Tag: cheap

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Product Reviews Tips USA

Tired of flying or driving with the kids? Consider MegaBus

(This is a guest post by Sherry Ott, from her recent trip via MegaBus. I’ve been curious about these newer budget bus services, so I asked for her reactions. Thanks, Sherry!)

All aboard the MegaBus for budget travel (courtesy MegaBus)Travel on the US East Coast has changed.  “Taking the bus” is no longer looked down upon; in fact, it is quickly becoming the transportation choice up and down the coast and in the Northeast (and expanding to the Midwest.)

I’ve ridden buses all over the world, but I recently took MegaBus from New York City to Boston to give this American version of budget bus travel a try.

Ticketing

Megabus is hip to technology, so the best and easiest way to purchase your tickets is online at www.megabus.com. It’s a pretty standard web ticketing process, however I did manage to screw my ticket up (all my own fault) and booked 1:30AM instead of 1:30PM and realized this the day before I was to leave.

My screw up in ticketing allowed me to test out the purchase ticket in person option too – so for review purposes it worked out!

You can purchase tickets at a little booth across from the loading area in New York City.  The people there weren’t the friendliest, but they were quick.  Unfortunately when I went to rectify my ticket situation in person (as the call center person suggested I do), I found out that there were no more tickets left to sell for my bus and I would have to wait Standby.  This wasn’t exactly in alignment with what the customer service agent said, so the whole situation had my travel stress level quite high.

Boarding

The boarding process reminded me of kindergarten.

Everyone had to stand in line, in the hot sun, while ONE guy tried to go around and check everyone’s tickets.  There were no signs for the lines, which resulted in a very inefficient process of people arriving and interrupting the ONE guy checking tickets to find out where to go. The seats were not assigned on the bus (note from Sheila: this could get interesting with kids) so once you got on, you chose your seat.  One guy also loaded luggage – so the whole process seemed a bit slow, and hence our bus took off about 20 minutes late.

Luggage

I found out once I arrived at the loading area that MegaBus has a strict ONE bag policy.  Unfortunately I had two – plus a carry-on with laptop.  They clearly have the luggage policy labeled on their website, but I apparently missed it.  They don’t technically check luggage or provide receipts, but instead you place your ONE piece of luggage in the storage area of the bus.  I got around the policy by asking a woman next to me in line who didn’t need to check a bag to claim mine – whew.  It appeared the luggage policy was very loosely applied without a lot of predictability.

Cost

Even though the prices are like travel in less developed countries, the style isn’t.  In Vietnam, a four hour backpack bus trip to Mui Ne cost me about $10USD – and so did this trip to Boston!

The prices are great – especially if you book in advance.  The ticketing online provides you a confirmation number which you simply show to the guy checking you in.  Many people simply held up their phones and showed him the number; no need to print out a receipt.

For families this is an excellent option as a family of four stood with me in the Standby line and bought all of their tickets for $100; much cheaper than four airline tickets!

The Ride

This is where MegaBus as compared to airline travel shines…each seat has a power outlet, and free wireless internet access is available to all.  The signal was great and I had no problem using that signal for four hours.

Each seat was reclinable, and fairly comfortable.  However, one downside about the seating was that unless you have a small notebook computer, the laptop space is really  cramped since there isn’t much room to put the laptop on your lap without hitting the back of the seat in front of you.  This setup made it really hard to type; practically impossible.  Plus – at times, the ride was rather bouncy, so if you are prone to motion sickness – working on your laptop might not be the best thing to do.  The setup was great for watching movies – but a bit of a pain to type of this review.

Tips To Make the Experience Better

My best advice is to bring a  jacket, even in the summer.  The bus became very cold after two hours.  The temperature didn’t seem to regulate.  Even the big guy next to me got cold!

Also – make sure you bring some snacks.  On my 4 ½ hour trip to Boston, we didn’t stop once – so be prepared.

Overall Impression

I’d use MegaBus again, but I would also recommend to book in advance; Standby was a bit of a pain.

It definitely was more simple and cheaper than my other options to get to Boston; air or train.  Plus, I found it to be just as comfortable AND I was able to have an internet connection!  Bravo MegaBus!

To learn more about MegaBus in the US, go to their website at https://us.megabus.com and see their routes all over the US which provide some great alternatives to short air travel!  You can also follow them on twitter at @megabus or on the MegaBus Facebook page.

Sherry Ott is a refugee from corporate IT who is now a long term traveler, blogger and photographer. She’s a co-founder of Briefcase to Backpack, a website offering career break travel inspiration and advice. She also runs an around the world travel blog, writing about her travel and expat adventures at Ottsworld.

