Wikivoyage:Travel forum Voyage Tips and guide

To get the ball rolling with this travel forum, here's a plan I have for next week for when term wraps up.

Something I've always wanted to do was this coach trip between Melbourne and Canberra, then onwards home to Sydney. The coach only runs twice a week, connecting with V/line's Gippsland Line service at Bairnsdale (V/line is the state-run train and coach operator for Victoria). However, rather annoyingly, the coach only gets into Canberra at 18:05, five minutes after the last coach from Canberra leaves to Sydney, meaning it would be impossible to do this coach route in a day.

The introduction of FlixBus to Australia does change this, however: their timetable is still up and coming, but there now a coach that leaves to Sydney at 18:30, allowing for a 25-minute transfer. They're currently doing introductory sale fares, so I was able to grab a ticket for just A$10.

If the A$10 sale fare wasn't enough, V/line – which is known for having some of the cheapest fares in the world for long-distance rail (it is capped at A$11/day statewide) – is offering a month of free travel on the Gippsland Line as an apology for years of disruption (including some level crossing removals, station upgrades and signalling improvements). As such, all I had to pay was the interstate coach fee (added A$25). This all brings up the cost to A$35, making it possibly one of the cheapest ways to travel on one of the world's busiest air corridors.

I'll keep this thread posted on how this goes and whether I would advise anyone to repeat this journey. //shb (t | c | m) 09:04, 17 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Sounds good mate. I'm so psyched for FlixBus in Straya. They helped me get around Europe cheaply and easily. Thanks for sharing. I had no idea about the capital link service! Never taken a V/Line coach before personally, though I ride their trains often. Sgroey (talk) 10:24, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I'm so glad they broke the near-monopoly Murrays had between Sydney and Canberra. I travel to Canberra not infrequently and it is significantly cheaper to drive ($35 in fuel + tolls) than it was to take Murrays ($45 on a student fare) or first-class NSW Trainlink ($40 on a student fare – economy is cheaper by $7 but I do not recommend economy on Trainlink at all). //shb (t | c | m) 10:49, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I’d be curious to hear about your experience! Before I’d consider doing something like this, I’d want to know things like:

·      How often does the coach stop?

·      How often do they switch out drivers?

·      Are there any opportunities to buy stuff or get fresh food? GuavaCone (talk) 12:24, 23 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

@GuavaCone: I'll give a proper update on Thursday night, but I do believe that the northbound coach comes with a 40-minute lunch break at Cann River. From what I've heard from someone who has done the southbound coach, on weekdays that comes with a short morning tea break at Bombala and then a lunch break at Orbost. Not so sure about the driver changes, though – I'll let you know about that on Thursday. //shb (t | c | m) 21:25, 23 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Sgroey, GuavaCone: some updates...after 15 hours of almost continuous travel. First being that the Monaro Highway is hella beautiful and that alone made it worth it. I actually don't feel all that tired, in stark contrast to 15 hours of travel on the Brisbane XPT that I did in September (on one singular train with no fresh air stops) – I suppose 2 transfers and plenty of fresh air stops helped.

Also, the coach is barely used (+8 in Bairnsdale, +2 in Lakes Entrance, -1 in Cann River, -1 in Cooma and -8 in Canberra) and the driver was really friendly – I explicitly told him about the Flixbus transfer and he took extra care to arrive in Canberra on time. There was a gnarly crash around w:Nowa Nowa, but we detoured into a small side gravel road, with the driver cutting 10 minutes from the meal break at Cann River (30 minutes was still more than enough time, however). Some traffic around Lakes Entrance too. I realise what I'm saying is super unstructured and all over the place, but I did just get back haha. :) //shb (t | c | m) 12:46, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Also for as for whether I'd recommend it – if you're going to Canberra (from Melbourne), absolutely (even if it takes 2 hours longer than the Wodonga route, it's far nicer). If you're going to Sydney, only if you're feeling a bit adventurous. //shb (t | c | m) 12:47, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Alright, sounds like an interesting experience! In planning trips to Australia, whether to fly or go on land is always the challenge. Going on land isn't necessarily cheaper overall, I'd think, because all the extra time can mean extra days and the lodging costs that come with that. And not everyone has that time available. But land has the better views, naturally. I like the idea of taking the Overland from Melbourne to Adelaide but don't know if I'll ever have the time to actually do it. I tend to think the train and coach are less for the people looking to do it on the cheap and more for the people who want the experience. GuavaCone (talk) 13:06, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I think if you go by land I'd recommend taking overnight transport whenever possible. That would include the overnight XPT train between Sydney and Melbourne as well as the overnight Firefly coach between Melbourne and Adelaide. That is definitely cheaper than flying (by a huge margin) whilst saving you time (wouldn't say that the direct routes between SYD–MEL or MEL–ADL are particularly interesting or scenic). //shb (t | c | m) 20:44, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Not likely for me because I don't sleep well in vehicles, I'd arrive in the destination with 2 hours of sleep if I'm lucky. I really like trains and the idea of being on a train for 6+ hours sounds very appealing, so that would be the idea behind taking the train. The first class on the Overland especially sounds really nice. But it's still the type of thing that I might decide to just fly instead. I've started to see how much a trip to Australia involves making big decisions, many of which are hard to make. GuavaCone (talk) 20:54, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

