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Travel and backpacking news, issues and articles on budget travel, saving money, round the world tickets, and things to do. Best travel advice and information. The Official Blog of ThinkBackpacking.com.
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Bargain US Bus Journeys
 In 2007 the last leg of my round the world trip was from Boston to New York City. I was looking around for a cheap bus service between the two cities and stumbled upon the Fung Wah Bus Company. For a budget traveller it was top notch as the three and a half hour bus journey only cost $15! To put this into perspective, the cab fare from the hostel in Boston to the bus terminal was the same price.
I travelled at about 11am and the bus was completely full but I guess this all adds to the atmosphere right? Despite the cheap price, you may have to put up with mediocre on board entertainment which for us happened to be a low budget martial arts movie, so I just put on the iPod and closed my eyes (what a party animal). However, after a little research on the web, I found that my Boston to New York price could be beaten by the Lucky Star bus company. They could offer the same journey for as little as $1 if you were prepared to travel at 6am, or competitive prices at other times of the day.
It does seem that these Chinatown buses from Boston do offer very good rates travel and beat the Greyhound services hand down. It is always wise to shop around online for alternative bus companies to the Greyhound as you may be surprised by what you find. There are other cheap services operating down the East Coast to Washington, Philadelphia and Georgia to name a few so always consider these before you pick the tempting yet pricier option of a budget airline. For a comprehensive list of alternative bus services at competitive prices so be sure to take a look here.
If anyone else has bagged a transport bargain on their travels please leave a comment so we can all ‘tap that resource’.
Which Country Is First To See In New Years?
It is always fun watching the TV to see different countries across the globe welcome in the New Year. Generally only the larger cities get a mention such as Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo, Athens, London, New York and LA but I wanted to know who celebrates the New Year before everyone else.
I did some research online and my findings were that Kiritimati (or the Christmas Islands to you or me) is generally considered the first place in the world to see the dawn of the New Year. It appears that with GMT daylight savings adjustments, the Christmas Islands can be as much as UTC/GMT +14 hours. Someone please correct me if I am wrong about this as it is a tricky subject. For example, it seems Australia has vertical and horizontal time zones which only exist in the summer, and other countries such as India and Nepal are UTC/GMT +5:30 and UTC/GMT +5:45 respectively, which do not conform to the standard integral numbers.
 Following the New Years theme, it seemed appropriate to research the last country to welcome the New Year too. It seems Samoa takes this title as they are UTC/GMT -11 hours. Interestingly, as Samoa and the Christmas Islands have a 26 hour difference, the 2nd of January has arrived in the Christmas Islands before New Years day has in Samoa! There are two land masses in a separate UTC/GMT -12 hour zone, but as they are uninhabited there is nobody to see in the New Year after the Samoans. I would like to go and live on these land masses and rule my own time zone. Anyone is welcome to join me.
More interesting time zone facts
New Years celebrations around the world
How To Save Money On A Winter Sports Holiday
As promised I have comprised a list of good ideas to minimise the costs of a ski trip this coming season.
Get a late deal
To get a late deal you need to be flexible with your holiday dates and sometimes where you fly into or from. Booking as late as a week before your desired date of departure can save you hundreds of pounds on accommodation because companies are eager to fill every empty bed. The biggest savings are commonly found on chalet accommodation and less so on hotel rooms. If you need to go on a certain date and want to go to a particular location, then waiting for a late deal is extremely risky. It pays to be flexible.
Book a chalet not a hotel
If you have a big party or even if you do not, a chalet can be very cost effective as most of the time they offer half board living. In every chalet I have stayed in I have received breakfast and a three course meal in the evening with a good helping of wine. This is great value as restaurants in ski resorts can be pricey especially as the Euro is so strong. Chalets in my opinion are also much more comfortable than hotels as you have your own living area and not just a bedroom, plus it is a good way to meet other people.
Buy a Sensible ski pass
Use common sense and be realistic when you buy a ski pass. It will obviously be cheaper to buy a weekly pass over 5 or 6 daily ones, but also think about where you want to ski. Many resorts are huge and have hundreds of kilometres of runs in several valleys. Buy a pass which includes a couple of valleys but not all. It is unlikely you will get time in a week or be quick enough (unless you are a very confident skier) to get across to further valleys and back in a day anyway so save your money. In the unlikely event that you do tire of your current ski pass boundary, you can usually buy daily passes to other areas. If you buy passes through your tour operator you can sometimes get a discount so ask.
