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Tips for Traveling Paris

August 27, 2008

Paris is an amazing city. I fell in love with it the first moment I was there. American ex-pat, Tanya from Parisian Spring, gave us some tips for beating the summer crowds in Paris. They are wonderful tips as Paris is really crowded during the summer, especially during August. Parisians evacuate the city for the summer and head to the countryside or the beach. The vacuum caused by their departure is filled with tourists who crowd all the sights, streets, and cafes.

Should you find yourself in Paris during the summer months, here are some tips for traveling the city that might make your stay more enjoyable:

Crowds swarm the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, creating queues that wrap around each structure. Should you go mid-day, you’ll be waiting a few hours to climb each. Head there early in the morning to avoid the rush. Queues start to form about an hour after opening.

The maps the tourist office give don’t include all the streets. Should you get lost, you’ll eventually hit a main street and you can coordinate your position there. Moreover, the map is not really drawn to scale. The tourist information map is a good reference but for more detail stick to a guide book map. This is especially true in the Latin Quarter. (I found this out the hard way.

Moreover, Paris has few street maps for tourists. Unlike Amsterdam or London, there are few signs telling you where you are. Don’t expect easy navigation. If you do find a sign, it will be in French and not English. (Signs describing historical monuments are also only in French).

The Latin Quarter is one of the best parts of the city and also devoid of tourists. Head deep into the heart for tiny windy streets and cheap cafes that overlook little plazas. The cafes get crowded during lunch time.

If you want a good view of the city but don’t want to wait to get to the top of the Eiffel tower, head to Montmartre. This little district, where artists like Picasso and Pissaro used to live, provides sweeping views of the city without the wait or the cost.

Internet cafes are expensive- about 6 Euros an hour. Z-net in the Latin quarter has it for 4 Euro an hour and offers wi-fi.

The Louvre is discounted after 6pm on Fridays and free on Sundays. During the low season, it is also closed on Tuesdays. It’s located in the center of the city and has two metro stops- both marked “Louvre.” Get off at either one.

The Jardin du Luxemburg is a great place to eat out and enjoy a nice day. It’s filled with people relaxing in chairs and on the grass. It’s a great day to enjoy the sun of Paris.

South of Notre Dame, Rue Dauphine has some great eateries. The place gets crowded with folks relaxing for drinks after dinner. Pull up a chair, grab a glass of wine, and enjoy a Parisian pastime- staring at what walks by on two legs.

Buy a metro card. Paris has over 300 subway stations so it is easy to get around the city. A day pass is only 6 Euros.

It took me two days in Paris to learn all that. Imagine what a longer stay would yield. These tips, as well as the tips Tanya gave us, can help make your travel experience more enjoyable.

Posted by NomadicMatt | Filed Under Travel Tips | 2 Comments

Cheap Ways to Travel Across Europe

August 4, 2008

Eurotrain Europe is not always the cheapest place to travel around. Transportation costs can cause havoc on any budget, especially if you are going long distances. It’s most ridiculous in England where the pricing method is similar to the airlines (book early). If you need to hop on a train, it can be as (or more) expensive as hoping on a flight. (I’m not joking. It cost me more for a 2 hr train ride than it did to fly to Amsterdam from London.) However, there are still a few cheap ways to travel around Europe:

Megabus- A cheap way to travel get across the United Kingdom, fares can cost as little as one pound. Even if you don’t scoop up these amazingly cheap deals, you can still travel for a fraction of the cost you can on the National Rail system. Fares rarely top fifteen pounds. Most Megatrains and buses leave from London but you can also get intercity links from many of the country’s main destinations. (As well as major destinations in Wales and Scotland.) It’s simply the best deal around. Travel in the UK is ridiculously expensive and even if you change your plans, you are only losing a pound. This should be your first option for UK travel.

Busabout- A hop on/hop off again service similar to the OZ or Kiwi Experience. You can get on and off whenever you like and, once you buy the ticket, you don’t have to worry about transportation the whole way. There is an onboard guide that can help you with accommodation. They’ll help plan events and tours for you too. Busabout is not the cheapest option on the list but for those looking for something different, it is a good way to get around hassle free while knowing you’ll be around other backpackers. What you are really paying for is a scaled down tour and for the first time traveler, this can be a good option if they don’t feel comfortable traveling on their own.

Low Cost Carriers- By far the cheapest option for traveling Europe, these airlines are so prolific that it helps keeps fares cheap. You can often find tickets where the fare is just the taxes. Companies like SkyEurope, Transavia, EasyJet, and RyanAir offer flights throughout the continent for dirt cheap. It cost me 20 pounds to fly from London to Amsterdam, 25 euros to fly from Paris to Germany, and 60 euros to go from Stockholm to Amsterdam. Book early and you can get tickets for mere pennies.

