How To Save Up To 50% On Your Next Vacation
June 29, 2008 on 3:36 am | In Travel Insurance | No Comments
Did you know you can go on a 7-day cruise for half the price?
Or visit Europe for 15 days for only $2,000 per person including airfare, hotels, car rental and meals?
If you follow these steps, you can save more up to 50% in travel expenses.
1. Travel during low season.
Choosing to go on vacation during low season, will save you a great deal of money on airfare, hotels, cruises, car rental and more.
If you want to save money, generally the best dates to travel are between:
February - May
September - the week before Thanksgiving
December 1 - 15
For example, a 7-day cruise in the Caribbean can cost around $1,000 during summer and winter but it can cost $495 during low season.
A ticket to Europe can cost between $800-$1,200 during high season but you can buy it at $395 roundtrip during low season.
2. Check Internet Special Rates
All airlines, hotels and car rentals have Internet Special Rates that normally are not available through a travel agent or by contacting the hotel, airline or car rental company by phone. You’ll find that you can get 10 - 25% discount by booking online.
3. Hotels
During low season hotel rates are lower.
When it comes to hotels, you should look for 3-star hotels that will offer most amenities you need at a lower price than 4 or more star hotels. You should keep in mind, that 3-star hotels are smaller, but you can find very good hotels for a great price.
Keep in mind that hotels that are very near local attractions will be more expensive than hotels located 2 or 3 blocks away.
4. Attractions and Places to Visit
Make a list of the places and attractions you want to visit and do some research. Find out about the schedules, locations, special events,etc. You’ll find out that there are certain dates during the year that they will have discounts and even free admission.
5. Restaurants
Don’t visit tourist-oriented restaurants. Instead, ask locals to recommend family-owned or small restaurants. Not only will you pay less but the food, quality and service will be much better.
Two years ago, I visited Monaco, France and we went to a small restaurant on a side street and we only paid $100 (for 4 people) for appetizers, great pasta, drinks and dessert (including tip). Not a bad price considering that Monaco is very expensive.
6. Metro vs. Taxi
In most places, there is a metro or train system which will be a lot cheaper than traveling by taxi. All you need to do is get a map and trace the route you’re going to visit and find out the train or metro numbers you need to get on to.
By planning your vacation in advance, choosing the best dates to travel (low season), doing research about places and attractions to visit, going to local restaurant versus tourist-oriented ones, and using the metro or train system instead of taxis, will save you a great deal of money and allow you to go on vacation at least twice a year.
Maria Estarellas is the webmaster for http://www.1mykids.com
“The Complete Website For The Whole Family”. Parenting Tips, Crafts, Games, School Projects and Essays, Clothing, Candles, Hobbies for Mom and Dad, Information on How to Start Your Own Online Business, Mortgage Tips, Beauty Tips and More.
Hello from Vancouver (1) - Arrival in Vancouver
June 28, 2008 on 2:10 am | In Travel Insurance | No Comments
I left beautiful Victoria early yesterday morning at 8 am and took the Pacific Coachlines bus/ferry combination back to the mainland. It was another gorgeous day and I spent the entire ferry ride on the top deck soaking in the scenery and the sunshine. At about 11:30 I exited at Broadway and Cambie as the bus driver had advised me and caught the 99B bus to the University of British Columbia campus and arrived about a half an hour later. First I found the student union building where I picked up a bus map and a campus guide. Then I asked my way to the student residence where I was staying and checked myself into a comfortable reasonably priced student room that is part of a 6-unit apartment at a very affordable C$38.00 a night.
After dumping my luggage and getting changed I had a few hours until check-in for the Servas conference and I decided to use the time by renting a bicycle at the local university bicycle co-op to explore the area on 2 wheels. I rented a mountainbike and started heading west to North West Marine Drive which is the road that is parallel to the coastline, but the view to the ocean is obscured by dense forest. In various areas trails and steps lead down to to Spanish Bay.
