Other Options...

[TXTransplant]

I can find good rates out of Houston for domestic flights. But flying to Europe in June (which is basically the only time my son and I can travel) is super expensive. And I refuse to fly Turkish Air and have a 6-12 hour layover in Istanbul just for a $1200 ticket.

 

[acndis]

Turkish Air did not sound appealing to me when I was pricing for the River Cruise (we have since moved to the Peru trip) but there were some good prices on British Airways which now flies direct to London from Austin (I think they also fly direct from IAH) with good connection elsewhere in Europe. They don't charge for a stopover and I was getting some pretty good prices. I always try to book 331 days out--I know I am CRAZY but I got $1100 on ANA (great airline) roundtrip from IAH to Saigon. Booking on the very first day can pay off.

 

[aggiedog]

I don't know what the prices are these days, but Icelander lets you stopover in Iceland on one leg but fly direct on the other. A few days in Iceland is never a bad thing!

 

[sayhello]

I don't know what the prices are these days, but Icelander lets you stopover in Iceland on one leg but fly direct on the other. A few days in Iceland is never a bad thing!

I did that this year for my trip to London, and *LOVED* it! I did a stopover in Iceland on my way back, and definitely need to plan a longer trip there!

Sayhello

 

[k5jm]

I guess I have to move to Houston.

Living 10 minutes from a United Hub and 30 minutes from a Southwest hub has its advantages!

 

[Cousin Orville]

Living 10 minutes from a United Hub and 30 minutes from a Southwest hub has its advantages!

Agreed although I wish United had more nonstop destinations in Europe... Amsterdam, London, Frankfort... Any others?

Definitely it's a blessing to have a quick, easy Southwest flight to HOU->MCO.

 

[carpenta]

Yes I am jealous.......not only do we have few flights here but the flights we have the airlines really pick your pockets.......Jet Blue flies here but as of late their fares have been more expensive than the big airlines.

 

[TXTransplant]

Agreed although I wish United had more nonstop destinations in Europe... Amsterdam, London, Frankfort... Any others?

Definitely it's a blessing to have a quick, easy Southwest flight to HOU->MCO.

You can get to/from Munich direct on United, too. And to Paris on Air France, but I think those are the only other direct options from IAH besides what you listed.

As much as I love Southwest, the last time we flew to MCO, we took United out of Bush (which is closer to our house). United was about the same price and had more direct flights at much better times than SWA did.

 

[Cousin Orville]

You can get to/from Munich direct on United, too. And to Paris on Air France, but I think those are the only other direct options from IAH besides what you listed.

As much as I love Southwest, the last time we flew to MCO, we took United out of Bush (which is closer to our house). United was about the same price and had more direct flights at much better times than SWA did.

We're closer to Hobby so that's my go to airport for WDW. However, I have to mention for anyone who uses Centurion Lounges, I'm super excited Bush is getting an American Express Centurion Lounge. There's only a few of these around the country/world and they're extremely nice. A massive step up from a United (or other airline) lounge.

 

[TXTransplant]

So, I ran across something strange (in a good way) this morning. Last year when I booked tickets to Germany, I paid a few hundred $ premium to fly to Frankfurt and home from Munich, rather than round trip from Frankfurt. It has always been my experience multi-city tickets are more expensive than round trip.

When I booked our trip for this summer, I just assumed we would fly to/from Rome. I plan to arrive in Rome a couple of days early to enjoy the city. Our trip actually ends in Florence, but I figured we'd take the train back to Rome to catch our flight.

Well, this morning I decided to check options departing to Rome but returning from Florence. And MUCH to my surprise, they are about $400 cheaper per ticket ($1500-$1600 vs. almost $2000)!!! I can't believe I have the option to pay less for convenience!

Color me shocked at how much cheaper it is to fly to a "smaller" city in Europe. I can book a round-trip ticket to Florence for under $1200, and I could also book to Naples (which is where our tour originates) and home from Florence for about $1200.

