Ultimate Vacation Spots

posted by Travel Cat on Jul 8

Wanderlust Awards 2008

The travel magazine Wanderlust recently announced it’s awards for the things we use and need when travelling, and it rated them on a ’satisfaction’ scale of how much individual people rated their overall satisfaction with each area of the competition.

Below I have listed the top 4 of each of the following areas I found most useful, as this may help you in deciding on your own travel in the coming months:

The Best Country:

New Zealand
Madagascar
Namibia
Nepal

Bhutan and Tibet were in the top 10, as was Peru and Ecuador.

Best International Festival:
Rio Carnaval
WOMAD
Edinburgh Festival
Glastonbury Festival

Most Useful Travel Guide Books:
Lonely Planet
Dorling Kindersley
Rough Guides
Footprint

Travel and Outdoor Clothing
Rahon
Craghoppers
Berghaus
Karrimor

Favourite Travel Agents
Audley Travel
Rambles Holidays
Trailfinders
Discover The World

Best Airlines Used
Singapore Airlines
Eva Air
Etihad
Emirates

Do with this as you will!!!

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posted by Travel Cat on Jul 5

Compare Car Hire Prices from One Simple Site.

There are ’comparison’ sites just about everywhere now. You will find them for holidays, loans, energy suppliers and now for car hire. But I think it’s all good news for the consumer.

How Does It Work?
Basically, if you want to check some prices for car hire on your next holiday or business trip you just need to go to one huge website that will then search all the known car hire companies for their best deals and availability saving you the time and effort of going in and out of all the individual sites.

This is exactly what the Argus Car Hire site is offering you - and has been doing so for over 10 years.  You arrive at their home page - enter your destination country and the dates you require and they start their searching.

They are linked to many well know car hire firms from across the globe including Alamo, National, Budget and Europcar to name a few - so you know that anything they have to offer will show on this site.

You select the type and style of car you need and you pass through a very easy to use series of forms to complete your booking or start again with a different location or dates.  And with over 12,000 locations worldwide to collect your car from including Algeria, Costa Rica, Japan and Namibia - they have everything covered!

What Sort Of Prices?
Well, the price you see on their site is inclusive - there are no hidden costs - your book without charge and pay for your car on arrival.  With both Orlando and Capetown for as little as £11 a day you can’t go wrong! ….And pick up points in all major airports in Germany including Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne for your car hire Germany, and locations all across Europe.

Obviously in the more remote countries, you may find higher prices, and less vehicle choice - but that is the same for any service you could name!

What Else Do They Offer?
With a current blog running with all the news surrounding travel and car hire stories (apparently more people are currently hiring cars rather than fly long haul with the ‘credit crunch’ at the moment - as well as a guide to renting a car, they offer a newsletter for you to sign up to to keep on top of current deals and new services they may offer in the future.

They also offer a search engine to find you a hotel for your journey if you haven’t already found a place - maybe for a one night stop-over as you drive across Europe

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posted by Travel Cat on Jul 2

In the shadow of the Volcano….

As with all the other destinations we visited in Costa Rica, booking in advance direct through company websites wasn’t always easy.

We actually ended up having trouble making up our minds in the end, as there was a great option in each of the different areas we were considering - 1 in La Fortuna itself, 1 under the volcano with hot springs, and 1 in a small town just outside of the main area to avoid all the fuss.

In Arenal:
We chose the basic hotel of Las Colinas in the end, as being in town does have it’s advantages.  They had a great location in town (opposite a great coffee house and friendly small restaurant - and next to a supermarket) and most importantly - they responded to our emails with pride!  We had seen the rooms on their web-page and were sent details of tours they recommend in advance - and at only $27 for a double - worth a look in!

Make sure you ask for one of the rooms that face the volcano if you go there (at no extra cost), but you can see it beautifully from the seated terrace anyway. The breakfast was modest, with free internet, and the main receptionist was just the friendliest and most helpful lady ever - who seemed to know everyone and everything!

