International Travel Planning…on your own…without a net, Part 3
Posted in Air Travel, European Travel, Travel, Travel Planning | By Wolfstone | Tags: Air Travel, London, Scotland, Travel Planning
Scotland: Fall 2009
Since last week, I have decided to cut back our trip from three to two weeks due to some timing issues that have come up. So, there needed to be some consolidation.
It was then that I began to wonder if it was any cheaper to find a company that could consolidate all of my independent travel needs.
I searched the Web and found several candidates: Virgin Vacations, Cheaptickets, Expedia, etc. They all talked about “vacation packages.” But, the inherent problem I found was that most sites would only get you up to two destinations and two hotels.
I could get from Phoenix to London and then on to Glasgow, but that was it. Any additional cities were impossible to book, let alone return from a third city.
And, my favorite was Virgin Vacations (a division of Virgin Atlantic Airlines.) Not only could I not do a large multi-destination itinerary…they didn’t even try to book me on a single Virgin Atlantic flight the entire trip!
About ready to call it a day, I stumbled across a company that actually focuses on multi-stop itineraries for independent travelers.
A Useful Travel Find
European Destinations, www.europeandestinations.com, is one part of the consumer division of corporate parent, Solar Tours out of Washington, D.C. The parent company has been around since 1984 serving travel agents.
Their Web site lets you create your own trip or customize their suggested itineraries. As you add in hotels, car rentals, train passes, etc., the price of your trip upgrades so you know immediately if you are staying within your budget.
Depending upon what cities you are seeking, the hotel selection can be very large. Others, such as Aviemore, Scotland are a little more limited.
I am still experimenting with some different itinerary options, but so far, I’m impressed with the ease of operation.
I did a little research to find out if anyone had experience with the Web site and as with any travel site, there are both happy campers and extremely unhappy campers. It looked like the happy campers were winning.
So, over the next few days I am going to continue tweaking an itinerary and then compare it to hotel Web sites of those properties I selected. We’ll see if the prices really are better.
More next week…
Tags: Air Travel, London, Scotland, Travel Planning