Pre Departure – Page 3 – Traveling Mark

Shredding My Life Away

As part of my commitment to cut down on the stuff I own, I went through a lot of paperwork which no longer had value to me or made no sense keeping. I had endless piles of credit card slips, cell phone bills, bank transaction records, official letters sent to me for various reasons and a whole lot of other paperwork I for some reason thought I needed to keep. There was a lot of it there in the boxes and since all those papers bore some form of personally identifiable information, I couldn’t just dump it in the garbage bin. So chunk after chunk, I would be taking a stack of paper with me to work, I would purposefully stay overtime, waiting for everyone to leave and then I’d proceed to occupy the shredder for an hour to shred all this paper I had brought. I kept doing this for a few weeks, day after day until all of the papers I no longer needed was gone. I have literally shredded my life away but it felt good. I have already been liberated from possessions, I just needed to take it a step further and liberate myself from paperwork.

Because of high volume of paper I had to shred, I had to split it into several days because the shredder would get filled up every day upon my use. I was hoping it would go without someone becoming too suspicious but luckily it went with no bigger issues. My life was shredded away. I was yet another step closer to becoming free. I have followed up by calling all of the institutions I still deal with to quit sending my statements by mail and strictly stick to electronic communication only. For one this is an important environmentally friendly step and secondly – I was not gonna be here to empty my PO Box anyway so the less unnecessary stuff makes it there, the better.

Plane Ticket from Edmonton, Canada to Siem Reap, Cambodia

The quote I got from Ivy at the Unity Travel was a no brainer. Being able to fly all the way to Siem Reap, Cambodia from Edmonton, Canada for $1,250 return, all fees and taxes in was better than expected. I knew this was it and I had no doubt whatsoever that I was gonna call her up the following day and purchase the ticket. The only decision I still had upon me was whether I should put off my departure until September 10, 2009 to get this attractive price, or move it up to originally intended August 31, 2009 but pay an additional $200 on top of it.

While $1,250 was without doubt an attractive price, if I were to take it, I’d have to house myself in Edmonton for additional 10 days. I have already made arrangements with the on site manager of the apartment building in Edmonton’s Inglewoods where I was staying that I’d leave at the end of this month (August). In order to stay for additional 10 days, I’d have to make new arrangements and pay for extra time spent on the premises. This would cost more than $200 so what I would save on the plane ticket would be spent three fold on accommodation. Furthermore, cost of living in Canada is much higher than in Cambodia so food and all other provisions I’d need during the additional 10 days of my stay in Canada would vastly outgrow the $200 needed to depart before September 10. But most of all, there was my ever growing desire to get on the road as soon as possible.

Needless to say, I’ve purchases the plane ticket departing for Siem Reap from Edmonton on August 31. I was ready to leave and wanted to do it at first available chance. $1,450 was still an amazing price for a ticket from a city like Edmonton to a destination like Siem Reap. Plus unlike all others, Ivy has hinted that this would work as an “open return” plane ticket, which means that once you’re abroad, you’d be able to set the date of your return.

Having an option to return would give me great peace of mind. That’s why I was not looking for one way tickets. With return tickets, should there be a need to come back to Canada – whatever the reason, I’d have that return ticket in my pocket so it would be a matter of making arrangements to set up a date with Korean Air. However as Ivy had explained to me, in order for her to book the ticket, I’d need to give her a preferred day of return as it is mandatory to have it booked for some day, but I’d be able to change it should there be the need.

After a little bit of consideration, I have decided to book my return flight for mid January, 2010. As I have learned in January of this year, flights to the islands in the Caribbean are very cheap after at the beginning of a new year ending the period of extremely high priced tickets available for Christmas and New Year holiday seasons. So if I were able to return to Canada in the middle of January, I’d be able to take advantage of inexpensive flights to the tropical zones of Central America, moving me on at my quest to travel around the world.

And that’s precisely what I have booked. I am leaving for Siem Reap, Cambodia on August 31, 2009 from Edmonton and have the return flight booked for January 15, 2010 to take me back to Edmonton, with the possibility to change the date of return flight provided that the new flight of choice still has seats available at the time of rebooking. Sounded great to me. I paid the money, got my conformation email so now my flight was booked and my start up trip set in stone. It has ended the unceasing quest for cheap ticket to an exciting location to start off my round the world travel. I was able to start focusing on other things that still needed attention.

