How to find the best hotel and flight fares online!

Boston (while running along the Charles River)

“Mrs Skinner do you have a credit card?”

I felt smug. Usually I wouldn’t. I mean who would when you’re being asked to hand over a piece of plastic used for large charges. Especially after they messed-up my name (I’m still a Miss)!

Why was I smug? Because I had already paid for the hotel in Boston (it was part of my trip over New Years) on the online site www.hotwire.com.

You don’t know hotwire? Well Hotwire.com has one gimmick and only one gimmick. What is it? Good question. Essentially they claim to offer reduced prices for hotels and airline tickets.

“Sounds like everywhere else Robyn.”

Yes, I know, which is why reduced prices is not the gimmick, just the substance.

Hotwire.com is about gambling. While this reservation site will offer you explanations about the hotel rooms or cars you want to rent, i.e. the room is in a three star hotel, the site will not name the hotel.

So for Boston I selected a three and half star hotel in the Back Bay area (i.e. central Boston). Sounds like it could be expensive? I actually found it on hotwire.com for just $93 a night before taxes – it came to a total of $359 for three nights.

A little over my $100 budget on my recent trips from London (so Dover, Berlin, Stockholm, Brighton, to name a few), but it was a holiday. Plus I was splitting the price so technically it was still under $100 a day.

Which hotel did I book? After I gave hotwire.com my credit card they told me it was the Sheraton in the

View from my hotwire.com booked room

Prudential Centre (i.e. above a mall). I felt pleased with my gamble.

“But the room is already paid-for, right?” I said to the receptionist.

“Oh yes, this is just for incidentals.”

My piece of plastic was much more for the Sheraton. The hotel then decided to also charge me for the three-night stay.

But that’s not the worst part. Nope. Neither is the hassle I went through to deny this charge. The disappointing part was that the hotel was only going to charge me $288!! I might have saved more than $70 if I had booked directly through the hotel!

Which led me to this column: how to use these online travel agencies such as hotwire.com, expedia.com and orbitz.com (to name a few of the most popular). Who am I to write this after my Boston fiasco?

Well that brings me to tip one: don’t be lazy or too busy. I know, I know you can’t always make a lot of time to book your hotels and flights, but make half an hour to do a little research,(which is what I normally do and what I didn’t do for this trip) and you could save yourself close to $100.

Which is why, to be fair to tip two and to hotwire.com, I have to concede they were providing a service to me, which was pulling together a bunch of hotels in Boston, providing me with their descriptions and, according to the online agency, the best price on that day….allegedly.

Taking me to tip three be careful about these sites, which also compound the search engines. I discovered this as I gave myself half an hour to try and find flights than I could find on hotwire.com (why not try another portion of the site?). Instead of hotwire.com searching, however, I was directed to two of its partners (i.e. to search through expedia.com, kayak.com, etc…) to find flights. Hotwire.com was not even going to do the work!

This discovery led to tip four and my result, which was prices above and beyond what the actual airline was quoting. In the experiment I chose Boston again (on hotwire’s partner sites), just to keep it in the family, and both expedia and kayak were above the price quoted by the airline.

Delta leaves Bermuda

On Delta’s site the round-trip flight from Bermuda to Boston and back, from January 26th until January 30 was $315. On Expedia.com? That would be $322! An extra charge of $7 just to use that service, apparently.

Ok so this column is not meant to pick on hotwire.com. Unfortunately they are in my crossfires this week because I have had to pick-up my bank account pieces thanks to them.

But tip five is watch the small print because the booking site provides plenty of clauses that release them from me actually being irate at the higher prices. i.e. “Savings based on lowest published rate we’ve found on leading retail travel sites in the last 24-48 hours for the same neighborhood, star rating, and stay dates. Availability is limited and rates are subject to change.”

But that doesn’t mean I will return in the future and in fact many of these online agencies, such as hotwire, orbitz and cheapoair.com are facing a lash back from people much bigger than me.

I’m not the only one, apparently, who is tired of being taxed, which leads to tip six. American Airlines led the way by pulling out of advertising their fares on Orbitz.com.  Other airlines, including Delta, have contacted sites such as Airfare.com, cheapoair.com and OneTravel.com to also remove their flights.

Which is seven: don’t get caught in a flight pricing war because now even the sites are fighting back. Expedia.com actually removed American Airlines from it’s flight selection, while Delta contacted them and told them to discontinue the flight listings.

Low-cost carriers, such as JetBlue and Virgin America, decided to be Switzerland and just always did their own thing by listing their seat deals directly from their sites.

So to book the best tickets, hotel prices, etc… my tip eight is to initially visit an expedia.com or a kayak.com

Get ready to ski in Vermont!

and figure out the days that are looking cheaper to travel.

