R. Craig Collins > Web Page Design > Portfolio > How To: Travel

How to Travel like the Collins © R. Craig Collins, 2005/11

First the rules of Collins European Travel, focus on the 5 C's: Culture, Cuisine, Countryside, Castles, and Cathedrals.

Our typical modus operandi is to travel abroad at Christmas, or perhaps Spring Break... though the full family getting the same Spring break has been an issue for us of late...
... while cold during Christmas, we don't have to face long lines at the airport or at the museums, and we think we get a more local view of the city when there aren't as many tourists, and we can usually save money during this off peak time. Our trips abroad are often cheaper than traveling within the US, especially if you plan well in advance. And by planning in advance, we mean we begin SEVEN months out.

We used to typically start with Expedia and Travelocity, looking at air+hotel fares for a lot of cities on our short list, but recently we have broken airfare and hotels into separate endeavors... now more often using Kayak to search multiple sites. For the first time, we booked our Ireland 2011 airfare with Orbitz. Venare is a great place to look for European hotels, but we found our Dublin hotel in 2011 searching a Dublin tourism site... to narrow in on a specific neighborhood. If only two are traveling you might check Go-Today for neat packages, but they often had blackouts during Christmas when we traveled, and they only do double rooms. For many year of course, we needed a quad.

Regardless of the sites used, we would monitor prices from two weeks to a month, to try and get a sense of the high and low tides, as far as price goes, and we would finally choose a city.

PS when booking flights. look at the flights and rule out the ones with too many stops. Then jump on the airline site, to see if they have package deals to the same place. Usually they can't beat Kayak, Expedia, or Travelocity when hotel prices get factored in, but it is worth a check.

Immediately we then review Rick Steves (for European travel) and a DK Eyewitness books, and buy or build an area map (Google maps is great for this).

The key is to start finding what we want to visit, and see what is over rated.

Then we go to Trip Advisor to look up real traveler reviews of the hotels that are being offered (Expedia and Travelocity also have this, but I like a disinterested party involved, too :) I look at all the reviews, not just the average. Some people have way too high expectations. If I see the same good or same bad, then it is easy to choose (for me, the best hotel means breakfast, wifi, en suite bathroom, and is close to metro or tram stops. Not too far from the city center, and NOT a US chain if I am over seas. We want local flavor. Plus, as we won't spend too much time there, if it is clean, with the amenities I mentioned earlier, it is a contender. )

Then, when we decide on a flight and hotel that is the best, then we book. The 2011 trip we had the airfare a week before the hotel, but at least have an idea of hotel prices if booking separately. Don't wait. Small hotels go out of availability, and airlines change pricing daily... plus seats together aren't available the closer you get to the trip.

Travelocity, Orbitz, and Expedia will then offer to sell you tours, parking transfers, etc. You can add those later. If they offer a 'city pass', I research price and get the lower, as it usually pays for itself with admissions, discounts, and often transit passes. That means, compare the tour site with the city pass web site for price. If the city doesn't offer a pass, per say, I then go the mass transit web site for the city, and order either 3 day or one-week passes. (Usually the week is a great deal, but sometimes the three day will suffice, when we take tours into account. Both are much easier, and often cheaper, than individual rides. And much easier if you have it in hand when you arrive.

We then compare tours at the Expedia or Travelocity sight with Viator, and then compare those to the local Gray Line tours web site. They are usually comparable, so I pick the dates that work best for us, and shop price. All the sites usually have the same destinations, but often they have different operating days... so I make a table of prices and dates. I build a calendar and test drive things until I can squeeze in as many things that the tour books recommend. Normally we do a overview tour the first full day, then normally take one out of town tour. If we got three day transit passes instead of the weekly, I factor day long tours before or after the period we can use mass transit. Museums are often closed on Monday, so that is a good tour day, etc. If they are all close in price and availability, I take Gray Lines first, Viator second. I have been known to buy train tickets and do it ourselves, but often the tour is comparable, and I don't have to worry about getting around the other town if I am on a tour bus. I also leave one day completely free, so we can go back to things we saw, or things we didn't get enough of earlier.