Alaska Roadtrip with Cruise to Vancouver

As I was doing my research on the best priced plane tickets to an interesting destination to start off my worldwide travel, I found out that due to new taxes imposed upon visitors to Alaska, cruise ships sailing that way will be forced to charge additional $50 per passenger, making this cruising option less attractive to travelers. Because of that, many of major cruise line companies made public statements that they will be discontinuing or limiting their Alaska cruises and will instead move their ships to the Mediterranean Sea where demand and income from have been continuously growing. This was supposed to take place at the beginning of 2010.

I’ve always wanted to visit Alaska so when I realized that many of the cruise ships that used to serve this area will not be there as of January 1st, 2010, it became clear that prices for Alaska cruises will go up. Those few ships that will still serve the arctic state will have little competition so they will be able to jack prices up plus there will still be that additional $50 per person fee imposed by the state of Alaska so if one were to take an Alaska cruise, they should do it before the end of 2009 or have to pay significantly higher price.

This prompted me to start looking into available options. I wanted to visit Alaska and take an Alaskan cruise before prices become too unaffordable. But at the same time I thought of combining it with other adventures to make it a roadtrip of a lifetime. I thought of doing the following:

Rent a car in Edmonton
Drive up the breathtaking Alaska Highway all the way to Anchorage – a 3,000 km long journey that would take about 4 days to complete
Enjoy the scenic views and make stops at interesting locations along the way, such as the Liard River Hot Springs
Enjoy the nature and scenery of Alaska for a day or two
Drop off car rental and board a southbound cruise ship sailing to Vancouver
Take a mesmerizing 7 day cruise exposing the beauty of Juneau, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan etc. while it’s still cheap
Spend a day or two in Vancouver, known as one of world’s most beautiful cities (which I have not visited in my life yet)
Rent a car to drive back to Edmonton
Drive across beautiful British Columbia enjoying the mountains
Make a stop at Frasier Canyon known as one of world’s most exciting white water rafting areas
Drive across Canadian Rockies
Drop off rented car in Edmonton and savor the road trip of a lifetime you have just finished

This seemed like the ultimate roadtrip, the ultimate adventure, the trip that combines some of the best and most coveted areas of the world in one go. And because time was against me, I could not put it off as prices for cruise ships were bound to rise significantly come 2010. So I started doing my research to make this roadtrip come true but hit a solid wall when I started phoning up car rental companies.

First of all, hardly any of the worldwide rent-a-car companies has an office anywhere in Alaska making it impossible to drop a car off there. Secondly, the few that do would charge an arm and a leg for drop off at a location that’s different from pick up location. I wasn’t quite aware of this fact prior to this research. I’ve rented a car many times before in different countries, but have always dropped off where I’d picked it up. But because many big car rental places have offices worldwide, I thought it was a no brainer that you could pick a car here and return it there. I was wrong. Unless it’s some kind of special, drop off at a different location will incur an extra cost – often multiplying your initial cost by a large factor. But if you intend to drive across the border and drop it off in another country, that’s when it starts getting ridiculous.

Alaska is a US state whereas I would be starting my roadtrip in Edmonton, Canada. That means I would be renting my car in one country, but dropping it off in another. Most of the time you can’t even do that. Rental terms and conditions restrict the use of a rented automobile to the same country. Crossing borders is not allowed, unless some special arrangements are made or it is a company that specializes in car rentals for people who need to drive internationally. Either way, after many phone calls and no luck finding a company with the office in Alaska, I was eventually able to trace some down, but dropping off a car registered in Canada in the United States state would make it an extremely costly venture. Similar extremes would apply to the car I would rent in Vancouver to drop it off in Edmonton. Vancouver is located in British Columbia, whereas Edmonton is in Alberta. Again – these are two different provinces, hence different license plates and registration cards. A lot of hassle involved so the cost of it would be very high.