With Hot Springs:
Tabacon Hot Springs was one of the favourite places for tours as it is the largest of the hot spring areas under Arenal Volcano, and it really is massive.

The rooms are very well presented, as are the grounds in this luxury hotel (around $230 minimum per night, not including taxes) - however as all the tours come here - your hotel is crammed full of strangers every night being dropped off in the bus load to spend 3 hours dunking their toes into the various pools!

You have it to yourself all day though, so we thought it might be worth the extra cost for just a few days……

Out Of Town:
We had read that the main town of La Fortuna was over-run with con artists and touts selling non-existent tours (which wasn’t 100% true from my experience), so we had considered the option of staying just the other side of the volcano in El Castillo - a small village that was away from it all.

For $75 a double, you could stay in a delightful bed and breakfast with butterfly garden and monkey visitors just off the main road - the Hummingbird Nest B&B.  It is hugely recommended by Lonely Planet and we were very nearly tempted until we spoke to a couple who stayed in the area and said that you would definitely need your own transport to get into town as it was quite a drive on the famous bone-shaker roads…… Ahh, not for us then…..

Other Accommodation:

You don’t have to take my recommendations as there are plenty of hotels and hostels, B & B’s as well as luxury accommodation around La Fortuna and Arenal. Use a site like HotelsCombined.com to find hotels (which you can compare by price, location or star rating to suit your needs).  Try these links to view rooms available in Arenal or to view some great hotels for the one night stop-over on your arrival in San Jose.

Hopefully - the problems I had will help you avoid such hang-ups for yourself, and get on with your vacation with the minimum of fuss…..

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posted by Travel Cat on Jun 28

Ways to Find Cheap Airline Tickets

There is nothing more annoying than finding out that someone sitting next to you on the plane to your latest vacation paid over $200 less than you for exactly the same thing - so for this reason alone I make sure I search every available avenue open to me to make sure I’m the one who paid less!

I’ve been doing it for years now, and really have shaved$100’s off of identical flights and vacation packages - somewhat to the annoyance of other holiday-makers who bother to ask me what I paid!!  The most I have known to save was $1200 on an identical vacation package to Kenya……

Option 1: 
I always used to do my research by calling all the tour operators or flight companies myself until I found the best offer, and then booked the cheapest.  Needless to say - this would take some time and a lot a repeating the departure times and dates etc. to various people. 

It works well, but you have to be prepared to speak to dozens of people in a row, and possibly have them call you back to sell the deal - even though you don’t want it now.  You also have to know your destination facts and some brochures to hand so you get to the best locations and be able to bat off their add-on sales and jargon.

I have found a new way now, and am sticking with it!

Option 2: 
Find websites that do all the searching for you!  You type in your departure dates and destinations just once, and they search all the companies for you.  No more endless phone calls and note jotting - it’s all displayed on the screen, right here in-front of you.

These comparison shopping engines for travel will save you time too, and can sometimes offer you deals you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.  One site that had this effect on me was LowFares.com.

Basically, this simple site combines other known travel and vacation specialist sites within their searches, so once you have entered your details, they will show you the sponsors that offer deals in those areas - including deals from Expedia, Travelocity and Kayak - and you get to do all your searching from just one site.

However, it also has a ‘Deals‘ page which highlights all the best deals that they have found themselves and offers them to you on one page for either flights, car rental, hotel or cruise - where you just click through and all the details are displayed. 

Alternatively you do all the searching yourself, and select flights, hotels or a combination of the 2 (which usually works out much cheaper than flights alone).

LowFares.com also have a handy ‘News‘ page with current information on airports, taxes and destinations for you to scan through, as well as offering a newsletter detailing offers and company news for free.

Conclusion: 
There are plenty of places to find cheap airline tickets, but why spend a lot of time and money searching for them.  Of course still do your research, but do it more efficiently.  And this is what comparison shopping engines can do for you.