That's completely fair. As someone really into rail travel, I've just never really ever seriously thought about using the Overland (mainly price reasons but also the corridor goes through really boring uninteresting areas), though maybe I might try it once if the fares are a bit more reasonable haha. //shb (t | c | m) 21:04, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I plan travel to Tórshavn in Faroe Islands for a conference in late May 2026. I will have some flexibility to stay a few days afterwards to sightsee. I have a few questions for those who've been there:

1. How many days should I stay behind?
2. What are the recommended places to visit?
3. Is it easy to get around by public transit? Or is rental car necessary to get to most sights?
4. Is is better to find accommodation in Tórshavn for the entire stay or find accommodations closer to the sights?

OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 19:10, 18 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I noted that some people find travel partners and make their travel plan before travelling. Do you guys do this? If you answer yes, how do you find your potential travel partner? How do you plan your travel with your partner? If you answer no, how do you overcome disadvantages of travelling alone?

For finding partners: I am totally unfamiliar with finding travel partners - how to build trust between you two? How to ensure your partners are reliable? And how do you plan? They always say communication is key, but how?

For not finding partners: I think personal safety and moments of loneliness can be overcome by oneself, but I can't imagine how to overcome some issues such as costs and activities - hotels won't give you cheaper prices just because you travel alone, and some restaurants require at least two people to visit their restaurant (that is, they don't allow one person). I can't imagine how solo travellers overcome these. Saimmx (talk) 18:28, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Where have you found restaurants that refused to let you enter as a solo diner? I'm 60 years old, and I can't recall that ever happening to me. As a solo diner, I have often told the host I was happy to eat at the bar in restaurants that had bars, but my experience is that the only times I have been turned away are when they were completely full. I guess if there is a long line waiting to get in, it's possible a restaurant might turn away solo diners, but I think it's very unusual.

My travel partners have been people I knew before the great majority of the time, especially my girlfriend for the last 17 years, but I did meet 3 people by chance in a Hong Kong student travel agency during a trip I took right after I graduated from college, and we decided to take a boat to Shanghai together right after we met each other and then traveled to Hangzhou together before I decided to travel to Suzhou, Wuxi and Beijing by myself. I also spent a day traveling around Paris with a fellow hotel guest, but that was maybe more of a date.

I did lots of solo travel in Italy and France in between study programs when I was in my 20s, and I had a lot of fun. I also was a solo traveler in different American cities at various times in my life. As a solo traveler, you do everything you want, according to your own schedule, and you get to tell other people about it later. But you're not really alone, unless you're in the deep forest or something, where you probably shouldn't go alone for safety reasons. There are always other people to talk to and interesting experiences to be had if you're open to them.

Expense is a real issue. When I was a lot younger, I went to youth hostels and similar places. Some were great, some were awful, and I got annoying things like my umbrella and Swiss Army knife stolen at a couple of them (an otherwise great youth hostel on Hong Kong Island and a students' hotel in Beijing). Nowadays, I would normally get one of the cheaper decently-rated AirBnBs or something from a similar website or stay at an Accor (Quality Inn, etc.), Super 8 or America's Best Value hotel/motel if I couldn't find a reasonably priced independent hotel and wasn't able to stay with friends, but some cities are very expensive to stay in: for example, I live in New York and don't have to deal with the extreme accommodation prices here. But an advantage of solo travel is that you don't have to cater to the creature comfort of anyone else, so you can stay wherever you can tolerate. I feel like I really traveled too hard my first time abroad by myself (that first trip to China), and I do have a bit more need for creature comfort today, though I don't need anything beyond a reasonably clean room with an acceptable bed, shower and enough room to put my bags down, but location is also important, especially when you need to depend on public transportation.

