Hey there! This blog post will be a brief guide and some tips on travelling during your time in UC Berkeley. We ventured out almost every weekend to make the most of our time here. Hopefully this blog post can help you get started on some basic planning for your trips too.
Travelling tips
Plan early! Accommodation for many places are sold out during the summer, even Airbnb can get quite expensive the longer you wait. Car rentals might also be unavailable if you try to book it only a few days in advance.
For accommodations, we mostly used Airbnb as it was the most affordable option, however, the place might be further away from the attractions you want to visit. To be safe, you might want to have a second driver if you think the driving gets tiring.
For car rentals, we used Hertz/ Enterprise/ Turo and got the basic insurance for the car. There are probably other options cheaper than these (our seniors mentioned ‘rent-a-relic’), but our plans were rather last minute, so we stuck to what was convenient.
Other points to note:
- The driver’s seat is on the left side compared to right side in Singapore, it helps to drive a few rounds to get used to driving here.
- Singapore driving license works fine, so there’s no need to apply for an international license.
- Download maps on your desired locations before you leave.
- Get each other’s US phone numbers if travelling in more than 1 car, mobile data signal is erratic away from the city.
- Sunglasses helps for drivers as the sun can get very bright.
- Plan your pit stops, for toilet breaks, lunch, cheaper gas etc.
Renting a car
For Berkeley students, there are discount codes available to waive the under-25 young driver’s additional insurance cost. Just go to their online website and enter the below codes at the first page.
Got to know these from a friend, and these codes might be outdated once you are seeing this.
Hertz: 71864
Enterprise: ucbgen
Hope this helps you in your travels and have fun!
Cheers,
Group 3
