The Writing Gypsy Launching

** BREAKING NEWS **

The gypsy over Pens n' Paper is now writing under a new name!

Same blogger.

Brand new blog.

I like to correct the notion, which might have developed during my (another) months-long of cyber silence, that (1) this blog is already defunct. But no, siree; (2) I intend to add to the 90% of blogs existing in cyber space that suck.

About 8 in every 10 people turn to google for quick and easy, no nonsense tips and information on how to make their online quests enjoyable and less daunting. They click on links of websites which google crawlers deem reliable only to find the impression halfway through their reading that they have landed at the wrong page. Here's hoping this blog is not one of those wrong pages.

As clear proof to my adherence to better blogging, I have decided to trim this blog down to two main topics which I think I have more to share about--no breaks in the action as compared to--throw back 2013 down 2010, Pens n' Paper era--when all you get here are pretty much a hodgepodge of everything. It's high time I end the confusion.

You'll find regular posts on Travel and Style this time. I'll be nursing more on topics relating to these two: places worth adding to your bucketlist, what (and what not) to bring to a travel, the trends from the latest fashion shows that deserve more to make a scene in fashion street, places to go and where else to score good flea market finds--practically insider tips and cost-saving ideas that may (or may not, but I'm betting more on may) help combat your travel and style battles in one.

10 Places to Go... and 10 Ways to Rock... have already been taken care by the rest of blogsphere, you might say. Who cares what I have on my plate?

Every worshiper of travel and style has needs or questions unique to her. I know the times for when you'd like to seek second, even third opinion on something. But not that the first opinion didn't matter. These my dear e-friends are just some of the reasons why cyber can still provide space for me in this industry. The other reasons I'd opt to let you see as you come along with me on this ride. Shall I see you read me here more often, then?

Also, you'll find add-on features here which you've never seen on Pens n' Paper before--a post featuring You for one. The rest is surprise.

P.S. Bear with me as I haven't yet gathered the funds to dotcomize this blog and finally detach from blogspot. Please know that I've been working doubly hard to make things more professional here. I'm more than willing to share my deets to those who'd gladly sponsor.

Make sure you connect with TWG's other social media platforms and, maybe, we can be friends there too. FOLLOW TWG on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram @thewritinggypsy. Will keep you posted as to where else to find me around cyber town. 

THANK  YOU  AND  SEE  YOU  HERE  OFTEN!

Best,
Syril

Custom Trips from the World's Largest Collection of Handmade Travel Ideas

Traveling is such a liberating pursuit. You get to see the places firsthand and the experience, of course, is far better and unique than simply being told by a guidebook.

The trend of travel today reached even more people desiring to get to their dream destinations. But searching for the must-sees and must-dos for a trip, in prints and various websites, is only doing half the job. The challenge comes more from how to put together the searches into one doable travel plan.

Travelers wanting to come up with a feasible travel plan look at an average of 20 different sites between 1-3 months. Surprisingly, some of these sites do not offer you with all the adequate and comprehensive information that you need.

Given a busy work-life schedule, opening and reading these websites and articles into several tabs is quite hectic and impractical. Another question is, while all these information is essentially still available online, all distributed throughout the space, the feeling of an authentic trip is missing.  Think about your favorite traveler and going on the same trip he or she took- adding and subtracting your own needs and priorities. That's when mygola becomes largely useful.

How mygola solves the pain of travel planning

Mygola helps you create completely custom trips on the world's largest collection of beautiful curated itineraries. You can create the first cut of your trip plan in minutes. There is no need to go into different (and otherwise useless) sites because it will do the hard work for you.

Mygola has taken on the challenge to dramatically simplify your travel planning experience by connecting the dots for you. Simply sign up with your email or log in using your facebook or twitter account and you are taken into a simple and meaningful start page.

The first page you see after logging in. Lets you make some quick choices on how to go about exploring the site.

Once in, you can type in the destination you want to create a travel plan for and all relevant information will show up in carefully selected articles from reliable websites, with photo thumbnails to go with them. 

You can specify your search according to theme (Party, Shopping, Adventure, Food & Wine, etc), number of days, and particular places, which you can see in the filters at the top. Once you have told mygola your first level preferences and destinations and hit search, you are presented with meaning results- real trips taken by real travelers- all custom to your needs.

The default search result page. You can apply a number of helpful filters on top arrive at the search results.

By clicking at the photo thumbnails of the specific place shown up in the search result, you will find a more specific itinerary.

The overview section of any itinerary. The text block at the bottom is the introduction to the itinerary. There is a navigation list on the right which shows the number of days and the destinations within those days, and the experience within the day.

You can click the destinations from the navigation list in the right to let you decide whether to include that place as one of your interests; if you'd definitely like to visit them or are they more of a maybe. Or skip them altogether.

The most granular view. This shows the individual points of interest and experiences.  Below are meta-date like address,  telephone, websites, foursquare pages, etc. , and the description of the POI. On the right, there are "definitely" and "maybe" buttons you use to add a POI to your list favorites.

The view of the planner. The cards can be dragged to occupy more of the time, can be moved between days and different times of the day. Vacant positions can be filled by recommendations.

Why you should use mygola

While mygola allows you to pick your interests in specific destinations and have it laid out in an organized daily travel plan, the entire browsing is designed beautifully that feels much like a magazine. 

It enables you to create a custom plan travel while taking care of distances, business hours, and a number of other constraints to ensure that the final itinerary is very feasible.

The website involved the points of view of real travelers and travel experts around the world to gather all information about things that poses extensive problems, particularly on the travel planning stage, and finally came up with a service to fix these. 

It started a travel Q&A 3 years back, which saw much success. In the process, it helped million travelers (including myself) plan their trip to 100+ countries. This experience prompted the mygola team to build this new travel planning service.

Take for example this Day 1 travel plan of my trip to Hong Kong last January which I organized using mygola. 

It lets you see where exactly in the map your destination is found, how many kilometer it will take, and by clicking the place- all the pertinent information you need to know.

One reason for using mygola that worked to my advantage was that I only needed to supply the keywords and all necessary information,options and recommendations were given at hand. Now, those keywords are readily provided by simply clicking on the specific theme and filters. Plus there are travel tips written that you would have not read or found in other websites.

All content offered in the service is curated by real persons, a massive community of travel experts throwing high quality content for other travelers.

Mygola is for all do-it-yourself travelers wanting to get an efficient travel plan by providing an intuitive toolkit. It gives you the best searches there are in the travel world and puts in the necessary information so that you get the perfect balance.

Photo Credits:
mygola team @ mygola (dot) com