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Europe

Top 10 Ways for Families to Save on Travel in Europe

(This is a guest post by UK-based reader Ben Doyle of HouseTrip.com, about all sorts of ways to save on your family vacation to Europe. Thanks so much for contributing, Ben!)

Top Ten Ways for Families to Save in Europe

1. Where and when to go is obviously the first part of your planning. Central and Eastern Europe are typically cheaper than the West (think Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and the Baltic countries.) The UK, France, Italy and Spain are certainly more expensive, although with the decline of the pound and Euro against the dollar, they are still affordable. You can also save money by avoiding high season – city trips are just as good in winter, but without the crowds, prices are much more favorable. Spring and Fall are a good compromise.

Platform 9 and 3 quarters of Harry Potter fame, Kings Crossing, London (photo by Sheila Scarborough)
Platform 9 and 3 quarters of Harry Potter fame, Kings Crossing, London (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

2. Shop around for flights. Before you can save money in Europe, you’ve got to get there – and it’s not cheap. There are occasionally excellent deals, such as these incredibly cheap flights from New York/Newark to London. Otherwise use a meta-search such as Kayak or Skyscanner to get an idea of the carriers to investigate. If your dates are flexible, you can then go to the individual airline websites for a closer look – certain dates are normally cheaper than others, and it can be hard to find this information from meta-searches.

3. Investigate your travel options within Europe. Budget airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair offer extremely cheap flights, but it’s still worth booking ahead. Rail pass information is available on www.raileurope.com, or take a look at destination tourist sites such as www.visitlondon.com for information about local transport. London’s excellent Underground tube network offers cheaper tickets if you buy an Oyster Card, while day travelcards are normally available for unlimited daily travel.

4. Resist the temptation to move around too much. Focus on one city, region or country in depth instead of travelling large distances. You can easily base yourself in one place and take day trips – by doing this you will save on transport fees as well as the difficulty of long travel times with young children.

5. Look at budget hotel chains first if you want to stay in a hotel. Brands such as Ibis, Travelodge, EasyHotel and Etap offer simple, no-frills rooms for a fair price, and you can often find good deals if you book ahead. It’s worth enquiring whether the hotel can squeeze in an extra bed, as turning a double into a triple or a triple into a quad will invariably be cheaper than having to take another room. Hostels in Europe can also be a good alternative, with far more options than just dorm rooms. Many hostels offer private rooms that are ideally suited for families, and staying in a hostel also gives you the option of self-catering.

6. Consider a vacation rental. Holiday apartments, as they are often known in Europe, are widely available in both cities and countryside locations, and normally offer far more space than a hotel or hostel for a similar (or cheaper) price. They often represent better value than other forms of accommodation, especially for longer stays, and also allow you to spread out and experience life as a local, rather than a visitor. There are many good sites offering holiday apartment stays.

7. Try camping if you want to go rural. Campsites in Europe, especially France and Spain, are normally well maintained and offer a range of excellent facilities. For exploring the countryside, they can be an excellent alternative. Alan Rogers guides are the market leader and a lot of free information is available online at www.alanrogers.com. If sleeping in a tent isn’t your thing but you would like to explore the countryside, farm stays are an interesting alternative and offer a great cultural experience for your children (and you!)  If you’re considering going rural, it is also worth investigating car rental, to make it easier to transport your belongings – although remember that gasoline in Europe is much more expensive than in the US.

8. Start with free activities. Europe offers many free attractions and activities that will be enjoyable for all the family. Try www.FreeToDoEurope.net for ideas. After that, always investigate the possibility of family tickets for museums, attractions, tours and public transport. Local tourist offices normally offer good advice.

9. Eat out less and make lunch your big meal of the day if you’re eating out. Many restaurants offer excellent lunch deals, but try to stay away from tourist spots. Places that are full of tourists don’t offer the best eating experience or the best price. Menus translated into English are often another sign to look elsewhere. Instead, take a guidebook (look out for one with translations of food) and follow the locals to places that are slightly off the beaten track. And be careful not to overtip. Tips are often included and Europeans only tend to tip 10%, anyway. Ask fellow diners if you’re not sure.

10. Eat in, even if you don’t cook! If you’re staying in a hostel or holiday apartment, or if you’re camping, you can save a lot of money by preparing your own meals. Local shops and markets are a great cultural experience for all the family. But even if you’re staying in a hotel, you can still grab food for lunch, and you don’t have to go to much effort: locally produced breads, cheeses, meats and salad make a great meal. You may even find a delicious local wine to enjoy once the kids have gone to bed. Just don’t forget a corkscrew!

Ben Doyle is a British travel enthusiast and entrepreneur. He is one of the founders of www.HouseTrip.com, an online marketplace for European holiday apartments. He currently blogs at blog.housetrip.com.