I then cycled eastwards and found a beautiful lookout spot from where I could see the mouth of the Burrard Inlet and the mountains of North Vancouver. The university grounds in this area have several mansions that are surrounded by gorgeous flowers and this is a just a superbly scenic area. From there I took NW Marine Drive down towards Spanish Banks and kept cycling eastwards past Locarno Beach and Jericho Beach which is a recreational paradise. The water level was quite low, however, and people had to walk out quite a while over the sand to reach deeper water. After a couple of hectic days I figured I deserved about an hour of downtime and bought myself an icecream which I savoured sitting at a bench while observing the action on the beach.
Of course after this little respite I had to cycle all the way back up, which ended up not being as bad as expected. The campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC) is a beautiful facility. It is very expansive with a large number of mordern buildings interspersed by green zones and parkland. UBC is home to about 45,000 students and it is the 3rd largest university in Canada. The UBC Campus is also the home of the world-renowned UBC Museum of Anthropology, the Nitobe Memorial Gardens, the UBC Botanical Garden as well as the Rose Garden & Chan Centre. The First Nations Longhouse serves as a gathering place for native students and features sculpted log poles and various pieces of First Nations art. UBC also houses the largest university bookstore in Canada as well as the Astronomical Observatory, located beside the UBC Geophysical Observatory which monitors earthquake activity.
My first outing on the bike gave me the lay of the land and a first glimpse at the Vancouver skyline which certainly has one of the most stunning locations of any large city I have ever seen. I am glad I had a bit of a chance to explore it before I return back to the student residence to get ready for the Servas Conference.
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions(http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.
Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest(http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.
“Life is a Journey
Tags: hospitality exchange, servas, Servas conference, travel for peace, VancouverToronto Hippo Tours I Went On A Bus - In The Water…….
June 27, 2008 on 2:16 am | In Travel Insurance | No CommentsSome time ago I noticed these odd shaped colourful bus-type vehicles in the streets of Toronto, and I was wondering what they were. I caught a second glimpse and I saw “Toronto Hippo Tours“, and I realized that these buses carry sightseeing passengers not just on the streets of Toronto, but also in the waters of Lake Ontario. Considering that this form of intermodal transportation is definitely unconventional, it just recently came to me that I should do an interview with this company and go on one of the vehicles myself.
They are definitely funny looking vehicles with a rounded snout, bright painting saying “Ride the Hippo”, and an entry at the rear where you board walking up a set of retractable metal stairs.
Today I met with Drew O’Gilvie who is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Toronto Hippo Tours. Drew used to be a Director of Sales for Delta Hotels and obviously has a lot of tourism-related marketing experience.
1. Please tell us who came up with the idea of creating a company with a bus that floats? How long has the company been in business?
Geoffrey Lind founded Toronto Hippo Tours 5 years ago since he wanted to bring the “duck concept”, the famous amphibian vehicle tours in Boston, to Toronto. Last year the company had 25,000 passengers and we expect to far surpass that number this year. Rather than calling ourselves a sightseeing company, we consider ourselves an “urban safari”, a true urban adventure.
2. How many Hippos are there? What makes them special?
We currently have 2 vehicles in operation with a 3rd one that was just recently completed and is just waiting for final licenses, a complicated process that involves federal and provincial authorities and safety checks. The vehicles are Canadian-designed and built, based on a school-bus platform. Contrary to other places, they are not recycled WWII or Korean war amphibian vehicles. They are carefully safety-checked and greased every morning. We affectionately call our 3 amphibian vehicles Harry, Happy and Henrietta, our newest addition.
3. Please tell us about your route and your schedule. Are the tours narrated?
The Hippo tours are 1.5 hours long and spend about 1 hour on land covering the major Toronto sites, all professionally narrated by a tour guide who is also licensed in first-aid. We run tours from the beginning of May to the end of October every hour from 11 am to 6 pm.
4. Please tell us about the prices. Is it possible to book the vehicles for a private outing?
Prices are very reasonable at C$35.00 per adult, or C$30.00 for seniors or students, and C$23.00 for children 12 years and under. The vehicles can also be chartered and are frequently rented for special occasions both by business organizations and private individuals for birthday parties. At C$500.00 per outing, which holds 40 passengers, this can be an extremely affordable special event.
