Travel questions that make my heart sink
The Man Who Pays His Way: Just because you can arrange a DIY trip doesn’t mean you should
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Your support makes all the difference.On the day that the travel industry likes to call “Sunshine Saturday” – because of the number of summer holidays that are traditionally booked at the start of the new year – a colleague asked my advice on a transatlantic trip in May.
“I’ve never been to America,” she began. I was about to recommend Chicago as the ideal introduction to the US, being the most American of cities, when she continued: “So I’m going to New York.”
She is not alone: according to the most recent figures, 27 per cent of British travellers head for New York City. I hope they all have wild and wonderful experiences. But: oh, the prices. An ordinary hotel room can easily cost £300 a night, once alI the pesky taxes are included. Unlike London or Paris or Berlin you cannot easily reduce the price by two-thirds by choosing somewhere in the suburbs.
The best approach to keep a lid on costs: buy a package comprising flights plus accommodation.
My colleague continued: “I’ve already booked the flights.” My heart sank. There’s a reason proper package holidays remain extremely popular: they are usually stress-free and excellent value.
My New York-bound colleague now wanted advice on somewhere to stay in Manhattan. I am tempted to frown at such questions and say: “I wouldn’t start from here.”
But instead I bit my lip and tried to help. Times Square may be touristy, I said, but that’s because it is a superb location for walking to many attractions. The Times Square Yotel is, relatively speaking, good value. (Later, I checked, and it is around £270 a night at the start of May – including a pernicious £36 “facility fee”.)
I hope it works out for my colleague and her partner. But had she asked me, or a good travel agent, earlier, the cost could have been lower and the value higher.
Just because you can arrange a DIY trip doesn’t mean you should.
A friend decided on New Year’s Eve she would travel to Indo-China at the end of January.
Visiting Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam will be a memorable experience. To extract the most from such a trip, it’s wise to work out the optimum itinerary before you buy anything. Perhaps start with a clockwise loop from northern Thailand down the Mekong to idyllic Luang Prabang in Laos. Then cross to Hanoi, the formidably handsome capital of Vietnam. Snake down this S-shaped nation to Ho Chi Minh City and travel over to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Make the climax of the trip a visit to the exquisite temple complex of Angkor Wat. Then head to Bangkok for a flight home.
It turned out she had already locked into a flight, business class if you don’t mind, from Heathrow to Bangkok. The Thai capital is the regional hub, so it was a solid decision for the entry and exit points. But a specialist travel agent would probably have been able to secure the necessary intra-Asia flights at a better price as part of an intercontinental journey. And, as I didn’t say to my friend: having all the flights on the same multi-stop ticket, issued by a human travel agent who stands ready to help out if anything goes awry, is better than booking a UK-Thailand trip through a Swedish online travel agent.
Planning a trip? Dream big. Then take a step back and ask an expert for advice before you commit.
Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue – and what it means for you.
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