The only other option I had was to rent a car for an extended period of time (3 weeks) in Edmonton, drive it up to Alaska, board the cruise ship and pay also for the car to get on board, then get off the ship in Vancouver and drive the same car back to Edmonton. This was an option that was priced a little better than the other one, because it eliminated high international drop off fees, but was still extremely expensive. Cruise ships are intended for vacationers. They specialize in sailing people, not cars. If you want to take a car with you, you’d be looking at a very high cost, which totally defeated the purpose of trying to get on the Alaska cruise ship before prices go up in 2010. And if I were to do it, I would have to shell out a big chunk of cash to have my rented car on board the cruise ship and while it is there, I wouldn’t even be able to drive it, but the cost of the rental for the time while I’m on a cruise ship would still count, hence I would be normally charged by a car rental company for those days whether I’m driving it or not.

In other words, while I’m on the cruise ship, I would not be able to use my rental car, but I’d be paying big bucks for each day of having it, plus I’d be paying super high cruise ship fee to have the car on board. All of that made the cost of my awesomely planned, but impossible to execute roadtrip sky high. The plan was top notch, but it was impossible to carry out unless your pockets are big.

Unity Travel Agency in West Edmonton Mall

I don’t remember what I went to West Edmonton Mall – the largest shopping mall in North America for that weekend. I was already in the process of searching for flights to Asia from Edmonton and had a pretty good idea of what I should expect to pay should I decide to take that route, instead of going to the Caribbean. When I’m at West Edmonton Mall, I like to go to the Chinese supermarket called T&T where they always have this really great fast food style hot buffet. Food is great, prices are unbeatable and I love Chinese food so I never miss the opportunity to have munchies at T&T Supermarket when I’m at the West Edmonton Mall.

Photo: Chinatown in West Edmonton Mall Where T&T Supermarket Is Located

As I was walking out with my belly full after a nice snack, I popped in the travel agency that’s got the office right outside of the entrance to T&T. The agency is called Unity Travel and is obviously focused on primarily serving the Asian clientele. There were two ladies inside, both of Asian descent and most of their signs on the shop windows were written in Chinese characters. The location itself suggested that it’s Asian people living in Edmonton that they specialize in and as such – or so I thought – they specialize in flights to and from Asia. Wow, isn’t that precisely what I’ve been focused on lately?

I walked in Unity Travel despite my overall belief that dealing with travel agents is an obsolete and pricey way of buying travel packages. If you deal with an agent face to face, their commission will have to be included somewhere in the price you end up paying. This is often not the case when purchasing on line as the process is automated and can be done even outside of store hours. But since Unity Travel is so obviously all about Asia which is where I wanted to go, I walked in believing I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to ask to get a general idea on prices I could get through, and I was in the neighborhood so why not. I didn’t think I could get anything comparable to what I saw on line, but they wouldn’t kill me for asking, would they?

Photo: Unity Travel Office in West Edmonton Mall

I talked to a fine lady whose name is Ivy and judging by the business card she handed me, she may be the owner of Unity Travel. I stuck out like a sore thumb because I’m Caucasian and I walked into a travel agency for Asian people but even though everyone stared, Ivy treated me with respect and answered all of my questions. I basically wanted to know how much a ticket from Edmonton to Bangkok would cost if I wanted to depart at the end of August, or beginning of September. I also asked Ivy to look up the same option with departure from Vancouver, as I already knew flying from Edmonton was gonna be significantly more expensive.

It was already the beginning of August when I visited Unity Travel. And I wanted to score a cheap ticket to Bangkok from Edmonton. I knew I was a dreamer, but the quote form Ivy got my instant attention. She said that if I were to fly on September 10th or later, I could get the Edmonton – Bangkok return ticket for $1,250 all in. My jaw dropped. This is about total cost I’d be looking at if I were to fly to the Dominican Republic at about the same time. With $800 being the base price but $300 in fees and taxes I’d be pretty damn close. But $800 was the cheapest ticket which departed at the end of September. End of August was in four digits. This sounded more than great to me. Afterall, Bangkok is more than three times as far as the Dominican Republic and it’s in Asia. The value for money was definitely there. That’s what I’d call a bargain plane ticket for high season. Ivy also mentioned that because we are already well into August and it’s the high season even for Asia bound flights, that if I wanted to fly before September 10th, it would be possible, but the ticket would be $200 more expensive.

