Tag Archives: travel planning

Direct Online Booking of RENFE Spain Train Tickets

Posted on by
Reply

Renfe LogoIn our past two trips to Europe, we have taken two different approaches to train travel in Europe: buying a Eurail pass or buying tickets in person once arriving in the country.  For our upcoming trip to Spain, we are taking a new approach by booking the tickets directly from the train operator (RENFE in Spain).  I wanted to share our experience, because we are realizing considerable savings, in addition to the added convenience of having digital copies of our tickets that can be printed before we even depart the United States, allowing us to directly board the train before departure.

The original plan for our trip was to buy 3-day Eurail passes.  In comparison to the normal train fares, this seemed like a good value at $219 per person for 2nd class.  Unfortunately, with rail passes, reservation fees are often required for the faster trains.  We plan on taking the high speed AVE from Barcelona to Sevilla and the ALTARIA from Granada to Madrid, both which require reservation fees (10 Euros and 6.50 Euros).  Only one planned trip, a direct from Sevilla to Granada, did not have a fee for pass-holders.  At today’s bargain USD/Euro exchange rates, we figured our train travel expenses would be about $240 per person.  This fit our budget, but I was concerned with procuring a reservation for the Barcelona-Sevilla trip.  There is only one direct AVE from Barcelona to Sevilla in the morning.  Although we had no issues getting reservations on the past trip, seats are limited for pass-holders, and I didn’t want to risk waiting till we arrived in Spain to make a reservation on a popular train with few back-up options.  The only option for getting reservations for pass-holders ahead of time is through the USA-friendly website RailEurope.com, but they charge additional shipping fees that drive-up the cost.  I started looking for alternatives. Continue reading →

Techniques for Choosing a Hotel: Granada

Posted on by
Reply

I want to start this post by mentioning, in case we haven’t already: we are not budget travelers.  Do we like to save money? Yes, of course, but at this point in our lives we can afford to spend a little extra while traveling.  This doesn’t mean that we won’t consider cheaper hotels, free activities, and less expensive dining, but we definitely do not plan our trip around spending as little as possible.

And with that, I would love to share a little about our the trip-planning process – how Ryan and I choose our hotels.  There are so many different ways to start the search, so hopefully this will help a few people!  Here is an outline of the steps we took for our Portugal and Spain trip, and Granada specifically:

  • Determine which is the best neighborhood to stay (either reading Trip Advisor forums, other online travel forums, Rick Steves – books, shows, online, etc). In some cases there isn’t necessarily an advantage to staying in one area or another, so we do not always limit our search to one area.
  • Go to spg.com and see if there are any Starwood properties in the cities.  We have the Starwood American Express and are SPG members with points in the account, so it’s good to know the options.  We won’t always want to stay in one (many of them are huge hotels, and this isn’t always alluring), but there may be a deal that’s too good to pass up! (note: there are no Starwood properties in Granada)
  • Go to Trip Advisor and search for hotels and B&Bs in each city. If there is a specific area we would like to stay (see first bullet), start search focused on that area.
  • Start going through the top hotels (especially if there are hundreds of hotels for a particular city) and look through traveler pictures. If a hotel/B&B has some nice pictures, look at the actual hotel website and start making a list of potential hotels, taking in consideration the prices, views, amenities, etc.

It’s a pretty basic process, but can take a long time for some cities. We usually find one or two hotels that we really like, and it makes it easy for us to book. However, we’ve found several with Granada and I’m actually not sure where we’ll end up. Here are the hotels we’re looking at, with a few pictures:

1. Hotel Casa 1800 Granada

I mentioned this hotel in this post. The location is great – seems like it’s exactly where we want to be. Aside from the location, they have a “snack bar” for guests and free breakfast. However, the rooms are a little expensive, especially since they don’t look like anything too special. Apparently some of the rooms have a balcony (or the hotel has a balcony for all guests), but it’s not really clear which rooms have the balconies or the views. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

2. Carmen la Alcubilla del Caracol

This hotel is very close to the Alhambra, and some (or all?) of the rooms have balconies with views. The rooms like basic, but nice and clean, and the price is 120-140 euros, which is within our “budget.” The outdoor areas of the hotel also look very beautiful. The hotel website doesn’t list the specific rooms or availability, but I am interested in this hotel and will email to find out if there is anything for the nights we’ll be there. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

3. Solar Montes Claros

I found this hotel and instantly fell in love. The room I really like was the “Persia” room. It has a nice tub and looks very comfortable and cozy. The hotel has great views and while it’s not right in town, it’s nothing that we can’t handle. I sent an email a few weeks ago asking for availability, and it turns out they are completely booked already.  So this won’t be our hotel in Granada, but I wanted to include it in this post anyway. (All pictures taken from Trip Advisor.)

