Travel Addicts

Your Dream Trip Coming Soon...

2010-09-20T17:25:00.006+02:00

Hello Everyone,

After two years working and learning with other projects, we come back again full of experience to re-introduce the concept of LowCostTourist. Initially, it was thought to be a travel consultancy where customers can pay a fixed fee for us getting the trip organized for him/her.

We will in fact keep this function alive at a slightly higher price, but now LowCostTourist will become a completely FREE website full of resources, tools and tricks that can help you organize your dream trip to either Europe, Australia or New Zealand, or even organize a Round the World Trip at the best available price you'll ever find.

The new website will take the structure of a step by step detailed guide organized by destinations and by following it you will be able to quickly find the lowest airfares, accommodation, train passes, cruises, rental cars and campervans, insurance, banking and more! The idea is that you have to feel as if you had a real person there telling you with detailed instructions about the exact method to find the best deals and actually booking them.

This in NOT going to be an extensive guide with millions of possibilities, you have travel guides for this purpose. This is a real selection of the best of the best when it comes to low-cost with a quality guarantee.

And even better, we are already working in new destinations so that in a mid-term future LowCostTourist will include practically any major destination in the world and how to approach it from a low-cost perspective.

We expect to have the project finalized and ready for you to plan your trips before the end of January 2011, and will advise of more specific release dates as soon as they become realistic enough to announce.

Meanwhile, you can check updates on this blog or see it by yourself in our website:
http://www.lowcosttourist.com

Great Trip to South America

2008-05-29T21:33:00.002+02:00

Great Trip to South America

Many of us have only 2 weeks vacations per year. Others may have 3, and some more lucky people will get up to 4, 5 or even 6 weeks holidays per year. It is obvious that the possibility for doing long trips is very limited by our job.

In any case, there are special moments in life such as before having kids, in retirement or in any special career break when we could just get relaxed and go discover this big World.

Recently I found some great guys who are organizing some incredible trips in the whole world, and I was specially surprised by a trip they run in South America which last for 103 days for a cost near the 5000 Euros per person ($7800). The trip includes accommodation for all the days and a guide that will lead a small group of between 1 and 12-16 persons from Ecuador to Brazil passing through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

Tremendous experience to remember from my perspective, and something I'll surely do in the future. If you want more information on how to organize a trip like this, feel free to visit Travel Planning Help

Great Trip to South America

World Cruises

2008-01-30T20:28:00.000+01:00

World Cruises

Definitely it's not something that you can afford every year, but I must say that if you really wish to do it and you manage to save, it is not that terrible. A world cruise involves many times that you will cruise nearly around the whole globe, and most of the times the package will include flights to the destination where the cruise starts.

World Cruises usually start in 3 different places. A typical point is in the UK, there are also many from the Australia and New Zealand zone and from the west coast of North America, specially from Seattle.

You will be involved in a trip that can last from 40 days and up to some cruises that I have found that are up to 108 days or even more. The price for that 108 days jewel was about 12,000 €, but of course if you take a shorter one you could get an inside cabin for 4,000 € or so. Normally in the price, apart from the flights to the departure point and back home, it will be included all the meals and use of installations on the boat and all shows and entrance to every part of the complex. You will be also entitled to receive lectures on the different places for free.

The only thing that will not be included is travel insurance many times and nearly never the tours in the cities you visit that you can book with external partners.

Again, probably World Cruises are not the kind of stuff you do pretty often, but if one day you have the time and the money, you can discover the world in just a single long trip on a luxury ship!

World Cruises

Last Minute Deals?

2008-01-25T22:30:00.000+01:00

Last Minute Deals?

No, thanks. That would be best answer I can give to you. You know, companies need to get benefits, and all the ones that are specialized in last minute flight deals have done a great marketing effort in order to convince some people that booking at the very last moment is beneficial.

Sincerely, let them keep saying that, but avoid booking with them unless it is absolutely impossible to do it in another way (because you decided to take the trip on the last day)

Prices are not going to be cheaper than when planning ahead, and furthermore you have a high risk of having no places at the flight you want to take. Plan ahead, you'll get even a better price than for last minute flights and you will risk nothing.

The worse you can do? An intermediate. Booking between 1 and 2 weeks before your flight is the worse of the situations because you are not taking advantage of reduced fares for booking early and the last minute deals have still not appeared. That's the time when price is higher. It is funny then to know that many of the people you will se on the plane have booked during this period and payed 5 times what you did!

Last Minute Deals?

Tourism Prices in the Future

2008-01-20T21:27:00.000+01:00

Tourism Prices in the Future

Today I'll leave it very short discussing about the topic of future expected prices in the tourism industry. To understand each concept we must separate the accommodation world, as it has existed nearly since we set foot on this planet, and the airlines world, which is something very recent and has a lot to improve still.

