Plan a European Holiday in 5 Easy Steps

........with steps within steps, of course!!

The Incredible Living Root Bridges of Meghalaya

.......truly incredible!

A Trip to The Taj Mahal

.......a truly timeless memorial to love!

Madurai - The City of Temples

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Hassle-free Bookings to Stay Within Budget

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Once your itinerary is ready, it is time to tackle the next task - booking your place of stay.

Booking the rooms can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. You will find a decent room as long as you book it well in advance. On the other hand, you can spend a great deal of time on the quest for an ideal stay. How much effort you want to put in and how particular you are about the rooms would decide your strategy.

But irrespective of your plans, you should book early. I started booking the rooms over 5 months in advance. In spite of that, I felt that I could have got a better deal if I had started earlier.


Deploy Your Safety Net

Why? Though booking the rooms well in advance is preferable, any change of plans, or finding a better place to stay, would lead to losing money as room cancellation fees. On the other hand, all the good stays may be gone by the time your plans are confirmed. So it is important that you start booking your rooms early, but without the risk or liability. This "safety net" gives you the assurance that decent and reasonably priced rooms are booked for the entire duration of the holiday.

How? To setup your safety net, go to booking.com. Specify the place and dates and go through the search results; look for listings which say "Free Cancellation, Pay Later". Find the ones which meet your requirement, don't seem too expensive - and just book it without a second thought. As it implies, you don't have to pay anything now, or on cancellation. You do, however, need to give your credit card details. But it is perfectly safe. I have made over 30 bookings and cancellations, and have never had a problem. My credit card was charged only once, for Rs 1, for checking its validity and the same was duly returned. If you do not find anything suitable on booking.com, you can also try hotels.com. The tags to lookout for are "Free Cancellation" and "Pay Now or at Hotel". I have booked and canceled a few rooms on this site too without any problems.



What Next?

Once you have done all the bookings, you have your safety net in place. You are free to proceed to other planning tasks (or work, if the boss insists). The total expenditure on stay may presently be on the higher side. But you can now search for better deals and get the costs down without any stress. Every time your itinerary changes - which may happen many times, over the next few months - just change your bookings too.

Booking.com The Booking.com website offers great filters for you to narrow down your search to whatever you want. You can filter the search results by price, rating, location and even facilities provided. So if you have to soak in a hot tub at the end of the day, you can search for just that.



Airbnb.com This website is a great place to book apartments, homestays and B&Bs. It lists lovely houses and rooms for extremely reasonable prices. However, you have to pay while booking and there is a fee for every cancellation. So only book a place which you really like. Once you have booked here, you need not waste your time searching for any other deals.



Further Search Options

However, if you do not find what you want in Booking and Airbnb, here are a few other resources which you may explore :-

Wimdu.com - Apartments on hire.
Roomorama.com - Short term vacation rentals.
Homestay.com - Stay with a local in his house.
VRBO.com - Homestays.
Homeaway.com - Homestays again.
Venere.com - Book Hotels, B&Bs and apartments.
Trivago.com - Hotel rooms.
Expedia.com - More Hotel rooms.
Orbitz.com - Even more Hotel rooms.
Kayak.com - An aggregator of other search engines.
Travelocity.com ........ And many many more.

Google Hotels    And then there is Google Hotels. How could they not be involved any search? The site combines the best results from other websites like expedia, hotels, booking, etc. I did not use it as I was not aware of it then. You can give it a try and let me know how it is.

Couchsurfing     And then there are the budget backpacker fads like 'Couchsurfing'. It refers to enjoying the hospitality of a friendly host. You can find free accomodation ranging from a simple couch in the living room to a spare bedroom. Definitely not an option for a family, but interesting nevertheless.


Google Maps and Streetview

During the booking process, google can be invaluable in many ways. You can find the closest supermarket, fast food joint, bus stand, metro station, etc, on Google Maps. You can also check out the neighbourhood using Google Streetview - Just find your hotel on google maps; Look for the 'little yellow man' on the bottom right corner; Pick him up by clicking; and drag and drop him on your hotel location. This should open the Google Streetview  from that position on the map. It gives you a useful view of the neighbourhood. In fact, if you are a compulsive planner, or scared of getting lost, you can 'virtually' walk from the nearest station to your apartment.






Final Thoughts

Here are a few final thoughts on choosing your place of stay.

  • It is worth staying in the city centre. If it is too costly, stay close to it. Walking around the old city at night, without worrying about how to get back to the room is worth the extra cost.

  • In Venice, you must stay on the island. The early morning and late nights are the best time to wander around the city.
  • Check that you are not staying in the seedy neighborhoods or red light district of the city.
  • Check that public transportation will be available nearby. 700-800 metres may not seem like much when sitting in front of the PC, but it can be a pain when dragging your luggage or when walking back after a long tiring day.
  • If they do not serve breakfast, check with them if there is a budget eatery nearby.
  • It is good to have a supermarket nearby for buying food and supplies.
  • Check what amenities are provided free of charge, and what you have to pay for. 
  • Though most places provide free wifi, toileteries, towels, ironing board, coffee maker, etc, confirm that it is not a chargeable extra.


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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

How to Fly to Europe on a Budget

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Once you have decided the rough itinerary, you can go ahead and buy the air tickets.

The air tickets will be the single largest expenditure of your trip, costing nearly a quarter of your total budget. You can thus save a substantial amount by doing some research before buying them.

So here are the four steps to get the best deal for the air tickets :-
  • Where to Travel.
  • When to travel.
  • When to Book.
  • Book. :-)


Fly In Fly Out Locales


The points of entry and exit would depend on your itinerary and the air fares to the various cities on the route. You can check the airfares to these cities using websites such as Google Flight and Hopper, saving you a lot of time. The result of this search may also help in determining whether the itinerary should be a round trip or open-jaw.