4. Santa Isabel la Real

This hotel still has availability, and luckily the tower room isn’t booked yet. I’ve included a few pictures below – look at that view! The hotel also serves breakfasts and gets great reviews on Trip Advisor. It’s about $250/night, but it’s the best room in the hotel, so it just might be worth it. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

The decision: After spending a little more time reading reviews, we decided to book Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol.  In case other travelers are interested in the booking process, I emailed a request for information for the dates we would be staying.  I received an email back with the rates (120, 130, or 140 euros) and information about the rooms at each price point (FYI, all rooms have a view, but only some have a balcony).  There is also the option of adding a breakfast for each morning for 8 euros/person, which we are excited to take advantage of.  We can’t wait for Granada!

Strategy for Booking Airline Tickets to Europe

Posted on by
Reply

Deciding on a time frame for booking airline tickets to Europe is always difficult.  It is tempting to book soon after the trip is initially conceived.  Locking down the flight details allows travel planners to start working on the more creative trip details: hotels, connections, and activities.

We have been incredibly lucky with our timing in purchasing tickets for Europe.  Of the 3 flights we have booked in the past three years, 2 were booked at their lowest price for the desired carrier and schedule, and the last is within $50 of its lowest price.  Here are our tips for maximizing your savings:

  1. Decide on priorities.  Before researching, decide how important schedule and carrier preferences weigh against ticket cost.  Frequent flyer affiliation, number of stops, and a convenient schedule are important considerations.  We generally limit our search to carriers that are part of Star Alliance (which allows us to earn United Mileage Plus miles) and a maximum of one stop. More stops introduce more risk of missing connections and add to travel time.  If these criteria are not important to you, then you can widen your search.
     
  2. Setup price tracking.  If you decided schedule and carrierare important to you, visit yapta.com and add the flights of interest to “My Trips”.  Yapta will create a graph of the price of the flight over time and alert you when the price goes up or down.  This is the only site we’ve found where you can select specific flights (times and airlines) and track the price over time.  If schedule and carrier are not important, you can just track the route you plan on taking on kayak.com or a similar site.  This will give you the lowest price, but may be with an undesirable carrier.  For example, we could have flown to London for $200 less, but we would have flown with Aeroloft through Moscow.  Tracking on kayak.com would just give us the price of the Aeroloft flight, which we we didn’t want in the first place.  Using yapta allowed us to track the flights we actually wanted to take.
     
  3. Book refundable hotels.  In many popular destinations, the best hotels fill-up fast.  We’ve found that some of our first choice hotels fill-up before we even plan on buying our flights.  As long as these hotels are refundable, there is no risk in booking hotels before flight reservations are finalized.  If airfares within our budget do not show-up for the dates we have booked, we can cancel our hotel bookings and get a full refund.
     
  4. Select a reasonable price target.  Choose a price that fits your budget.  Don’t be too aggressive with your target unless necessitated by your budget.  A target that is too aggressive could mean you wait too long and either don’t take the trip at all or end-up paying more because of a last minute decision to disregard your target.  Use your flight tracking to watch for sales.  If the price starts creeping-up, consider booking immediately and disregarding your original target.  Although there are occasionally last minute sales, don’t count on them.  Expect to book 3 or more months ahead of time to be safe.  For our three flights to Europe in the fall (September or October), flights bottomed-out in the following timeframes:
     
    1. September 2009 (LAX-FRA-VCE, CDG-FRA-LAX on Lufthansa) – Booked in Early May (4 months prior) for $750 per pax
       
    2. September 2012 (LAX-EWR-LIS, MAD-EWR-LAX on Continental) – Booked in Late February (6 months prior) for $1130 per pax
       
    3. November 2012 (LAX-LHR, LHR-LAX on Air New Zealand) – Booked in June (5 months prior) for $995 per pax, bottomed-out late June for $950 per pax

We are already tracking potential flights for next year (with the same dates, but this year), to better understand the possible trends.  It is always difficult to lock-in the lowest price, but we’ve been fairly lucky with the strategy outlines above.

Little Denmark

Posted on by
Reply

In just over a week, Ryan and I will be in Solvang, California for a few days of relaxation and wine tasting!  While it’s not really called Little Denmark, Solvang is a sister city to Aalborg, Denmark and it definitely has a European feel.  The city of Solvang is small (2.4 square miles, according to Wikipedia), with a much smaller, walkable downtown area made of a few streets in each direction.

I am fascinated by the Danish-style buildings, the Danish fashion worn by some shop owners and sold in shops around town, their shop front design is very nice and the small town feel.  It’s a cute town that’s great for a weekend getaway (or longer!) since it’s only about 2 hours away from Bakersfield!