I'm not sure what your life situation is, but for that trip to Hong Kong and China, I mentioned to my roommate that I wanted to take that trip, and he had a friend who also planned to fly to Hong Kong and hook up with her boyfriend, who was teaching English in China, so we arranged to fly out together, hung out somewhat in Hong Kong for 5 days, and then went our separate ways. We were originally supposed to fly back together after 2 1/2 months, I think, but I cut my trip short and flew back after 5 weeks. But anyway, if you're going to school somewhere, you can let people know where you're planning to travel and see whether anyone is interested. But if not, I'd say don't hesitate to go on your own unless it's to a really remote area where there are no people. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:06, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for your reply, I will carefully read later. But I will answer your question in quick, "Where have you found restaurants that refused to let you enter as a solo diner?"

My answer is many, although not everywhere. They should not do this, but still: "Solo-unfriendly Michelin restaurants in Taipei" (who refuse solo diner), a netizen complained a hot pot restaurant charges additional fee for solo diner (while other restaurants refuse), a restaurant in Korea expelled a solo traveller who wanted to enjoy meal. An blog article even explains why they did this.

I don't know if no offer reservations for one in New York is the case. Saimmx (talk) 02:58, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

OK, that sucks, but still, I really doubt you'll have trouble finding places to eat well. I never did as a solo diner in New York, D.C., Chicago, San Diego, etc., or Paris, Nice, Siena, Florence, Naples, Rome, Budapest, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Bharu, Ipoh... Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:09, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I think it helped that I seldom went anyplace where I needed reservations as a solo diner. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:32, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi there, my answer is hostels. Stay in hostels and you will meet heaps of people! Discuss travel plans, share experiences, and you will very likely find someone to travel with! I don't know anything about you or your situation, so staying in hostels is not perfect for everyone, but it worked for me! Read reviews and choose a hostel with a communal feeling. It doesn't have to be a "party hostel" which is just code for a hostel with a nightclub which means it is loud and you will have a hard time sleeping! Sgroey (talk) 21:59, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I don't know how applicable this is to most people (not that I've looked much into it – I'm ace so have very little actual desire for one, not that I find solo travel to be boring either :)), but I have a close friend who met his travel partner through a Contiki tour. They went on for a few trips together before other things started to happen (and he no longer does regular backpacker travel anymore). //shb (t | c | m) 07:11, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Firstly, I felt sorry for your Contiki friend. Maybe there were something hard to them.

Second, solo travel may not an issue in loneliness/boring context for you, but I wonder how you deal with enonomic issues - like I said, hotels won't give you cheaper prices just because you travel alone. Some plans are cheaper when travellers share. It isn't about personal preference, but about money. Saimmx (talk) 07:39, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Oh don't worry too much about my Contiki friend: it's more so he decided to leave full-time backpacking and do an undergrad degree here – that's how we became friends. :)

As for money, most of the time I end up just copping the losses. It's definitely not ideal for sure, especially since almost every hotel/motel will have double or queen beds as a starter. //shb (t | c | m) 07:59, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Swept in from the pub

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250926-the-perils-of-letting-ai-plan-your-next-trip

Roundup/discussion at /.: https://slashdot.org/story/25/10/06/0434206/what-happens-when-ai-directs-tourists-to-places-that-dont-exist —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:06, 6 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Somewhat off-topic, but I asked a chatbot to divide West Bengal into regions for tourism, and I found the following result:

• North Bengal (Himalayas and Terai): Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong
• North-Central Bengal (Rarh-Varendra transition): Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur
• South-Western Bengal (Rarh region): Birbhum, Bankura, Jhargram, Paschim Bardhaman, Paschim Medinipur, Purulia
• South-Central Bengal (Ganges Delta): Nadia, Hooghly, Howrah, North 24 Parganas, Purba Bardhaman
• Greater Kolkata: Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas
• Southern Bengal (coastal region): Purba Medinipur, South 24 Parganas

There are multiple issues with this approach:

• Although "Bengal" is often used as a shorthand of West Bengal here in India, the name is usually understood to mean a large plain region covering West Bengal, Bangladesh and others. However, it's not a big deal unless you talk about "East Bengal" or "Southeast Bengal".
• There are overlaps in South-Cental Bengal and Greater Kolkata regions.
• The two coastal districts Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas are not connected to each other directly on road or rail, instead relying on Kolkata and Howrah. So covering the two as separate regions makes more sense, and we have enough cities for this.