Then (AND ONLY THEN) do I touch on tip nine, which is to then travel to the website of the lowest airline, car rental or hotel to see if they have better deals BEFORE booking. Sure the want to book immediately and spend less time is there. But that brings us back to tip one: don’t be lazy.

Which brings us finally to tip ten: sign-up with the travel agency online sites to received their discounts and best prices. These can direct you to good deals, but again DO NOT BOOK through them. Take these as guidelines to then research on the actual provider’s site.

You will be happy you do especially when you save a possible $70 and can put that towards skiing in Vermont, which will be next week’s Rock Fever. And as always visit Robyn’s Wanderings every day for more tips and tales!

Stalking Stockholm

 

Stockholm's waterways

 

Beep. Beep. Slam. Beeppppppppppp

Is there a fire? Oh my go…sh…it’s three a.m. already? It can’t be. I hate my phone alarm. Yes I spent a year away from home without a phone and while traveling around Europe I have let one of these little cell phones dictate my life. Both a way to stay in touch and alarm, it can be helpful. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so rough with it.

It was three a.m. though. Why? Why am I waking myself up at 3 a.m.? Any other time I would be going to bed….especially since it was the day after my birthday. But not now. Nope. Why? Because I am on a mission to find cheap trips from London. This cheap one? Well that was my mistake, but it required a 6 a.m. flight from London Stansted Airport to Skvasta Airport in…..Stockholm! There was a flight at 9 a.m. but somehow I booked the earlier flight. Go figure.

In any case I had found a £20 flight to Sweden and I was trying to get myself out of bed to get my bus to the airport. I did it. Begrudgingly. But I did it. I made my flight.

Ryanair might be persistent about their weight gain (see last week’s column budget airlines), but to be fair to this low-cost/budget airline they did get me to Stockholm on time. Which is what this week’s Rock Fever Column from The Royal Gazette is all about.

I landed in this capital city that spans 14 islands of an archipelago by 9 a.m. (two hour flight plus one hour for time difference). Didn’t know Stockholm covered islands? Yeah me neither and sadly I had been here before. To be fair to me I had been here over New Years about ten years ago. There was so much snow and ice I’m surprised I ever left the hotel room. But more importantly that means the archipelago’s waters freeze over. In fact an ice-breaking boat storms through the solid water in winter months. Otherwise the ice actually helps those that live on Stockholm’s distant islands commute in the winter.

In any case, September was a far more friendly month to travel through Sweden. The weather had started to

 

Stockholm's boardwalk

 

cool down, but I didn’t always need a jacket. Not even on a night out. And it wasn’t too busy tourist-wise. A perfect time to hit this Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is also a member (the third largest by land area) of the European Union and ranks first in the Economist’s Democracy index and seventh in the United Nations’ Human Development Index.

I would say life is pretty ideal. And that is definitely what this capital city exudes – idealism. Welcoming me to the centre of the city was an hour bus ride complete with lush green countryside dotted with horses and lakes. The city was equally ideal. The taxi driver actually offered NOT to rip me off when I tried to get a lift to my friend’s place. He told me the cabs outside of the bus station were cheaper. More than nice taxi drivers, Stockholm also has nice-looking people too.

By that I don’t mean the stereotype of blondes. I mean there were a lot in this most populous city of Sweden (more than 800,000 live in the centre, 1 million on the immediate outskirts and 2.5 million on the outer, outerskirts). But what I mean is the Swedes wandering the streets could have just walked out of a catalogue. The babies could be featured on Gerber bottles. No wonder Ikea (the perfectly constructed furniture store) is Swedish.

 

Economics of Weddings in the National Economic Museum across from The Castle

 

These perfect streets and people of Sweden founded Stockholm in 1250, and it is the site of government as well as the official residence of the Monarch. Technically the king lives outside of Stockholm and just keeps the Royal Palace in town for his official business. That’s what I like to do too.

This mammoth palace dominates the Gamla Stan island (Old Town) and yet it only offers to open its doors for a couple of hours a day. I missed them. Only from 12 to 3. Oh well. I had seen the snippets of the castle when I had visited before. It was the warmest thing to do in Stockholm over New Years.

But more than a hand warmer this castle has 610 rooms just in case the Royal family manages to get bored in their place. It is also the site of the (I would say) dinners for the most famous of prizes – the Nobel Prize. While the jewels….the crown’s of course, also rest here. So much for my dinner accessories that night. Don’t be like me though. By that I mean jet-lagged and too late for the castle. Get up in Stockholm and make the visit. There are tours, but be warned entering can get expensive. One hundred Swedish Kronas ($15) to see each segment of the castle i.e. the Treasury or the Private Quarters, etc…. I saved my Kronas and decided to head across the street to find out about where they came from.

