Wild Travel Deals by Legacy Travel
November 2008
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Trip Notes from London and Paris 2008

"You live and learn. At any rate, you live." - Douglas Noel Adams

Every time I travel I record things that I observe that will make my next trip or the next trip of my clients better or more comfortable. I recently traveled to London and Paris. Here are the notes I made along the way.

1. If you rely on your laptop heavily at home, there are many advantages to taking it along with you to Europe. Many hotels offer high speed internet in the room. Consider what this allows:

-You can keep up with your emails. (I would definitely recommend establishing an email folder called something like "When I return" or "After Vacation" where you put all of your actionable emails so they don't sit in your inbox.) This means that each day when you are out touring you'll know that the world isn't falling apart around you. Also, when you get home you won't have a million emails to go through and follow up on.

-Skype. On my most recent trip I charged up my Skype account with $10.00 and signed up for Skype Out. This allowed me to make outgoing telephone calls. My traveling companion and I both called home liberally and spoke at length. I just checked it and I still have a balance of over $4.00. So, for a week of virtually unlimited international calls I paid less than $6.00.

-Google Map Directions. When we arrived in Paris we wanted to find a grocery store so that we could get something to eat without having to sit down at a restaurant. Through Google Maps I was able to search for grocery stores in the area and look at photographs of what the path between our hotel and the grocery store looked like.

-Other Resources. We had access to the vast knowledge of the Internet as we looked for restaurants and attractions.

-iTunes: The coolest thing about having iTunes with me is that we were able to rent movies via iTunes for only $3.99 as opposed to the pay per view movies at the hotel for 25 Euros per movie. Also, with the iTunes movie we got to watch the end of it while we were on the Chunnel. Plus when we couldn't find anything on TV late at night I could watch downloaded episodes of my favorite programs from home.

2. Amazon Kindle: Amazon's wonderful electronic reading device is a fabulous resource to have on a trip. When you finish one book, just download another one! Rather than scouring the English language bookstores you have access to any book you want. Since the Amazon wireless system doesn't work outside the USA, you do need to have your laptop with you to download the books to your Kindle.

3. Adapters: I learned on this trip that if the brick on your power cord indicates that it can take 240v input, you can plug it into the outlet with just an adapter rather than worrying about a converter. My cell phone charger, Macbook charger and Kindle charger all did not need a converter which was fabulous.

4. If you stay in an expensive hotel, then everything around it is likely to be expensive as well. I won this trip so I was in much more expensive hotels than normal. Particularly in Paris I noticed that the shops and restaurants were much more expensive than in other parts of town. In our neighborhood we found a restaurant where a cheeseburger could be had for 27 Euros. Closer to the Eiffel Tower the prices were much more reasonable.

5. If there is a Segway tour where you're going, take it.

6. Trash Cans: We noticed that in many parts of London it was virtually impossible to find a trash can. This left us carrying our trash with us as we walked around. In Paris there were trash cans everywhere. Remarkably, there was also much more trash everywhere.

7. Friendly makes up for alot.

The Economy and Your Vacation


Every economy is uncertain. Referring to this or any economy as "uncertain" is an unnecessary and pessimistic redundancy. - Bo Bennett

Vacationing in Today's Economy:

Gloomy Economy Takes Toll on Thanksgiving Travel:

Economy Hinders Holiday Travel Plans:

Gloom and doom stories about the economy are everywhere. Many of these stories deal with how the economy is affecting travel. My experience has been that reporters tend to have a preconceived idea about a situation and they look for situations or statistics that support the position they want to take in the article. Many times, they're looking for a different way to frame the same story over and over. Just watch CNN for more than 15 minutes and you'll get a taste. Since the travel industry seems to be the red headed stepchild of the media, talking about a decrease in travel is a very popular topic at the moment.:

But let's break down the real story. In the L.A. times story linked above the "toll" that has been taken on Thanksgiving Travel is 2%. That's right TWO PERCENT! From the headline I would have guessed it to be much higher, wouldn't you?:

The fact of the matter is that here at Legacy Travel we've had our second straight record year. In fact, by July of this year, more people were going on vacation than in all of 2007. We have more vacations booked for the coming year than we had in place at this time last year. The fact is that during times of high stress vacations are more important than ever. :

People will take wonderful vacations this year. People will have special anniversary trips, destination weddings, memorable family vacations, honeymoons and amazing adventures. The stock market will come and go, but the only time we have is now. Celebrate your family and your life.:

The other facet of travel and this economy that you're likely to hear about in the press right now is all of the amazing deals you'll find since the economy is suffering. It is true that some hotels and resorts are cutting prices. The rest of the story that you're not likely to read about is that even though hotels and resorts cut prices, the airlines reduced the number of flights they operate so the cost for airfare has actually increased.:

Remember back when gas was costing almost $4.00 per gallon? The airlines reduced the number of flights they operate so that the remainder of the flights would be full and could be operated at a profit. :

So, the bottom line is:

1) You do need a vacation and will in all likelihood take one this year.
2) Because of the reduction in the number of airline seats, the best bet to get a great deal is to book early.
3) Don't worry, be happy.


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