My BTB -- Businss Trip (to Europe) with Benefits

Here I go again, booking another trip to Europe. I’m going to London and Amsterdam on business and adding some personal time in Paris before I head home. I'll be traveling for two and a half weeks in June.

I’m getting this down to a bit of an art form but there’s always a curve. This time it’s Amsterdam. I haven’t been there. Paris, on my budget, is also a challenge! But I’m very comfortable with the almost routine arrangements involved in a trans-Atlantic trip to London.

Let me back up to the actual purpose of the trip.  I need to be in my company’s office in London for a week for some collaborative work and then I’m going to a conference in Amsterdam. Lucky me – my flights from Canada to Europe and back, and my transportation expenses for the Amsterdam trip are all covered by the company.  Yay!

I’m staying with a friend in London and the company will make all the Amsterdam arrangements, so I’ll just tell you about the flights to Europe and my Paris plans.

Carpe Diem

I’m a big believer in seizing the day… taking advantage of opportunities… carpe diem.  Ever a travel opportunist, as soon as the business trip was confirmed I started racking my brain trying to come up with a nice holiday side trip adventure for myself while I’m over in Europe.

I asked my Facebook friends, mostly in Europe, what they thought about Brussels for a weekend. It’s close to Amsterdam and easy to get back to London if need be (Eurostar).  But I was laughed off my own timeline over that idea!  “FSS Brussels?!”  said one guy.  (Ya, it took me a minute to work that one out too: For F*ck Sake”.)

Then a friend suggested Paris.  I thought, mon dieu, why didn’t I think of that in the first place?! That’s a brilliant idea.

Well, I actually did think of it. But I’ve been to Paris but never Brussels. And Paris is notoriously expensive. And it’s further from Amsterdam. I also thought Amsterdam would be more convenient and cheaper to fly back to Vancouver from.  (I was wrong about that…. I’m working up to my travel tip of the day!)

I’ve been to Paris twice. Once on my own and once a friend from London met me there after I’d been in Prague on business.  So I kinda have the lay of the land.  And as a Canadian I speak and understand a little French.  (Of course the French speak better English than my French so that is probably what I’ll speak there!)

Before I ramble on forever, I do have some actual travel tips for you today. 

 

1. European railways have gone paperless!  

This is great because now you don't have to book online waaaaaay in advance so they have enough time to MAIL your paper tickets to you.  I'm old enough to remember when airline tickets were several pages with red carbon paper between them. You had one page for each leg of your journey.  Airlines haven't ticketed that way for a long time now. Now a lot of people just scan a barcode into their smartphone so they don't have to worry about travel documents. So it's about time the European rail system joined the 21st century  ;)

2. Transat's wants to fly you to Europe this summer!

My other big tip is: Air Transat not only flies to Vancouver from Paris, it’s cheaper to return from Paris than from London! At least on the journey I just booked.  I think it was about $1250 to fly Vancouver to London Gatwick return.  That’s at least $300 – $400 cheaper than BA and Air Canada.  But when I booked the trip as a “multi-destination” trip the return price was only $1066. I think Transat must have only recently flying in and out of Paris so they’re promoting that route.  They have definitely been advertising lots of European destinations other than London lately. And it was an email from them that gave me the idea to return from a different city than I flew to.

I know, I know… I’ve ranted about Transat before and swore I’d never fly with them again. But I think I’ve said that about every airline at one time or another lol  The bottom line is bottom line. Transat has great fares to Europe this summer so even though I know they herd passengers around like cattle I’m going to grin and bear it and save my boss $400.

As always I was happy to pay another $25 each way for seat selection.  It’s WELL WORTH $25 to know you’re not going to be sandwiched in a middle seat or crammed into a window seat. I’m strictly an Aisle Man! Gotta be able to get up without consulting with my neighbour, even if it means I get bumped all night by passers-by.   (Read my advice about strategic seat selection.)

Fast train to Amsterdam

So, what I ended up saving by flying home from Paris more than covered the fast train I booked from Amsterdam to Paris. It was only $70 and I think just another $25 to upgrade to Premium (usually worth it IMO… in the UK anyway…)

The train is called the Thalys. Have you heard of it? It’s one of those amazingly fast European trains that whizzes through the countryside connecting major cities.  I travelled from Germany to Paris once on a fast train and I’m sure the announcement said we were going 350 km/hour.  Felt like that at least – the passing scene was just a blur.  I expect this trip to be the same but from the photos it looks comfortable. Of course there’s a bar and café. And it’s only 3 hours – 3:20 – 6:25. I can cope!  Lol

Is 'Budget Hotel in Paris' an Oxymoron?!

Finding a decent hotel in Paris for under €100 was challenging, but I did it!  In my next blog I’ll tell you how I found a great little hotel around the corner from the Louvre for €70/night.  For now I'll just say that it hadn’t been for travellers’ reviews on TripAdvisor.com I almost booked myself into what turns out to be a dive.  Whew.  I find it hard to search for hotels on TripAdvisor but it’s great for real, honest travelers’ reviews so I use it all the time.  I've also posted lots of hotel and restaurant reviews there. I'll also tell you another great source of reviews that I found where I least expected it!

If you have any travel advice / stories / tips for my trips to Amsterdam and Paris please email me or leave a comment below.

Happy trails…

The Travelin’ Man

Viva Barcelona!

A friend of mine just published an article about Barcelona and with the sun pouring into my own office this morning it's hard not to daydream a bit about that beautiful Mediterranean city. Sure, it's a city of thieves. (OK, not everyone's a thief of course, but everyone that goes there comes home with a pick pocket story!)  It's also one of the most beautiful and architecurally unique places in Europe. In the world!  The whole city is like it came from the imagination of the incredible Catalan designer, Antoine Gaudi. Oh, right -- it did!

Central Barcelona is like... Paris, but in a kinda melted dali-esque art deco kinda way.  These photos don't do it justice -- you should go!

I got lucky and found myself in a great little hotel around the corner from Casa Batllo (left) a really over-the-top Gaudi house in a posh Rodeo Drive type shopping area (right). (Yes, the Spanish love chic, colourful clothes!)

This is me in the neighbourhood where I found myself (while supposedly attending a business conference at Porto Olimpico)

La Ramblas is a busy, colourful boulevard running through the best parts of the city. Walk from one end to the other! Have some sangria and paella! (I'll have to write a whole article on the food in Barcelona sometime -- for now I just have one word: TAPAS!

Porto Olimpico is a modern tourist area built for the Olympics awhile back, now a big conference area.Excellent place to get your pocket picked  ;)  Lots of hip patio bars along the beach.














Have YOU been to Barcelona? What did you think? And tips for travellers?! Please comment below...

Don't You Hate That Feeling?

So, I was in England for three weeks, but I've been back for three and a half weeks now. I hate that feeling -- that a once anticipated trip is now history, a folder in a picture album. Especially since I don't have my next trip planned!

I have a few possibilities in mind. What about you? I find that you have to visualize a journey happening for awhile before the pieces all fall into place and suddenly you're in a fascinating new place having a travel adventure.

I'm thinking Malta. Been there twice and love it. Lots of beautiful old architecture -- interesting mix of European and African culture. And lucky me, I have a lot of wonderful friends there -- just saw many of them in London. Which is why I'm thinking Malta. We'll see. If business takes me to England I might just do it. Get a little flat, work from there for a few months. Visualize!

Last summer I was traveling in Europe while Vancouver, my home, was basking in a long hot, dry summer. Apparently I missed a great summer at home while I was in London, Prague and Salzburg. So what am I thinking planning a few months in Malta?!

Right. I'm not planning. I'm waiting to see how the story unfolds.

If you've got an interesting trip coming together please tell me about it in the comment box below!

Strategic Seat Selection

Boy, did I get lucky on both my Air Canada flights this month – going to London and back. It’s been years since I’ve gotten on an airplane and realized that it was going to be only half full.  In fact, I don’t remember that happening since a redeye from Toronto 15 years ago!

For years I’ve been flying to London on a cheap charter airline, Air Transat. They cater to packaged holiday customers so you get herded around like cattle. You get what you pay for and services are minimal, but airline food is rarely good and now that Transat has on demand video in headrest in front of you it’s pretty much as good as any.

Good as any, that is, until British Airways and Air Canada dropped their prices so low this winter. My flight was $1100 all in.

A good deal made that much better by being on an empty plane.  And by applying a little “strategic seat selection”.

It’s 24 hours before my flight. I logon to AirCanada.com to check in, get my boarding pass.  I’d paid $40 extra per flight to get seat selection at the time I booked, so I knew I had my usual aisle seat just in front of the wing.  But I thought it was worth checking what else was available – and it was.

The window seat next to me was vacant, but for sure someone checking in after me would take it.  The middle section had rows that were almost or entirely empty.  I saw one with one seat on the opposite aisle taken. I figured the middle seats of the middle section would be the last to be selected and only if the plane was completely full. I played that one right and ended up with 3 seats to stretch out on. I even laid down and fell asleep and I never sleep on planes.

