Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) is the world’s largest monolith or rock formation. Situated in Australia’s Northern Territory, and set amongst the awe inspiring Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, this enormous Sandstone wonder stands 348 metres tall and 9 km in circumference with two thirds existing below the ground. This spectacular creation is an Australian icon and major tourist attraction, enticing thousands of wayward travellers with its magical hues that change from fiery red to delicate mauve, blue, pink and brown, and when there’s rainfall the entire rock turns an amazing silver. Continue reading Uluru, Northern Territory Australia
Category: Travel Tips
7 websites that could change the way you travel
True, there are tons of travel websites out there, and sometimes it seems like it’s only worth our time checking the giants in that space: TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Airbnb, Kayak… who isn’t addicted to those already? The good news is that among the thousands of travel websites and apps, there are a handful of interesting ones that are still worth our time. They can actually help you travel smarter. Here are some of our favourite new ideas.
1. Oyster
This has to be one of our favourites. Oyster (pictured above) is the only hotel site that sends special investigators to visit, photograph, review, and rate each hotel. It is especially handy to have a look at the detailed photos of each room to see which one to choose. There’s usually more information of this type there than on Tripadvisor. Oyster have gained quite a reputation with their photo fakeouts, where they reveal the reality behind the glossy pictures of the travel brochures. Hilarious and useful.
This website is like the anti-TripAdvisor: TripExpert offers hotel reviews from travel pros. Yes, travel pros like in the good old days, not just regular travellers. The company has partnered with 20+ travel guide services such as Frommer’s, Conde Nast Traveller, Lonely Planet, Fodors Travel and Travel + Leisure. In a sense, it’s like Rotten Tomatoes (the website specialised in film reviews) for travel.
The website displays a “TripExpert Score”, calculated by a number of parameters including rating and review given by each travel guide partners, and also the number of travel guides that have written about a hotel. It is a good addition to Tripadvisor when you’re in doubt or when you want to narrow down your search. Useful.
Here’s a useful website if you love getting great hotel deals, and who doesn’t? Their tagline is: ‘’Book your hotel room from people who can’t use theirs!’’ What does that mean? It is allowing travellers who are unable to use their hotel room to list it at a discounted price, thus giving people a chance to grab a last-minute deal. The problem is, though, when you browse the website, it’s hard to tell if you’re getting a regular discount or if you’re getting a special deal. As more people start to use the website, the deals will get better we think…
VoulezVousDiner is a peer-to-peer reservation service that allows users to connect and share meals in each other’s homes. Think Airbnb for restaurants. Instead of going to a restaurant, get an authentic experience of eating some delicious home-made food prepared by a talented local.
Mealsharing.com, Vizeat.com and Eatwith.com are similar websites, and some of them actually vet the quality of the chefs. Like any marketplace, local chefs are then reviewed by the community. We think this concept is going to become big some day, but right now all those websites are struggling to have an interesting offer outside of the most touristy cities in the world like Paris, London and New York. Hopefully the offer will get bigger soon.
Deciding where to go isn’t always easy. With so many appealing destinations in the world, how do you choose? Pictures help, obviously, but a website that helps you understand which destinations are suited to your needs is helpful too. That’s what Triptuner does: the website is designed to inspire you. Define if you’d rather have a bikini or a parka holiday, or if you’d rather have a relaxing or active holiday, and Triptuner will find the destination that’s right for you. Frankly, the website could be improved with more settings and better results, but the idea is fun.
‘’Flight search reinvented for humans’’. Indeed, Adioso is really helpful when you want to fly to a region but don’t necessarily know all the airports name there, and when you are quite flexible on the dates. You can type in a request such as, ‘Auckland to San Francisco leaving next week under $2,000’ and see what comes up, and you can choose a data range. The website is intuitive, fun to use and nicely designed, with the same prices that you would find on other meta-search websites. Interesting.
GetYourGuide is a booking platform for tours and activities, and to most of the world’s best attractions. It claims to have more than 27,000 things to do. Here you can book tickets for experiences as diverse as visiting the top floor of famous skyscrapers, bus city tours, and whale-watching tours. It can be convenient in some crowded destinations as it enables you to skip the line, and it comes with a best price guarantee.
Also read: Boat Rentals Groupon.
New Zealand Winter: Skiing, snowboarding and extreme fun
People travel from all over the world to ski in New Zealand and it’s not surprising why.
Blessed with snow kissed mountains that stand as high as 3,700 metres and huge volcanoes covered with fresh powder, New Zealand is a ski and snowboarding paradise.