Slope cuisine vs packed lunch
Ski resorts can be quite snobby places and this is one of the reasons why the mark up on food is quite high. You will find a lot of eateries on the slopes but you can easily pay over the odds. The food is great but do not just stop at the first convenient place. Ski around on the first day or ask people’s advice for the cheaper restaurants/cafes where you can get a pizza, a sandwich or bowl of soup. I have experienced mountain restaurants at either end of the price scale so I know what it means to find a suitable restaurant. Alternatively you can take a packed lunch onto the piste. On a good sunny day you cannot beat it plus it is by far the cheapest option. Many chalets will offer a packed lunch to you for free or you can pick up supplies in the resort before you take the gondola up to the slopes.
Drinks and Apres Ski
A lot of money is thrown away in the evenings at ski resorts in bars and clubs. You can pay up to £5 for a beer at a bar and more for spirits so be sure to either pick up a crate before you get to the resort from a supermarket or get tanked up on free wine at the chalet if you are staying in one. I will add that nightlife in ski resorts is always good natured and very lively, often with live entertainment, but the drinks will burn a whole in your pocket.
Borrow or buy equipment
If it is your first time skiing or boarding then definitely hire your gear and take out the insurance. If you know someone with a pair of skis or a board then ask if you can borrow it as this will save you a packet. Alternatively, if you have been a couple of times and plan to go again, consider buying your own gear because it will be a very worthwhile investment over a 5 to 10 year period. If you do think this is the way to go then always wait until the end of the season before making a purchase. Ski shops generally have their sales then to make room for the new season’s stock. Many a bargain can be had.
Snow Sports And A Bad Economy
 Holidays in the snow are typically very expensive at the best of times because there a lot of extras to consider. Once you have paid for the flight and accommodation, you need to include the cost of the ski hire, the lift pass, winter sport insurance, expensive mountain restaurants and of course the après ski (evening drinks which are not cheap). A ski trip will hit your account hard at the best of times but in the current economic climate what will this mean for people heading to the Alps?
I for one am trying to organise a ski trip France in the New Year but am in two minds about when to book and what company to go with. I can see many smaller ski operators going bust as not so many Brits will be making the journey to the slopes in 2009 as the purse strings tighten. It is a pretty safe bet that companies will be offering very competitive prices to entice the business in order to survive the recession. Therefore there is a strong chance that you could get a really good deal on ski packages if you can wait until the last minute to book. This is a risky game though if you are not flexible as there is always a chance that you hold out for that cracking deal and nothing comes up for the location, accommodation, or airport you need.
Lets say you did get a last minute deal I think many people still would be deterred from going because the pound is so weak against the Euro right now. Prices in the mountains are always higher so it is good to be prepared for this and think of ways to cut the costs. In my next article I will outline a few ways you can save the pennies on the slopes.
Lost Luggage: A Solution Has Arrived
Do you ever stand at the luggage reclaim conveyor belt and pray that your bag has not been lost in that void somewhere between check in desk and your airplane? Well if so you are not alone and light is at the end of the tunnel. Could microchips in the luggage labels be the answer? As a backpacker you rely on the items you carry in your bag as they are the bare necessities you need to keep yourself dressed, clean and generally presentable for the period of time you are away. Being so dependent on these things highlights the tragedy it would be if your backpack was to go missing at an airport during one of the many flights you may take on your journey. Unfortunately lost luggage is far from uncommon as the Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimated that between May and July 2007 over a million items of luggage were either lost or damaged in the USA alone, which would make anybody a little unsettled throughout the flight. However, a solution is being tested in airports across the US, Kuala Lumpur, Japan and Beijing. Instead of using bar code systems which rely on directly aligned lasers reading bar codes and filtering the bags towards aircrafts, minute RFID chips are placed in the luggage tags. These RFID tags can be picked up and read by an antenna from several feet away, and unlike bar codes, the readings are not obscured by dust or other luggage. This has lead to a much more reliable system of routing bags to the correct destination. In fact, with the tags being read when routed to the aircraft, when being put on the aircraft and when being unloaded at the destination, lost luggage can be tracked precisely and flawlessly. Although trials have proved successful for this new method, the price of implementing these RFID tags is greater than the bar code alternative. As RFIDs have many more uses than luggage labelling, mass production will see prices fall per unit in years to come. The implementation of a system such as this would also mean a total upgrade of the systems currently in place at many airports around the world. Despite this being worth the investment, it would still an enormous project. Until then you can purchase your own luggage tracking units from independent manufacturers if you do worry excessively about your baggage, or take your chances and hope that your luggage does not enter that forgotten baggage grave yard lying beyond the desks at check in.
