but do not spend enough time planning for it. As a result they miss out lots of things which could have been easily accommodated.
Around a year later, I invited my parents to Singapore for 28 days. We not only covered Singapore (only after office hour or in weekends including some off beaten places like Chinese Garden, St. Johns and Kusu island) but also managed a 4 day trip (Where I took only 2 working days off) to Bali, Indonesia. While I don’t claim the trip to Bali was very exhaustive but at least it gave them a taste of Indonesia with lots of photo spots and memory of a lifetime and for me? There’s always a second chance.
After some months, I got married with Annapurna and took her to Singapore again for same 28 days. Luckily, it was Christmas season then so number of vacation days were more. This time, apart from Singapore, we traveled to Bintan, Indonesia and Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was then we learnt that you don’t have to spend a fortune to stay on a over-water cottage and experienced complete darkness while riding a Tuk Tuk to watch sunrise over the mysterious Angkor Wat.
And we traveled. We’ve been to one of the most amazing underrated beach, met Santa Claus in his hometown, ride Husky over Arctic circle, walked over frozen lake, spent back to back nights in airport, spotted tigers within 10 feet in an open jeep safari, ate Black forest cake in the Black forest and walked more than 5 KM in total darkness without any street light in an Alpine country in the snowy month of January.
Along with travelling, I am also a hobbyist photographer. Till 2018, I only travelled with a point and shoot (Sony Cybershot DSC HX200V) and found it super handy for travel photography before I got a bargain on Sony RX100 miii which became my second point and shoot. While I absolutely love that one and still carry it almost everywhere, in 2019 I bought my first DSLR (used Nikon D5300 with kit lens) and a 50mm Prime lens (which I do not recommend as a travel lens on a crop sensor DSLR body). In my travel blogs, I am also going to recommend some tips on camera settings and maintenance. Obviously, if you can afford then having a better glass and a rugged body always helps.
Although we have covered only two continents partially, we have researched all seven continents for our future travel and we totally disagree that ‘You cannot combine travel with a full time job’
When we share our travel stories, we very often get questions about planning itinerary, best time to visit, things to pack, accommodation recommendation and most importantly, the cost. Over past few years, while we gladly answered these questions, it made us realise that it’s time to put our experience in writing and share to the world. So here we are, in a mission to help people across the world for their next dream vacation with better planned and ready to use itinerary optimising vacation days and hard earned money.
How you can Get Benefited?
We are here to prove you that it only takes a little courage and a lots of planning to travel anywhere around the world in pretty limited time and budget, that too with your family. And the best part? We already did the time-consuming planning and are providing you a one page printable itinerary ready to be viewed offline in your smartphone too.
No, you don’t have to ask for a very long leave. After reading our stories, you can manage a perfect vacation with anywhere between 2 to 5 working days off. When you are stressed with your work pressure or study, these compact travel guides would definitely help you bringing peace of mind and broadening your horizon at the same time. Sacrificing family life? We don’t believe in that.
Exploremoreinless travel blog is not only about travelers with limited budget and time. If you happen to manage extra vacation days or looking for a luxury accommodation, we have some tips for you on how you can utilize your resource effectively.
Want to Join us?
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