If we speak about hotels, I have bad news. The way society is developing makes us every time want more comfort and more luxury. This is seen by hotel owners and investors and every time more luxury resort properties are built and run to make good money. Prices will rise, even if competition lowers them, as they will be always able to make publicity of extreme comfort and services to justify the price.

In the case of the airline industry, I've got good news. Probably in Europe we won't see a big difference because prices are already the lowest they can possibly be, with some flights costing 0.01 Euros if you book early. Instead, in the rest of the World, and specially in North America and the South Pacific there is a lot to do and prices will surely go down.

A plane is seen very differently than a hotel and people want it to be efficient, not a luxury item. They want to go from one place to another for the cheapest price possible, and the most of the people do not care if they've got extra services and luxury. This is the main reason why prices will go down as competence is very high in the sector.

Still, there's a factor that will play hard in the years to come, which is the price of the fuel. I could not make a prediction on how it is going to climb or fall because I feel there are still many secrets hidden below the surface that will soon arise. In any case, we must keep an eye on it to prevent from future unexpected growing in airline prices takes could take us from the back.

After all, we'll always have the opportunity to get nearly free hotels by using Free Travel Certificates.

Tourism Prices in the Future

Get Free Travel Certificates by Writing Articles

2008-01-19T11:05:00.001+01:00

Get Free Travel Certificates by Writing Articles

What would you think if I tell you that if you write 5 articles of about 500 words each you will get a free travel certificates useful for 3 days and 2 nights in deluxe accommodation?

What if I tell you that if you write 10 articles you will get 4 nights at Cancun in Mexico?

And similar things happen for 15, 20 and 25 articles, getting in this last one the possibility to fly with a 90% discount plus 2 hotel nights and the opportunity to stay during 7 nights at a 5 star resort nearly for free.

We agree it sounds good.

This opportunity didn't exist before, but since this Monday it does at Free Travel Certificates

(Tip of the Day: when booking flights, do book the short and cheap ones over the Internet, but book the long trips over the phone and ask thousands of questions in order to get the best deal)

Get Free Travel Certificates by Writing Articles

Free Flights Travel Certificate

2008-01-15T11:26:00.000+01:00

Free Flights Travel Certificate

Today I just wanted to let you know that another travel certificate is available for free, and this time it is covering a 2 persons return flight with an estimated value of $1500. Your costs will be only a $50 tax deposit (if taxes are lower the difference will be refunded) and a $25 redemption fee per person.

This means that by using this certificate you are getting a flight that would normally cost ç$750 per person for just $75. this is exactly a 90% discount. It is valid for all national flights within the US and also for international flights with an extra variable low fee. In any case, the discount will be always of more than 80%.

This certificate is very new and I have still not found any places that offer it for free so I still can't offer it, but if you take a look at Free Hotels, you will see all the travel certificates I offer for free and as soon as I find any place where this new one is available I will quickly add it there.

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If you are planning a trip, you can get some help at Travel to Europe

Free Flights Travel Certificate

Visit Eastern Europe

2008-01-11T20:35:00.000+01:00

Visit Eastern Europe

Welcome back after this holidays break on this new edition of Travel to Europe. This Year is going to be again full of hot travel deals, guidance, tips and tricks in order to travel to Europe or around the world cheaper.

Today just some quick guidance to Eastern Europe. You are looking to travel there but you don't really know what to visit in the region. It all depends on the time you have there, in fact.

My recommendation is the following:

1 week trip: You should visit Prague, Krakow and Budapest.

2 weeks trip: Add to this ones Zagreb in Croatia and Bratislava in Slovakia. Take a short trip to the coastal highlights in Croatia.

3 weeks trip: Take the opportunity to add to the ones above the cities of Sofia in Bulgaria, Bucharest in Romania and Belgrade in Serbia.

4 weeks trip: For the ones with a generous boss, I would visit also Warsaw in Poland, Skopje in Macedonia and Sarajevo in Bosnia.

If you want to know which the best connections are and how to organize this trip and activities in the most intelligent and economic way, take a look at Travel to Europe.

If you are looking for 70 to 95% discounted accommodation in Europe you should take a look at Free Hotels.

Visit Eastern Europe

New Travel Certificates for Free Hotels

2007-12-20T12:37:00.000+01:00

New Travel Certificates for Free Hotels

Welcome back to all of you who were looking at the evolution of this site. It was a pretty busy period and that's why I was updating new information very slowly. In any case, the effort was worth it, as right now in the Free Hotels section you will be able to find 5 new free travel certificates, including 1 for 3 nights in Mexico with a 93.7% discount, another one for 8 nights in Mexico with about 85% discount, a special certificate combining airfare and hotel stay where you will get also an 85% discount, and even a trip for 4 nights in Hawaii for up to 4 persons!

