Holidays for cheapskates
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by: denielrocky
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Word Count: 582
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 Time: 11:34 AM
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If you’re heading to South America, consider travelling by coach or bus. Tickets for luxury coaches, with comfortable seats and plenty legroom, cost a fraction of what they do in the UK, and allow you to get a widescreen view of the changing landscape as you travel.
If you don’t mind stretching out in a seated area, you can usually get tickets on sleeper trains for next to nothing if you book in advance. This is a fairly unpopular travel choice, so these sections are usually empty enough that you can stretch out in surprising comfort. If the train is fairly empty anyway, you are often upgraded to a berth free of charge.
Everyone wants to travel at weekends and bank holidays, and the same trains and planes that are oversubscribed at these busy times are usually empty the rest of the time, so if you are able to travel during these quiet periods, the operators will practically pay you to fill their empty seats.
Ask some locals about the typical taxi fares that they pay, and always agree taxi fares in advance with the driver armed with this knowledge, or you could end up getting charged ‘tourist rates’ that are far higher than anyone else is paying.
If you’re looking to do a bit of sightseeing, get together with some fellow travellers and chip in for a hire car. Not only does this afford you more freedom of movement, it also usually works out a lot cheaper than using cabs or public transport.
Multi journey tickets and travelcards can be a great way to save cash on fares if you plan on moving around a lot. The daddy of all multi journey tickets is of course the European Inter-rail scheme, which allows you unlimited travel within the EU for little more than the average aeroplane return ticket!
The fact that you’re reading this right now is proof in itself that you’re a web-savvy customer, so it hardly needs saying that the best deals are to be had online. Nonetheless, smart people can be lazy procrastinators too, so let this be a reminder to you to book online in advance for any journeys that you know you will be going on if you want to avoid paying through the nose for on-the-day travel. Even if you reckon you might have left it too late, tickets for travel can often be purchased at the last minute online that are far cheaper than you’ll be offered at the station. Think about it – if you’re already at the station, they know that you’ve already made up your mind that you’re going to travel that day, and that’s the gun they put to your head when they hit you with the bill.
Taxi cabs are a great way to travel if you’re a movie star and money is like toilet paper to you. For the rest of us, however, taxis are a total rip-off, and only make financial sense if you’re too drunk to drive yourself, or you literally can’t find any other mode of transport. If you really want to experience a place through the day, you’re much better off getting on the public buses. Not only does this work out a lot cheaper, but it also gives you a much wider appreciation of the culture of the place you are visiting.
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