That's why I have decided to split the state into the following regions and subregions:

• North Bengal [has an article]
  • Darjeeling (district)
  • Kalimpong (district)
  • Dooars (bottom-level region): Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri
  • Northern Plains (bottom-level region): Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur
• South Bengal [no article, will create one]
  • Hooghly
  • Howrah (district)
  • Kolkata
  • Murshidabad (district)
  • Nadia
  • North 24 Parganas
  • South 24 Parganas
• Southwest Bengal [has an article]
  • Jhargram (district)
  • Paschim Medinipur
  • Purba Medinipur
• Rarh [has an article]
  • Bankura (district)
  • Birbhum
  • Paschim Bardhaman
  • Purba Bardhaman
  • Purulia (district)

Sbb1413 (he) (talk • contribs) 05:56, 6 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

There's also a case that some tourist who blindly trust ChatGPT when travelling and have to get 'bitter ending'. I saw an article about this [1] in a Vietnamese newspaper some days ago. Nvdtn19 (talk) 07:09, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

I just read that article and honestly...wow, just wow – people put that much trust in AI? (I can believe that...it's just, my mind cannot comprehending spending that much money all dependent on AI). //shb (t | c | m) 07:28, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Just doing some back of the envelope math based on how old you must be with your account age: yes. A friend of mine is a college professor who is also in her early 40s (as I am) and she routinely has students who turn in classwork entirely done by an LLM. No attempt to even try to comprehend the homework, just feed into a chatbot whatever the homework is and turn it in without even looking at it. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 13:31, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

I suspect that experience breeds trust. It gave me the right answer before, so... WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:30, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Would very much be this for sure. //shb (t | c | m) 21:23, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Actually crazy haha – do some colleges in the US not have AI checkers enabled on Turnitin? At my uni here you'd never be able to get away with submitting anything via AI, it'll either get picked up (quite accurately) or the responses outputted are so terrible for the topic that what AI outputs is so unusable that you're bound to fail anyway. Maybe it's just me who's been very cynical of trusting AI from day 1, but that's still mindboggling to me. //shb (t | c | m) 21:23, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Yes, I'll say that my line of work directly involves this, so if you're curious I can give you the full rundown.

To briefly sum it up, do American uni students submit AI written assignments? All the time, but they often get caught by both TurnItIn and professors who notice the poor writing quality of the assignments. --Comment by Selfie City (talk) (contributions) 21:50, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

The AI checkers have far too many false positives and false negatives. It's trivial to find stories like "I put the Declaration of Independence in an AI checker and it's 98% sure that an LLM wrote it!" stuff. Plus, virtually by definition, you'll never know how many false negatives slip by. So I do know that educators routinely use them, but they are very hit-or-miss, likely because they are themselves based on AI models that fundamentally cannot be entirely accurate. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 22:42, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Interesting – I did have a friend who had their assignment recently falsely flagged as being 30% AI-generated, but all he had to do was present his Google Docs history to the course convenor and that was it. Maybe it's just my uni that does get overly concerned with prestige a lot (and I mean, a lot – it's a Go8 uni for the record), and it's not in upper management's best interests to have their degrees be meaningless if the system is easy to cheat, but still very interesting to know about. //shb (t | c | m) 22:57, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

To the extent that you're motivated to learn about this and have an iron stomach, you can read a lot about the literacy crisis in American education and how there are some really shocking anecdotes and data about secondary school students graduating with little to no ability to read and write. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 23:17, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Oh I'm definitely aware – but I never expected it to topple over into college. //shb (t | c | m) 23:20, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

I've moved this from the Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub for the lack of a better place this could be swept to. //shb (t | c | m) 10:58, 24 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I used ChatGPT for travel itineraries in Osaka and Tokyo for summer 2023. Both gave decent recommendations that were logical, but it failed to factor transit time from one attraction to the next. I guess it expects me to teleport from one place to the other. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 21:16, 24 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Doc James:

Most of it would be obvious, but what general advice is applicable to specifc major conditions that don't have their own article?

(We already mention Mental Health, and High Blood Pressure in their own articles).

Some issues not coved in Travellers_with_disabilities, for example:

• Access keys - Many Disabled toilets in the UK for example, need a specfic access key RADAR(?), which has to be obtained in advance. This isn't discrimination, it's supposedly to prevent misuse of disabled facilities.