EuroRail Pass- Getting a rail pass is a good option if you are going to be traveling across vast distances. The European rail system is very good and very cheap over short distances. However, when you start boarding night trains across multiple countries, the rail system becomes a bit more expensive. Rail Passes are a great way to save quite a few euros and are a must for anyone looking to take the trains over long distances.

Use these options and you are bound to save money while you travel around Europe! Europe is expensive but there are still cheap ways to get around!

Posted by NomadicMatt | Filed Under Travel Tips | 12 Comments

Finding A Cheap Airplane Ticket

June 1, 2008

The problem for anyone is not finding a place to go but how to get there cheap. Sometimes half the cost of a trip is in the travel. Finding a cheap flight is as important as finding the right location, the right tour, the right backpack, or the right hotel. Yet with travel on the rise and oil prices, airlines are raising ticket prices to cover rising costs. That makes knowing how to find a cheap price even more important. Here are a few tips that can help you find a cheap flight:

Be flexible with your travel dates
If you’re rigid with your dates you won’t be able to capture any of the pricing variations airlines use. Tickets prices always fluctuate depending on day and time of the week. Its always cheaper to fly mid week than on a weekend. Its cheaper to fly out after major holidays than before. That week after Christmas? No one ever flies and prices drop. For some odd reason, flight prices drop a bit on Tuesday nights. When searching for flights, be flexible- you will catch better deals. Allow yourself some wiggle room going there and coming back- the difference of a day can be the difference of a few hundred dollars.

Fly to secondary airports with low-cost carriers.
Most major cities have a smaller, secondary airport. This is the airport most low-cost carriers (LCC) fly into because its cheaper and it helps keep cost down, which helps keep prices down. Check out what airlines fly into these airport. For example, you can take Jetblue to Long beach, an airport equally close to LA, instead of LAX and save some money on a flight. Flying the LCCs is a good alternative whenever possible. You get less “perks” but you can save a bundle in ticket costs. This is especially true in Europe where competition is stiff.

Try alternative paths.
Not only does it help to be flexible with dates but try being flexible with the route you take. Sometimes its cheaper to fly to London, take a LCC to Amsterdam than flying direct to Amsterdam. There are so many low cost airlines around that if you can take advantage of a great deal to a different city then catch a LCC to your destination. This is especially true in Europe where you get flights for 1 Euro plus tax! Buy working various airlines and special offers, you can help save yourself money. It is a little more work but it can give you more to spend at your destination.

Know what you want to pay for a flight.
People always try to get the lowest price online, wait too long, and then pay too much. We all know airline prices always bounce up and down yet in our quest to hold out just a little longer, most of the time miss the lowest price. Therefore it’s important to know what you want to pay not what you hope to pay. What’s the lowest price for YOU? Is 150 roundtrip from NY to Miami what you want? Don’t want to pay more than 900 to go from LA to Tokyo? Then don’t. Don’t wait for the perfect price- wait for your price. Then you will never have buyers remorse. Prices always fluctuate but to catch the best price, try booking 6-8 weeks prior to your departure. Also, try sites like Farecast that can help you catch a price dip.

Remember not all search sites are equal.
Whenever I start my internet flight searches, I tend to go right to Expedia. It is really out of habit more than anything else but I don’t just search Expedia. I’ll see what prices one site offers and then check out all the other travel sites, like Priceline, Travelocity and Orbitz. Not all sites are created equal and you will find varying prices on each one of those sites. It’s also useful after you find a flight to check out the carriers own website. Sometimes the flight is cheaper (or the same) on the carriers website and you avoid the fees the search engines charge. (Check out the links page for search sites.)

Search the airline carrier’s international websites.
On that same thought- don’t forget to search the international websites of all major airlines. You might think that prices will be same across the board but remember all sites and prices are not the same. I have found New Zealand tickets from Tokyo to LA hundreds of dollars cheaper when searching the NZ version of the website instead of the US. I found tickets to and from Europe cheaper by searching the Canadian version of the British Airways website. Many times these tickets are also priced in foreign denominations which can also make the prices slightly cheaper depending on your currency. Don’t think you can’t book the flight if your not in that country either because you can! (Note: The recent fall of the US dollar has made this hard to work for Americans but easier for people on the Euro, Pound, or Yen!)

Take advantage of student discounts.
If you are a student, there are discounts available for you. Check out STA travel and their search engine. You can find flexible student tickets on their website and agency stores. I used them for a 400 dollar ticket from Athens to Bangkok. You can’t get much cheaper than that!

Travel Off Peak
Traveling off peak times reduces cost all around, especially on airlines. It’s double to go to Europe in the summer or Australia in the winter.

Sign up for newsletters.
Sign up for airline news letters and fare updates. It will keep you in the loop for when prices drop so you can snatch up the cheap deals right away and not miss out.

It may be getting harder to find great airline deals but they are still out there. You just need to find them!

