Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Freeway]

Does anybody have hotel recommendations for Abbotsford?

[toonmaster]

Has anyone done an Antarctica expedition?

Looking into adding onto the Antartica portion with Lima & Machu Picchu beforehand, and a stop in Rio on the way home. Seems there would be a lot of flying cross continent to fit it within 4-5 weeks. Any advice?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by toonmaster

Has anyone done an Antarctica expedition?

Looking into adding onto the Antartica portion with Lima & Machu Picchu beforehand, and a stop in Rio on the way home. Seems there would be a lot of flying cross continent to fit it within 4-5 weeks. Any advice?

When I went to South America we showed up in Rio with absolutely no plan. When booking flights Taca, which has a hub in Lima, was always the cheapest by far. This meant to fly from Rio to Buenos Aires we went through Lima. Brutal, but cheap, which was very important at the time.

Pulling off Lima/Rio/Cuzco (Machu Piccu) should be no problem. Just put Lima between those two.

[albertGQ]

Any Vegas deals during reading week? Or am I SOL because it is reading week?

[SebC]

It could be that the low turnout at advance polls reflects people wanting to vote strategically.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by SebC

It could be that the low turnout at advance polls reflects people wanting to vote strategically.

Quoted so you can't edit

[SebC]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Quoted so you can't edit

LOL too many tabs.

[mots]

Originally Posted by toonmaster

Has anyone done an Antarctica expedition?

Looking into adding onto the Antartica portion with Lima & Machu Picchu beforehand, and a stop in Rio on the way home. Seems there would be a lot of flying cross continent to fit it within 4-5 weeks. Any advice?

Yeah we did it earlier this year (beginning of January). Also did Machu pichu. For MP we did a #### ton of research and we went with Peru Treks - which really was the best one to go with, as you pass all other companies, and can compare.

For Antarctica, we waited till last minute and got a last minute special from alicia antarcticatravels@gmail.com - shes a travel agent in Ushuaia, and keeps an eye out on last minute specials. I think we paid $3700 for a 10 day trip in triple accomodation. pm for more details

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by toonmaster

Has anyone done an Antarctica expedition?

Looking into adding onto the Antartica portion with Lima & Machu Picchu beforehand, and a stop in Rio on the way home. Seems there would be a lot of flying cross continent to fit it within 4-5 weeks. Any advice?

Noticed this one on TravelZoo today

$4948 -- Antarctica 11-Night Expedition Cruise, Reg. $9896
http://www.travelzoo.com/cruises/lux...-9896-1356689/

Claims to be half off.

[HOOT]

I won't be leaving from Calgary, probably Victoria or Vancouver, but what is a good site to find last minute deals?

I have basically the whole month of December off and wouldn't mind flying somewhere, not really concerned where as long as it's hot and/or awesome, for the first 10 days of December. Is it worth just showing up the airport and finding a deal leaving that day or is there enough deals out there to book ahead of time?

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Any Vegas deals during reading week? Or am I SOL because it is reading week?

If you left on the Monday (maybe even Sunday) then came back on the Friday I'm sure you could find a deal. Vegas is really only expensive if you're there over a weekend.

[morgin]

Revisiting our travel plans for February as we will have a bit less time than planned (looking to be 10 days vs 2-3 weeks).

Our original thoughts were St. Lucia or Costa Rica but I want to shelve those until I can go away for longer.

What we are looking for is a mostly sunny beach vacation place that has some cool things to do for when the beach bores us.

Places people have recommended include the Dominican, Nassau/Bahamas, Barbados, Hawaii (never been but gf has and wants to try somewhere new).

Any thoughts on places you've stayed in those locations you liked? Anyone ever stayed at Atlantis?

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by morgin

Revisiting our travel plans for February as we will have a bit less time than planned (looking to be 10 days vs 2-3 weeks).

Our original thoughts were St. Lucia or Costa Rica but I want to shelve those until I can go away for longer.

What we are looking for is a mostly sunny beach vacation place that has some cool things to do for when the beach bores us.

Places people have recommended include the Dominican, Nassau/Bahamas, Barbados, Hawaii (never been but gf has and wants to try somewhere new).

Any thoughts on places you've stayed in those locations you liked? Anyone ever stayed at Atlantis?

Just got back from Jamaica, pretty cool place, some neat places to see.