All this new certificates come from the same supplier as the ones that I used to offer before so there is nothing you should be scared about, simply keep getting them for free as always!

I'll be coming back soon with many many travel deals, as I have received some news on impressive discounts to travel from the US and also from Europe to Worldwide destinations. Keep an eye on it!

New Travel Certificates for Free Hotels

Travel to Europe - Interactive Language Courses

2007-12-17T00:39:00.000+01:00

Interactive Language Courses (+ Travel Certificate)

Well, the topic for today sound maybe a bit apart of the travel itself, but there are many ways in which you can put travel together with learning a language. The way I have made is by giving away 9 different travel certificates for free when purchasing any of the 4 available courses at Interactive Language Courses. You will find one for Spanih, for German, for French and for Japanese.

Seriously, I simply love to give away travel certificates, and as I also use them myself maybe one day I will share hotel with one of my customers. See you in Hawaii!

Interactive Language Courses (+ Travel Certificate)

Travel to Europe - Travel Industry Secrets

2007-12-12T02:14:00.000+01:00

Travel Industry Secrets

Today I am more than happy to introduce you to a new way of doing business in the kind of win-win situation. Some hard work those last days, and finally everything is set up. I have opened a new page called Travel Industry Secrets where you will be able to choose between several Travel Secrets e-Books. For the purchase of one of these travel secrets e-books I will automatically send to you a Travel Certificate for 3 Days 2 Nights hotel room at your choice between more than 30 US destinations at 3 or 4 star hotels.

Feel free to take a look at Travel Industry Secrets to find out the exact conditions for this opportunity to learn on the traveling cheap secrets and at same time enjoy this quality stay with your loved ones or alone almost for free.

Travel Industry Secrets

Travel to Europe - The Best Hotels Search Engine

2007-12-10T23:27:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - The Best Hotels Search Engine

After speaking for several times about the best places where to book airline tickets as Qixo, or places where you can get thousands of updated travel deals such as TravelZoo, today I want to introduce you to the best search engine for hotels. Of course, you can find hotels for free paying only the taxes at Free Hotels, but if you are one of those strange guys that prefers to pay the full price for a hotel instead of the 20% of it, then I have at least the less expensive place for you and the one that will require less time. They are called HotelsCombined, and they have a massive database that includes hotels from 31 different hotel search engines. And this is the good point, you don't need to check 31 search engines one after the other. Simply check HotelsCombined and automatically you will get the cheapest one at the top, which is something similar to what Qixo does with flight tickets. You can check the place HERE.

In any case, after you take a look, I always prefer to get an 80% discount in my accommodation, and you will find it at Free Hotels.

Planing a trip to Europe, New Zealand or a Round the World trip? You can get some help at Travel to Europe.

Travel to Europe - The Best Hotels Search Engine

Travel to Europe - The best Travel Deals page

2007-12-08T01:47:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - The Best Travel Deals Page

As you know, I am always speaking about the possibility to find the best airfares looking at travel deals. But the question most people is asking is to really know which are those places to check for travel deals. Of course you can go to all the airlines that fly to your route but you can get a bit tired of it and sometimes you could be missing something behind.

One of the engines that has given me best results is the one called TravelZoo. Depending on your region, they select every week the Top20 best deals, the top20 for hotels, the top20 for vacation packages, top20 for airfares, and so on.

I have found incredible offers in that one, so I definitely would recommend that one to anyone looking for the greater discounts.

In any case, as always, for discounted hotels I keep recommending Free Hotels, which is the place where I always get my 80% discounted accommodation.

If your destination is Europe, New Zealand, or you are planning a Round the World trip, do not hesitate to visit Travel to Europe

Travel to Europe - The Best Travel Deals Page

Travel to Europe - The Day and Time when Prices are Lower

2007-12-04T20:48:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - The Day and Time when Prices are Lower

Have you ever asked yourself if it exists a day or time in the week when it is more probable that you find that prices on the Internet have gone down? Well, you are completely right, as this is something that happens. The airlines take a look at statistics, make their predictions, and according to that they decide whether to place a special discount for a flight or not.

And which is this precious time when this will happen? How to be there to catch this special limited discounted seats? Well, this usually happens on Wednesdays at around 12:30 AM at the local time where airline is based. You can check during the whole week, but if you forget to check at this time you will be probably missing something.

Now, do you want to know a way in which the booking of your flights through Priceline and many other engines will make you automatically win an 80% discount in 4-star hotels around the world? Free Hotels is the answer.