Categories
Blog Tips Video Posts

Need a laugh? Low-cost airline spoof video had me rolling

Y’all know I can be pretty tight-fisted, right? I’ll happily spend money when it makes sense to do so, and for things and experiences that are special, but when it comes to transportation and hotels, I’m okay with your basic clean versions.

I simply want to get back and forth and have a decent night’s sleep and shower while I’m there. My best experiences are usually OFF the aircraft and OUTSIDE of the hotel.

So, while living in Europe, my family and I did fly the notoriously cheap Ryanair a few times, because how else could I get from the Netherlands to Pisa, Italy and back for a family of four for about US$150?

The wise traveler must know what he/she is getting into with cheapo airlines, however, which is why I think this video spoof of discount airlines is so funny. They pack in almost every problem you’ll run into – surprise extra fees, ground tours that may suck, fees for luggage (especially checked luggage) and of course satellite airports that are MILES from their namesake.

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Categories
Site reviews Tips

Hunting for travel deals? Don’t forget these Web sites

Google search "coupon" (courtesy Bramus! at Flickr CC)We’re so used to using search engines like Google or the new Bing Travel to look for travel deals (and metasearch engines like Kayak or Travelocity to book trips) that it’s easy to forget one “old school” way to do it….

The visitor’s Web sites that belong to the destination where you’re going.

For example, this fall I’m going to be attending the Association for Women in Communications (AWC) conference in Seattle WA, and speaking at the Oklahoma Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Tulsa OK.

Here’s where I’ll be looking around….

***  The Visit Seattle Web site has links to various deals and a lodging booking engine running down the right side of its Visitor Center Page, plus you can follow @SeattleMaven on Twitter for up-to-date local info.

***  The Visit Tulsa Web site has local accomodation deals all on one page, and a free discount coupon book for local attractions that I can order ahead of time  —  it would be nice if it was also available online, though, like the one from Hutchinson, Kansas or these deals from Fort Worth, Texas. Don’t forget @VisitTulsa on Twitter, either.

Be persistent; some tourism Web sites inexplicably bury the links/info for discounts.   Look hard for family packages that combine lodging and tickets to an attraction – SeaWorld San Antonio has these all the time.

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USA

A one-tank Tennessee and Alabama budget road trip

(This Southeast Bargain Loop post is a guest contribution by budget travel expert Tim Leffel; he’s a Nashville resident when he’s not traveling with his family in Mexico and Belize.)

Friends at the Chattanooga Aquarium (photo courtesy Tim Leffel)In these tight economic times, here’s a one-gas-tank family road trip loop that won’t break the bank.

As the author of the books The World’s Cheapest Destinations and Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune, I get a lot of calls from reporters and readers asking for cheap family travel ideas. My main advice for domestic travel is to spend time outside the big cities and major tourist draws.

Smaller towns and cities are frequently half the cost when it comes to lodging and attractions.

The following loop takes place around my home town of Nashville, Tennessee, and has some great travel spots with kids.

Start in any of the destinations covered below if arriving by car or plane, or arrive in Atlanta and get out of town, driving the two hours to Chattanooga.

Chattanooga, Tennessee

This is, hands down, one of my favorite small cities in the U.S. for family travel. The revitalized downtown is a case study in how to create a pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly central core on two sides of a river.

There are quite a few hotels in the thick of things, or stay at the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-choo (where I recently scored a Priceline deal under $50 a night) and take the frequent electric shuttle bus to downtown. The excellent fresh and salt water Tennessee Aquarium here is $22 adults/$15 kids compared to $5 more each at Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium. Or you can spend a bit more and get a combo ticket with the IMAX theater. Don’t bother printing out the fake coupons on the Chattanooga tourism site though: it’s the same price if you just walk up to the window.

There are plenty of other attractions you can drop money on here, so pick carefully between famous Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway, a minor league baseball stadium, and the Children’s Discovery Center. On the north side of the river there’s a great restored carousel (50 cents a ride for kids 12 & under), a theater, an attractive park, funky shops, and reasonable restaurants.

Chattanooga, Tennessee carousel (photo by Tim Leffel)From Chattanooga you can head two hours northwest to Nashville or southwest to the Unclaimed Baggage Center on the way to Huntsville.

Unclaimed Baggage Center, Alabama

Nearly equidistant from Chattanooga and Huntsville, Alabama’s Unclaimed Baggage Center is where homeless bags and their contents end up. Imagine a giant Goodwill store filled with things you actually want to buy. People tend to take their best stuff on vacation, so clothes are often near-new and I bought two shirts that actually still had tags on them. Naturally there are lots of sun hats, snorkels, MP3 players, and suitcases, but also a wide range of other items, from books to golf clubs to unopened cosmetics. I scored about $200 worth of stuff for $60 and I saw some families filling up entire shopping carts.