• Ability to dispose of 'contaminated' waste. (Travellers_with_disabilities doesn't cover this. I am thinking in terms of sanitary pad and adult diaper disposal mostly, as these can't be "flushed". And in my experience even some non-disabled facilities have provided per cubicle waste bins for contaminated 'toilet tissue'. ( This is again apparently to prevent misuse or overload of the plumbing!.. )

However, some medical conditions or disabiities involve the use of injected medication, (and thus the disposal of 'sharps' would be a concern.)..

ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 11:42, 25 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Mental illnesses can also be an issue. Living in China I was twice one of the people trying to deal with a situation where someone with a known condition -- one paranoid schizophrenic & one bipolar -- who had been treated & stable back home took a job abroad & fell apart under the new stresses. In one case, part of the problem was that the Chinese doctors insisted on replacing the lithium treatment she'd been on for decades with some more modern drug. For all I know they were right, but she did not make it through the transition. Pashley (talk) 12:33, 25 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Over here, you are advised to go to a pharmacy with most medical waste, including needles and leftover medicines. If there is one reasonably close (which will be the case in any city where you aren't in a hurry), you just have to have some method of packing them securely (a hard plastic bottle for the needles). Keep the needles separate from other waste; also mercury, iodine and some medicines (e.g. cytostatica) should be packed separately, the latter in original packaging. LPfi (talk) 12:47, 25 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Some medications are not allowed in certain countries such as the UAE, regardless of if you have been prescribed them back home. Some medications require temperature controls which can be hard to manage in certain locations. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 23:35, 25 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

The former, I think, is quite well covered in Medicine and mentioned in several other articles, but the latter is not. Thanks for reminding on it. There might be a mention in Hot weather and Cold weather, but of course it should be handled in Medicine. Do you have any good advice, for people who won't have access to a refrigerator or other means for controlling temperature? How sensitive are medicines that should be kept in "room temperature" for around freezing or above 25 °C (77 °F)? That varies, of course, but are there any rules of thumb? –LPfi (talk) 14:49, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi, I'm planning a trip to Singapore in early February next year. As an avid travel photographer, I've heard of some photography taboos about Singapore, like no photography in bus interchanges (or else you will be arrested for being a suspected terrorist). How true are these claims, and are there any existing rules?

And also, I have a collection of emergency vehicles on Commons, and I'd certainly like to take some photos from Singapore as souvenir. Is it against Singaporean law to photograph police vehicles?

Hopefully these questions aren't that obvious. Any advice will be appreciated, thanks!廣九直通車 (talk) 12:54, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

@The dog2: as a Singaporean user.廣九直通車 (talk) 12:55, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

None of that is true. You can't take photos in military bases, but a bus interchange is not a military base so it's not a problem. If the police come and question you, you can just be honest with them and they'll let you go if there's no other reason for them to suspect that you're up to no good. And you certain can take photos of police cars in Singapore as long as you're not obstructing them. One place where you're not allowed to take photos or videos though is at immigration and customs when you're entering and leaving the country, and you can be arrested for that. The dog2 (talk) 14:32, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

I assume also photography of a vehicle at a scene of a mission might not be liked, for the privacy of parties involved. I don't know whether the emergency staff (police) themselves would be worried about their integrity in Singapore. –LPfi (talk) 14:54, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

If there's privacy concerns then they may stop you from taking pictures. But otherwise, nobody is going to arrest you for taking a photograph of a police car parked by the roadside. The dog2 (talk) 23:13, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

It's nice to hear about that. Perhaps I was too paranoid, as I get harassed last time when I was travelling (not Singapore). Anyways, I think if in doubt, asking officers beforehand will solve much problems. Thanks for answering this question.廣九直通車 (talk) 10:48, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Oh, don't worry. It's extremely unlikely that you'll encounter police corruption in Singapore, and the police are generally very professional in their interactions with the public. If you're not taking drugs, participating in a protest (because that's illegal for foreigners) or doing something obviously illegal, they're not going to cause you trouble. The dog2 (talk) 11:34, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thanks a lot!廣九直通車 (talk) 13:02, 3 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

Swept in from the pub

https://jeremymaluf.com/onebag/ —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 04:40, 7 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Moved this from the travellers pub here. //shb (t | c | m) 23:54, 1 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

I'm finding various conflicting information regarding this, but to my knowledge, you can use contactless payment on the MRT and ARL (Airport Line), but you need a Rabbit card to use the BTX. However, can you use a Rabbit card on the MRT or ARL, or are payments considered completely separate? //shb (t | c | m) 03:30, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

I will be visiting Lebanon for the first time. What are the highlights of northern lebanon where I have distant cousins? ~2025-39540-54 (talk) 07:30, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply