Travel Agents and stuff

Photos were taken from this amazing website: http://www.onlytahiti.com/NaturalAphrodisiac.html

So where do you start with trying to organise an around the world ticket, first port of call the net, go to google and put in “round the world tickets” and vwala up pops about a million web sites. So you try and eliminate the ones that don’t look that great and in between this you decide: How long do you have to travel, and where you would really like to go.

Then you do some more surfing and finally you see something that looks pretty much like what you want and you pick up the phone and phone the agent, now never do this in the “Silly season” because it just takes ages for them to get back to you.

Anyway I find this deal on the Utravel website: http://www.utravel.ie/148/index.html Price From: €1281Dublin/London - (via) London - Los Angeles - Papeete (Tahiti) - Auckland - Fiji - Brisbane (make your own way)Sydney - Perth - Johannesburg - (via) London – Dublin (Taxes Extra)

So I phone up the travel agent and wouldn’t you just know it, nothing is ever as it seems, she can get us that particular trip however if we leave on the 30th of June it is one price and if we leave on the 1st of July it is another, understandable.

They don’t get back to me till the 5th of January after I send an email to say if I have not heard from you or if you don’ want my business I CAN go elsewhere you know. I get an email back, but guess what, you got it, no trips for the 30th of June, only for the 26th of June – what to do, can’t take Em out of school, well actually we could but don’t want to. So gives me the price if we leave on the 1st of July and a rough itinerary, but leaves out Fiji – WHY?????

However, I compare my original itinerary with the one that the travel agent has given me and hers would work out cheaper, not as many stops, added to that, not as many upheavals from one place to another, enough time in each place to really explore! So let’s go with that, however how much is accommodation going to cost in Tahiti for 8 nights that is the real question, and what will it cost to explore the Islands like Bora Bora? So, first thing this morning email the travel agent to find out how much it will cost. And what about excursions: http://www.truetahitivacation.com/tahiti_activities_excursions/tahiti.htm

Second thing on my list today, I have booked for us to go to London in February as we are meeting up with Gwenie and she is flying back with us, but we have 3 nights in London first, the exchange rate between the pound and the euro has been wonderful if you are living in Ireland, at one stage when we went up to Belfast to buy our TV and go shopping the Pound was 98p to the Euro, however since then it has slowly recovered. In order to save some money (hopefully the pound does not weaken again), I decided that today I am going to change money for our week-end in London.

Oh wait, Em finishes school at 12:00 so will have to fetch her first then go to the bank. Back to the RTW trip and looking at the cost of accommodation in Tahiti, Papeete – there are hundreds of web sites out there but they just don’t give you what you want, so best thing to do is go to the old reliable: http://www.expedia.ie/ and search for hotels. Me has decided that since this is going to be a once in a life time trip and Tahiti will be the only “tropical” Island we will go too, we are not going to scrimp on accommodation here.Got to buy a new camera before we go.

Go to the bank this afternoon and wouldn't you know, 88p they charge me per pound plus a commission, oh well I guess everyone has to make their money somehow, although 88p is still very good!

Later.