I couldn’t resist the National Economy Museum. I know. Go Figure. I’m one crazy tourist. What drew my attention? An exhibit on weddings and the economics behind it. Yeah it wasn’t always about love (is it?). They do say finances is one of the main reasons marriages end. Good thing I got some tips. Besides the wedding dresses, the museum was worth it’s weight in….well let’s just say it was interesting.

Did you know that the first European banknote was printed in Sweden? Or that the largest coin is here? Or how about the history of the pesos? Or how about the fact that the Swedes have one of John Steinbeck’s signatures because that’s the only way he could cash his Nobel Prize cheque? Yes. The equivalent of more than $2 million dollars used to be handed in cheques to the successful Nobel person.

Enough of the economics in museums. Stockholm’s economy doesn’t make this country break from your

Bermuda-budget (prices for food and drinks are the same). Nor does it give you a break from the Bermuda water border. But I liked that. Not the prices. Those were fine. Not as expensive as everyone whispers about

 

Largest minted coin with the lightest wallet on it.

 

Scandinavian countries, but I love being in a city where water dominates.

I felt right at home even if the boats used wooden logs for bumpers rather than heavy plastic. Yep even if Stockholm requires dodging H&M’s (the clothing stores) which dot every corner like Starbucks in London it’s still a dynamic city. A city my friend swore up and down was much like New York with its various neighbourhoods. From the Old Town (similar to New York’s soho) to their Sofo neighbourhood, which is more like New York’s village, Stockholm offers everything.

And there are cheaper things to do in this town. Which is exactly what I needed after my schooling at the economics museum. So I headed for the rest the old town with my camera ready. Picturesque doesn’t describe it. IN fact the Old Town sums-up Swedes for you. I don’t think I ever saw anything out of place – perfection.

Well except for maybe their ships. One would have though the descendants of vikings would have been able to build a boat. Unfortunately they couldn’t. But now there is a museum relegated to this. After spending a few hours wandering around the old town with camera (best way to see this town and capture your memories) it was an easy ferry ride to see the ship- Vasa.

Built from 1626 to 1628 it was supposed to be a Swedish warship. Sent to sea on August 10, 1628 it promptly sank one nautical mile from home. Oops. Dug-up in the 1960’s there is now a museum to it. Ok it might not have made the best sailing ship, but it is a decent recorder of history. So I guess it was worth it going to see it.

I wandered around the Vasa hoping that the boat tomorrow would be better built. Why? Well my friend would be off work and we decided to navigate the Stockholm Archipelago! Nothing a few layers couldn’t handle. So make sure you check My Photos page for documentation of my cheap Swedish trip and check back here next week for more on Stockholm’s islands as well as Sweden’s oldest town!

Sweden on a budget? Airline?

To Sweden by Air....Ryanair

“Your bag is 11.1 kilos. I can’t let you go through.”

“Sorry? What am I supposed to do?”

“You can only have 10 kilos. I don’t know check your bag? Put more clothes on?”

I looked around and saw others scampering through their bags trying to rearrange things. I stared at the Ryanair bag-nazi. She didn’t back down.

I retreated to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later I exited wearing two pairs of pants, four shirts, two jackets and my camera stuffed in a jacket pocket. I guess they can’t weigh me.

My low-cost harasser told me I was free to board now that I weighed an extra kilo. Now I just had to overcome the heat and fainting feeling as I walked to immigration.

It’s the price I had to pay. For what? Well that’s what this week’s Rock Fever Column is about: Budget Airlines.

Why? Because I’m currently based in London trying to find ten cheap trips (less than $100) from and in this city. The first? That was last week’s Frequent Flyer flight to London. Ok it was $130, but that was round-trip so really only $65 one-way! See I told you counting your miles can be helpful!

The second? Well that one saw me sweating the small things (yes I even managed to fit my computer charger in my jacket) to board my flight to Stockholm, Sweden. That’s because I had found a flight for £10 to Stockholm on budget, Ryanair’s website. Yes I wrote that!

How many bags?

But Robyn, what about taxes? Ha. Those only added £10. For £20 or $47 I had a return flight (which takes about two hours one way) to Stockholm, Sweden.

Sure it sounds great, right. And it is…..but….butttttt well you read about my layering. Which brings me to my cheap trip column this week: traveling budget airlines (the only way to travel under $100 outside of Britain). So tip one is: look at your self in the mirror and ask yourself: Can I really travel light? And I don’t mean one checked bag instead of two. I mean only ONE carry-on bag (and by one I mean no computer bar and purse combo. I mean ONE) and NO checked bags.

Why only one bag? Well that’s simple. Tip two is Ryanair and Easy Jet (two major budget, European airlines) charge for checked bags. Yep. It would have cost me more to check a bag to Stockholm than checking myself in! £30 for my bag! The clothes can stay in London.

