Here are the few things that one needs to keep in my mind while planning to apply for the Schengen Visa. How to get a Schengen visa on Indian Passport without any travel agent's help

Of course, we all want to travel, and with Europe attracting a large number of tourists from India we are only more enthusiastic now! There has also been an increase in the number of tourists recently, and this has raised a lot of queries regarding the Schengen Visa among Indians, and how to apply for it. Quite simply put, it is a magical item for travellers.

Often, it’s considered as a hassle to apply for the visa, because requirements and formalities of an application process takes lots of efforts. Along with this, the fear of getting your visa rejected always lurks in mind.

This is the reason why travel agents and tours operators are minting money from travellers, and ignorance lands many in booking hefty package deals for Europe.

The countries issuing Schengen visas currently are Austria,Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Here are the few things that one needs to keep in my mind while planning to apply for the Schengen Visa.

- Plan your trip 3-4 months before with your itinerary; it is always feasible to select the cities you want to explore, which are nearby to each other, so that you can deduct the travel expenses and travelling time. The perfect idea would be to go for Eastern Europe or Western Europe in one go.

- The idea behind spending less on  airticket is to go through deep research before booking your flight tickets and browse through 4-5 booking sites to get the best price of the ticket, and booking for a week-day ticket might give you the best deal.

- Bookyour hotels in advance like your flights, and try to go for refundable options, in case your plans change to stay somewhere else, you can cancel the booking anytime and go for other options available at that moment. One can book 2-3 stars hotels if travelling with the family, and hostels if travelling with friends or in groups.

- Collect all your bank documents with the bank stamp on it, marriage certificate if you are married, 6 months bank statement, savings statement, and any other document through which you can showcase your net worth.

- Get your no objection certificate from your workplace, if you are working. That helps a lot, from not getting any rejections.

- Book your flight tickets or bus tickets in advance, as travelling by trains will be expensive. There are many low-cost buses and airlines operating between cities.

- Goto an insurance company and get the travel insurance, basic plan for the trip.

- Take the print out of all the bank documents, booking details of hotels, insurance and inter-city flights, or bus tickets you have booked for your trip.

- Self attest all the documents, and book an appointment for the VFS centre of the country, where you want to land first.

- Carry all your documents and submit at the VFS centre on your appointment day, and give your digital fingerprints at the centre and hope for the best.

Rest assured, you are in for a crazy Euro trip if you can get your Schengen visa sorted, and the idea is to pay as little as possible.