The real breakthrough came when I asked Ivy – just out of curiosity – how much more I would have to pay if I were to buy a return ticket all the way to Siem Reap, Cambodia (a town right next to Angkor Archaeological Park that serves as a gateway to Angkor for all foreigners). I only asked for Edmonton to Bangkok ticket because I knew Bangkok is the nearest major international hub with lots of flights coming in every day. Because Bangkok is served by such a large number of carriers, I believed the price would be less expensive than flying to areas such as Siem Reap. My ultimate destination would still be Cambodia, but getting to Cambodia from Thailand didn’t seem like a big deal hence I asked for the ticket to Bangkok. But now that I knew how much it was to fly to Thailand, I also wanted to know how much extra it would be to go all the way to Cambodia as if it wasn’t going to be that much more, I might as well pay the extra money and be delivered all the way to my final intended destination.

Ivy said that I would be flying with Korean Air and would have to make transfer stops in Vancouver and Seoul. And because Korean Air has regular, daily flights to both Bangkok and Siem Reap from Seoul, the price would not change. So whether going all the way to Bangkok or to Siem Reap, it would still cost $1,250 total if departing on or after September 10th, or $1,450 if departing before September 10th.

Photo: West Edmonton Mall from the Inside

These quotes were staggering for me. I didn’t even want to know how much a ticket would be from Vancouver at this point as quotes from Edmonton were more than reasonable. I expected some $3,000+ figures and even more for Cambodia, yet here I was with a quote I would have to pay to go to the Dominican Republic which I originally wanted to do. I left Unity Travel agency office with Ivy’s business card and quotes written on it. I am not an impulsive buyer so I needed a little time to have this settle in my head. Plus there was still a dilemma of whether to go after September 10th and save $200 or before, but pay more. I had to give it a good think-over and was gonna get back to Ivy with what I have decided in a day or two. It is quite possible that Ivy thought I was just a passerby, just someone curious but not really serious when I walked in their office. She treated me professionally but I still had that feeling that she didn’t expect much of me. Caucasian in an Asian travel agency… what the hell was I doing there anyway?

Photo: Sign on the Corner Marking West Edmonton Mall at Night

International Destination Flights from Edmonton

My plan to start off my worldwide travel in the Dominican Republic was falling apart. It seemed too risky to start myself off in a country I’ve never visited before but trying to score a reasonably priced ticket for the Caribbean in summer with departure from Edmonton got impossible. Edmonton is not a very good gateway for international travel in general. There are often great deals to various places from Toronto, Calgary which is only 3 hours from Edmonton is half decent oftentimes as well and Vancouver is the best when aiming for Asia. And Asia it was I started to speculate about more and more with each new day. Trickier or not, even though I’ve never been to any Asian country before and wanted to start off in a place I was familiar with, something was attracting me to Asia and taking my focus away from the Dominican Republic. The fact that the Dominican Republic was a familiar place suddenly seemed unattractive – I’ve already been there before.

I started to expand my horizons and instead of looking for cheap tickets to the Caribbean, I started focusing more on flights to Asia. There was a part of me that really wanted to go to Cambodia. If I were to pull a list of top 10 places I would definitely love to visit before I die out of my head, Angkor Wat would be right there on top of it. And while I did enjoy my last trip to the Dominican Republic, there was nothing in it that would make the top 10 list in any way. Based on this fact alone, I knew that going to Cambodia was inevitable for me. It was simply a “must visit place before I die” and a big dream I needed to make come true. So I kept snooping around to see what options I had to go to Cambodia instead of the Caribbean at the end of August.

Trouble is – islands in the Caribbean Sea count as the most popular sun getaways for many people in Canada so trips scheduled down south are frequent and when compared to other parts of the world, attractively priced. Asia on the other hand – being on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean and being so vastly different from North American counts as one of more expensive destinations for us in the Great White North. And my initial research confirmed all that. Then again, it’s a 6 hours long direct flight that can take me to the Dominican Republic, but it takes three planes and a total of 16 hours plane time to get me from Edmonton to Bangkok, which is the nearest big hub to Cambodia. Pacific Ocean is huge and I would have to go via Vancouver and Seoul to get to South East Asia where I was considering to end up.

