Let’s face it. The year 2009 is one that the travel industry really wants to forget. Most people have canceled their travel plans altogether, or scaled their trip plans way back due to the economy. That all makes sense, but I get the feeling that most of those people don’t realize that if they went to Asia they could have an excellent and even slightly luxurious trip, assuming they went to one of the right places.
Flights are very cheap this year too
For people living on the West Coast of the US, and especially for people living on the East Coast, it’s natural to assume that flying to Asia is incredibly expensive. But it’s really not. You can always find cheap flights to Asia, though perhaps not to every destination in the continent.
If you want to have the cheapest possible vacation having the highest possible standards, just keep your eyes peeled for cheap tickets to India. It’s best to fly to either Mumbai or Delhi, though occasionally there are great deals to other cities as well. Once there just spend a couple days in the big city to get acclimated, and then head out to somewhere less hectic. You can find spas and retreats and historic towns and nearly any kind of accommodation imaginable, and it’ll cost about 75% less than it would back home.
Planning the cheapest possible trip
Even if you don’t go to India you can still find great bargains. Think about Southeast Asia, and especially Thailand. There are plenty of cheap Bangkok hotels if you look around. It’s possible to get a decent hotel there for around US$10 per night, though if you go during the peak wet and humid season (April and May) you’ll want a place with air conditioning, and that will cost a bit more. Still, for around US$30 you can get a place that looks like it should cost at least $100 if it were anywhere else.
Once in Thailand you can take a cheap bus to Cambodia or Laos or Vietnam, and those countries are a bit cheaper than Thailand, though they also don’t have quite the tourism infrastructure that Thailand has so it’s not quite as easy to visit.
If you circle up to Hanoi, where you can get hotel rooms for around US$10 and you don’t need air conditioning, you are a short flight from Hong Kong and Macau. You can find plenty of cheap hotels in Hong Kong, though not quite as cheap as in Bangkok. You’ll spend at least US$25 per night there, and quite a bit more if you want something really nice. The trick about Hong Kong is you want to stay on the Kowloon Peninsula instead of on Hong Kong Island. There is way more to do on Kowloon and prices are much more reasonable.
I’m one of those with plenty of German relatives, so I’ve been there more times than I can count, and in fact, my brother has lived there for more than a decade now. So for me, Germany is an easy place to visit and it feels like I’ve got the tricks figured out, but sometimes I forget that most of the best advice for first-time visitors is not obvious at all, so I thought I’d share some with you.
Finding the best deal on flights
When you start looking into flights to Germany you might not realize that this almost always means flights to Frankfurt. Lufthansa, one of the world’s largest airlines, is based in Frankfurt and it’s by far the largest airport in the country. In fact, Frankfurt serves more international destinations than any other airport in the world, just to give you some scope of the thing.
So you’ve probably heard how great Berlin is and you might be tempted to look into a flight directly there, but if you are coming from more than one or two countries away, you’ll probably have to switch planes in Frankfurt anyway. Depending on your connections this might actually be slower than taking the train from Frankfurt to Berlin, and it might cost more as well. If your flight in is late in the day you’ll be happy to know that hotels in Frankfurt are actually quite affordable, especially the ones near the airport itself or near the train station in the center of town.
Fly directly to Berlin or not?
If your main goal is spending time in Berlin, you are a wise traveler, as for my money it’s one of the coolest cities on the planet and very easy to visit. But should you book a flight to Berlin or just to Frankfurt and then take the train the rest of the way? This isn’t always an easy question to answer. Flights all the way to Berlin usually cost around US$100 more than flights only to Frankfurt, but sometimes you can get them for around the same price.
If the Berlin flights are more then you’ll have to consider your options. The train journey between the cities is around 4 hours, and normal one-way fares are around €111 per person, but you can sometimes get the promotional fare that is only €29 per person on the slower trains. If your layover is more than 2 hours then this could get you to the center of Berlin faster than the flight, plus you get to see some nice countryside on your way.
Where to stay in Berlin
More great news comes from the fact that there are plenty of cheap hotels in Berlin. In case you aren’t familiar with the geography and history of the place, Berlin used to be divided into a West Berlin and East Berlin, from 1961 until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. The West was slightly bigger than the East, and it’s also much more expensive, and less fun as well. Unless you prefer a 4-star hotel, check for places in the former East, hopefully in the Mitte or Prenzlauer Berg neighborhoods. There are also loads of hostels in Berlin, mostly in those neighborhoods, and they tend to be high quality and affordably priced. Many Berlin hostels also have private rooms so you can save money while getting many of the benefits of staying in a place with a large communal area full of other travelers.
Sometimes travel planning is all about a destination. You know where you want to go, and you start looking up information about what to do there, where you should stay, and what kinds of deals you can get on a plane ticket. But sometimes you just need a vacation - somewhere, anywhere, it doesn't matter where, just get me on a plane ASAP. If that's the kind of mood you're in, you're going to benefit from the kinds of travel deals that those of us who are destination-driven can only dream of.