 

[sayhello]

So I've been corresponding with a sales guy from Thomson Family Adventures [they *do* allow solo travelers, but don't actually encourage them because of the dynamics (really geared towards kids). And they don't do "Adult Only" trips (unless it just happens that way)]. BUT he just gave me a really interesting piece of information!!

And we’ll be going to Japan either late this year or sometime in 2017. Keep an eye on our website for that itinerary.

Now *that* would be very, VERY cool!

Sayhello

 

[Calfan]

So I've been corresponding with a sales guy from Thomson Family Adventures [they *do* allow solo travelers, but don't actually encourage them because of the dynamics (really geared towards kids). And they don't do "Adult Only" trips (unless it just happens that way)]. BUT he just gave me a really interesting piece of information!!



Now *that* would be very, VERY cool!

Sayhello

Way cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

[EllinK]

We will all be on that same trip!

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

For those of you who are looking for 'guaranteed' departures check out National Geographic. Depending on the level (Expedition/Adventure/Journey) they run slightly higher/equal to ABD for Expeditions to significantly lower for Journeys. They travel to pretty much the same locations and even offer private trips (Expeditions). We are looking at doing either the Private Expedition to South Africa or the Private Expedition to Cambodia/Vietnam in 2017. Both of these trips are very similar to ABD and while slightly more than ABD, it will just be my mom and I or small groups of 6, depending on the location. Also with the private expeditions you can book them when they convenient for you, unless it's not running during a given time (Cambodia/Vietnam doesn't go between April and September. We can book South Africa for anytime of the year that works for us and Cambodia/Vietnam we can book it for whatever time works for us between October and March.

 

[carpenta]

I was on a Nat. Geo. trip with an older couple who did the Nat. Geo. "Around the World by private jet" and they said it was fabulous. A 757 all first class seating. Now if I ever hit the lottery THAT is one of the trips I would undertake.

 

[Calfan]

I've posted about this on other threads, but CaliforniaGirl09 and I did NatGeo's England Coast to Coast trip last Sept., and it was fabulous. Only 14 people with 3 guides. We were totally impressed by NatGeo. My husband and I have booked their Ireland: Hiking the Emerald Isle trip for this coming September.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

I was on a Nat. Geo. trip with an older couple who did the Nat. Geo. "Around the World by private jet" and they said it was fabulous. A 757 all first class seating. Now if I ever hit the lottery THAT is one of the trips I would undertake.

The two private expeditions we are looking at are roughly the same price as ABD. Although the Cambodia trip is shorter than the ABD one but in my opinion it's much more intense in what you're seeing. In comparison, the ABD seems heavy on days/time and light on content. For example, Nat Geo spends 2 full days at Angkor Archaeological Park whereas ABD spends 1/2 a day. If I'm going all the way to Cambodia, I want to spend time exploring the 100,000 acres Angkor Archaeological park.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

I've posted about this on other threads, but CaliforniaGirl09 and I did NatGeo's England Coast to Coast trip last Sept., and it was fabulous. Only 14 people with 3 guides. We were totally impressed by NatGeo. My husband and I have booked their Ireland: Hiking the Emerald Isle trip for this coming September.

Out of Curiosity, what was it that made you book with Nat Geo? Was it something ABD did/didn't do? We had an incident on our So Cal ABD that left us with a really bad impression. My mom was at the point where she wanted to just skip the final dinner, that's how bad it was.

 

[Calfan]

Out of Curiosity, what was it that made you book with Nat Geo? Was it something ABD did/didn't do? We had an incident on our So Cal ABD that left us with a really bad impression. My mom was at the point where she wanted to just skip the final dinner, that's how bad it was.