Usually go to Maui every second year and love that place. 10 days is kind of perfect to spend a few days on Oahu to check out Pearl Harbour, polynesian cultural center, Pineapple bowl, etc but if you are like me the commercialism will get to you and then you want to head off to one of the quieter islands where you can still do tourist things but the volume of people is less.

[morgin]

Did some research last night and chatted about what we want. Sounds like a 7-10 day beach vacation is it.

Couple follow up questions:

1) We have a very specific window of time we can go based on my gf's work schedule - anywhere in the Feb 19- March 1 window. Is there any concern with this time period (usually more expensive for reading week?) When would be the best time to book for February? I was reading a few of Chris's old blog posts and it seemed like January might actually be better if there isn't a deal in the next few days.

2) Is an all-inclusive package to the carribean generally going to be cheaper than booking hotel and flight seperately? I was looking at kayak for flights, trying to compare with expedia/westjet vacations prices, seems all includive packages are significantly cheaper? When would this not be the case?

3) Hawaii is still an option (Specifically Kauai, as she's already been to Maui and wants to go somewhere new). I was looking at alaska airlines vacations as the alaska airlines flights to kauai showed up cheapest on kayak during that period. Would alaska airlines vacation packages show up on the canadian travel sites? Or is this more of a "assemble your own" location?

4) Anyone ever seen a vacation package to Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas that was decent? Don't need to stay in the fancy tower, but I've heard that whole location is awesome.

5) For anyone who has been multiple places, out of all the moderately priced islands (excluding turks/st lucia etc) which has the more varied geography? Seems like prices to DR, Jamaica, etc are all fairly comparable - are any more on the side of strictly beaches with nothing else to do?

Thanks!

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by morgin

Did some research last night and chatted about what we want. Sounds like a 7-10 day beach vacation is it.

Couple follow up questions:

1) We have a very specific window of time we can go based on my gf's work schedule - anywhere in the Feb 19- March 1 window. Is there any concern with this time period (usually more expensive for reading week?) When would be the best time to book for February? I was reading a few of Chris's old blog posts and it seemed like January might actually be better if there isn't a deal in the next few days.

2) Is an all-inclusive package to the carribean generally going to be cheaper than booking hotel and flight seperately? I was looking at kayak for flights, trying to compare with expedia/westjet vacations prices, seems all includive packages are significantly cheaper? When would this not be the case?

3) Hawaii is still an option (Specifically Kauai, as she's already been to Maui and wants to go somewhere new). I was looking at alaska airlines vacations as the alaska airlines flights to kauai showed up cheapest on kayak during that period. Would alaska airlines vacation packages show up on the canadian travel sites? Or is this more of a "assemble your own" location?

4) Anyone ever seen a vacation package to Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas that was decent? Don't need to stay in the fancy tower, but I've heard that whole location is awesome.

5) For anyone who has been multiple places, out of all the moderately priced islands (excluding turks/st lucia etc) which has the more varied geography? Seems like prices to DR, Jamaica, etc are all fairly comparable - are any more on the side of strictly beaches with nothing else to do?

Thanks!

I'll try to answer some of those!

1) The Canadian tour operators usually start cutting their prices about 2 or 3 months before departure. Then make some cuts to select packages about a month before departure, and then some really deep cuts to a very small number of packages with under a week to go.

So it often becomes a trade-off involving how specific about what you want to be about where and exactly when you go. If you're open to just about anywhere, waiting until the last minute can work out well.

From studying the price data, I've found that a fairly ideal time to look for a large variety of resorts to be discounted by the Canadian tour operators is around 6 weeks before departure. This time frame may not have the absolute rock bottom insane price that you will see a week before departure to the few select resorts that are chosen to be discounted, but again, that's the trade-off (overall prices vs getting exactly what you want).

2) To Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican, or Jamaica, an all inclusive package from the Canadian tour operators can certainly be a much better deal than booking flight + hotel separately.

Outside of those 4 countries though, the chances become greater of you being able to book flight + hotel for a similar or perhaps even better price depending on the variables and what you're comparing. (In the case of Cuba, using one of the Canadian tour operators is your only option!)

3) Alaska Airline packages won't typically be found on the Canadian based travel sites. It's something you'll find more on the American based sites. You basically want to compare the Alaska Airline package to the WestjetVacations or AirCanadaVacations packages, vs booking flight + hotel separately yourself. That will cover pretty much all the bases.