To travel light a quick tip three is to: make sure you pack clothes all in one colour category (i.e. black is easiest) so matching and mixing is easy, bring travel-size soaps and pack a small notebook rather than full-blown lap-top.

Which leads to four which is: book the ticket even if you have to check a bag. That bag plus the ticket is still cheaper than flying other commercial airlines, but if you can: ask a friend to store your stuff or ask if the hotel will keep it for a couple of days while you enjoy Europe.

And if you are trying to kill time from the British Airways flight until your cheap flight later in the day from another airport, tip five is: head into the city with Gatwick Express and check your luggage in a museum. Yep those baggage checks are there for something. Get some culture and give your arms a rest.

That done the next task is finding your flight. These cheap flights usually fly in and out of distant airports (i.e. not the main hub) which leads to tip six: all of the budget airlines have websites for transport information to and from the random airports. For me to get to Sweden I had to go to Stansted – no not the well-known Gatwick or Heathrow – airport. I took a bus for £14 round-trip that ran all night from central London. My point? Don’t let a distant airport discourage you. You can make it and on-time with the convenient bus connections that are all detailed on your budget airline’s website when you book your flight.

So board your bus, but make sure before you do, you print your boarding passes for your flights! Tip Seven: budget airlines ensure that boarding their planes are simple (if you have carry-on luggage and print!) so make sure you abide by it. They will charge you at the airport if you fail to print your boarding passes. Don’t miss this little tidbit of information!

But make sure tidbits are not what you have eaten for breakfast or lunch. Tip eight is: eat, a hearty meal

Sweden from above

because while other commercial airlines might throw you a bag of peanuts, budget airlines will charge ridiculous prices for water!

Which could lead to them charging for waste water. What? It’s tip nine: Ryanair made headlines earlier this year saying they planned to charge for bathrooms onboard. It hasn’t happened yet, but better use the potty before you leave in case!

Charge for a kilo, charge for a bag, charge for water…..one thing these budget airlines won’t charge for? Your seat of choice. Your final tip for attempting to board a budget airline is get in line really early because these flights do not have assigned seats. You want a window? Make sure you get there first because no one will reserve it for you.

Is it still worth it? I got to the land of Ikea, H&M, and blonde vikings for under $50! Next week’s column: Stalking Stockholm.

But make sure you check back here! Since my last column I have also managed to make it to Berlin……it was amazing. Now I need to figure out where to go next!

What is this?

Moon over London

Through my blurred eyes, I stumbled. I seemed to be stumbling a lot. Was it the shoes? My sad little white sneakers that had made it through London, Sweden and Berlin?

I don’t think so. They hadn’t been causing problems before. Could it be my arch nemesis – WHEAT?! Don’t think so. I had been very careful and not eaten anything out of the ordinary. In fact I had found a grocery store filled to the brim with gluten-free food and I had stuffed my face with them.

It wasn’t the side-walk. I was wandering along the groomed streets of London. And noooo. No it wasn’t to do with too much beer, wine or any other spirits. Unfortunately no.

What was it? What was this blurred image?

I was wandering through London. I was wandering through London FOUR hours LATER than I was supposed to be. I was sadly watching the young students stumble over each other and after each other as they propelled themselves from the clubs.

I couldn’t watch their antics any longer. I looked up.

It was my blurred image. It was my small sliver of a moon trying to peak into what these plastered freshers were doing. So I decided to try some night photography. Anything to keep me standing straight at 2.30 a.m. as I waited for my London, night-bus.

But why, you ask, was I standing on the streets of London at 2.30 a.m. sober? Good question.

Well the answer to that would have to be deferred to the likes of EasyJet.

Yes this budget, low-cost, cheap (whatever you want to call it) airline had been my choice for my latest adventure – Berlin, Germany – and was a bad choice at best (and remember to check on Monday’s Rock Fever Column in The Royal Gazette and here for tips on how to travel these budget airlines).

Last I left you here on my blog I was in Sweden. Berlin was my next stop and it was supposed to be easy. And I don’t mean because of the name of the airline. No, what I mean is that my flight from London to Berlin was late in the day which meant no early risings.

Too bad my flight that was supposed to leave at 7.50 p.m. didn’t leave until 11. That led to a late-night Berlin commute.

Just to even things out Easy Jet decided to offer me a late-night London wandering too. From Luton (i.e. an hour and a half from London centre). My flight was supposed to arrive at 11. It arrived at 12.30 a.m.

I couldn’t get out of bed this morning. I couldn’t move. I’m exhausted. It’s been a lot of flying hours and not enough lying-in hours.

Hence the lateness of this blog. I think it might be time. It might be time to find a trip closer to London (remember I’m based here for a month trying to find cheap trips from this capital city).

Where should I visit? Got some ideas? Suggestions? I am happy to hear them!