Just as with most other international destinations, Edmonton was a bad starting point. Flights to Asia from Canada can be had for much cheaper if originating from Vancouver. So I started looking around for cheap ways to get me to Vancouver from Edmonton and then continue to Asia from there. Since Vancouver is much closer than Toronto and can be done in 1 day from Edmonton, I got back to looking for car sharing arrangements similar to those I have previously ditched when I wanted to fly to the Dominican Republic from the cities on the East Coast of Canada.

Car Sharing to Drive Across Canada

As my chances of scoring a reasonably priced plane ticket from Edmonton to the Dominican Republic were slimming by the day, I’ve realized that it was only going to get worse and started to look at alternative arrangements. Combining my flight to the Caribbean with car sharing drive across Canada seemed like an amazing option as it offered two hits with one blow. I’ve never done a cross Canada car trip so why not do it now? Besides, flying south from Edmonton in the middle of Summer was way too expensive, but some of the cities in the east still had reasonably priced tickets. So if I could car pool with someone to Toronto, Montreal or Ottawa, it would allow me to see Canada from the Cross Canadian highway and avoid outrageous fees for plane tickets originating from Edmonton (Calgary, the nearby city in the same province of Alberta wasn’t a big win either).

Sunwing.ca had amazingly cheap plane tickets available to the Dominican Republic from Toronto and Montreal so if I could get to any of these two cities, I’d be able to fly for less than $200 + fees and taxes. Compared to $800+ prices from Edmonton or Calgary, this was definitely a steal. Unfortunately, domestic flights are oftentimes more expensive than significantly longer, international flights so flying to Toronto or Montreal from Edmonton would bring the total cost of an entire flight to the level comparable to direct flight from Edmonton. This was definitely not an option. I’d be better off buying that overpriced, but direct ticket rather than flying via Toronto, paying the same amount but spending twice as much time getting there.

So instead I started searching through Kijiji.ca and Craigslist.org to see if anyone is looking to share a ride from Edmonton to the east coast of Canada. Surprisingly, There were many classified ads posted in Car Sharing category and since both Edmonton and Toronto are on a major cross Canada highway, vast majority of requests involved the two cities. Excited, I have responded to a bunch and started keeping a closer look at plane tickets to synchronize my arrival in either Toronto or Montreal with departure to the Dominican Republic.

Things were looking pretty good. With so many people driving across Canada and looking for someone to share their ride with so we could split the cost of gas and swap behind the wheel as well as keeping each other company so the ride doesn’t end up being a boring, 6 day long journey of torture, I was sure there would be a positive reply. And to be honest, I did get many – but ended up going with none. While the premise of car sharing and taking a drive across Canada is fantastic, you would be stuck in a confined space of a car with a person you don’t know – for 6 or more days. It’s a long trip and I was getting wrong buzz from the responses I have received. None of the people seemed like anyone I would be comfortable having a drink with, nevermind sharing a ride with for almost a week. Those were also the people I’d be entrusting my life in the hands of believing that they are responsible and safe drivers, but had no idea of verifying that it truly is so.

The premise definitely seemed exciting, but the risks involved seemed to be too high. What if a person I was sharing a car with decided that he didn’t want me in the car half way across Canada? I’d have a plane ticket booked in line with my anticipated arrival, but would be stuck somewhere in Saskatchewan. There are all kinds of weirdoes out there and unless you have a lot of time on your hands, or it is you who owns the car and makes the rules, you are looking at a rather risky bit of business. None of the people I exchanged emails and phone calls with sounded trustworthy. The benefits were definitely not worth the risks so I have concluded that I will not do a cross Canada drive in a shared car this time. I knew I was gonna do it one day, but it will be with someone I know and can rely on, someone who is fun to be around, someone who is not unstable and will act maturely and responsibly throughout whole drive. At this time, car sharing to drive across Canada was not a good option. So I was back at being stuck.