The ski season starts around mid-June and closes around the beginning of October, offering 4 months of play time for the serious and not so serious riders.
Slopes range from the totally novice to extreme black diamond skill levels and if you want that something special, heli-skiing will take you to remote slopes and glaciers far from the reach of road transport.
What’s even better is what the French call apres-ski. When your body needs a bit of a rest from the slopes, the local resort towns of Queenstown and Wanaka nearby the ski-fields offer anything from a blast in a jet boat, a swing from a bungy or a night out at one of the many bars and clubs that pump until the small hours of the morning.
Here’s a little run-down of some of the best ski fields on offer: Continue reading New Zealand Winter: Skiing, snowboarding and extreme fun
Budget Travel: Travel Agents Vs. Do-it-Yourself
Look, I’ve got to be honest: before writing this blog I didn’t even know people still used travel agents. Is that still a thing? With the birth of the almighty Internet and the way it has turned every go-getting tourist into their own travel agents, it’s really surprising that travel agents are still making the monies! But they are! Who knew?! They did! Read on to see which method suits your travel needs.
Travel Agents: Who Are They?
So, before there were sites like Kayak ( here you can find the best fishing kayak), Expedia and Last Minute Travel, there were travel agents. Planning your own travel can be both a thrilling experience and a type of personal hell, depending on your disposition for DIY. If you don’t have a lot of time to plan your holiday, then travel agents could be a valid option; but it’s going to cost you. Travel agents always take a few commissions of some kind, which is totally above board and definitely worth your while, as the good ones often go above and beyond what’s normally required of them to provide you with the best trip.
Deal or No Deal
Travel agents are holiday advocates. It’s their job to find you the best prices and if things get cray they can help sort it out. Travel agents take the stress out of holidays. Imagine the freedom of not having to worry about arranging the right flights, hotels, meals, and excursions! Travel agents can often get you special deals or upgrades on cruises or hotels. Although plenty of agents charge fees to book airline tickets, cruise lines often pay the agent, which then ends up costing you nothing. Cruise lines often also give top agents a discount, which they can pass on to you. Agents who belong to trade groups can pass on free airfares to their clients. In some foreign hotels, great agents can get you such upgrades as free breakfast or drinks! Clearly there are plenty of perks! However, there’s a pretty big thrill in booking your own thang. When you find a good deal online there’s plenty of fine print. If you decide to book your own deals, do so with your eyes wide open.
Also find out: Why Jungle Vista Inn Is The Best.
Friends with Benefits
Word on the street is that planning a trip really can be super time consuming. It can take more than five hours to search and book travel online. If you don’t think you have the time to spare then you might want to hand the job over to a travel agent who has chosen to make a career out of easing the travel planning pain. They can take away the stress of trawling through the countless options out there, making finding you a deal their priority. Sometimes you can actually save anywhere from $500 to $1,000 on airfare if you have the right agent! Whoop!
Show Me Da Money
In the past, planning a holiday meant calling a travel agent to book all your flights, hotels and activities. With the dawn of the Internet, it’s more common for travellers to book holidays themselves because there are so many great websites available that make it easy. When you go with a travel agent, you pay a little extra for the convenience. Online booking shows you the prices of tickets at the moment, but prices are constantly in a state of flux. Some travel websites allow you to create a package by booking hotel, airfare, excursions and car rental together, but again you need to have the time to do it right. Online companies don’t necessarily offer the lowest price. Airline ticket prices change depending on the day of the week or time of the day and the season, and hotels change their rates often.
Ask the Experts
If you’re booking a complex trip it can be helpful to talk with an experienced agent. The right agent can guide an inexperienced traveller through dangerous foreign travel or exotic destinations. While the Internet is heaving with websites filled with information, you can’t necessarily trust the source. Some travel agents may have more knowledge of travel in areas where tourism is less developed. When you’ve found a good agent, you’ve got someone to turn to with all of your questions. If you aren’t familiar with the destination, a travel agent can advise you on everything from visas to sightseeing.
But…
Although some travel agents can save you money with deals, you can often find a cheaper deal online. Certain travel providers often pay agents on commission which means your agent isn’t motivated to get you the lowest price, if you know what I mean.