Planning a trip to Europe? You can take a look at Travel to Europe

Travel to Europe - The Day and Time when Prices are Lower

Travel to Europe - A good search engine

2007-12-03T18:57:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - A good Search Engine

Today a short notice about a good search engine that will help you when you are in a hurry to get your flights. Before going on, let me advice you that a search engine will never be the best way to find cheap flights, as there exist many other ways to do so, but of course it can be a very quick way to find a flight that at least is not very expensive.

Having said that, I strongly recommend Qixo. The way it works is very similar to other search engines, with only one difference: it includes all them. Qixo has been designed in order to take a look at all the existing search engines and between them find the best results. What I mean in the end is that doing one search with this engine you will avoid doing 5 or 6 searches with the other engines, as all the results will be included in this one.

The only thing you must be aware of is that the results take 70 seconds to show up. Just be patient as it researches for your flight, and you will have a quick result with your lowest price opportunity at the top of the page. Possibly it can also be a way to get a quick idea on how prices for a determined rute are in order to follow up bidding in SkyAuction or Priceline or looking to compare with other offers. It will give a very good reference.

Planning a trip to Europe or South Pacific? You can find some help at Travel to Europe.

Looking for 80% Discounted 4-star hotels? I get them at Free Hotels

Travel to Europe - A good Search Engine

2007-12-01T22:37:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - The best place to book your flights

After some months studying the different possibilities for flights, I still haven't found the place that like FREE HOTELS is able to provide you with 80% discounts in accommodation. In any case, I have two options that can be pretty good. One will use one good web-site that maybe some of you already know where you can bid for your flights. The other one, will take into account that this web-site is one of the stores where you can get your flights if you enter Free Hotels, and in this way count your flights toward your 80% discounted accommodation. Let's see how this would work:

The page itself is called SkyAuction. The way it works is very simple. The price for everything starts at $1, and then people begin to bid. If you are lucky you can save big amounts of money. It is said that normally you can expect up to a 40$ reduction in the costs of your flights, so simply take a look at how it works looking at the options that are about to close. Study what people does when the time to close the deal approaches, evaluate how much you can expect the price to jump on the last seconds. I'll write about bidding strategies in further articles, so keep an eye on this blog!

Once thing you must keep in your head, is that the bid is not the total price for the option, there are taxes and other fees involved, and they are all appearing in the page where the conditions of the offer are explained. Make sure to first take a look around to see how much you would pay for a flight if you buy it through a search engine, and then always bid below this amount. You want to travel cheaper!

The real deal here will be to use this web-site from a shopping mall that you can join for free. If you purchase your flights through this place, then the amount will count towards some different prizes (hotels and cruises) that you will win automatically if your flights have a cost at least $50. Prizes means that you will only pay taxes, so in the end you will save about an 80% in 4-star hotels Deluxe accommodation.

Feel free to discover how it works at FREE HOTELS

If the trip you are planning is to Europe or the South Pacific, you will find some help at Travel to Europe

Travel to Europe - The Best Place to Book Your Flights

Free Hotels

2007-11-28T18:37:00.000+01:00

Free Hotels

Sounds like a scary title, huh? They are not really free, but nearly, as you will only pay taxes! I'm more than happy to announce that the Free Hotels blog have just opened to the public.

There you will be able to find absolutely free information on how to get any of the following options:

3 Days, 2 Nights, for 2 persons, 3 and 4 star hotels, choose between 19 cities: 26$/person - Savings: 86% discount
3 Days, 2 Nights, for up to 4 persons, 4 star hotels, choose between 28 cities: 16$/person - Savings: 88% discount
3 Days, 2 Nights Bahamas Cruise, for 2 persons: 71$/person - Savings: 73% discount
8 Days, 7 Nights, Condo Getaway 4 stars, up to 4 persons, 600 locations worldwide: 140$/person - Savings: 68% discount

To take a closer look to all this offers and discover the free way in which you can get them, you can go to FREE HOTELS

FREE HOTELS

Travel to Europe - The Best Airline linking US & Canada to Europe

2007-11-26T23:12:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - The best Airline linking US & Canada to Europe

There are many options you can take, and of course it will depend on the place where you are based either in the US, Canada, or Europe. To reduce complexity, and due to the Low Cost Airlines in Europe, that can allow all round trips for nearly 20 euros with taxes and everything included, we will understand Europe as a single country.

Zoom Airlines is linking nowadays New York with London for only 343 Euros (497 US dollars) At same time, the major links between Europe and Canada can be done for a bit more of this price, reaching the maximum in the flight from London to Vancouver, that we can find for 468 Euros (679 US dollars). The savings are tremendous as you can see, probably a 50% or more cheaper than carriers that offer the same route.

