Travel Discounters Blog

When you travel these days there are several ways to purchase airline tickets and several types to choose from. The most common these days is the e-ticket, with so many people using the internet to make their purchase it is the easy way to go. If for some reason you need to purchase a paper ticket you can usually specify this with the airline or seller. If you find that you are in over your head with all the options out there you can go through a professional travel agent. You may be less likely to get the best deal but you will have the reassurance of a professional handling all your travel needs. On a budget it is usually best to put some of your own sweat into the effort for the top travel deals. Sites such as www.traveldiscounters.com can help by letting you search the web from one internet location. Whichever way you go have a pleasant journey.

Jim
Traveldiscounters.com

Puddle Jumper… I’ve heard prop planes referred to by this colorful nickname. Well if you are used to 747’s you will appreciate the term if you take a local airline (we took Mokelele) between islands.
Be prepared to go to a sub-terminal of the small airport on the Kona side and wait in a breezeway that will remind you of the halls between your grammar school classes. Bring water and a book, the fountain is warm water and the magazines were stolen from a local dentist’s office. Be on the lookout for geckos as they can help pass the time.
Your airplane will be a very small single prop model that reminded me of the charter flights in a Disney cartoon and if you arrive an hour or so early you will probably have a wait to watch the passengers board for the flight scheduled an hour before yours. I would suggest maybe half the usual wait time, it was plenty for almost everyone else on out flight. Be prepared to have your baggage AND yourself put on the scale to make sure they load the plane correctly (Mary Loved this part).
The flight itself is interesting; you will not soar above the clouds, but will be a few thousand feet above the water and can see whale pods and reefs easily. You get a good view of Lanai and Molokai on the way in.
All in all it is an interesting way to travel, but don’t expect drinks or snacks on the 42 minute flight.
Another bargain sight-seeing opportunity!

George @ www.traveldiscounters.com

TRIP ADVISOR & YELP HELP

How reliable are these user generated review sites? With the increasing popularity and ease of use of these sites, there is the potential/opportunity for some companies to drum up sagging business revenues by fraudulently bolstering their reputation and disparaging competitors or both (nasty!).
So how do you snuff out the fake reviews from the real ones? My professional opinion is first to eliminate the best and the worst (the 1s and 10s out of 10).
Also, some studies have found that fake reviews tend to contain words like ‘my’, ‘experience’, ‘vacation’, ‘and hotel’, while legitimate ones may contain words like ‘bathroom’, ‘floor’, ‘small’, and the ‘$’ sign.
You can also check other site reviews like www.traveldiscounters.com blog (yes, self promotion, but true), but wait….and also hotels.com or Orbitz or Priceline.
Ultimately your intuition or gut instinct will tell you ‘aw, come on, you’ve got to be kidding’, and move on.

Don’t forget to click on the blogroll to get the best air fare and travel deals around.

Safe journeys,
Emily & Jim

NEW YORK TRAVEL UPDATES

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero will be dedicated on 9/11/11. Tickets are free. It will open to the public on 9/12/11. Tickets must be purchased in advance and for timed entry only. Some restrictions so visit http://www.911memorial.org/faq/general for more details.

The Statue of Liberty will be closed for renovation for a year from 10/29/11. All tickets to see Lady Liberty before then are all sold out.

Don’t forget to check our daily travel deals at www.traveldiscounters.com

Safe Journeys!
Emily & Jim

Traveling to Europe can seem like something only for the wealthy, with the current exchange rate with the Euro everything seems out of reach for the average person. We have found several “tricks” that can help save some money and even make it affordable. As with travel to most tourist destinations you can almost always get better deals by traveling in the off season. In Europe this means spring, late fall and winter. To save money on airline tickets try a flight with one or even two stops. The convenience of direct flights can be costly by comparison. Try renting an apartment, when we traveled to Rome with our kids a few years ago we found an apartment that fit all of us for a fraction of what hotel rooms would have been and with a kitchen we were able to prepare many of our own meals by purchasing food at the local grocery store. Last but not least, as always, shop around. Check out our Hot Deals at traveldiscounters.com and search travel sites for the best bargains.

Safe Travel,
Jim & Emily

Dreaming of a historic visit to Cuba? Ready to laze it out in Cayo Largo del Sur or Varadero Beach? Perhaps you’ve even started your search for the best travel deals and vacation package to Havana? Well not so fast cowboy cause here’s the real scoop…

At this time, the U.S. government restricts Cuban travel. Only persons visiting close relatives, journalists, and several categories of full-time “professionals,” educators, and business travelers allowed. Check here for more information http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html

Bottom line for now, ordinary tourists will either have to wait a while or travel (illegally) from Canada, Mexico, or the Bahamas (CAUTION: you could face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States)

The US Gov’t. authorized direct Cuban charter flights (ABC Charters) are from Miami, Tampa, and St. Petersburg. Also previously authorized are Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago/O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Houston, New Orleans, Oakland, and Pittsburgh. Not all are currently operational.

