29 January, 2007 |

1001 way to get to the Great Britain

The Great Britain is an island. Therefore it is more convenient, and quirkier to get there by air. Nevertheless there are fans that prefer to travel by train, by bus and the ferry. However, both in air, and on the ground, and on water, people equally are not away to save.
By air
It is possible to save, flying to England by the plane, in several ways. Vacation tour for pupils (language training or just a rest). Not only parents, but also the tourist and educational companies plan school trips for the period of vacations. Travel companies reserve special blocks of tickets in airlines-partners in advance. Therefore tour agencies always have reserved places in the planes. Working with children, tour agencies more often form a group, and the group tariff is cheaper than the individual one.
If to your child is less than 12 years old, his ticket would cost approximately twice cheaper than it would cost to an adult.
Significant discounts (usually about 30 %) are given under the student’s tariff (if you have an ISIC card). These cards entitle to the discount not only at flight, but also in the further (at visiting of the theatres, museums, restaurants, clubs, etc.). The round-trip ticket would cost not more than $400 with the ISIC.
If you already out of the tender age and you are a hopelessly adult person, you also have equal rights to discounts. The preferential adult tariff exists on the ticket with rigidly fixed dates of the departure and the arrival. That is why it is necessary to redeem your tickets no less than a week prior to the departure.
One more a little bit non-standard way to save on tickets is cooperation with tourist agency. At first sight, the trip manages more expensive, in fact it is necessary to pay for the services of the agency. And basically, you can, having spent it is a lot of hours on calling to the airlines and on visiting of their sites in the Internet (to which too should pay for using), independently to find out, what tariff is the cheapest and the most favorable to you. The result is not guaranteed, as the tariff for private persons frequently strongly differs from the tariff stipulated for tourist agencies. Thus sometimes at intermediary of tour agency cost of the air ticket  transfer from the airport up to city centre or up to a hotel is included. The ticket reserved by tour agency, as a rule, is guaranteed. You are also likely not getting the ticket for the necessary flight as the majority of the places are already reserved.
One more, but not the new, way to save your money are charter flights. The only significant inconvenience at saving, almost in 2 times, at depreciation of the ticket’s price is the impossibility to refuse from it and a precisely fixed date of the departure. 
The ferry
Crossing La-Manche by the ferry, you don’t really save much money. But before this you will spend a lot of time and forces. It is necessary to go by the bus through Poland, Germany or France and that would take approximately three days, including tiresome night crossings. To travel across the Europe the additional transit visa (and it is not so easy to receive the Schengen visa) is required.
If you cross the Europe by train the ticket for the ferry can be bought, the truth, already with the discount up to 50 %. 
The underground railway
High-speed trains Eurostar and Le Shuttle go in both parties of the Eurotunnel, laid on five-ten-meter depth near the La-Manche.  It is possible to reach for 3 hours from London to Paris or to Bruxelles. Everyday about thirty trains ply between the countries. All tickets for these trains are strictly differentiated. The price depends on several factors: a departure time, a class, etc. The ticket in the “premium” car in one side would cost 240 pounds, in the first class - 190 pounds. In general, the fare in Eurostar exceeds cost of air flight. However here also there is a system of discounts, allowing traveling more economically, than by the plane. There are children’s, student’s and youth tickets. As a whole, the trip by Eurostar train borrows much less time, than the flight as the time for landing procedures is considerably reduced. 
(to be continued)

Your comment:

You must be logged in to post a comment.