The AAA virtual travel show

by Jamie Rhein on

Technology can certainly be an awesome thing. Yesterday I attended my first virtual travel show through AAA. The show, “Europe is Closer Than You Think” was designed for people to find out about various trips and deals about traveling in Europe. It was set up similarly to a trade show one would attend in person–physically. After registering, with a click of a mouse, an attendee had a variety of choices. One could attend presentations in the auditorium, chat with travel agents and vendors in the exhibit hall, chat with other customers and travel agents in the lounge and find out about other AAA products.

This was a real time occurrence with scheduled events that began and ended at a specified time, although people can still head back to the conference until 11:00 p.m. tonight to catch parts they missed. The presentations were actual talks accompanied by a slide show and time for questions and answers. If you want to check it out, click here for the web site. I think you can register still.

In the hour I attended I:

  • attended a talk about Uniworld Grand River Cruises, a company that conducts cruises on Europe’s rivers,
  • chatted in the lounge with travel agents and travelers who were offering up advice
  • emailed a travel agent about traveling to Europe with children since lately some Gadling readers have posed questions about that. The travel agent emailed me back and is getting back to me today.

This was a fun way to get information, particularly the chat room. I found out one person is going to Ireland on a honeymoon, one guy is going to Denver in April, someone else wanted to know what was the best scenario for enjoying Europe with kids and there was some smatterings of advice about rail tickets. I took notes and will be fashioning posts to cover the details I “heard.” I also dished out some advice myself.

I registered for this event through an email I received a few weeks ago and received a reminder yesterday. For registering, I was enrolled in a chance to win a door prize. For attending, I received more points. I didn’t have a good strategy though since this was my first time to wander around a cyberspace trade show. You accumulate points by attending the various presentations, requesting a private chat and for clicking on the various vendors. At the end I only had 110 points. To be entered in the grand prize contests, I needed 300. Next time, I’ll have this down. There was a trade show in January, so I expect I’ll be getting another email in a couple months about another one.

The Truth About Taxi Drivers in Prague

by Iva Skoch on

The cab drivers in Prague really are that bad. The problem has gotten slightly better after the Prague mayor dressed up as an Italian tourist and saw for himself how much they rip off foreigners. But it is still not nearly good enough.

The thing is, they don’t only overcharge foreigners. It occasionally happens to locals, too, if they don’t pay attention to the hyperactive meters. Sadly, a lot of them prefer making an extra $10 today than get return customers tomorrow.

It is necessary to stress here, however, that this ONLY happens with cabs you hail on the street. If you call (or have your hotel/restaurant call) one of the established taxi services, such as AAA or City Taxi it will not happen.

The official airport taxis all charge the same, about $25-30. There is also a bus that takes you right to the subway for less than a $1. Public transportation is definitely the way to travel in Prague.

AAA Road Trip Tool

by Neil Woodburn on

A road trip across America is one of the great rites of passage in life.

The best way to manage one, however, without a host of problems, is to buy yourself an AAA memberships.

For many years, the Automobile Association of America has provided numerous benefits for their relatively low membership cost – the best of which is free towing if your car breaks down. AAA is moving with the times, however, and so are their services. The company has now launched a travel web service called TripTik Travel Planner which promises to help road trippers with all their travel plans across rural America.

Simply plot out a road trip and TripTik will provide you with the following information:

-Directions
-Gas station locations and prices
-Hotel information (ratings, rates, ability to book)
-Local attractions and restaurants
-AAA offices
-AAA approved auto repair shops
-Campgrounds
-Road construction information
-Business and hotels which provide discounts with an AAA card

Everything is right at your fingertips, making planning easier and your vacation more affordable. Not too bad!

A Quest for a Cheap Car Rental

by Jamie Rhein on

As part of my family’s trip to Montana via Seattle, (aka Bellingham, Washington,) finding a car rental was the next step after I picked the airline–Skybus (see post), I was particularly interested in making a car rental reservation ASAP since one Gadling reader commented that when he flew into Bellingham he noticed there weren’t many car rental options. Since Sky Bus has a link to Avis on its website, I Iooked there first and wondered if I could do better. I also checked prices through Travelocity –Enterprise car rental, the cheapest was $10 more than the Avis rate.

I was determined to find a better deal. Then I remembered that AAA had travel discounts. Sure enough, by using the trip code on the AAA website, I found a Hertz rental about $30 cheaper than the Sky Bus deal. I reserved a full-size car since there are four of us and we have a bit of luggage to contend with. The last two times we rented cars, however, we upgraded for no extra charge at the check-in desk. We’ll see. If not, we’ll save on gas. Who knows, maybe our AAA standing will help out in a way I don’t even know yet. Next step, find a hotel for the night before we fly home. Our rental is for two weeks and includes two weekends, by the way.