There’s no cost to look around and there’s a cafe on site if you need to rest up for a second round.

There’s no real reason to stick around this area for the night, so move on to Huntsville, but stop by Cathedral Caverns on the way and take in an impressive cave complex for $10 adults, $5 kids.

Huntsville, AL

Huntsville‘s main claim to fame is the National Space and Rocket Center. At $25 for adults and $20 for kids (combo ticket with a movie), this is not a cheap stop, but the center packs a lot into that admission charge.

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Product Reviews Tips

Hotel deals to help your travel budget

Planning on some summer day trips with the kids?  Turn at least one of them into an overnighter with a free night at one of the Intercontinental Hotels properties.

Guests can earn a free night by registering at https://www.GetAFreeNight.com and staying two nights at any Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites or Candlewood Suites around the world (except for Japan) between May 4 and July 3, 2009.

I racked up my two nights this past weekend; I had to go to two different areas in Houston anyway to research my upcoming articles for Texas Highways magazine, so after a search for good rate on the InterContinental Hotels (ICH) Group Web site, I landed at two different Candlewood Suites on Friday and Saturday night.

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Blog Video Posts

Video Series Part Three: Inexpensive Travel Souvenirs

(This series is cross-posted with the Perceptive Travel blog.)

Welcome to the third and final video in this series about inexpensive and unique travel souvenirs. I want ‘em cheap, I want ‘em to bring a smile to my face and remind me of the place where I bought them and if at all possible, I’d like ‘em to be useful.

Part One started us out with a variety of small items that you can find almost anywhere, Part Two covered “the obvious” T-shirts and coffee mugs, and here in Part Three, I will take a walk through my home to show you a few of my souvenir favorites and tell you the story of the “Diarrhea T-shirt.”

Thanks for your patience as I learn the ins and outs of my Flip video camera….including the discovery that I need to do better with the closeup feature. 🙂

For my RSS/feed readers and anyone else who can’t see the video box below, click this URL to go straight to the video on YouTube.

Categories
Blog Video Posts

Video Series Part Two: Inexpensive Travel Souvenirs

(This series is cross-posted on the Perceptive Travel blog.)

Welcome back to this three-part video series about shopping for inexpensive travel souvenirs. I had no idea how much stuff I’d collected over the years until I pulled it all out to shoot a video.

Part One was a general overview of my souvenir philosophy (inexpensive, evocative of origin and hopefully useful in daily life) with some examples of fun items I’ve scored, like a rubber ear acupuncture training device from the medical supplies section of a Hong Kong department store. Gee, maybe that’s not very useful in daily life….:)

Part Two below talks about the items everyone seems to find: coffee mugs and T-shirts. Watch the video for my suggestions on how to find unique versions of them during your travels.

Part Three, the final video, will give you a quick tour of assorted doo-dads in my house, many picked up for a song, including a fun Harry Potter movie poster in Japanese.

For RSS/feed readers and anyone else who may not be able to see the box, click here for the YouTube URL for the video.

Categories
Blog Video Posts

Video Series Part One: Inexpensive Travel Souvenirs

(This series is cross-posted with the Perceptive Travel blog.)

I envy those folks who travel but don’t have a burning desire to bring back tokens of their visits. My own home bulges with tangible reminders of the places I’ve been lucky enough to see.

The ideal travel souvenir is relatively inexpensive, evocative of its origin and (hopefully) useful in one’s daily life. It’s easy to find costly items to bring back that serve no function other than as dust collectors or to impress others, but the true traveler’s challenge is to find unique, fun mementos that bring good memories without flattening the wallet.

In the video below (Part One of a three-part video series – here’s Part Two and Part Three) I discuss a variety of ideas for inexpensive travel souvenirs that can be found just about anywhere in the world. There’s no shopping snobbery here; ideas include plastic floatie pens and medical supplies. (!)

For RSS/feed/email readers and anyone who can’t see the video box, click here for the video’s URL on YouTube.

Correction: the Hong Kong map I show is in Chinese, not Japanese (duh) and I said it was a two-part series, but it’s a three-part.

Update 15 Feb 4 pm, the video has been mysteriously “deleted,” so am working with tech support to restore it. The URL link above for YouTube DOES work. Thanks!

Update 18 Feb, now I’m going to try an embed box straight from YouTube.

Categories
Tips

Family Travel on a Budget

Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine is one of my favorites; it appears to be written by imaginative people who have limits to their wallet size but not their sense of adventure. Here’s a link to their diverse articles on family travel….