Making Travel Choices That Work For Your Budget

Making Travel Choices That work For Your Budget

Goal:  to have as much fun as is humanly possible in the Great Outdoors, at the least possible cost,

for two people in their sixties, hiking in both countryside and cities, with many cultural destinations in mind.

Accommodations:  

Where possible, book hostels (preferably private rooms) or Airb&b accommodations, when that is not possible, use online services like Hotwire (in North America) and Expedia (everywhere else). Taking advantage of house sitting advertisements gets you free accommodation.  Yes, free!  

Venice Hostel on a canal!

Rationale:  accommodations are for sleeping, relaxing and preparing food (we want to know what we are eating, and can do it as well as most restaurants, and the rooms only need to be clean and big enough to swing a cat without killing it.  Also, in hostels  and AirB&b you actually MEET people...  We choose accommodations where we can cook because I am vegetarian/ vegan, and cannot get a healthy meal from most restaurants, so self-catering and hostels really work for me.   I also save lots of money... Places I have house sat for free accommodations: Southern California, Denver, Boston, Edinburgh, St. Lucia, Fort Lauderdale, Western Ireland,  Vermont, Manhattan (NYC), Spain and France. 

Transport: 

• in  the cities use public transport, even if you have your own car. There are some big cities where the local transit system is awful, where you might consider driving, but most have good systems. 
• in the countryside use rental cars when the public transport isn't that great or non-existent
• use public transport in places like Italy, where the rail and bus systems seem to take you everywhere for low cost, and where the drivers are really loose with the rules. Never drive yourself in Naples!  If you look at the cars in that city, most of them have dents in them, which is a great clue. 

Sign at Edinburgh airport

Rationale:  Big cities are hard (and expensive) to park in, and the bus systems are easy to use and cheap. In some countries, the best destinations outside of cities are often very hard to get to and you get so much more out of the trip if you don't use tour buses. (e.g. Scotland, Ireland, France, the USA and Canada) Rent small cars, and it can even cost you less than  bus and train passes.

Plus side:  if you enjoy driving on narrow, winding roads, Northern Scotland, Western Ireland, south west France are good examples.  Caution:  in the Scottish Highlands, many roads are single lane with passing places every 100 metres or so.  In northern or western counties in Ireland, the single lane roads may not have passing places at all.

Scottish road hazard

Local Buses:  A universal rule... getting to and from airports into the city is much cheaper by bus. And there is usually lots of baggage space inside the bus.  The airport express buses usually have their own curbside stands and tickets can be bought inside the terminal. Avoid taxis, as you will nearly always be 'taken for a ride'.

Car Rentals

Rental Cars give you flexibility to travel to the remotest places, and they are almost as cheap as buses when there are two or more of you travelling.  We have travelled to places you will never get to by bus.

Tips for renting cars

Itinerary:  

Book accommodations early, to get the best deals, and in the places where there are real adventures to be had. Which means stay out of the big cities except for a few iconic activities,  and head to the hills as soon as possible. In Scotland and Ireland, that means the Highlands, Donegal, Sligo, Connemara and Clare counties, in California, anywhere but LA, on the east coast, avoid Boston and Washington. Of course, these are personal preferences - meant to keep me away from overcrowded cities and aggressive driving. If you do decide to go to these cities, book hotels at the end of the subway lines, where you will pay a lot less and still have the convenience of access to the tourist hot spots. 

Flying Across the Atlantic 

Tip:  

It may cost you more to fly during the day  to arrive in the evening, but it's a trade off.  Do you want to lose sleep and have jet lag by flying overnight and lose a day (going east), or do you want to spend a bit of money.  Your body will thank you for it if you avoid the overnight flight.  Second, if you can do it, avoid flights that are not direct.  stopovers are sometimes not long enough to allow you to catch your next flight (Heathrow is truly a nightmare!) Sometimes your first flight is delayed making this more common.  Or, your second flight is delayed (sometimes by many hours!) and the last place you want to be for hours is an airport lounge. Third, if you are stopover is in the US, expect that you will spend long hours in queues for passport control and Homeland Security.  

If you do not have a NEXIS (trusted traveller) card, it takes even longer.

Tip:  Pack light.  If you can get away with just a carry-on bag, do it.  Lots of people lose their luggage in the airline system, and sometimes they get it back. If you have carry on only, they cannot lose it.
Rick Steve's choosing the right baggage
How to travel with just a carry on
Communications and Research   Consider  buying a 'dongle' wireless device when you get to your destination.  Outside of Canada, these things are relatively cheap and make up for the lousy internet services offered by many accommodations.  We found it very important for our flexible itinerary to be able to research possible excursions on the go. e.g. If you want to use the internet in Scotland, get a 3.co.uk (brand name) 'dongle'

dongle from 3

a wireless internet device that lets you hook up an ipad or similar device to  the internet from just about anywhere, inside or outside,  The one you buy in Scotland works equally well in Ireland.  Pay as you go plans are cheap and worth it.  Tip:  do not hookup any device that automatically updates frequently, as this will chew up your data plan very fast. Also, always test it before you leave the store parking lot. We also bought one on a French trip that worked really well. These things work  extremely well, except in a few remote locations. Having the internet available allows for fast changes to itinerary and flexibility when the weather doesn't cooperate.

other tips to come soon...