5. Please comment on the special training that your captains and tour guides receive.
Our guides are certified in St. John’s Ambulance and CPR, and are all restricted engineers. They undergo strict testing with government authorities as marine captains and they have to obtain licenses to become school-bus drivers for operating the vessel on land.
After interviewing Drew, I had a chance to actually sample the Hippo experience myself and I got on board, plunking myself down right behind the Captain, who in this case was a sporty-looking lady by the name of Catherine. We had another tour guide who competently and entertainingly mentioned the major sights along the way and cracked some dry jokes in between. Another guide by the name of Dan also accompanied us. He is just finishing up his road licensing and has already completed the marine portion of the licensing process.
The vehicle passes through the streets of Toronto at a very leisurely pace. Our route included major sites such as the Royal York Hotel, Union Station, Yonge Street with the Bay, the Eaton Centre and Dundas Square. We then headed over on Elm Street and down on Bay Street past Old and New City Hall. I particularly enjoyed the gargoyle story about Old Toronto City Hall, where a famous architect took revenge on Toronto city counsellors who criticized him for his cost overruns by depicting their likenesses as ugly gargoyles. We then headed up University Avenue past Queens Park (the provincial government buildings) and on to the University of Toronto campus.
From there we snaked our way down through the Garment District, admiring all of Toronto’s loft conversions and condo developments past the CNE grounds (the Canadian National Exhibition grounds) to a ramp near Ontario Place, where we were getting ready for THE BIG SPLASH - the Hippo’s entry into the water.
It sure was a weird feeling, being on a bus whose windshield is all of a sudden fully submerged by water. But the vehicle straightened itself out pretty quickly and we started chugging slowly into the waters surrounding Ontario Place. “Happy the Hippo’s” top speed is about 5 knots, and the vehicle has a single engine that propels the bus’ transmission on land as well as the propeller in the water. At 20 tons it’s a pretty heavy vehicle and a special ramp had to be built to give it access to Lake Ontario.
We took a little spin over off the west end of the Exhibition Grounds where we had a good look at Toronto’s only wind turbine (we are finally making baby-steps towards greener energy production….) where we turned around and headed back towards Ontario place.
While Dan was driving during the water portion of the trip, Catherine, the other captain, and I stood at the back of the vessel and had a great conversation. Catherine is a former insurance sales expert and after being laid off she went into a completely new career - first as a Hippo tour guide, and she has also become a fully certified and licensed Hippo captain. Catherine also knows lots about fixing the vehicle and doesn’t mind getting her fingers greasy when she performs maintenance duties on the bus on a daily basis. In her off -months from November to April Catherine does some cool things, such as volunteering her services to an animal conservation area to protect sloths in Costa Rica, or travelling extensively to Cuba. As a matter of fact, Catherine is a pretty cool and interesting individual herself and I will be doing a follow-up intereview with her in the near future.
Back on land we passed by Harbourfront and headed back up towards the famous Royal York hotel. Shortly after we made a quick turn left and headed back to the Hippo Tours parking spot at 151 Front Street, just a tiny bit east of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre (formerly called the Skydome), Toronto’s multi-purpose stadium with the retractable roof.
Catherine and I had a chance to catch up for about 10 minutes after the tour was over, and we briefly talked about doing a language study trip to Cuba, something that Catherine was interested in. I shared some information with her since I have had the opportunity to study Spanish at the University of Havana earlier this year.
It seems to me that Catherine is a bit of an adventurer and I am really looking forward to catching up with her to find out more about her new, unconventional lifestyle that went from corporate sales to being a road/lake captain for 6 months of the year, and doing some other cool stuff in the months between..
Thanks again to Drew and the whole crew at Toronto Hippo Tours for spending their time with me and for giving me the opportunity to explore Toronto on a bus - on land and on the water…….
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions(http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.
Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest(http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.
“Life is a Journey
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