I have just looked at some of their deals myself which helped me to write this post, as I fancy a quick trip to Mexico before the end of the summer and want to book it real soon…..

See you there????

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posted by Travel Cat on Jun 20

Ultimate Accessories - Girls Travel Club

Recently, a new company caught my attention as they offer something special for all those female travellers who want to travel - but with style.

Why should ladies have to settle for everything ‘practical’ in either a dull green or a navy blue? Why not have feminine, stylish products and useful but attractive accessories, that are both practical and environmentally friendly?

I Want That!!
The founder of Girls Travel Club, Becci Coombes-Burr thought just this - having extensively traveled the globe and used all sorts of outdoor and travel related products - for better or worse. She decided that we shouldn’t have to settle for boring, environmentally damaging products that didn’t always work as planned.

So she managed to find all her essential travel-related products that were all eco-friendly and chemical-free, and were perfect for travelling light and designed for style, then created her on-line store offering these products to everyone. She didn’t stop there either - in those instances where there was no suitable product available - she had her own one made!

I contacted Becci, and asked her a few questions about her site and her motivation:

Q: What inspired you to create your own products?
A: Well, I’ve been backpacking all over the place, and being a girl weight can be a real issue when packing your rucksack, so I tried to cut down on unnecessary kit as much as possible.

When I set up my own business one of the first things I looked for were products that were multi-tasking, (like an all-in-one shower gel/shampoo/shave gel), and when I couldn’t find them I decided to have them made specially. They’re also biodegradable, packed full of lovely oils and no nasty chemicals.

Q: If you could recommend 5 essential travel remedies for any holiday from your range, what would they be?
A: Ooh. Tricky one. The luxury eye-mask, definitely, then you can sleep practically anywhere at any time of day, and beat the jet-lag or that dreadful airplane lighting! Ours are shaped so they are incredibly comfortable and won’t smudge your eye makeup!

Lavender oil is amazing and I don’t go anywhere without it. Use it on bites and stings and sunburn; a few drops in the bath and on the pillow will help you sleep and get over jet-lag. Get a friend to mix a few drops in some vegetable oil and massage your aching rucksacky shoulders, while it is also an antiseptic and great on cuts and grazes.

A good quality kikoy or sarong is a real boon as well. If you get a good quality one (ours are fair-trade Kenyan cotton ones) it will last you for years, and has SO many uses; picnic cloth, table cloth, baby carrier, sunshade, towel, pashmina…..

I also find good quality earplugs really helpful if you are on a plane or sleeping in a noisy hostel. Ours are specially attenuated and designed to cut out all kinds of background noise, and they come in a very cute little zip up pouch (basically I am drawn to anything that comes in a cute little pouch or drawstring bag…)

Lastly I never go anywhere without a good travel journal and a Pritt stick, because invariably although you try and keep all those tickets and leaflets and postcards and bits and pieces safe for your scrapbook, you’ll have lost most of them before you get home! 

Q: What 1 piece of travel advice do you think is most important for female travellers?
A: Act with confidence and a smile. (And pretend you know what you’re doing and where you’re going even if you don’t!). I never got into any trouble in all the time I was travelling, mostly by sailing through everywhere with a mindless grin and a purposeful stride,  whereas other girls who seemed more nervous attracted all sorts of hooha. 

Q:  How did you become involved with funding schools in Guatemala?
A: After returning from travelling round south-east Asia I decided to sponsor a child in the Philippines, and it is through the same charity that I heard about the schools project.

Over To You:
If you want to make travelling easier and more stylish for yourself - take a look at www.girlstravelclub.co.uk right now, and see which products you like the look of for your own travel kit - take some advice from the many pages offered and have a look at the courses on offer while you are there too.

You’ll find that ‘going green’ and helping preserve the environment and the people you are going to visit really is quite simple when you know where to look……

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