Tag Archives: Trip

Planning Your Next Trip to London

The unique mix of experiences that the wondrous city of London has to offer to vacationers is unparalleled. London is an excellent place to visit along with your family. However it is one of the most expensive cities in all of Europe, and in fact the entire world, so you have to plan your trip to every detail in order to get the maximum out of your trip to London.

Transport is one of the major expenses that you will have to incur when visiting London. This is true irrespective of whether you will be visiting places in your own rented car or making use of the public transport system. The best way of saving money on transport is by purchasing an Oyster card using which you can pre-purchase tickets at a lower price. Similarly you can purchase weekly travel cards that will allow you travel to a number of different zones throughout the week.

Finding Cheap London Accommodation

The next thing, which is perhaps the most important expenses that you will have to incur will be for the London accommodation you go for. Finding the right kind of accommodation can also help to cut down your transport costs. Ideally you would want to go for a place situated close to major tourist sites as well as transportation hubs.

Hotels in London are not spacious enough to host families of four or more. Even if you would be able to find such hotels they are likely to be quite expensive. What you can do on the other hand is go for London serviced apartments. There are a host of apartments of these kinds available on rent in London.

In a serviced apartment you will have the benefits of dedicated living, sleeping and dining zones along with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry facilities. But naturally serviced apartments provide a far more relaxing environment and are likely to cost you lesser than exquisite hotels in London while endowing you with more space and freedom.

Just like the various hotels in London you are likely to find such apartment buildings close to major tourist attractions and transportation hubs. This will help you to save up on incidental costs of travelling while the fully equipped kitchen in serviced units does not restrict you to eating out all the time.

With your transport and accommodation worked out the next thing you have to do is plan out the different tourist hotspots that you want to visit during your trip to London. In fact working this out from before will help you to narrow down the location of the accommodation that you will be renting out during your stay.

Furthermore if you manage to determine all the above mentioned things prior to making your travel arrangements then you can make your reservations early in order to avail bigger discounts. Generally the earlier you book the more competitive the rates will get. Similarly the longer the duration of your stay, the lower the rates will get.

Tips and Tricks for Last Minute Business Trips

Business trips can often take place at the last minute. Something crops up that just absolutely has to be sorted out face to face. Which means if your job could potentially involve business travel, it’s essential to be prepare as much as possible in advance.

In general, all travel trips are being booked later and later, so unless there’s a major conference going on in your destination city, you should be able to find somewhere to stay. What can be more difficult to ensure is that it’s somewhere you want to stay and that it’s within your budget.

If you know your job is likely to involve travel, it’s worth planning ahead and setting up a new folder in your bookmarks so that you’re not hunting around the search engines, desperately trying to find your preferred airlines and hotel bookers.

Start your search while you’re not rushed!

Make sure that you bookmark at least two of everything, in case the site you use doesn’t have anything available for your trip.

For flights, choose one of the sites that lists lots of different airlines. But remember that these don’t always list the budget airlines, so bookmark the web site of any budget airline that flies from your local airport.

When choosing flights, make sure that you check the number of stopovers. This is easily missed when you are traveling at the last minute. Stopovers can add hours to a flight time and they increase the likelihood of delays on your journey.

Taxi journeys from the airport to your final destination should be straightforward. But take the precaution of checking the likely fare before accepting the ride, even if the cab has a meter to display the price. It’s not unheard of for taxi drivers to take a longer route than necessary if they perceive that you aren’t local to their city.

If it’s close enough to travel by car, driving will be your best option. Again, bookmark your favorite route planning site so that you can call on it at short notice. If you haven’t used a route planning service before, test it out by entering a journey you do regularly to see how good the directions are. Not all online route planners are created equal!

When you reach your destination, you will probably need to get hotel accommodation booked.

For peace of mind, it’s worth booking before you set off for your trip. Some hotels will offer an online booking service but you need to be aware that these services don’t always show all the rooms available, especially at the last minute. If you can’t get your chosen room online, remember that you can always use the telephone – we’re so used to doing everything online nowadays that we can sometimes forget this!

Because web sites prefer you to book using their online system, you may need to have a directory enquiries number to hand so that you can find out the hotel’s contact details. If they’re fully booked when you call, most hotel receptionists will be able to recommend somewhere else to stay.

Also make yourself a “pre-travel” check list ahead of time. This should include things like flight, car rental and hotel reservations as well as the usual things you would pack for any trip.

Copyright 2005 Smooth Hound

Tips and Tricks for Last Minute Business Trips

Business trips can often take place at the last minute. Something crops up that just absolutely has to be sorted out face to face. Which means if your job could potentially involve business travel, it’s essential to be prepare as much as possible in advance.

In general, all travel trips are being booked later and later, so unless there’s a major conference going on in your destination city, you should be able to find somewhere to stay. What can be more difficult to ensure is that it’s somewhere you want to stay and that it’s within your budget.

If you know your job is likely to involve travel, it’s worth planning ahead and setting up a new folder in your bookmarks so that you’re not hunting around the search engines, desperately trying to find your preferred airlines and hotel bookers.

Start your search while you’re not rushed!

Make sure that you bookmark at least two of everything, in case the site you use doesn’t have anything available for your trip.

For flights, choose one of the sites that lists lots of different airlines. But remember that these don’t always list the budget airlines, so bookmark the web site of any budget airline that flies from your local airport.

When choosing flights, make sure that you check the number of stopovers. This is easily missed when you are traveling at the last minute. Stopovers can add hours to a flight time and they increase the likelihood of delays on your journey.

Taxi journeys from the airport to your final destination should be straightforward. But take the precaution of checking the likely fare before accepting the ride, even if the cab has a meter to display the price. It’s not unheard of for taxi drivers to take a longer route than necessary if they perceive that you aren’t local to their city.

If it’s close enough to travel by car, driving will be your best option. Again, bookmark your favorite route planning site so that you can call on it at short notice. If you haven’t used a route planning service before, test it out by entering a journey you do regularly to see how good the directions are. Not all online route planners are created equal!

When you reach your destination, you will probably need to get hotel accommodation booked.

For peace of mind, it’s worth booking before you set off for your trip. Some hotels will offer an online booking service but you need to be aware that these services don’t always show all the rooms available, especially at the last minute. If you can’t get your chosen room online, remember that you can always use the telephone – we’re so used to doing everything online nowadays that we can sometimes forget this!

Because web sites prefer you to book using their online system, you may need to have a directory enquiries number to hand so that you can find out the hotel’s contact details. If they’re fully booked when you call, most hotel receptionists will be able to recommend somewhere else to stay.

Also make yourself a “pre-travel” check list ahead of time. This should include things like flight, car rental and hotel reservations as well as the usual things you would pack for any trip.

Copyright 2005 Smooth Hound