What are things a person needs to know about international travel? Such as how to get the cheapest tickets, ect. How do to deal with a minor fear of flying. That sort of thing.
Posted by BaoQingTian (Member # 8775) on :
Always keep a photocopy of your passport, visa and other vital documents in a safe place different from your passport. Also leave a copy with your relatives at home. Just in case.
Posted by Boon (Member # 4646) on :
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
That works... But how does one get the cheapest possible flights? Like super dirt cheap... So cheap you think you're flying on a tin can stuck together with duct tape, but really they bump you up to first class and you get to sit with someone cool and famous and drink champagne.
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
Websites!
It depends where you want to fly to - some airlines only go to certain places.
Also, in terms of international travel I highly recommened sticking to the "better" airlines. I happily fly Qantas, Singapore Airlines and British Air. I am informed that the UAE airline is good.
I will never, ever, fly Air India again in my life. Ever. Tony tells me Garuda is also a no-no.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
I deal with plane anxiety with drammamine. Stay unconscious through most of it. Sleep is good. Besides, in-flight movies are horrible, and planes are impossible to sleep on without drammamine because I get slightly motion-sick.
-pH
Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
"What are things a person needs to know about international travel? Such as how to get the cheapest tickets, ect. How do to deal with a minor fear of flying."
Take a boat Posted by Scythrop (Member # 5731) on :
Burbon is also good. Two stiff burbons prior to take off, another soon after, and the inside of a plane suddelnly becomes a fun place to be.
Also, Imogen is right, ixnay on the Garudaay...
and pack a spare set of undies, and your toiletries into your hand luggage, so that you can access them in flight. Or when the rest of your luggage gets sent to El Paso.
Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
Cry her a river.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
- If you're going someplace that doesn't speak your native language, learning a few basics in the local tongue, i.e. "Please," "Thank you," "Where is...," etc., will be greatly appreciated by the nice people who stop to help you.
- Staying in nice hotels is, for the most part, silly and wasteful because you're probably not going to be spending much time there. Hostels are your friends: they're a lot cheaper, often more centrally located than a mid-range hotel, and you can meet lots of cool people who can share fun travel stories and give you tips on things to do at your location, etc.
- Traveling in the off-season is generally a really good idea: fewer fellow travelers getting in your way, cheaper plane tickets/housing, easier to find housing, and you can see what the place is normally like when it's not overrun by tourist lemmings.
- Cheap plane tix - what general area are you planning on going to? And where are you flying from? For example, Ryanair usually has super-cheap deals within Europe, and the earlier you book, the cheaper they get (like $0.01 one-ways cheap), but they also tend to fly from inconvenient airports and are on the extreme end of the no-frills airlines. Kayak.com searches a ton of airlines all over the world. IIRC, they tend to be better for Asia than for Europe, but I'd have to double-check that. WhichBudget is another meta-search site. And if you sign up for Budget Travel Magazine's online newsletter, they'll email you lots of travel deals.
What kind of trip are you thinking of doing? I could maybe help if you have more specific questions - I ended up playing travel agent for myself and a bunch of friends for both of my semesters in London. Plus I like traveling vicariously since I can't do it myself right now. Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
If nothing goes wrong, if i don't get fired, ect I will go to Germany in May or June. Sure, it's ages in advanced, but I'll totally be prepared... For the most part.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
Actually, I think now's the perfect time to start planning for that. How long are you going to be there? And to how many cities are you thinking about going? And which ones, in what order?
My Germany experience consists of a 2-day drive-through on a bus tour, so these are more general Europe ideas. High travel season in Europe tends to start in mid/late May, so most likely it'll be a little more expensive than if you were going in, say, February, but cheap flights can probably still be found. Also, it could possibly be cheaper to fly into London or maybe Paris and then book a separate flight on a budget airline to Germany (i.e. Germanwings, which is having a sale right now). I'd check more direct flights to Germany first, of course, but creative alternatives can pay off sometimes. I just checked Travelocity for flexible dates in May/June, and NYC-Berlin came up at $435 + tax, while NYC-London came up at $223 + tax (just as examples), so if you could find a budget London-Berlin flight for under $200, you'd have a pretty good deal. Germanwings doesn't do London-Berlin, but they have London-Hamburg one-ways for as little as 13 GBP including taxes, which is just insanely cheap (and makes me wish I could take advantage of it ).
You also might want to look into some sort of railpass if you'll be traveling within Germany. This is the train site for Germany, and Railsaver and Railpass are both good sites for Europe railpasses in general. Depending on your itinerary, it might be better to wait until you get to Europe to buy your rail tickets/passes.
Another way to save money: don't eat at restaurants all the time. Grocery stores are your friends too, especially in conjunction with hostels because they usually have kitchens for guests to use.
Hmm...that's all I can think of just now, but if I come up with anything else, I'll add it. I love trip planning!
[ February 01, 2006, 11:13 PM: Message edited by: Nell Gwyn ]
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Syn will be leaving from Boston, FYI.
I may be in Europe in June too. We may bump into each other!
