Holiday planning

Posted in Planning, Travel by Will on February 10, 2006.

Where?

Definitely England at some point for about a week.

Thinking about touring Scotland.
Thinking about Touring Europe.

Budget?

All up, I’ve got AUD$12K (I’ve got more in savings, but I still need to buy things here).
That has to include Airfares, Insurance, Food, Acommodation, etc. You get the idea.

When?

Total Non-Working period is Saturday 29th April, 2006 through to Sunday 18th June 2006
I don’t want to get back to Sydney any later than Wednesday 14th June. This gives me a few days to recover from the flight, and re-adjust to the timezone.
I’m planning to leave on about the 1st of May.

Flights

Here’s some Preliminary details on flights.
Flight Centre

  • Return economy airfares with Emirates $1,440.00 (2hr Stopover in Dubai)
  • Return economy airfares with Austrian Airlines $1,629.00 (1hr Stopover in Vienna) (No longer in consideration)
  • Return economy airfares with Qantas $1,722.00 (no idea on stopovers) (Wasn’t ever really in consideration, but it’s out of the running anyway)
  • ~$450 for Taxes on all of the above.

I’ve requested costs for Singapore Airlines which I hear are good.

Other Travel Agents

None yet, I will definitely look soon though.

James Cook

Travel Land

Online Flights

  • Jetabroad - decent site, but they need to fix up their code a little.

Tours

Contiki

I’m not considering Contiki, I don’t think they’re the right sort of tour group for me (aimed at the party-animal group, who prefer drinking to much else)

Kumuka (Europe)

They have a few nice tours, which I’m looking at. They also seem to have a slightly more ‘adult’ theme.

European Escapade

10 Days
AUD$1800 + ~AUD$270 (Tour + Fund)
London or Paris to Rome.
Dates (applicable to me):

  1. Friday 12th May 2006 to Sunday 21st May 2006.
  2. Friday 26th May 2006 to Sunday 04 June 2006

European Rhapsody

12 Days
AUD$1915 + ~AUD$285
Vienna to London
Dates (applicable to me):

  1. Sunday 14th May 2006 to Thursday 25th May 2006 (NB: Limited, currently only 5 seats avail)
  2. Sun 28th May 2006 to Thursday 8th June 2006

…There’s a few others, but they go for a bit longer, and subsequently cost more.

“Radical Travel Network” (no site — HAGGiS)

They’ve got a bunch of tours around Scotland and Ireland.
Relatively cheap: eg 8 days, AUD$669 + $255 for Scotland - that’s as expensive as they get, the others are shorter, and cheaper too.

I’ll put details up later.

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