  • Hopper - This site is a very useful resource. It tells you when and where to go, what is a good price for that flight and when to buy the ticket. The explorer section allows you to specify source, destination (either as a city, country or even region, such as 'Western Europe') and time of travel. Results show you which would be the cheapest cities to travel to and what price to expect.



  • Google Flights - The all-pervasive, omnipresent Google juggernaut has something for this too. Google Flights helps you in choosing your destination, deciding when to go and get the best price for it. We can start with the Explore Map which shows you the prices to various cities from your chosen location. The prices displayed on the map may not be very accurate. But it highlights the major air hubs on which you should concentrate your search. You can then narrow down the search to the exact destination and get the best fares for it.


Explore Map


Multi City Search


Best Time to Travel


Date.   Though your date of travel would mainly depend on other factors, being flexible on the date of travel can save you a lot of money. The Google Flight and Hopper websites will help you in deciding the best dates.

Time.   The choice of flight timing would generally be a balance of cost vs convenience. The more awkward the timing, the cheaper it is likely to be. So, depending on the fare difference, you can decide the most convenient booking. In my opinion, the most convenient time to reach your destination is late in the evening. You then get a full nights rest before you start exploring the city.

Resources.   There are many sites which provide a comprehensive search across various airlines. Though there are many such sites, checking a few should suffice. These give the best results in my opinion.
  • Kayak - I found this to be the best and most convenient search portal.
  • Skyscanner - This site provided excellent deals. However, it does not have an option for multi-city search.
  • Goibibo - A good option among the Indian websites.
These are a few other sites which have good reviews and are worth checking out - Travelocity, Expedia, Hipmunk, Vayama and Orbitz.

At this stage, you will basically search for the best fares to the cities you have decided. Use the 'Flexible Dates' option, if available, which broadens the search to include a few days before and after the date specified.



When to Book


And finally, how early should you book the tickets - and which day of the week should you buy it (Yes, there is research on that too). Here is my research in a nutshell.


  • How Early should you Book?   Buy the tickets AT LEAST 3 months in advance. International fares generally open an year in advance. The price then generally creeps upwards, and starts increasing sharply 3 months before. Recommendations of various sources range from 11 months (Source : Cheapair), 171 days (Source : Forbes) to 4 months (Source :Rick Steves). Bottom line - the earlier you buy it, the better it is. 

Source : Forbes

  • Best Day for Booking (NOT Traveling).    Tuesday is considered the best day of the week to book tickets as airlines generally announce deals on Monday evenings. However, recent trends indicate that prices on Saturday and Sunday are the lowest. This is probably because of the internet. Vacation shoppers, who are the ones searching for discounts, generally buy tickets on the weekend. On the other hand, business travelers, who buy costlier tickets and are not concerned with discounts, generally book their tickets from office during weekdays. Here is the research from WSJ website.

Source : Wall Street Journal
  • But the final caveat - all this does not work for peak season. If there is a high demand, the price is unlikely to ever fall. And the European sector from India during summer is certainly a peak sector. The airlines do not have to worry about less travellers.


A Few More Tips



Twitter or Email Alerts. Join an airfare search site like Airfarewatchdog or FareCompare. These sites email and tweet updates about low fares for the routes chosen by you. They are free services that help you find the cheapest fares across multiple airlines.

Direct vs Hopping.   The cost of a direct flight would generally be higher  than a hopping flight. However, consider which airport the stopover is in and for how long. As economy passengers, you may have to rough out in an uncomfortable airport chair. You wouldn't want to land at your destination with a crick in the neck. So it may be worth it to pay a little extra for a direct flight rather than a cheaper one with a 5 hour halt in an unknown airport.

Open Jaw vs Round Trip.   A round trip is generally not worth it. It is just not economical to come back to the place you started. Consider the additional expenditure in time and money, as you have to return and probably stay for an additional day in the starting city.

Airline Site vs Search Portal.   There is one final check you should do after identifying the flight which meets your requirements. Go to the airline website. You may get a better deal as there will be no extra middleman fees. Buying from the airline's site also allows you to check the exact 'Terms and Conditions' for that booking. It would also be simpler to resolve any problems later. On the other hand, search portals may give you better deal, especially by a mix and match of different airlines or special promotion offers. So check both before buying.

Be Prepared to Book Quickly. I would also suggest that you decide on a 'good fare' from your initial research. Since fares are very erratic, you must be prepared to buy the ticket as soon as you find an good deal.

Check Ticket Information Carefully.  Ensure that the ticket has the correct date, time, destination and exact spelling of your name, matching with your passport. Also check that the baggage allowance is sufficient. A simple check now can save you a lot of trouble later.

Read the Fine Print.   Read the booking terms carefully, especially the rescheduling and cancellation terms. Most airlines give a full refund in case of a death in the family or Visa application being rejected. Be aware of the fine print.

Choose your Seats. Since the flight is likely to be a long haul, it is a good idea to choose comfortable seats well in advance. This is especially important for taller passengers who need more legroom. So choose your seats while booking. To be on the safer side, web check-in on the day of travel and confirm your seats. You can check SeatGuru for suggestions on the best seats for any aircraft.


Conclusion


Finally, the more convenient a flight is, the costlier it will be. Our endeavour would thus be to get the best combination of price and convenience.

The internet provides ample resources for getting the best deal on your air tickets. A little bit of research is all that is needed. In fact, none of the travel agents could give us a better deal than that offered on the web. One of them even admitted that they do not have access to many of the deals available on the website. So just do your homework and take the plunge. The heavy feeling in the pit of your stomach as you make the payment will soon be replaced with the euphoria that you are going on a great vacation and are now firmly committed to it.

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