-Bok
Posted by Zamphyr (Member # 6213) on :
quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: If nothing goes wrong, if i don't get fired, ect I will go to Germany in May or June. Sure, it's ages in advanced, but I'll totally be prepared... For the most part.
Book flights and hotels now! This minute!
World Cup Soccer starts June 9th.....in Germany.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Oooh! The World Quidditch match! Coool!
Er, wait, you said soccer? Uh... Posted by Celaeno (Member # 8562) on :
All students should try Student Universe. It kind of rocks.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zamphyr:
quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: If nothing goes wrong, if i don't get fired, ect I will go to Germany in May or June. Sure, it's ages in advanced, but I'll totally be prepared... For the most part.
Book flights and hotels now! This minute!
World Cup Soccer starts June 9th.....in Germany.
Ouch! Very good point, Zamphyr. (Note to self: pay more attention to world sporting events!!) Syn, if the World Cup isn't part of your motivation for going to Germany, I would try really really hard to have your trip completed at least several days before the Cup starts, if not sooner....aim for May, not June. Even then, it might still be tricky, and I would definitely start nailing down your itinerary ASAP. I really don't know much about how the World Cup works (I just know it's soccer/football and it's a huge deal), but I went to their website and it's apparently going to be spread over the entire country. (Craziness! I wonder if I can make myself like soccer? This sounds like a good time.)
And if you are going for the World Cup, good luck getting tickets! There are only two sales phases left, and they started selling tickets a year ago.
Posted by Kettricken (Member # 8436) on :
Yes, the world cup will dominate every city where there are games plus other tourist places. Many supporters will go for the whole time and have a holiday between games. There will also be more supporters than tickets form many games, so bars will be full of those without tickets watching.
It can also get violent, especially when certain teams are playing. I would definitely second those saying make sure you are gone before it starts if that is not your reason for being there.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Lufthansa is a good airline for Germany. Stay away from Aeroflot.
Book now to get cheaper tickets.
Make sure your passports are ok NOW.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
Also - make sure your ATM card has a 4-digit PIN, otherwise you'll have a near-impossible time finding a machine in Europe that will accept your card. I'd suggest withdrawing cash in-country and using that rather than credit cards - you'll get a slightly better exchange rate, sans the per-transaction fees from the credit cards.
And I second the StudentUniverse recommendation, as well as STA Travel (which also is having a sale on Europe plane tix that ends tonight). You might also want to look into getting an ISIC card - it's an internat'l student ID card that you can use for lots of worldwide discounts. (You're a student, right?) And ditto with the getting your passport taken care of now.
Packing-wise, I'm a fan of big backpacks over rolly suitcases - they're much easier to handle in places that have lots of stairs and cobbled sidewalks/street. I don't know if that applies to Germany, but a suitcase-impaired friend had cobblestone issues in Italy that made him rather unhappy. Also, you really don't need to pack more than a week's worth of clothes (and some would argue even that's too much). Laundromats will be readily available, and if by some freak chance they aren't, there will be sinks where you can wash by hand. Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
It has to be June... RiR RaR.... DIR EN GREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*so happy I could SCREAM*
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bokonon: I may be in Europe in June too. We may bump into each other!
Yeah! Because Europe is so... small...
Posted by Rabid Newz (Member # 7704) on :
Compared to Asia it is.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
hmm. Luftnansa is a bit... EXPENSIVE.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: It has to be June... RiR RaR.... DIR EN GREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*so happy I could SCREAM*
In that case, I'd definitely get shopping now. What dates are you looking up? If you can, try to fly mid-week - weekend dates can pop up the prices quite a bit. And what city are you going to? If you'll be there during the Cup, I'd book accomodation pronto, otherwise you'll probably be stuck paying a lot more.
Posted by Tristan (Member # 1670) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bokonon: I may be in Europe in June too. We may bump into each other!
quote:Originally posted by Twinky: Yeah! Because Europe is so... small...
quote:Originally posted by Rabid Newz: Compared to Asia it is.
Even so, I'd say there's a greater chance bumping into a specific person touristing in Asia than in Europe. In Asia tourists gravitate towards certain sights and places and clinge to each other; this is true only to a lesser extent in Europe.
Edited to add: Important factors to explain this phenomenon is that (western) tourists are much easier recognisable as such to each other in Asia and that the language barrier to the natives is (often) easier to overcome in Europe.
[ February 03, 2006, 06:13 AM: Message edited by: Tristan ]
Posted by pfresh85 (Member # 8085) on :
*bookmarks thread in case he does get to study abroad this summer*
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
By Europe, I meant Germany/Switzerland.
-Bok
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
Keep an eye on Budget Travel magazine. They are constantly publishing great deals on airfare around the world.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
quote:Even so, I'd say there's a greater chance bumping into a specific person touristing in Asia than in Europe. In Asia tourists gravitate towards certain sights and places and clinge to each other; this is true only to a lesser extent in Europe.
Edited to add: Important factors to explain this phenomenon is that (western) tourists are much easier recognisable as such to each other in Asia and that the language barrier to the natives is (often) easier to overcome in Europe.
And yet, in the 2 1/2 years I've lived in Asia, I haven't bumped into anyone other than people I met here and my sister on a planned trip.
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