You can find many other bargains and recommendations like this if you go to Travel to Europe

Travel to Europe - The Best Airline linkin US & Canada to Europe

Travel to Europe - Hong Kong to London for less than 450 euros

2007-11-24T11:25:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe - Hong Kong to London for less than 450 Euros

As you can read on the line above, this is a very interesting notice I received early this morning. For all the Europeans looking to explore Hong Kong or any Asian country you can explore from there, that is very good news. For all Asian countries that can make a stop in Hong Kong, reaching Europe will be for the price of 420 Euros. This prices are for the round trip with all taxes and fees included for traveling between January and March and you can find more details at the News section at Travel to Europe.

Also, if you do not come from the UK in Europe, or if you are from Asia and you plan to visit another European country, remember that with Ryanair you can move from London to nearly the whole Europe for about 20 Euros round trip taxes included on the timing of this offer if you book in advance and avoiding main holiday periods.

Travel to Europe - Hong Kong to Londo for less than 450 Euros

Need some help with the planning of your trip?
Do not hesitate to contact us at Travel to Europe

Travel to Europe

2007-11-23T17:50:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe

After all, in our business we spend all the time trying to locate the best options to constantly beat travel agencies prices. The question is, how do we make that?

Well, first of all, travel agencies have one big disadvantage: they need to get money from commissions. This places them into a game where the most expensive is the option they get for you, the higher commission they can get in return.

The idea, far from criticize this usual practice, is to let the reader understand that letting a travel agency to find the cheapest price will NEVER WORK. And this is a rule that happens with everything in life: the most intermediates you put in a process the most expensive the result will be.

In some way, you could tell me that saying this I am discouraging you to pay for my services, as long as doing it by yourself will be always cheaper. And you are completely right, and if you think you can do it by yourself I strongly recommend you to do so.

In other case, as the amount of information to deal with is enormous and very confusing, we have put in place an offer that tries to be realistic placing a fix amount for the whole organization of your trip, in a way that, as we don't have any business relations with the travel industry, the total amount that you pay for your trip will be exactly the one needed and none will go to pay us.

The prices we have put in place have been set in a way that summing up the travel costs plus the cost of our services, you can go on your trip cheaper than with any travel agency.

For more information, you can visit us at Travel to Europe

Travel to Europe

Interactive Language Courses

2007-11-21T17:18:00.000+01:00

Interactive Language Courses

Visiting a different country must be a real cultural experience, and not a simple take some pics and take the plane back home. The language is one of the main barriers we find when traveling to a foreign country, specially if English is not widely spoken.

Some of the countries that can cause more trouble if you travel to Europe are Spain, France, Germany and Italy. For Spanish, French, German, and even Japanese, you can check the interactive courses that Rocket Languages offers in order to be prepared for your trip to the old continent or Japan, or simply if you fancy to learn one of those languages.

They offer a software that includes in a highly interactive method, from conversational skills that you can practice with a microphone and headsets with the computer, to hundreds of pages dealing with grammatic topics, games, videos, links to get free downloadable related materials, etc.

You can take a look directly at:

Spanish
French
German
Japanese

If you are planning a trip to or within Europe and need some help, do not hesitate to take a look at:

http://www.the-dream.ws

Interactive Language Courses

Real Low Cost?

2007-11-19T23:48:00.000+01:00

Real Low Cost?

Today's question can be pretty obvious but you could not imagine the amount of people that does not pay attention to this detail.

Low cost airlines are playing hard in Europe, and in the research for the best airport taxes makes them find some locations that do not benefit at all the whole cost of the trip.

Placing bases in airports that are pretty distanct from the big cities can involve a cost that sometimes is bigger than thought. Remote places have two problems. The first one is of course the price for itself to reach a distanct location, but the second one and the one tht nobody thinks about is that this places often happen to have only one way to be reached. This means a single transportation company has the monopoly over this route and charges as much as they want provided that after all, you NEED to reach the airport to take your flight.

This is something that has happened recently in Skavsta airport, near Stockholm, were price has been raisen 5 euros from night to morning. Of course, the Flygbussarna monopoly will not change until competence enters the route and I do expect this price to keep growing in the near future if this situation does not change.

After all, then, do not simply rely on the price the airline is showing you in their web-page. Check also how far this airport is from the city you want to go and how much it is the cost implied to get there.

For more information on traveling within Europe, you can visit:

Travel to Europe

Real Low Cost?

Travel to Europe

2007-11-16T02:08:00.000+01:00

Travel to Europe

After several weeks of hard work, I am very happy to announce that our new web-page promoting the services of European Trip Planning that we offer has opened today to the public, with a very simple and clear design.

I specially want to thank my old friend and excellent web-page programmer Pau, from Spain, for all his work those recent days (and specially long nights until 2:00 am) in bringing this little baby alive. Without his help it would have been impossible to finalize this plan.