Finally, we search for airport transfers. Viator and Gray Line have them, but normally they are high. Just browse the web, or email the hotel to see if they offer or recommend transfers. If a well know service, pay in advance by credit card, but if you are not sure you might want to look for ones that you pay the driver, so you don't get your credit card charged and no driver shows up.

Yes, you can take the bus or the train in London or Dublin, say, but normally you get a good price if you do a round trip transfer, and getting delivered to the airport with no lugging or jumping from bus to train... well, after an exciting but exhausting trip, it is often more than worth it to me to pay for that hotel pick up. Don't forget airport parking... you can often reserve in advance.

The last thing we do is to buy local currency. Many credit cards don't work in Europe, where they use Chip and Pin cards instead of the swipe and sign cards used in the US.

Then, google the Big Mac index for the city... this tells you how much a Big Mac costs where you are going, and gives you a rough idea of the premium beyond the currency exchange you'll be paying for food and goods.

For example, using figures in July 2008:
1.the price of a Big Mac was $3.57 in the United States (Varies by store)
2.the price of a Big Mac was £2.29 in the United Kingdom (Britain) (Varies by region)
3.the implied purchasing power parity was $1.56 to £1, that is $3.57/£2.29 = 1.56
4.this compares with an actual exchange rate of $2.00 to £1 at the time
5.[(2.00-1.56)/1.56]*100= +28%
6.the pound was thus overvalued against the dollar by 28%

So if you normally budget $20 for lunch and $30 for dinner
you would need to budget $26 for lunch and $38 for dinner.
(Remember, we eat at hotels with breakfast included, and load our pockets for a mid-morning snack.
We eat cheap, seeking out small local eateries... we love Kabob and Pizza for occasional cheap meals, and actually avoid McDonald's... but we will normally splurge once or twice to make sure we get a spectrum of the local fare. Lunch is better for the splurge, and estimates of a lunch taken during a bus tour needs to be doubled, by the way. More on our food choices below)

Count up money for meals, add in some for souvenirs, and allow a pad. We know we can charge one or two things, but we try to avoid that. Other experts will tell you to just use your ATM card to get just enough for the day, as you usually get a good exchange rate at ATM's, but our bank does not allow this option in Europe.

PS, we spend the left over cash on snacks for the flight back, and last minute gifts. Watch the market to see if the dollars is improving against the local currency and buy, though recently the dollar seems to lose ground daily, so we buy almost as soon as we can... but see if you can detect a pattern and buy when you get the best value.

Recall, some trips will require several currencies... such as when we went to Germany and Austria, or Denmark and Sweden, or the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Then we use Well Fargo to buy currency. You can go to many Wells Fargo branches in big cities, or go online to https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreignexchange/ to have it delivered for about $9.00 (cheaper than gas to Austin, for us.)

If traveling to a non-English speaking country, get a phrase book, and practice:
directions,
numbers (costs)
excuse me
please,
thank you,
and some basic food and drink items.

I often buy a CD version to listen to while driving... yes, almost everywhere we went, someone spoke English... but they appreciated the effort and we think got better treatment because of it.

And the smaller the restaurant, where you get the deals and real feel of the place... the less likely they are to speak English.
(We prefer to spend money on the sites, not food, so in addition to small places that offer the regional foods, such as train station food courts, we also like to check out the local variations on ethnic food. Thank goodness that almost every Middle Eastern place has pictures of the kabobs (donner is lamb, by the way), and almost every Italian place has a good pizza Margharita. For many years we would also try to find a local Chinese restaurant... but what we think of as Chinese is often not what they consider Chinese... It was the same with Mexican, we now avoid those places... though it was fun to see how they tried. Street food is the cheapest, but after long walking tours we typically wanted to sit down.)

While we will try to find places to eat in advance, they often don't pan out... nose around the hotel to see what is close by
(you HAVE to explore around the hotel... take a different route each time you leave... and keep your eyes out as you tour the city.
Also, find a corner convenience or grocery store for cookies and aspirin, etc. These places can be as much fun as any city tour.)

Then, we sit all excited for five or six months, paying off the credit cards, so when we head to the airport, almost everything is already paid for.

When the big day finally arrives, we pack a few digital cameras, umbrellas, layers of clothing that will fit in a carry on, and include a blank book to make a journal nightly of what you did... you'll be glad in the years to come for the written record of your great trip.