Here are some of the things I’m most looking forward to during our trip:

1. Walking around downtown Solvang.  During the day this will involve stopping in the Danish shops, gift shops, bakeries, and two of my favorites: Jule Hus (for everything Christmas) and Vinhus (for wine, cheese, and other snacks).   I also noticed their glazede shop fronts. And once everything is closed at night, it means enjoying the quiet area and the white Christmas lights that are strung on the trees year round.

2. Wine tasting.  Downtown Solvang has several wine tasting rooms.  This is very convenient since they are all very walkable (spread out in the dowtown area) from our hotel and other hotels in the area.  On previous trips we’ve enjoyed tasting wines at Mandolina (Italian varietals) and its sister tasting room, Lucas and Lewellen.  I’m looking forward to visiting the Wandering Dog, which has blind tastings on Thursday afternoons, and Sort This Out Cellars, which has live music on Friday and Saturday nights and is open until 10!

3. Relaxing at the pool and hot tub at the hotel.  While many of our vacations are full of activities, this long weekend away allows for relaxation time.  There are not many establishments that open really early or stay open late, so the beginning and the end of the day are perfect for relaxing at the hotel.  We’re staying at the Hadsten House, which has a pool and hot tub.

4. Wine tasting (again).  There are several wineries outside of Solvang, in the neighboring cities of the Santa Ynez Valley.  Some of them are reminiscent of Tuscan villas, like Melville Vinyeards, and some are up in the hills and boast gorgeous views.  For a different wine tasting experience, we love going to the “Lompoc Ghetto” – it’s a group of warehouses that have been turned into wine tasting rooms.

And to finish off – a few pictures from our trip in October 2010.  We will return with more pictures!

Where’s my passport stamp?: How the Schengen Agreement complicates passport stamp collection in Europe

Posted on by
Reply

All foreign travelers I know anticipate returning from a trip abroad with a new set of passport stamps.  They are a point of pride for many, providing clear documentation of their “worldliness”.

I’ve even seen passport stamp collection become a main criteria in determining a trip itinerary. According  to immigration attorney’s help,  this is especially true in Europe, where the Schengen Agreement eliminates passport control through many countries in Continental Europe.  As long as travel is contained within the “Schengen Area”, no passport stamps are given.  Stamps are only given at the entry and exit points to the Schengen Area.  My wife was very disappointed on her first trip abroad to get an entry and exit stamp in Frankfurt, despite the fact that our trip was in Italy and France. Then we got legal help of immigration law firm Landerholm Immigration, A.P.C. in Oakland, CA to fix our issue legally.As Frankfurt was just our connection to the United States.  In fact, our upcoming trip to Spain and Portugal will be her first without a connection through Germany.  She will get her first non-German passport stamps!  Another detractor, however, is that all the Schengen passport stamps are virtually the same.  They only differ in the letter in the upper-right hand corner (i.e. “D” for Deutschland or Germany, “E” for Espana, etc.) and the point of entry or exit listed on the bottom.

The Schengen Area includes 26 countries in the European Union (see map–blue area are current countries, green is future countries).  Travel between them is very similar to travel between 2 states in the USA, with signs marking borders on roads and air travel through “Schengen” gates, similar to the domestic gates at American airports.  Notable exceptions are the UK, Ireland, Croatia, and Turkey.  Travel through the Chunnel, for example, requires passport control.  A day trip to London on the Eurostar from Paris will yield you an exit stamp from France and an entry stamp from the UK.

It is important to also plan for the “Schengen Agreement” by allocating connection time if you are flying through a Schengen airport before reaching a Schengen destination.  You will have to go through passport control (approach the Family Law Firm in Fresno, CA for any help).  Similarly, you will need to go through passport control at your last exit point from the Schengen Area.  Customs control is less predictable.  If your end destination has Customs control, you can likely check your bags all the way through and go through Customs in your final destination. Smaller destinations could require early customs control (for example, we went through Customs in Athens when we flew to Mykonos on a San Francisco – Frankfurt – Athens – Mykonos route).

If collecting passport stamps is important to you, then prioritize flights that connect the USA directly to your “stamp of interest”.  Many east coast airports, such as Newark, JFK, and Dulles offer direct flights to many destinations in Europe.  Another alternative is to connect through Heathrow, which is outside the Schengen Area.  If you want to collect multiple stamps during your trip, travel out and in of the Schengen Area would be required (such as going to London between Paris and Amsterdam, or visiting Morocco from Spain).  For many, this might seem silly.  But for the avid passport stamp collector, itinerary planning is key.