Travel to Europe is offering trip planning services either to the European traveler that is looking to explore his own continent, and of course to all the travelers from the rest of the world that are interested in doing a route within Europe. The offer will include from selecting the best flights, planning of the route, transport and connections, accommodation, and even selection of activities at every determined place, presenting a final complete document with all the details requested, through personal discussion with the customer during the process.

The aim of Travel to Europe is to be fully personalized, in a way that never two trips will be the same. We have enormous databases but we do the work with our hands, and this is and will be a priority for us. We strongly believe that no search engine can improve the work done in this way. Another of the objectives is to fit in the gap left by travel agencies, where their action as intermediates getting comissions from all their clients makes it easy to guess that their options are not the best for you, but usually the best for the money they will get in return.

So, in the end, the idea is to be able to provide a very neutral point of view to the travel market and be able to deliver real valuable information, down to the detail that the client asks us for.

If you want to discover more on how we operate in order to reach this goals, do not hesitate to go to:

http://www.the-dream.ws

At the same time, for more information on our services, please contact:

info@the-dream.ws

We will be more than happy to introduce you to this new way of travel planning, where every customer counts as a person and no longer as a number.

Travel to Europe

Europe by Train

2007-11-13T23:58:00.000+01:00

Europe by Train

Of course, we have spent all days speaking about air travel, air travel and air travel. In the end, it gives the feeling that we've lost the ground!! Of course, we can't underestimate the road and rail travel, and today I will briefly speak about rail.

Europe rail system was an expensive one. But, as many things in life, when competition arises, you are forced to drop the prices and offer something that gives a clear competitive advantage. That was what happened when low cost arrived to Europe and began being a reality, not just a cool expression.

Right now, different possibilities have opened to the consumer, either if you are European or not. Of course, internally, things always work better for us, as we have access to the inter-rail, a pass that was modified recently, from a simple and easy to understand approach that made real fanatics of this way of traveling, to a new "sophisticated" appearance that made all us spend some hours trying to understand the basics.

Yes, inter-rail has changed, freedom has supposedly been given, but at same time prices have gone up with the new rules, and some limitations have been placed that no longer allow unlimited travel.

Remember, this option is only for Europeans, and you will find all the details in the INTERRAIL official page

But hey! You are not European, and of course it also exists somthing for you. Eurail is a good way to travel within Europe and you can find options for almost everything. There are global passes that will allow you a determined number of trips within a certain time. Also you can find one country passes, 2 country and even 3 country passes. They also can be organized by region, such as the Nordics, Benelux, Eastern Europe, etc. To see detailed information on that one, you can take a look at the EURAIL official page

When looking at those options, either for interrail and eurail, please keep in mind that they normally offer big discounts in local transport, buses, and specially discounted or even free ferry connections. Take a look at what includes the price you are paying, and you will get the most out of it.

That's all for today, of course we will go in further detail on this topic in posts to come. For now, have a happy train traveling!

Europe by Train

South Pacific - The forgotten region

2007-11-12T17:58:00.000+01:00

South Pacific - The Forgotten Region

Well, the title can sound a bit drastic, but of course we are talking about airlines and costs involved when traveling on the region. Whats is wrong there then?

Let's begin with a clear example: Barcelona - Stockholm, a typical 3 hours trip, can be purchased in Europe in low season for 25 euros (33 dollars) round trip taxes included. Comparing with a typical 3 hour trip as a Sydney - Auckland could be in the south Pacific area, after hours of research we are not able to find anything for less than 300 euros. And often this is the price for just one way!!!

I am not an expert, and possibly it exists a reason why low cost haven't developed still there, but the impact is terrifying. With another example: I want to travel from Europe to Australia or New Zealand. Good, Oasis Hong Kong gives me the chance to ge there for 400 euros. That was 2 thirds of the trip, great! Now the connection with Australia... Nothing for less than 1.000 euros, and if you want to reach New Zealand you will probably add a couple of hundred more.

In any case, there are some good news for the aussies, as it is within the expansion plans of Oasis Hong Kong to develop routes from Hong Kong to the capital and to Sydney, for probably 300-400 euros, but this is still just a plan.

Looking at other "hot deals", we also can find Qantas as one of the best options, specially at low season, with an average of 1300 euros for the Europe - South Pacific trip. Not bad compared to other options, but still a long way to go.

Now we take the opposite. Let's think we are or we want to go to ones of this western european countries. A very good option would be the so much called Zoom Airlines, which can give you a London - New York for about 350 euros (465 dollars). Then we need to cross America, which is not cheap but can be affordable. And then... again, the Pacific rules will place a 1000 euros fee at least to cross to the islands territory, which destroys your whole strategy.

After all, I just want to say thank you to this airlines that are trying to organize the long haul low fares, and I 100% support their expansion plans, as probably in the end we will see the light on South Pacific low fees. Meanwhile, we should keep focusing on saving!