Car Rental Reservations – Advantage of Booking in Advance

When I checked the car rental prices for a decent automobile in the Dominican Republic when I started looking for cheap plane tickets to embark on my worldwide travel, the prices were more than reasonable. I just wanted to get a hint on what to expect as far as prices for different classes of vehicles are concerned, but made no reservations. I did not have the plane ticket purchased yet and deemed it important to have the plane ticket first so I know the exact day and time of arrival in my destination. Without the plane ticket I wouldn’t know which date to book my car rental for so I merely checked prices and left it to deal with it after I have had my flight arrangements taken care of – BAD IDEA!

I went to check the Avis website the following day since plane ticket prices increased significantly overnight and I could not believe my eyes. Car rental prices, even with Avis coupon grew almost twice fold. If I made a reservation today, instead of the day before, I would pay more for Kia Rio than I would have for Suzuki Grand Vitara yesterday. In other words, had I made a reservation yesterday, I would pay less money and have myself a nice SUV, whereas today I would have to pay more but would get a small passenger car which is three classes down from SUV. SUV rental prices grew way beyond reasonable and were out of question.

If I was frustrated with unprecedented growth of plane ticket prices overnight, unexpected growth of car rental prices made it even worse. And then I realized what kind of stupid idea it was not making a reservation in advance, even though I didn’t have the exact day and time or arrival. See, unlike with plane tickets, car rental companies are very flexible with their reservations and making any changes to it, including cancellations is easy and costs you nothing (at least when dealing with companies like Avis). That means that one should make a reservation on the spot when they see a good price, because even if your dates change, you will be able to easily modify it. And if you are unable to make the trip, you can cancel the reservation and the life will go on. There are no cancellation fees.

Don’t be like me. If you see a good price for car rentals, make a reservation. If you put it off till tomorrow to think about it overnight or to find out exact dates – by the time you have returned to their website, the price could be different and you will have missed the opportunity to have a car rented on the cheap. You have nothing to lose if you book well in advance. Not doing it may result in overpaying later.

The way it works with car rental companies (for the most part), is that you don’t pay your rental fees until you have returned the car. Your credit card will not be charged until after the rental period (this is also in case you cause damage to the rented unit so they can charge you full amount, including the amount to cover for damage you have caused). As such, if you make a reservation online, they will just take your credentials (Avis doesn’t even collect credit card number, just name, email and phone number) and the car is booked for you. You come, pick it up, drive it, and when you are returning it, the representative will inspect it and you sign the papers so they can charge you what you have agreed upon when you were making reservation.

There is really no reason to hesitate with reservations. The fact that you can easily modify or cancel your reservation for no extra fee makes for the biggest advantage of booking your car in advance. I’ve learned my lesson here so from this point on, each time I was planning a trip to a country where I might be interested in car rentals, I’d check for the best prices and if I saw one I liked, I’d make reservations on the spot. Because if I changed my mind or something changes in my plans, I could easily pull back from it or modify it as needed, including change of countries. Take advantage of early booking because there really is nothing to lose. But do verify the fine print. I know for sure it works this way with Avis, but I’m not familiar with terms of service of every car rental company out there.

Last Minute Travel Deals in Summer

I still had a month and a half until my intended around the world departure, but if flight prices looked discouraging when I started looking for the best deals, it kept getting worse with each new day. I came to solid conclusion that there is no such thing as last minute travel deals in Summer. Travel agents would still refer to many of their “deals” as last minute travel deals, but they would be simply overpriced trips with prices reflecting holiday mood of North Americans in Summer. Waiting until “last minute” – until only weeks or days prior to intended trip would result in price being way higher than if purchased in advance, or which is more likely – trip being completely sold out.

I kept an eye on a number of possible flights or full on trips to the Dominican Republic I could take towards the end of August, but they kept getting sold out one after another like these were the last trips on Earth. Summer is definitely not a good time to play a “last minute travel deal” game. You’re not gonna get it. And if you luck out so there is one more seat available on a plane for you, the price is going to be in some thick, four digit range. And don’t be fooled by huge and colorful captions posted in newspaper ads or on the internet. They call it “Last Minute Deals” because they know it’ll make the buyers feel like they are getting a deal, but if you watched the prices rise day in and day out like I did, you’d soon realize that they are just messing with people’s psyche to take full advantage of their most profitable time of year.

