Your degenerate guide to the world!
or at least the places we've been...
"Found your descriptive, enlightening, funny article (Italy 1999) through
Travelocity web site. Wish I'd read it before my '99 trip to Italy and
will find restaurants and other places you mentioned on my next trip."
Linda, via email
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We finally completed our novel about our travels in Italy
and the crazy year surrounding them. It took five years and three trips to Italy
to do it, but it's all online:
Here's what we recommend for budget traveling to Europe: Watch Rick
Steve's show on PBS if you can before you go and take notes. If not, that's
ok, but definitely get his guidebook on the country you're visiting. Look through
it to find the cities he likes - he'll recommend places you might not find or think
of. Then get Let's Go to find the places to stay, eat, and party.
Rick usually doesn't give each city enough time in his recommendations, and
his recommendations on food and lodging are usually a little out of the price
range of the (low) budget traveler. Let's Go lists cheaper places to stay,
and the writing is utterly hilarious.
Here's some general advice: in my four trips to Europe I've found you get more out of it if you do FEWER places and spend more time at each. You save on travel expense, you don't waste as much time getting from one place to the next, and you get a better idea of what you're looking at. Besides, unless you're planning to never go back again, why try to do it all at once? Each trip should just give you ideas for what you want to see on the next one, even if the next one is years away.
Other guides in alphabetical order:
We got our tickets to Spain through Skyauction: http://www.skyauction.com/ - the prices were reasonable (almost half what I would have paid for them if I'd bought them elsewhere) but they don't guarantee your travel dates, you have to pick alternate departure and return dates. It took a week or more of processing before we were confirmed but the support staff was responsive and fairly helpful. Another two weeks later we finally got our tickets in the mail. My only complaint is that there's no receipt or purchase order or anything with the tickets. Weird.
There's a big list of discount airfare sites at http://www.go.com/WebDir/Discount_air_fares
The Daily Auction is an auction clearing house for some good tickets: http://www.thedailyauction.com/frames/index.htm
TravelZoo lists sales and links to other budget travel sites: http://www.travelzoo.com/
Clark Howard does budget travel stuff out of Atlanta: http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/clarkhoward/travel/index.html
PriceLine lets you set the parameters and the price then submits the bids to airlines (and even hotels and such.) If anyone bites, you fly at that price, another good nearly-last-minute place to book: http://www.priceline.com
Lowestfare has some good deals in advance: http://www.lowestfare.com
Travelocity has some good deals too: http://www.travelocity.com You may have to switch days around to find the exact price but it's worked for me a couple of times.
Expedia is about the same as Travelocity: http://www.expedia.com/
Hotwire is yet another one but, last time I checked, you don't get to see the time or airline until you agree to purchase: http://www.hotwire.com/
Last Minute Travel: http://www.lastminutetravel.com
Auto Europe "connects you with the best deals for auto rentals and discounted airfare worldwide." http://www.autoeurope.com
Air Hitch: http://www.airhitch.org
Delta: http://www.delta-air.com
AirTran: http://www.airtran.com
Airlinks has lots of international airline links: http://www.airlink.net/airlines.htm
The International Association of Air Travel Couriers was founded in 1989 as a clearinghouse for consumers who want to travel as couriers to foreign destinations: http://www.1travel.com/iaatc/courier.htm
Air Courier Association - traveling Air Courier sounds like a hassle but if you're poor and flexible...
The International Association of Air Travel Couriers
Amtrak: http://www.amtrak.com
Britrail passes can be purchased at http://www.britainontrack.com
Eurorail Passes: http://www.odyssey.on.ca/~europrail/
Eurail: http://www.eurail.com
AAA: http://www.aaa.com
Moto Europa has car rentals in Europe: http://www.ideamerge.com/motoeuropa/
Roadside America can help you find that strange roadside attraction, like the world's largest ball of barbed wire, to help distract you on those long roadtrips: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/
Speedtrap.com lists everywhere on the earth where The Man will try to enhance the local budget: http://www.speedtrap.com
Truck Stop Ministries for you holy rollers out there: http://www.truckstopministries.org
Cruise Lines International Association: http://www.cruising.org/index2.htm
Cruise Finder: http://www.bolack.com/cruisefinder/findermain.htm
Cruise.com: http://www.cruise.com/
Freighter Cruise & Travel Association lists passenger-carrying cargo ships: http://www.travltips.com/
Overseas Job Express features 40 categories of international jobs, listing job offers, research resources and information helpful for relocating: http://www.overseasjobs.com/
International Job Centers charges a $10 registration fee to access a list of more than a million overseas jobs: http://www.jerryeden.com/ijc/joblist.htm
Jobspace lists jobs in Belgium, France, Germany and other European countries: http://www.jobspace.com/
Job opportunities in Australia by employer: http://www.employment.com.au
Translate any text or web site to your language: http://world.altavista.com/
There's also a currency converter at http://www.delawareintercorp.com/currency.htm
Study Spanish abroad: http://www.amerispan.com
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