The US Gov’t. provides consular and other services through the U.S. Interests Section (USINT) in Havana. It is located in Havana at Calzada between L and M Streets, Vedado; telephone numbers (537) 833-3551 through 833-3559.

Safe Journeys!
Emily & Jim

February in Maui brings an entirely new spin to the term “Whale Watching”. In February you can see whales from most any west-side beach or cliff. If you go on a guided cruise you are often watching OUT for whales!! The packages are relatively inexpensive (cheap really) and well worth your time.
Our favorite whale viewing company was the Pacific Whale Foundation and my personal whale watching experience came on a combination Molokini and Lana’i snorkeling expedition. While trying to motor from Lahaina to Molokini we were stopped dead in the water three or four times by large groups of whales involved in mating chase games. Usually one female with a calf had four or five large males following her around asking for a “date”. At one point a distraught female swam under our boat and came up belly-side-up right at our stern trying to get some peace! We saw two huge males slapping their tails together above water in a smack-down contest!
Great photos, great naturalists explaining the behaviors and the snorkeling (especially at Lana’i) was fantastic!! I saw reef sharks and millions of fish and an octopus in less than an hour. The free drinks on the way home made us so happy we booked right out on the next cruise!!
What a bargain!!

George
www.traveldiscounters.com

Cheapest time to Buy Airline Tickets

We’ve covered this before but since summer travel is still high on everyone’s calendar, here are a few tips on getting the best deal on airline tickets:

The best Time to buy airline tickets is Tuesday 3pm EST

Worst time to buy airline tickets is on weekends (Fri-Sun)

Try shopping for one passenger first instead of 3 or 4 or 5. If there’s 1 seat left on the low cost fare and you need 2, both tickets get jacked up to the next higher fare.

Check low cost airlines like Frontier, Southwest, Jet Blue separately for lower prices.

Other ways of cutting airline ticket cost:

Be flexible time wise & destination wise.

Cheapest day to fly is Wednesday for domestic travel. Next would be Tuesday and Saturday.

The cheapest time to fly is first flight out in the morning, lunch time & dinner time.

And of course you can’t beat the red eye.

Watch for ‘vacation package specials’ for specific destinations.

There’s still time to take the kids off somewhere so get cracking on those travel deals!

Safe journeys,
Emily & Jim

One thing I learned, when you travel to Ketchikan, take a rain coat and umbrella. With an annual rain fall of 162” the chance of rain is pretty high. It rained lightly the whole day we were there but it was worth a little discomfort to see the sights. Ketchikan is known as Alaska’s first city and is surprisingly large with a population of about 13,000. Since the city is 31 miles long but only 10 blocks wide the water side part of the city is built on stilts over the Tongass Narrows with the rest of the city set into the forested cliffs that tower over it. We decided to take the Duck Tour that goes around the city and then takes you out into the water where our guides showed us a wonderful view of the harbor and mountains. It’s easy and cheap to get around the city by public transportation, a dollar will get a ride on the bus to just about anywhere. We took the bus out to Totem Bight, a state historical park that has a number of totem poles and shows on how they are made and enjoyed it a lot. We returned to lunch at Annabella’s, near the wharf, if you like clam chowder I would highly recommend it. We left for Seattle and our airline flight home and the end of our vacation. We are already planning for our next destination.

Travel Safely,
Jim & Emily
www.traveldiscounters.com

Well, after a great day in Skagway we traveled to our next destination, the Tracy Arm Fjord. After getting up at 1:00 am in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights and being disappointed we were back out at 4:00 am to see our entrance into the fjord. It is an amazing site with cliffs towering over the ship as it glides past huge chunks of floating ice at 3 or 4 knots. All down the imposing cliffs flow hundreds of waterfalls created by the melting ice and snow. Around each turn are beautiful rock formations and forests reaching to the sky. As we neared the end of the ships transit there is Sawyer Island that looks like a scene from some fantasy movie as if trolls and elves should live here away from human civilization. In the distance is the Sawyer Glacier with the sun reflecting blue light. Since we went early in the season the ice made it impossible for the ship to get as close to the glacier as you can in the later summer months but it is still an impressive site. Sailing slowly back to the ocean we observed sea lions and the occasional whale as we passed. Bon Voyage.
Safe Travel
Jim & Emily
www.traveldiscounters.com