Planning: Making the Arrangements
Now that we had a good idea of what we were doing, it was time to start making firm commitments. The first big step was to get airplane tickets. Sorting out air fares is one of the most mind numbing experience I have ever gone through. Prices can vary by thousands of dollars from day to day or from flight to flight. Paying full fare is ridiculously expensive so I shopped for discounted fares, which are generally sold by consolidators. Starting in January, I e-mailed and phoned as many consolidators as I could. Of course each had different flights and prices. Whle flying open jaws is not necessicerly more expensive, it did limited our options since very few airlines fly out of our home airport, London and Glasgow.
Ultimately, we found the best deal was not though a consolidator, but directly from Northwest Airlines, which was offering a special fare of $488 for our flight (plus about $90 in taxes). Unfortunately, Northwest has a reputation for being one of the worst airlines, but given our situation, we didn't seem to have many choices. I also called ahead to get seating assignments as soon as they were available. Even with all the planning we had done, it wasn't until I had a thousand dollars worth of non-refundable airline tickets that I felt like the trip was really going to happen.
I then looked into other transportation reservations. It is well known that car rentals must be arranged in advance. After making a few calls, I soon realized that car rental rates were almost as complicated are air fares. In order to sort things out, we had to decide in advance every detail of the rental so we could get comparable price quotes. The details that affected the cost included size of car (we chose intermediate), type of transmission (we chose automatic), place and date of pick-up and drop-off (York to Glasgow, 9 days), the number of drivers (we decided that I would do all the driving), insurance options (our Visa card covered the CDW insurance), and discounts (we saved and extra 10% with the AAA discount).
With all this information it was quite easy to call a dozen toll-free numbers to get quotes. We went with Hertz, which not only had the lowest rate, but also was conveniently located in the York train station. I also saved money by buying the tickets for the train from London to York in advance. Fortunately, Virgin Trains has just opened a web site that lets you determine which trains have the most heavily discounted tickets I ordered the tickets by phone and had them held at the station for us. The short rail trips we were taking (Gatwick to London and London to Windsor) didn't require advance ticket sales.
I used the Internet to arrange lodging. Since we were using B&B's in May, advance reservations were probably not necessary. Many people like the freedom to come and go as you please and thus don't make advance reservations. However, I decided to book most of our lodgings in advance using B&B Web sites and e-mail. I liked being able to see photos of the places we were staying and corresponding with the hosts. I didn't feel as if I was picking places randomly from a book of listings with limited information. I also was able to get some first hand recommendations from the European travel newsgroup. Finally, by picking places with e-mail capability, we had a way of communicating with the folks at home, and since we had a set itinerary, they would be able to contact us in an emergency. In the end, all but two night's lodgings were booked in advance.
We also decided to purchase British Heritage Passes prior to leaving. These passes give you free admission to hundreds of historic attractions all over Great Britain. Even though they are expensive ($70 per person for the two week pass), we determined from the list of places we were planning to see that it would be cost effective. In the end we used our passes to for nearly $100 in admission fees. Other prior arrangements included reservations for a tour at Westminster Abbey for the day we arrived and purchasing tickets for the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
As for other financial matters, the general consensus of the participants
on the European travel newsgroup is that you should rely on ATM machines
to get local currency cash and use credit cards as much as possible.
I also carried some travelers checks and US currency for emergencies.
There is also some concern about pickpockets when traveling in Europe.
On the newsgroup, some people advocate using a money belt to store all
valuables, while others report working and traveling in Europe routinely
without fear of attack or theft. We compromised and used a money
belt to store some valuables, but I still used a wallet in my pocket for
things I used routinely (credit cards and cash). I'm glad to report
that we had no problems.
|
|
|
|