Space Flight With Virgin Galactic
My previous post got me thinking about the possibilities of commercial space flights and space tourism. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to enter orbit for either the experience and/or to travel to the other side of the world in a fraction of the time. Well the Virgin group headed by Richard Branson could make this possible by 2012.
Initially the space craft will be limited to a six person cabin, and will only fly from California and then later from a spaceport New Mexico. The 2.5 hour space flight has caught many eyes with 65,000 people showing interest despite the $200,000 price tag, but clearly there is still a long way to go before it will have benefits other than being pretty cool.
This all seems well and good but it has been met with different reactions. The biggest issue underpinning the concept is safety. Many people, including myself to an extent, would be apprehensive in taking a trip into space. Virgin Galactic’s answer is a mandatory 3 day training session at the spaceport to get used to the gravity difference and to ensure that people can make the most of the experience. This could be quite annoying for holiday makers wanting a last minute escape to Australia, but on the plus side I would imagine this training/briefing would only have to be undergone once. Medical checks on the other hand could be necessary for each take off.
So what will this do for the future of air travel? Clearly this is not affordable for the average person but if competition emerges and prices fall, space tourism would be a welcome reality to reduce lengthy flight times. I think it is a definite possibility that by 2020 we could see spacecraft which will take hundreds of passengers into orbit much like the planes of today. Virgin aims to make the possibilities of space travel available globally and are looking to build spaceports around the world. I don’t think this will spell the end for traditional long haul flights just yet because to make space trips affordable will take time and probably competition from another provider. Watch this “space”.
More info at http://www.virgingalactic.com/
An Overview: The Kennedy Space Centre
 Most young people dream of becoming an astronaut before they realise the qualifications and training necessary to have this chance. As the majority of people do not make it into orbit, the next best thing for any space enthusiast is visiting the Kennedy Space centre in Florida. I visited the Space Centre this time last year as a pit stop while travelling from Miami up to Orlando. It was a 45 minute detour from our route but I thoroughly enjoyed the day out. It should be noted that the visitors centre is only accessible by car because there are no public transport links.
Once at the complex there are numerous activities, shows and tours to keep you occupied. It is best to plan your day well, especially if it is busy to ensure you fit everything in. The first thing I did was to jump on the next available tour bus. There are a couple of routes you can take depending on what you want to see, but as I thought time was on my side I went for the whole lot.
The first stop was to the launch pad view point. The bus takes you passed the rocket construction building where the rockets are built or repaired before launch. I was lucky enough to see the enormous mobile platform which takes the rockets the launch area, and also a rare viewing of a rocket actually on the pad ready for a mission in the coming week. From the lookout point you can see the launch pad even though it is still a fair distance away and you can also see across to Cape Canaveral where take off used to take place. There are coin operated binoculars on the tower and as you can see in the photo below I captured the rocket through the lens.
The next stop was the labs to see where parts of the International Space Station were being created for the eminent launch. From the overhead walkway, you can see scientists working below on the new additions to the Space Station and the next experiments to be taken up. This is also the chance to see the normal amenities of the space station such as the living quarters, on board labs, and of course the toilets. It is then only a short stop from there to numerous exhibitions about space travel through the ages. There is a show about the first moon landing, interesting artefacts and hands on attractions.
 Once back at the main visitor complex there is still much to see and do. You can get on board a retired space shuttle and look at the cramped conditions astronauts live in for weeks at a time, and experience the closest thing to a real space launch. This is a very popular new attraction and will get busy so make sure you leave plenty of time for this. There are also short movies showing at the 5 story iMax cinema which gives the viewing an extra edge. I have not mentioned all that is available as I did not get round the whole experience as I did not have a full day. For more information please visit the Kennedy Space Centre website.
Admission costs $38 for adults and $28 for children plus that pesky tax. I think this is a reasonable price as it is a whole day out and is one of the only places in the world to give you a working day insight into live space exploration programmes. If you would like to look at some of the photos from my day out visit my Florida photo gallery.
I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area because where else can you have lunch with an astronaut, see a rock from Mars, and board a space shuttle all in one day?
Budget Internet Access Around The Globe
This is one of the more useful articles I have written for ezinearticles.com and thought I would share it with my readers.
When you pack your bags and head off around the world with only a backpack and a few essential belongings, you become more aware of what you are leaving behind. You forfeit frequent contact with friends and family, miss social events and can feel isolated. With thanks to the World Wide Web, technology has bridged the gap and we are now able to communicate, upload photos and create blogs to share experiences with loved ones from any where on the globe, but how easy is it to find cheap access to the web.
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