So there, that’s my tip of the day: fly Air Canada in the winter because even though it’s cheap no one is flying to London in January unless they have to (I had to). And since you’re not going to see anything but the top side of clouds during your 10 hour flight anyway, don’t underestimate the middle section! Grab an aisle seat in a near empty row and prepare to fly first class!

Why I Switched from Transat to Air Canada and Why Gumtree Sucks

Wow. Less than a week till I'm going back to London!  I changed airline this trip, and I found a new way to find a place to stay too, so I thought I'd let you in on why.

I fly to London a couple of times a year and for the last few years I've been quite happy flying with Air Transat. It's a discount charter airline. My client pays my travel expenses but I still spend money like it's my own. OK, service on BA is better than on most, but it doesn't make the flight worth twice as much to me! 

The problem with Transat, for me, is that they deal mainly with packaged holiday travelers -- masses of people that can only travel if they are led around in packs.  When I was flying home in September, there were two large groups on my flight, and a dozen or so random travelers like me.  It normally takes about, what, 30 or 40 minutes to load a 737? Transat took almost 2 hours loading this flight and, you guessed it, us random folks were the last to board since we didn't have either the coveted "orange card" or "red card".

The reason I don't fly BA is partly because the fare is always slightly hire but mostly because their points suck. But that's for another blog...

Before I write a novel, I said I'd explain why I didn't use Gumtree to find the place I'm staying in this time.

Three weeks is too long to stay in a hotel. It's expensive. And I like to be able to cook some of my meals at "home" and do laundry and whatnot.  I think I've probably stayed in every B&B with a fridge and microwave in it, within a few blocks of Victoria Station where my client's office was or around Earl's Court where conferences I've attended have been. Then I found Gumtree.co.uk, a popular classified ads type site in the UK where people with big houses find flatmates.  It's a bit of a risk, I guess, but I've met some great people this way -- I'll tell you about them in future blogs! 

Unfortunately, Gumtree is plagued with all kinds of scammers -- people with a flat that's just to good to be true at such a low price.  Too bad, but that's human nature I suppose.  When you start to recognize their patterns you can spot them immediately but I have been sucked in by a couple.  The place is always fantastic sorry. It was their mother's and although she died they just can't bear to sell it. Oh ya, and unfortunately they are unable to let you view it in advance because they aren't actually in London. Then they want to know your bank account info. C'mon -- I wasn't born yesterday!

Anyway, it's tedious weeding through the crap there so I'm glad someone recommended another service.  I found a place in Notting Hill which will be fun. I've stayed in that area before. It's just like the movie. Lovely. But it's also a bit pretentious.

I'm going to leave it there for now and tell you about the new service next time. Meantime, if you've had experiences with Gumtree or other similar services for finding short term flatmate accommodation please tell me/us about it in the comment box below.

Travel Addict

I confess. I'm addicted to travel.  Because I've made it a priority all my life, I've seen a lot of this fascinating world of ours -- and I intend to see a lot more of it before I go! Have you got a travel bug too?!

I’m a Western Canadian who’s traveled Canada from sea to sea to sea and driven all over America as well. My work has taken me to some amazing places in Central America and Europe, and I've taken some fantastic personal trips to England, France, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, Malta, Morocco and Costa Rica. I like telling stories from my travels and, even more, I love to hear other people's travel tales. I'm writing this blog to meet others with wanderlust. Like you.

I hope my stories inspire you to take a trip or maybe remind you of a great travel adventure of your own.

I’ve got a big trip to London coming up in a few weeks and I’m going to start this blog by writing first about preparations and then about what promises to be yet another great UK experience. I’ll also be writing about my summer in central Europe (Austria and Czech Republic), a recent holiday in Malta, and an eye-opening trip to Marrakech. Since I live in a major tourist destination, I’ll sometimes write about Vancouver experiences as well.

So ya… I’m going to London January 24 and will be there for three weeks. My business is focused there so I’m lucky – I get to go to London a few times a year, usually for a month at a time. London is very familiar, in many ways, but I discover something different every time I go. I’ll tell you more later but for now I’m excited to say that I’ll be staying in Notting Hill this time. I was thinking of staying in Shoreditch since I don’t know East London very well. And I’ve stayed in Notting Hill before. But I found such a great place I decided, hey, I can just go out lots in Shoreditch if I want a little East End experience! Actually, lots of the business I’ll be doing this trip will be in East London too so I should have lots of Cockney stories for you in February!

Finding a place to stay for 3 or 4 weeks – someplace that’s not too expensive and not too hard to get home to from central London – can be quite a challenge sometimes. In my next blog entry I’ll tell you about a new service I found and why I’ll never bother with Gumtree again. Thanks for checking out my new blog. Please come back next week.