That didn’t work well for me. When I first checked flight ticket prices for flights from Edmonton to the Dominican Republic, the cheapest deal was offered by West Jet at $589 + fees and taxes. The very following day, the price was already listed at $875 + taxes. I checked other portals and saw bump in prices everywhere I looked. Realizing that Summer is a bad time for travel deals, I phoned West Jet and explained a representative that I was going to buy a flight ticket to the Dominican Republic yesterday but had problems with my internet connection and today the price is some $300 more expensive. I asked her if it was possible to still give me yesterday’s price, stating that I had my credit card at the ready and was going to buy it instantly if she could work out her magic for me. Unfortunately, I was politely explained that prices are set by the system and there is no way I could get a ticket for a price that is different from currently published one. She said she could give me a few bucks discount from their insurance package (most ridiculously overpriced service ever), but I had to respectfully decline.

Things were just going from bad to worse. I also went to double check car rental prices and even there the rates were bumped. It almost looked like conspiracy against me for hesitating to go ahead with purchases when I first checked the prices out. It was all Summer’s fault. Summer is a difficult time for scoring great travel deals. As someone who travelled to tropical countries in Winter before, I found Summer travel anti-frugal. Overpriced and hard to get.

My chances of traveling out of Canada on the cheap were thinning by the day. Prices kept rising each day and if I felt discouraged by seemingly high figures at the beginning, now that they were twice (or more) as high as few days ago, the discouragement grew and I found myself unable to go for it. I had no option but to continue working on it until I score a deal I will be comfortable with. But how?

Cheap Flights to Dominican Republic

I was on a look out for cheap flights to the Dominican Republic and was hoping to score a reasonably priced deal, similar to that I scored in January. Unfortunately, planning to travel in August is not the same as going in January. It reminded me of December – it’s near impossible to score a cheap plane ticket in December because many people travel during pre Christmas season and for New Year making it one of the worst month for travel deal hunters, but come January, prices drop instantly and significantly. Take Dominican Republic for instance – I wanted to go on a trip during Christmas/New Year season of 2008 but was discouraged by outrageously priced flights so I wasted 8 consecutive days off sitting at home watching TV. But then when January came and I saw the same ticket that sold out planes for $850 + taxes in December now priced at $48 + taxes, I did not hesitate and went right for it. After all, there’s little difference in weather between the end of December and beginning of January and getting the ticket for less than 1/10th of the price it cost two weeks ago was a no brainer.

It was similar with August, though. I started looking for cheap flights to the Dominican Republic in July for the departure at the end of August. But having previously gone to the country for $48 + taxes, I was finding it hard to pay $600 + taxes for the same ticket. I have quickly realized that many people travel in Summer so prices are jacked up so carriers can milk as much as possible out of Summer eager people. This was making my plans to depart at the end of August difficult. I could not bring myself to pay twelve times more than I had paid seven months ago. It just messes with your brain when you realize that.

Having had vast experience scoring the best priced flight tickets from my previous travels, I knew that booking engines of most travel agents use the same backend. Being a computer developer myself, I could see that 80% of all travel agents in Canada use SoftVoyage as their booking engine so no matter which website of which provider you go to, you will get the same results which are priced in the same, or very similar way. That’s a great thing to know as it will save you heaps of time you would otherwise waste browsing through countless websites, yet getting the same results. The websites that use SoftVoyage travel booking engine include:

iTravel2000.com
RedTag.ca
ExitNow.ca
SellOffVacations.com
FlightCentre.ca
etc.

One travel agency that doesn’t use SoftVoyage is Geo.ca which is worth checking out because results will be different, though from what I have noticed, it’s mostly more expensive. Other than the travel agencies, I also kept a close eye on flight carriers themselves. The following were a must:

WestJet.ca
AirCanada.com
United.ca – great, but not for flights to the Caribbean
SunWing.com – amazing for Caribbean destinations, often very cheap, but only works well if you live in Toronto or Montreal. Edmonton didn’t have very good departures and prices

No matter where I went, the prices were nowhere close to anything I would consider decent. August simply proved to be a tough time of year to travel on the cheap. Then there was also an issue of timing – I wanted to depart at the end of the month to use up the money I have already spent on rent and to not have to spend more by overstaying for any part of September. That was also complicating things a bit because flights to the Dominican republic departing in the middle of August or middle of September were cheaper than flights departing at the end of August, beginning of September. My initial research did not encourage me at all. Maybe had I not gone to the Dominican Republic for $48 + taxes before, I would probably find $600 + taxes normal, but after flying cheap, I found it really hard accepting the price that was so much more expensive but would give me exactly the same thing. It was discouraging, but I kept working on it.