We booked England Coast to Coast with NatGeo because we wanted to do that specific hike across Northern England, and the NatGeo trip description sounded the best to us. But now that I have gone on one NatGeo trip (and have another booked), I have a list of at least 10-15 more that I am dying to do (more hiking trips, but also family trips and others). The things that most impressed us about NatGeo in comparison to ABD were that NatGeo guarantees its departures (at least the Adventures trips) once a minimum of 8 people has booked. I have become very disenchanted with ABD's lack of a firm guarantee policy. The other thing we really liked was the group size, which was capped at 16 (and we had 14). For the family trips, the maximum size is 25. I much prefer the smaller group experience to ABD's 44 (and we had 49 on our ABD Baltics cruise add-on, which really had a negative impact on our experience). On our England Coast to Coast trip, I pretty much knew everyone's name and something about them by the end of our welcome dinner and briefing. The guide ratio on NatGeo was also way better than ABD. We had three guides for 14 people versus 2 guides for 44 (or more!). The baggage handling was also better with NatGeo. Instead of early morning bag pulls, we simply left our bags in our rooms when we left a hotel that we wouldn't be returning to, and they were waiting for us in our room when we arrived at the next hotel (so no waiting for bags to be delivered either). We were very impressed with the inns and hotels we stayed at, and the food as well. Overall, just a really great experience.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

We booked England Coast to Coast with NatGeo because we wanted to do that specific hike across Northern England, and the NatGeo trip description sounded the best to us. But now that I have gone on one NatGeo trip (and have another booked), I have a list of at least 10-15 more that I am dying to do (more hiking trips, but also family trips and others). The things that most impressed us about NatGeo in comparison to ABD were that NatGeo guarantees its departures (at least the Adventures trips) once a minimum of 8 people has booked. I have become very disenchanted with ABD's lack of a firm guarantee policy. The other thing we really liked was the group size, which was capped at 16 (and we had 14). For the family trips, the maximum size is 25. I much prefer the smaller group experience to ABD's 44 (and we had 49 on our ABD Baltics cruise add-on, which really had a negative impact on our experience). On our England Coast to Coast trip, I pretty much knew everyone's name and something about them by the end of our welcome dinner and briefing. The guide ratio on NatGeo was also way better than ABD. We had three guides for 14 people versus 2 guides for 44 (or more!). The baggage handling was also better with NatGeo. Instead of early morning bag pulls, we simply left our bags in our rooms when we left a hotel that we wouldn't be returning to, and they were waiting for us in our room when we arrived at the next hotel (so no waiting for bags to be delivered either). We were very impressed with the inns and hotels we stayed at, and the food as well. Overall, just a really great experience.

Thanks for the insight. When I mentioned trips for next year when we were talking about our Disney trips and possibly going to the beach I mentioned ABD and then said "Or National Geographic, whichever we end up booking", my mom's reaction was "I'm pretty sure it's going to be National Geographic". We are looking at 2 of their private expeditions. One is to South Africa and the other is Cambodia and Vietnam. It would just be us except for a few times when it would be small groups of 6. Definitely guaranteed departures.

One thing we like about the South African expedition is that we get to spend more time on Reserves instead of touring wineries, as we are not wine drinkers, or drinkers of any description. This trip hits everything in Cape Town that ABD does, even the 'optional' activities that ABD lists are included in the Nat Geo trip. The one place ABD doesn't go, which is surprising, is Robben Island. You can't go to South Africa and not go to Robben Island. Nat Geo includes this in their itinerary.

With the Cambodia trip, there is more time on the Mekong River and at Angkor Archaeological Park. What's really drawing my mom is the night on a traditional Vietnamese Junk (boat). Also, while there is a focus on the Vietnam War, it's more focused on the cultural effects on the country, not so much the American presence during the war, like with ABD. I have nothing against Americans, one of my best friends is American, but I'm more interested in the cultural aspects of Vietnam and how the war influenced them, then on the impact the war had on America or their part in it. (No offense meant!)

We also like the fact that with the private expeditions we can book them when it's convenient for us.