Travel Logistics. Making plans and preparations on your own. (Part 2.)

Driving through Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France 

Now that you've found some interesting short term vacation rentals during your stay in (insert country of choice here), it's time to start thinking about how you're going to get around once you arrive.

Airfares-To book the best airfare it's a good idea to do it as far in advance as you can. Get familiar with what the average prices are by doing a bunch of searches online over several weeks. Keep doing it and we've found that if there are regularly prices for $300 you can find one super cheap by doing a search on a Tuesday instead of a weekend day. We found a price for one ticket to London for $150. The return from Paris was $220. Make sure to pay attention to the times of departure and the layover length. Critical to get what works for you. No one wants a 24 hour layover in Istanbul! (Maybe back in the day, but not so much anymore) After we booked our super cheap economy seats we upgraded them to Premium Economy which will be well worth the reasonable price. You would pay double that DURING the flights to upgrade, believe us.

Airport Transfers-We will be staying at a friend's house about 30 minutes from PDX and normally we park our car in long term economy parking for a vacation, but if we did that for six weeks it's around $400. More than our flight dang it. So we are parking the car at our friend's house (Thanks Pat and Andy!!!) and have found an amazing new airport transfer service that is in cities all over the world. It's called Blacklane. We booked a trip online and they are supposed to pick us up! It is very reasonable and cashless so you don't have to make sure you have tip money for the driver. It's all included in the price.

After booking with Blacklane for our airport transfers from PDX we started thinking about what we were going to do in London. Take three different transportation methods to get to our apartment near the Imperial Wharf, all while hauling all that luggage? While of course we COULD do that, it just doesn't sound fun or very smart, so we looked up the Blacklane fare and it was only $70. Done deal! Now we will be met outside of baggage claim by a friendly Blacklane driver with a little sign that says "Horne" and he will deliver us in a fancy black car to our stunning apartment in London. No brainer!!! (We will review them after our trips and we'll see how it actually goes. This is all in theory of course.)

Our Renault rental in Brittany, France. We drove it close to 1000 kilometers!

We aren't renting a car on this trip but it's a great way to see the countryside that isn't served by rail or bus. There are lots of good companies to choose from. We've used the Renault Eurodrive before and had good luck but make sure you have your paperwork with you. Make sure you have contact phone numbers and clear instructions about how to pick up and return the vehicle. Also make sure you understand the insurance coverages. A policy that covers the car completely is best. Including loss of revenue from loss of rental when the car goes in for repairs from a crash. Talk with your insurance agent before you go and have a valid US license or you are out of luck. We've done that before! Got to Hawaii and went to pick up our rental car and neither of us had valid driver's licenses! Caused a bit of stress but Avis came to our rescue there.

Renault Eurodrive/Europcar, Hertz, AutoEurope, and Avis are some International Car rental agencies. And don't be worried about driving on the wrong side of the road. Look up some You Tube videos on the subject and there are lots of hilarious videos of people driving in England for the first time. Just relax and realize it's scary for everyone. You can use Google Maps to look at the roads at street level and it helps to get familiarized with where you're going before you even get there.

David checking the map somewhere in central France-Ah, the joys of International Car Rentals!

Train Travel- We're traveling together all the time so we can buy a Two Together Railcard and use it when we book train fares to save 1/3 off the fares. It's a great deal if you're going to be going on a lot of train trips. Bring 2 passport size photos with you because they need them to issue the photo rail card.

London Oyster Card-
Oyster is a plastic smartcard which can hold pay as you go credit, Travelcards and Bus & Tram Passes. You can use an Oyster card to travel on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, TfL

Rail, Emirates Air Line, River Bus services and most National Rail services in London

Getting around London- There is a great App called Citimapper. You can put in where you are and tell it where you want to go and it will give you a walking, bike, or transit option. It gives the distance and time and tells you which transportation is faster. It also will alert you to get off at the right stop and gives instructions to walk to a different platform to catch a different bus or train, etc. It also keeps track of work or strikes that affect transportation times and gives you alternates. It's a marvelous tool and we can't wait to use it! Outside of London just do a search for bus transportation in the area you want to visit. Then find their website and find the links to routes and times and stops for planning. It will also talk about fares and how to pay.

This is how we get around and it's worked pretty well. Once in awhile there's a misadventure but those are the stories you tell over and over and are the most fun to look back on.