Posted by NomadicMatt | Filed Under Travel Tips | 6 Comments

Staying in Touch on the Road

May 15, 2008

(This article is a culmination of a few blogs and is archived in the travel tips section)

Staying in touch on the road is important to many travelers. And staying in touch on the road cheaply is just as important. While e-mail and social sites like Facebook and MySpace allow us to stay connected easier than ever before, sometimes you just need to hear someone’s voice or see someone’s face. For that you need a phone and/or a webcam. There are three major options a traveler can choose from: Skype, calling cards, and cell phones.

But which is the best? Which is the easiest? And, more importantly, the cheapest? Let’s examine all three.

Skype

Skype is an Internet based phone service that lets you call users around the world for free. It was invented in 2003 by two Swedish guys and, in 2005, was bought by eBay. It allowed users to create a profile and talk to other users using VOIP (essentially it was an Internet phone). Additionally, if you had a webcam you could see the person you were talking to. It was hailed as a new way to communicate - a way that would make old phones obsolete. The only problem was that you needed a computer and a reasonably fast internet connection. Over time, they expanded the service to allow calls to land phones or mobiles for a small fee (.02 - .20 cents a minute).

While you still need a computer for a majority of its services, Skype now offers a variety of other services, including:

* Voicemail
* Your own Skype phone number (This service is called SkypeIn)
* Use Skype on a wireless phone
* Conference calling (a great business feature)
* Text messaging
* File transfers

The problem with Skype is that not too many people know about. In my travels, I encountered a number of people who had it but, compared to the amount of people who had a cellphone, or even a chat service like MSN, the amount was minuscule.

There were a few travelers who used the site to call home like I did. I’d say about 95% of the people I knew back in the US had not even heard of the service. While I think Skype is a decent option for travelers, especially as a simple way to communicate with people back home, I would not rely on it as my main form of communication on the road.

Calling Cards

When I first traveled overseas, I used calling cards almost exclusively. I figured they were more convenient than scouting out a cell phone, especially since I was in each country for an only few weeks at a time. I only needed to occasionally call my parents, but still wanted to remain unconnected from the world at large. Having a cellphone just didn’t seem like I was getting off the grid. It was bad enough I was at an Internet cafe all the time! Wasn’t the point of travel to get away from the trappings of modern life? So I used a calling card.

Calling cards offer a few benefits:

* Pay-as-you-go: you can buy as needed
* No need to buy a new number all the time
* They don’t make you a prime target for theft like cell phones do
* It’s not a big deal if you lose them since they aren’t a hassle to replace.

The problem can be once you leave the country they are for they are useless. I ended up with two extra calling cards for Italy when I left.

Cell Phones

While on extended stay in Thailand, I bought a cheap phone, a SIM card, and I was off. When I ran out of money, I’d reload. I eventually moved on to Australia and took my phone with me. I met up with a number of Aussie friends and it would just work out easier if I had a phone to contact them.

Bottom line: when you live somewhere, you just need a cell phone.

Well, it turns out, most backpackers now are carrying cell phones since SIM cards are affordable and make arranging meetings with other travelers quite convenient.

The benefits of a cellphone:

* Can change numbers easily
* Always have access to your friends and family
* Phones can work all over the world
* Numbers in can work in a variety of countries (sometimes)
* Can sometimes be a cheaper option

For Americans, there is the technical hurdle of having a different cell network and limited access to “unlocked” phones (i.e. meaning you can easily swap SIM cards). This makes it harder to take your phone overseas and you’ll have to buy a new phone when you go abroad.

For others, it’s much easier. Non-American model phones can have their SIM card removed; phones in Europe can connect to any country; and, in Asia, SIMs and phones are so cheap, its not a problem if you lose them. (In Thailand, a phone is about 20 dollars and the SIM card 10 dollars)

Weighing the benefits of each, calling cards are definitely the least desirable. With the advent of cheap cellphones and Internet phones, they are just not the best or most economical choice. I don’t think you have to pick between a phone or Skype though. The wise traveler uses both.

Cellphones are best for keeping in touch with travelers while Skype is great for video chatting with your friends and family back home. As vagabonds, many of us would love to break free from the trappings of modern life. We want to go out and explore the world but, having all grown up in the age of instant communication, it’s hard to just cut the cord.

I wanted to be separate from the world I left back home but, sometimes, it’s nice to be able to hear a familiar voice on a bad day or to actually see your family. We can still be unplugged while being plugged in. Convince your friends and family to get Skype and you’ll never have to pay for a call home again.

Get a cell phone for emergencies and to help better organize meet-ups. You don’t want to be standing by the side of the road all day wondering if your buddy from Germany ever received your e-mail.

Posted by NomadicMatt | Filed Under Travel Tips | 1 Comment

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Tips for Traveling Paris

Cheap Ways to Travel Across Europe

Finding A Cheap Airplane Ticket

Staying in Touch on the Road

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