I travelled to central Europe for the 1st time in 2019 without professional help. 10/10 would do it again.

2019 was the year I set a personal record for travelling overseas three times within six months.

In June, I flew to central Europe for a holiday with my family, and four months later, went to Thailand for a company retreat.

And before Covid-19 dashed my travel plans for 2020, I made one last trip to Indonesia for a good friend's wedding in December.

Although all three trips were memorable in their own ways, the trip which stood out to me most was definitely the one to Central Europe in June.

Here's why.

The sights are to die for

From June 2 to 16, 2019, I visited Germany, Austria and Hungary with my mother and sister.

I guess it felt like a milestone “graduation trip” for me, since I never went on a proper one after completing my final semester in University.

Perhaps the most important reason why my trip to Europe was so amazing is because the sights there were phenomenal.

From age-old castles and cathedrals to lakes, mountains and everything in between, central Europe was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

And while it’s been slightly more than a year since the epic trip, I finally took the time to look back on our trip using this travel app called STRING.

Basically, STRING is a travel app that allows you to upload photos and locations of the countries and places you've been too, along with memorable captions and tags.

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, STRING is very much travel-themed, which means that the entire platform is full of like-minded travelers who are looking to share and revisit their own travel experiences.

Here, locals can also post about their home city so that other travellers may benefit from the content.

As the idea of STRING is to get travellers and locals to share experiences they feel really strongly about instead of just pretty pictures, the community feels more authentic.

This is great, because I felt empowered to post about travel memories that were important to me, rather than just photos that were ~aesthetic~ by conventional standards.

I also didn't have to worry about crowding my friends' feeds on Facebook or Instagram, or about uninterested folks who might be annoyed by my posts.

Planning was not easy, which made us appreciate our trip even more

In case you're wondering, the whole idea for our trip came about when my sister purchased a Geography colouring book sometime in 2018:

She was intrigued by certain locations on the map - namely Germany, Austria and Hungary - and pitched the idea of going there for a holiday to me.

After several discussions with our mother and a quick check on flight prices, we decided to take the plunge and booked flight tickets to Munich.

However, unlike previous family trips, planning for our Euro-trip was far more challenging.

As I had grown up vacationing strictly within the Asia-Australia travel zone, I had to start from ground zero when researching this brand new continent.

I knew zilch about the different landmarks in Budapest or how the train systems in Germany worked, and had to time-consumingly figure out travel routes by plotting addresses into Google Maps.

I was also in charge of researching entrance fees, the cost of food, and which Airbnbs were closest to the locations we had wanted to visit in each country, on top of adhering to a strict budget.

Compared to more popular European destinations like England, France or Italy, there was not much information I could glean about the three countries from online travel guides.

As a result, my mother and I had to make time to go to the library to borrow travel books.

We would then piece together these bits of information into our itinerary slowly, based on our individual preferences.

While the planning process was a great learning experience, I wish I had known about the STRING app earlier.

Apart from being a platform to store travel memories, STRING also has a variety of trip-planning features.

For example, the app's itinerary collaboration function allows several people to build and edit a collective itinerary, individually:

Unlike how my mother and I had spent time and physical effort to plan our itinerary, the app's “co-edit” function digitalises the process, while still allowing travel mates to bond through planning and anticipating their trip.

It also allows users to store photos and posts concurrently after the trip, so it looks like they are co-editing their travel memories.

Additionally, you can "follow" and browse through the content of other users, as well as "save" these posts for future travel consideration:

This in turn builds a community where travellers help each other out and share aspects of travel they feel strongly about.

In the same vein, you can also exchange travel itineraries with other users on the app, complete with photos, information and pinned locations on maps:

This means that you'll no longer have to plan your future trips on Google documents or Excel sheets, as this one app is sufficient to store all your content.

The “View Map” function, in particular, automatically maps all places in that itinerary on Google Maps for you.

The countries we visited were safe and easy to navigate, especially for Europe

If you've ever travelled before, you'll probably know just how exciting, yet simultaneously nerve-wracking it is to explore a brand new country, let alone a brand new continent.

As someone visiting Europe for the first time, there were some reservations I had about the safety of the countries my family and I were travelling to, as well as how "female-friendly" they were.

After all, travelling to Europe is a whole different ball game from travelling somewhere closer to home, such as Malaysia or even Thailand.

According to my research based on various online sources, Germany, Austria and Hungary are all countries that are less prone to pickpockets and scammers compared to other European destinations, especially in tourist hotspots.

They are also easily navigable, with relatively straightforward train systems (save for Germany) and female-friendly streets at night.

I got to spend my own money

The final thing I enjoyed about my trip to Europe was getting to spend my own money on food and shopping.

After 20-odd years of depending on my parents to fund my holiday expenses, this was a wholly refreshing (and liberating) experience.

It also meant that I got to (partially) fund this "graduation trip".

If you're curious, here are two of my favourite buys during my trip:

All these memories make me look forward to travelling again

After all is said and done, looking back at my Euro-trip makes me wonder where I should fly to next, once travel restrictions are lifted.

Reminiscing on these fond memories has also uplifted my spirits and inspired me to start planning for future trips.

If, like me, you'd like a platform to store your travel memories and craft your future travel plans, consider downloading the STRING Travel app.

Holidays can’t last forever, but your documented memories will.

This sponsored article by STRING Travel makes the writer want to travel to Europe right now.

Top image via Melanie Lim