That Said
If you’re looking to save time when you’re planning your trip then going through a travel agent is advisable. Look at it this way; Travel agents are like any other professional that offers you a service for a fee. For instance, take your hairdresser. You choose one, build a rapport and the relationship is often long-lasting. The same can be said for travel agents. There are still plenty of travel businesses operating like Flight Centre. Go and meet with individual travel agents and tell them what you’re looking for. You might find someone that really gets you and who will do their best to help you plan a memorable and stress-free trip. On the other hand, if you have plenty of time and you like trawling through the web, hop online and start scouring through the vast multitude of travel sites that exist to serve you! When it comes to travel, the world really is your oyster. And once you’ve reached your travel destination, maybe we can help. Our free rental car service is something you can’t afford to overlook. Transfercar currently operates throughout New Zealand, Australia and now the US. If you’re really looking for the ideal holiday, the answer may be in booking a free road trip!
Transfercar: the ideal travel buddy
Attention money-starved travellers! Have you heard of Transfercar yet, the successful Australasian car relocation company?! No?! Well, listen up because here are the deets. Transfercar has officially launched in the US this August. Transfercar provides an online service that facilitates contact between rental car companies that need to relocate their cars and YOU, the budget conscious travellers eager to drive these free rental cars all over the place. The system is super simple: Rental operators list their relocation cars on the Transfercar website where registered drivers (that’s you, remember?!) view and request these cars. How can free rental cars be so easy?!
This offers a real win-win scenario where lucky drivers get a free car to help them with travel expenses and rental car companies save on steep relocation costs. A lot of the free rental cars come with various perks depending on the car. Transfercar can set you up with free insurance, free ferry rides and free gas! It’s like Christmas! And the variety of cars you can choose from seems infinite. If you’re looking for a campervan for the entire family or a basic Sedan for just you and a mate, Transfercar has the ideal vehicle you’re looking for.
Regular rental cars can be really expensive, especially if you’re travelling at short notice. With Transfercar you save the money you’d normally spend on pricey rentals, leaving you more moolah for travel essentials like eating at diners and high rolling it at the Casino! Our campervans can save you considerable money on accommodation, too. It seems too good to be true, but there is absolutely no catch here. Registration is free. The rental car is free. But your undying appreciation for being able to travel for less money is rather priceless, don’t you think?
Transfercar is leading the way in this brave new world that’s embracing a sharing community. We share our free rental cars with you, and at the same time we’re helping rental car companies. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn’t it? So, what are you waiting for? These free rental cars open you up to a world of possibilities: wherever you want to go, Transfercar can take you there. You’re welcome!
How to Pack for a Road Trip – Pack it Up, Pack it in
You’ve got your mates, maps and a sweet rental, but if you don’t pack right for your road trip, it could end up costing you. Here are some packing tips from some of our experts.
Make a List
You’re not an elephant, which means you’re going to forget things, important things that will ruin your life, well, maybe just your trip. So, get all Martha Stewart on your bad self and make a list of everything you’re going to need like sunglasses and sunscreen to extra undies. By planning in advance, you won’t miss any travel necessities. At the top of your awesome list should be proper documentation, navigation materials, and mobile phones and chargers.
Ring the Alarm
Make sure your car is kitted out with a spare tire, a jack and some jumper cables. Have a set of spare keys on hand too, in case you accidentally lock them in the car, stupid. Bringing along the basics like ibuprofen, antacids, bug repellent, a small first aid kit, and hand sanitizer will make your life easier if the situation gets real.. Oh, if you’ve got anyone in the car that’s prone to motion sickness, let them off at the first gas station. Or bring some Dramamine if that seems too harsh.
Muzak
This is probably the most important thing. Ever. I’m going to assume that you and your pals have somewhat similar tastes in music, but it’s a good idea to set up some musical boundaries. Like, no Britney. No Cher. ABSOLUTELY NO NICKELBACK. Get everyone to bring their own iPods and make sure there are enough earphones to go around, that way if not everyone’s into your 1980’s hip hop remixes, they can escape.
All the Foods
Do you want to gain 5kg on your road trip and be mistaken for a beached whale at the beach? No? Then be sure to pack all the fruits and veg. Prepping in advance can save you money and pounds. Bring along Ziploc bags of cut up carrots and broccoli, and keep some healthy dips in your cooler. Because you have to bring a cooler, yo. Not for beersies, but for water. Pack some sammies for your first day on the road, and go nuts on sides: chips, pretzels, and granola bars all travel well. Bring some mints or gum for after.
Playtime
Yeah your smartphone is super awesome, but there’s no ‘us’ in Candy Crush. Well, actually there is, but bring a Frisbee or a ball anyway, or a deck of cards for some Crazy 8’s action. If you’re traveling with spawn, bring some kid friendly activity gear like a portable DVD player, laptops and iPads unless you want to hear the eternal chorus of “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Books are cool too, and they make you look smart.