South Pacific - The Forgotten Region

Oasis Hong Kong

2007-11-11T01:57:00.000+01:00

Oasis Hong Kong

Today a special mention for this incredible airline, that has set the costs of travelling to Asia from Europe and viceversa to the minimum. If you book with time enough, you can fly from London to Hong Kong and come back, all taxes and charges included, for just 400 Euros (550 dollars). At same time, they connect Hong Kong with Vancouver for more or less the same amount.

Considering that a flight from Hong Kong to Australia for example costs about 1.000 dollars, being the distance 3 times less than Hong Kong-London, I think this airline deserves to be mentioned here, as it can be terribly useful as a gateway to Asia and Pacific countries.

Oasis Hong Kong

Flight Connections

2007-11-08T23:06:00.000+01:00

Flight Connections

Today a very quick one!! Imagine you are going to travel to somewhere in Europe and you realize that none of the low cost carriers make this route that you want. You decide that maybe a combination of two flights can make a good deal but the question is... In which airport will usually be more economic to make the transfer?

Don't hesitate on that. The first you need to look for is the connections at Frankfurt airports, they have some of the lower taxes and are used by most of the low cost carriers as a center of operations.

Flight Connections

Holidays in Sweden

2007-11-07T01:31:00.000+01:00

Holidays In Sweden - Part 3

And finally, this nice collection of summer pics in Stockholm. Who said in Sweden it is always cold???

Lost in an island... Somewhere... Who really cares??

Maybe it seems just a normal picture... But not when I tell you that it was taken at 2:30 AM!!

A relaxing walk around the city. The historic center with the castle is at the background.

Isn't this an inviting path? Wouldn't you follow it to the very end?

That's Drottningholms Palace. Nice place for the royalty to spend the summer!

In any case, these ones are the real kings of Stockholm, they are almost everywhere!!

And this picture, to finish with the Stockholm Special. Catch ya later, Stockholm!!

Holidays In Sweden - Part 3

Holidays in Sweden

2007-11-06T00:32:00.000+01:00

Holidays in Sweden - Part 2

As Promised, here I come with some more pictures of the amazing landscape that Stockholm has to offer to the nature-loving visitor:

Yes, sure you can call it water, simply it feels a bit harder...

The Storm was coming... Ok, you caught me, in Sweden it never rains hard!

Simply, it looks good, even if it was -18 C when I was taking the pic

Ready for a bath? That's one of the "largest" beaches that we've got...

Sunset on the ice... you could walk from one island to another;)

Look at the swan crossing through this golden waters!

Behind the Scenes: we managed to have an interview with the actor from the last pic!

That's what the winter in Sweden is like. To finalize with the Sweden Special, tomorrow it will be time to show you how it looks like in the summer.

Holidays in Sweden - Part 2

Holidays in Sweden

2007-11-04T23:31:00.000+01:00

Holidays In Sweden

Today a special for Stockholm, a city which impressed me so much that changed from a 5-day holiday trip to almost 1 year that I have been already living here. Thanks STOCKHOLM!!

Slussen at first time in the morning

The Cathedral, at Gamla Stan (the historic center)

That was just in front of the front door of my building, at Västra Skogen

The Stairs to Heaven (if you ever reach the end...)

Swedish Art - And a Beautiful Sunset I Must Say

Nordiska Museet - From my point of view, the most interesting building in the whole Stockholm

That was all for Today!! Tomorrow about Stockholm again, but for the landscape, lakes, nature, and everything that has something to do with green and blue;)

Holidays In Sweden

The Big Airbus A380

2007-11-03T23:32:00.000+01:00

The Big Airbus A380

I need very few words to describe what an Airbus A380 is about, as I think the image is clear enough. Today the post is short but clear, the big giant is coming and will place a very strong competence with the old friend Jumbo 747 from Boeing.

Feel free to take a look around the web-page, as many changes have been introduced today, specially on the bar at the right side, with some new links, a countdown for my Barcelona trip and, on the final bottom of the page, you will locate some links to blogs that have some relevant materials in travel experiences or pics. Also, you can use it to link your blog to mine.

The poll of the day is for ways of travelling: Do you like it in organized trips but alone, in group organized trips, or you like to plan it all on your own??

The Big Airbus A380

Low Cost Airlines

2007-11-02T17:38:00.001+01:00

LOW COST AIRLINES

Today's topic is going to be about the finding of the best low cost airlines for your trips. First of all, I would like to say a few words on what can you expect from a LC Airline. And the biggest thing people is scared about when flying with an LC is SECURITY. It's impressive the amount of people that think that low cost is related to NO SAFETY, and I think this is a complete misunderstanding.

