Renting a villa in Tuscany: AAA travel show tidbit

by Jamie Rhein on

In the chat room lounge at the AAA travel show, “Europe is Closer than You Think,” questions and answers were batted between participants. Someone would post a question and eventually people responded. It was like listening to several conversations at once, but you could scroll back to see what was missed.

One person asked a question about traveling to Europe with her children ages 2, 4 and 7. She wanted to know if she should wait until they are in grade school. One of the travel agents suggested traveling in Ireland or renting a villa in Tuscany. Another suggested waiting until the kids are a bit older to take a river cruise with short shore excursions. The woman asking the question jumped on the villa in Tuscany idea, though and that sparked my interest as well.

Here is a Web site I found that lists villas to rent in Tuscany. I have never rented a villa in Tuscany. I have toured historic villas before near Padua, but stayed in a friend’s apartment. Friends of mine with small children have rented a villa in Tuscany and the experience actually made them want to buy a villa in Tuscany. They liked it that much.

Here is another villa I found. Advantages of renting a villa is that you could stay in one place, cook meals or eat out and children would have a place to play outside. What a wonderful home away from home. One way to have an even more relaxing, less expensive villa experience is to rent one in the fall. If any of you have a villa in Tuscany experience to share, do tell.

European river cruises: AAA travel show tidbit

by Jamie Rhein on

The one presentation I was able to attend at my cyberspace AAA travel trade show, “Europe is Closer Than You Think” was the one by Uniworld Grand River Cruises. As I watched a slide show from the comfort of my home-based office, the presenters talked about what the cruise ship company offers and then answered participants’ questions.

For people who would like to tour Europe, but are afraid of the costs, a river cruise has some advantages. Since you sleep on the ship and meals are covered, that takes care of worrying that you could end up spending much more money than you had planned. Wine comes with dinner and is included in the price. The ship also is your transportation. That cuts down on the wondering about how much getting from place to place will cost you. Since at each stop, local entertainment comes on board, you won’t have to spring for entertainment tickets either.

One of the things the presenter mentioned is that such a trip also cuts down on the hassle of needing to pack and unpack at each destination. There are 5 to 8 hours at each port, but you could stay longer at the city where the cruise starts or ends. Just arrange for your flight to arrive a few days early or leave a few days late.

Another feature I like about Uniworld Grand River Cruises is that there are experts who give tours of the places on the shore excursions and the admission to the places on the tour are included in the cruise price. You won’t be dinged over and over again when you want to maximize your experience. On board the ship, there are programs as well, or you can chill out.

Another plus about these cruises is that the ships are not big so you’re not traveling with huge crowds of people, and because the ships are small they can travel where large ships can’t. Cities are not the only stops–so are small towns and villages.

There are several itinerary options. Here is a link that leads to the page of European river trips. The company also offers trips in Egypt, China , and Russia. There’s a trip that cruises the Black Sea and takes in Ukraine and Turkey.

EasyJet busted for misleading advertising

by Jeffrey White on

Frequent travelers of Europe’s budget airlines have known for years that the industry relies, to a certain extent, on misleading, if not outright false, advertising.

Usually this has to do with their pricing. Log onto any of the big European budget carriers — easyJet, Ryanair or Germanwings, for instance — and you’ll be hit with a great offer. Take Germanwings, for instance. You’ll see them pimping April flights from Zagreb, Croatia to Cologne for €5. Not bad. Click on it, choose a random set of dates (say an April 8 departure and an April 16 return) and you can get both legs for €14. Ah, but then the tax is figured in, and that trip is now €77.36 (more than $120).

European budget airlines don’t usually come under fire for this because (1.) technically there was a flight in this case for €5 and (2.) they make it clear that the prices they pimp often do not include taxes. But that doesn’t completely wash off the stench of ‘scam’ in my book, if simply because I always feel like the promotions these airlines run and the ridiculously cheap prices they quote reflect how stupid they think consumers are. Obviously we’re not smart enough to view a €77 round-trip plane ticket as still a pretty good deal.

So, it’s nice when one of these carriers gets busted for not playing it straight with customers. This has just happened to easyJet, which was running a special recently along the lines of “book by Friday and if you find a better price, we’ll pay you up to triple the difference.”

Well, a Swiss woman did just that, and then played hell trying to get the Luton, England-based airline to pay up. It claimed the woman hadn’t delivered proof, and then tried something along the lines of saying she had not found a comparable ticket, since it was a competitor’s return fare she found rather than the two single fairs (there and back) she booked on easyJet. Gimme a break, right?

That’s what Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority essentially said. They’ve ruled the easyJet promotion was misleading, since the fine print implied that the refund was easy to claim, when it really was like dealing with the IRS. Only bookings made at certain times and dates were eligible. Refund requests had to be made within an hour of the original booking. And so on. The Guardian newspaper reports the whole sordid tale.

There was good news for the Swiss woman, however. EasyJet told the Guardian that she would receive close to $1,500 in her bank account within a week.

Noflights.com: Travel without flying

by Abha Malpani on

I enjoy finding websites that represent businesses trying to make-money and help the world at the same time. My latest find is UK based Noflights.com, which as the name suggests, is about traveling without taking a flight.

The company has put together an expansive bundle of travel-itineraries for people who want environmentally conscious travel. From the UK, they have ready packages that, other than Europe, will take you to China, Russia, Morocco, and Turkey. You can travel by bus, train or boat and choose the type of holiday you want basis categories like: “big sky, mountains, lakes”, “6-hours from London”, “tracks less traveled” and “mix-it-up”. They will tailor-make your trip if you want, and if you are based outside the UK you can send them your details and they will sort something out for you.

They promise: “…the lowest price on the market for any of our hotel or holiday products. If you find a cheaper hotel or like for like holiday (either as a package or booked independently) from any other source, we’ll match it and give you £10 back for good measure,” and 10% of their surplus income will be donated to environmental justice campaigns.

Another interesting feature of the site: you can send in a travelogue of any sort and if they like it they will give you a discount or some reward for using it on their site.

The website looks new and has unsurprising issues of a new site: at the moment it does not have enough information uploaded and many links don’t click to anywhere; a bit of scouting around revealed that it launched only about a week ago. Nevertheless, worth checking out.