Best Country to Start the Around-The-World Travel In

I had the best time to start travelling worked out, now I just needed to work out where to go to start my around the world travels and to find the most affordable way to get there from Canada. Because I didn’t have much budget due to rather low positive cash flow at the time, I figured that the best country to start my round the world travel in would be one of those I am familiar with, one I have recently visited. If you go to a whole new country for the first time, you are rather overwhelmed by its culture, its people, its way of life and if that is a third world country, you will be harassed by touts since you first step foot on their soil so falling for overpriced deals is easy. However if you go to a country you have previously visited, you will know where you are going, what you are doing, what’s around the corner, where the best place to get a ride is, whom to talk to to get cheap accommodation, etc. Many of these can be chosen wrongly if you are in an unfamiliar place because you are under time stress and with a backpack on your back – you often have to take what comes your way and touts are very skilled at getting the most out of each tourist.

Based on the above, I basically only had two countries to choose from: Cuba and the Dominican Republic. I have also recently visited Iceland but not only Iceland is not a third world country (far from it), it is also one of the most expensive countries in the world so my budget would not handle it. I’d love to revisit Iceland as it’s by far the best country to travel to, but it wasn’t an option at this time. Plus because of budget issues, I had to keep it within close range because the further you travel, the more expensive the plane ticket and since Caribbean countries are popular tropical locations for many Canadians, flights there are frequent and far less expensive than flights to Europe or Asia. So in order to keep the initial cost low, Caribbean would be the best choice.

Out of other two countries I have recently visited, Cuba was the least favorable option. Their economy is too dependent on tourism so prices for accommodation are regulated by the government and locals are not allowed to offer foreigners any services for which a foreigner would normally have to pay. For example even if I had a good Cuban friend, I would not be able to crash at his place for if Cuban police found out, he’d get in serious trouble. Same goes for offering foreigners a lift or any other service. If you are a foreigner, you should only be seen riding in taxis or buses. If you are seen in a regular car, the owner/driver of that car could get in a lot of trouble for offering a tourist services for which that tourist should pay. That’s the way it works in Cuba which makes it one of the most expensive countries in the Caribbean (unless you decide to go illegal on everything and risk getting kicked out, but then you can be there on so cheap that even India is more expensive).

I’m not much of an illegal guy. I couldn’t even jump over the fence to join a festival in my home town when all my buddies went that way. I could jump it, I wasn’t lacking there, I just could not bear the thought of doing something that’s not right. That’s just the way I am. Cuba would otherwise be an amazing option as it can be done on the cheap and it’s a safe and beautiful country. But right now it looked like that’s not the best place to start. I didn’t have the budget to retain legal accommodation, even if I stuck with Casas Particulares, which are significantly less expensive than hotels and offer more authentic experience. They are still charged on per day basis so monthly it works out more than you would pay for rent in Canada. I had to ditch Cuba for this very reason.

Whether I liked it or not, I was left with only one option – Dominican Republic. I didn’t mind that as after visiting the country in January, only a few months prior I really enjoyed my stay there and had wonderful time. Unlike in Cuba, unless you have high expectation and desire comfortable lifestyle, you can live in the Dominican Republic on very cheap. I was familiar with the country and the way it operates so ripping me off by offering me overpriced deals would be difficult. I could definitely survive there even though my monthly budget was low and since weather is warm year round and internet connections are decent, I’d be able to both enjoy myself and get some work done on my websites to boost my positive cash flow. Seemed like I have found the best country to start the around the world travel in and even though I did not ditch all other options, I kept all of my senses firmly focused on this nation. Now it was only a question of scoring the plane ticket and making other arrangements for a price I would be comfortable paying.