5) Maybe have a look at Puerto Rico as well. There's a few things I've always wanted to check out there (Bioluminescent Bay for example).

[morgin]

Thanks Chris! Much appreciate the answers (and your website!)

To anyone who has done both the book flight+hotel yourself vs an all inclusive package, did you have any suprises about the all inclusive? I'm curious what the value of meals+drinks really is on a week vacation (that is, not knowing prices at local restaurants, is a savings of 300 or so on doing flight+hotel yourself going to be offset by having to spend at least that much on things that are included with an all-inclusive?)

[Ne7en]

Is there any chance of last minute deals during the christmas break? My GF has received her work schedule and we both have a 5-6 day window where we could possibly jet somewhere? Just not sure where? $1000-$1500/ea. range. Sun & Sun, Anyone have any suggestions?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Ne7en

Is there any chance of last minute deals during the christmas break? My GF has received her work schedule and we both have a 5-6 day window where we could possibly jet somewhere? Just not sure where? $1000-$1500/ea. range. Sun & Sun, Anyone have any suggestions?

There's always a chance, it's just a question of how large (or small) that chance is.

Seemingly everyone and their dog has some vacation time between Dec 22 and Jan 5 which leads to insanely higher demand than the rest of the year, which leads to higher prices on airfares, vacation packages, hotels, condo rentals, etc, during that date range.

The chances of an airline, hotel owner, tour operator, condo owner, etc, deciding they need to significantly lower their prices to fill seats or rooms during the highest demand period of the year? From what I've seen, this is a very rare event. At best, the price might shift from extremely expensive (relative to the rest of the year), to just quite expensive.

Of course, that doesn't prevent travel companies from marketing 'great Christmas deal getaways!'

Most people want to be home by New Years Day or perhaps the day after. So if you're going on a 1 week vacation, that means the latest those people can depart is December 26th. And the earliest they can depart is usually December 21.

So that's really only 6 departure days of the calendar year that all that demand is being focused on (Dec 21-26). That's why if you look at a bar graph of airfares for the cost of flights between any two cities, you'll see a huge spike around Dec 20/21, like this:



But to answer your question, there are a few all inclusive packages departing between Dec 21-30 that are under $1500/person after taxes and fees.

Like these ones for example:

http://yycdeals.com/all-inclusive-va...r5s4lmvsm;list

(all 3 are departing on Dec 30 though)

For comparison, the Breezes Varadero, which is at $1429/person over the holidays, can be had for $986/person in January.

A decent rule of thumb I find is to take a 'good' price from non-Christmas dates and multiply it by 1.4 or 1.5 to get the typical Christmas high demand holiday price (airfares, packages, etc).

[me_dennis]

any vegas hotel deals for this weekend? friday and sat night

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by morgin

Thanks Chris! Much appreciate the answers (and your website!)

To anyone who has done both the book flight+hotel yourself vs an all inclusive package, did you have any suprises about the all inclusive? I'm curious what the value of meals+drinks really is on a week vacation (that is, not knowing prices at local restaurants, is a savings of 300 or so on doing flight+hotel yourself going to be offset by having to spend at least that much on things that are included with an all-inclusive?)

I think that's an interesting question! I guess the first question would be, what is the typical savings of a package that is 'all inclusive' vs a regular flight + hotel package to the same hotel, on the same dates.

Using a real life example of the El Cid Marina which is going for $1125/person all inclusive on Jan 25, vs $983 for the non all-inclusive plan, I think your estimate of saving about $300 is a good one.

So $300, divided by 7 = $42/day.

I know for us, when we travel, I'm pretty sure we spend more than an average of $40/day eating and drinking at local restaurants. But then, you're not really comparing apples to apples, as at an all-inclusive resort some of your meals might be at a buffet, vs a higher quality local restaurant. And some people would probably put a value on eating somewhere that felt authentic, vs eating at their hotel.

And of course for some people, they could probably polish of $300 worth of liquor on their own!

Overall, I'd say a couple would typically spend a lot more than $300/week eating and drinking locally. I'd say for us, depending on the country, we typically go for a light breakfast (often included at our hotel, as we like smaller B&B type places), and then spend around $25 for lunch, and try to keep it to around $50 or less for dinner if we can (really depends on the country of course!). Throw in a few drinks here and there during the day and I'm sure it probably adds up to at least $100/day, or $700/week for us to eat out and drink every day while on vacation.