LC equals less services, probably less comfortable sits or less space where you sit. Don't expect a super-hot air hostess to bring you a 3 course dinner because you won't get that, even if you pay for it. LC will use alternative airports where the taxes they have to pay to have their planes there is lower, so they can offer cheaper tickets.

And, specially, don't misunderstand something: the price that you pay to get your flight is not the same as all the others that will get the flight after you. Sincerely, I am very happy that this is not published anywhere, because I would feel certainly very embarrassed if the people on the plane realized I was the one who paid most for the same trip.

When it comes to booking with them, there are three strategies that always work:
1. Book very very very early.
2. If this is not possible, be aware that airlines usually place special discounted offers or even free tickets to encourage people to get on board on certain days. If you realize the price is very high and it is still some time left before the day you want to make the trip, be patient and check a couple of times everyday. Probably you'll get a surprise.
3. Never book on Friday or Sunday, all trips have to be done within the other weekdays or Saturday if possible.

In any case, as always, it is good some advice from another point of view, so you can take a look at this article to also get another point of view.

I also would like to direct you to a web-page that has done a good job selecting all the low-cost airlines existing in the world, even the long distance ones. You can check this list HERE

If you are planning to travel within Europe, I think the best resource you can use is the Low Cost Airlines Guide, an amazing website where you can select from where and to where you want to fly, and it will automatically tell you which low cost airlines make this route, together with a link of their web page to check the prices.

Finally, I have inclued a special box on the right side, where everyday will appear a featured low cost Airline related normally to the country that we are exploring. I will also write about some of the most important ones in future posts, as I consider that finding a good flight is normally the most important part in savings in a trip.

LOW COST AIRLINES

China Curiosities

2007-11-01T21:02:00.000+01:00

China Curiosities

I could try to summarize a blog about chinese curiosities that I found this morning, but I think the best is to directly send you there.

Regarding the last post... Yes, you all succeeded, Mozart was from Austria and Hitler... from Austria too!!! (personally, I always thought the guy was german. Never mind...)

Whatever, I hope you enjoy this great blog and, in any case, as I am planning to make a post about china for every chinese standing on the world... it seems China will come back to Travel Addicts soon!!

China Curiosities

Holidays in Austria

2007-10-31T16:58:00.000+01:00

Holidays in Austria

Scared to fly after watching the last post videos? That's amazing how those planes can land under this conditions, huh? Well, if you are still able to sit on a plane, I highly recommend to take a look at the first stop of our itinerary, Austria.

Well, leaving the history, monuments, sightseeing opportunities, ski resorts, beaches... (if you don't get scared here, you should take a look again at the world map), one of the most important things to say about Austria is the story of Arnold Swarzenegger (I don't even know if I wrote his names properly, but seriously, it does not mean "Black Eggs" as some may think).

How many times have you heard that our dear Arnold is a German? Well, myself I used to believe so... and then revelation comes and you discover that this guy was born in Graz, in the heart of Austria, in the same place where the news hit with the story of a mother that killed her 4 children placing them into the freeze.

Apart from the crazy stories, it is nice to tell the European Traveler that Ryanair has really hit hard this year and they have set 5 airports there, specially (and they are always so tricky guys!) with the Bratislava Airport, called Vienna between brackets. Yeah, it seems it was pretty difficult to fly cheap to Vienna, so the found the best option, 1 single airport, 2 great cities to visit.

For all those who have been in Austria already, don't forget to comment with your feedback for the new visitors!!! Notice also that I will normally add one video in the text and I will also update the youtube videos section you have on down on the right side.

Finally, a question for you.

Adolf Hitler and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart... Where were they born? You can take the poll up at the begining... Don't cheat!!!

Holidays in Austria

Planning the trip

2007-10-30T23:10:00.000+01:00

PLANNING THE TRIP

Yes, today, 30th October 2007, we are starting this trip that will take us around the world exploring those great destinations, famous touristic countries, countries we don't even know how to spell, countries that we would have never thought they are countries because they have a name that sounds more like dog food, countries..... countries!

That doesn't sound pretty boring at least. To this you have to add that as Travel Addicts that we are we need to be updated with the last offers for flights, hotels, packages, and any kind of special bargains that we can get on the net. At same time, taking a look at the news, trends, and any kind of thing related with the travel industry.

And why to leave behind all this kind of ever-tricky geographical funny stories that sometimes have no answer but it's so fun to discuss about. Polls, links, updates, and after all, keep our mind open to new adventures.

Anyway, before going to explore the world outside, the first thing we should do is to take the flight to our destination, possibly the best thing would be to travel on a windy day like those ones in the video... WOW, this Boeing 747 really looks like a paper plane!!!

So, let's get on board and begin this trip to nowhere!! More information coming... TOMORROW!!! Comments on the video, please;)

PLANNING THE TRIP