See, the travel industry knows which places are popular, and they understandably charge us more to get there and stay there. It might be annoying, but each one of us would do the very same thing if we were in their shoes. And really, the number of places around the world where they're routinely charging more to fly there and sleep in a hotel is a pretty short list when you think about it, given all the possible destinations around the world. So think of it this way - by making less popular destinations less expensive, the travel industry is helping you get off the regular tourist trail a little bit. (You can thank them later.)
Okay, so you're desperate for a vacation and you're not really particular about where. The first thing to do is consult your favorite online booking engine for its last-minute deals. Even if you're not necessarily planning a trip this weekend, seeing the list of destinations which have deals running right now may help give you an idea of some of the places where you're more likely to find deals in general. And hey, if you happen to find really cheap tickets and you're free this weekend, all the better.
Assuming you really can't get away on a moment's notice like that, the next thing to do is set up email alerts in your aforementioned favorite online booking engines for a few of the destinations you found on the last-minute deals lists - plus a few more you might be interested in. These alerts will send you notices when the prices on flights to your chosen destinations go down by whatever amount you set. That way, you're ready to pounce on a great deal, even if it's only available for a really short amount of time.
Once you've bought airline tickets to whatever place you've decided to go, again assuming it's not a last-minute deal, you can now go back to those online booking engines and do a hotel search for a place to stay. Some of them will let you set up an email alert for hotel rooms, too, so if you've got a little while before your trip you might try that approach. Otherwise, you'll need to search a few places to find out what the array of options and prices is for the kinds of hotels you're hoping to stay in.
If you're really a bargain hunter, you don't want to overlook using Priceline to book your airline ticket, hotel, or both. The research you've done in the steps listed above will serve you well when you visit Priceline, because you'll know what the going rate is on the things you want to buy and will therefore have a better shot at offering a good bid price. But even beyond that, there are often promotional codes available that can knock even more off of an already-low Priceline rate - so be sure to see if there's a Priceline coupon you can use before you hit the "book" button.
Exploring our town's local attractions is something that most travelers don't typically take the time to do. Either we figure we'll always have time to do it later, or we don't consider our city's sights worthy of our precious free time. Another thing many travelers skip is visiting places that are close to home, even if they're not even the same country. A perfect example of this is how many Americans overlook Canada as a holiday destination.
Nevermind that Canada is entirely different country, thereby qualifying you for "travel" cred (for pete's sake, Americans even need a passport to go north of the border these days) - we're more likely to jet off to far-flung European cities or make a bee-line for a Mexican beach than we are to plan an entire vacation in Canada. This is despite several reasons why Americans should go to Canada, not least being the fact that there's no language barrier!
I just spent 12 days in British Columbia myself, having not crossed into Canada for something like seven years, and am just now recognizing how much I've missed. Thankfully for me (and for anyone else who's forgotten there's a whole 'nuther country up there), there's no time like the present to visit Canada.
From many American cities, it's easy to get cheap flights to Canada, no matter what part of the gigantic country you're hoping to visit. For instance, flights from Chicago to Toronto are plentiful no matter what time of year it is, and frequent enough that you don't even need to worry too much about booking months in advance to get the best deal. Basically any major airline hub that's in the northern part of the United States is going to have good deals and frequent departures to Canadian cities throughout the year.
Much of the Canadian travel focus is going to be on British Columbia for the near future thanks to the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010 - but if you're not interested in either a wintertime visit to Canada (let's face it, it can be chilly up there even in the summer!) or a trip to BC during the Olympic chaos, the good news is that Canada's an enormous country with lots more to discover. Two of the most-visited cities in Canada are, in fact, not even in or near British Columbia.
Montreal is the second-largest city in the French-speaking province of Quebec, and the combination of a European-feeling city plus a foreign language will make just about any American feel like they're getting a European vacation for half the price (not to mention a lot less jetlag). There's no shortage of shopping, museums, and great restaurants, but the city also embraces that outdoorsy spirit Canadians are so famous for. And finding good deals on flights to Montreal isn't too difficult, especially if you're in the northern part of the U.S. already.
For a city that could feel even more international but that still has English as its official language, head straight for Toronto. Canada's largest city is famous for its international feel, and a walk through its bustling and beautiful city center may make you feel like you've visited several countries in just a few hours. With vibrant Chinese, Greek, and Italian communities (just to name a few), the culture and cuisine of Toronto is impacted in all the right ways. And again, flights to Toronto are plentiful from any U.S. state that borders Canada.
There are countless more reasons Americans should head north of the border for their next vacation, but we hope at least these few will get you thinking about Canada next time you're planning a trip.
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