Whilst scratching around the travel section on the Guardian today I was a bit less amused than usual as I'd had the leisure this weekend to skim read the paper from cover to cover. Normally, at best I'd end up throwing it out a couple of weeks later, unread.
Anyway I normally use Trivago so scrape through different websites for good deals, but decided to have a nose at hotelsupermarket. Now I would have thought it would be a good site. But a quick snoop through "Budapest, Hungary" actually threw up loads of entries for Bodum, Turkey, and not all of them obvious. AVOID unless you want to find you've booked yourself into a hotel 1000 kms and 2 countries away.
I have also had trouble in the past with Netflights. For a start the site doesn't work with Firefox, you have to use Internet Explorer or find yourself unable to book anything. Secondly, the rates advertised for the two weeks I wanted in LAX in April were a good bit higher than the deal I got through Angus Rent a Car's CarTrawler system. And most annoyingly, not only did they not send me through a voucher for my hotel, but took a couple of days of phoning to get through and when they did send it, it looked very unprofessional - some hotels might not have accepted it. Again, one to avoid.
Skyscanner looks interesting. Skyscanner basically does what Ryanair doesn't do - matches up your cheap connecting flight to a cheap charter rather than finding yourself unable to get to some locations, notably classic resorts mainly serviced by package operators, except via horrendously expensive flights via mainstream operators.
You would understand Ryanair's unease about this kind of competition if they were losing business because of it, but intriguingly, they are probably gaining from this piggyback websites. For example, I know somebody who routinely travels the Belfast to Las Palmas route, but finds it really difficult to get a fairly priced direct deal. So she books separate connecting flights, usually entirely separately, and probably pays handsomely. So Skyscanner is the answer - pulling together the charters and the cheapies.
I think a good part of the problem is that Ryanair's site, once considered very novel, is now creaking and out of date compared to other operators, who now offer a far more sophisticated level of services via their websites. I suspect that a good overhaul would do Ryanair far more good than harm.
Note this post was updated thanks to more detailed information passed to me by Skyscanner below (1st Jul 09)
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Incredible Rip-Offs at Garages - and ways to smash them
Last year I had to go through the misery that is the NCT. Basically the mechanics of the actual test itself are not so much of a problem as the lead up to it. Especially if you happen to be female, there is perception amongst mechanics (who are almost always in my experience, bar once, of the Y chromosone gender) that as a "stupid girl" you won't know anything about cars and therefore are ripe for the picking for a major price gouge.
Anyway last year I got the car serviced a few weeks before the test itself at an eye-watering rip off of 340 euros (ok it was from a city centre dealership related to the one I'd purchased the car from originally). A day before the test I realised that I'd blown a headlight bulb in the meantime, so I decided to go to what I genuinely, perhaps naively, believed would be a more flat rate deal from a local tyre/service place.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
It started with charging me a depicable 25 euros for a single halogen bulb, and then 40 euros to realign my lights. I was outraged but resentfully paid, and after paying the near 50 euros to pass the NCT grudgingly realised that I'd paid out the buts of 450 euros to get the car to the required standard.
Anyway last week I popped into Lidl and was curious to see for the princely sum of €5.99 pairs of H1, H4 and H7 halogen bulbs. Since 6 euro isn't a lot to lose, and I've blown the SAME headlight bulb since, I thought I'd have a go myself.
10 minutes spent poring over the covers to my headlamps and it took me about 90 seconds to get the whole bulb replaced. For 3 euros rather than 25.
Thats a net saving of 88% over what the gobshites down the quays gouged me to do. I had a quick scan around various websites and it seems that even the most pricey of bulbs come in at a mere 8 euros. You've really got to wonder what other small parts you can replace yourself without being thoroughly ripped off.
Anyway last year I got the car serviced a few weeks before the test itself at an eye-watering rip off of 340 euros (ok it was from a city centre dealership related to the one I'd purchased the car from originally). A day before the test I realised that I'd blown a headlight bulb in the meantime, so I decided to go to what I genuinely, perhaps naively, believed would be a more flat rate deal from a local tyre/service place.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
It started with charging me a depicable 25 euros for a single halogen bulb, and then 40 euros to realign my lights. I was outraged but resentfully paid, and after paying the near 50 euros to pass the NCT grudgingly realised that I'd paid out the buts of 450 euros to get the car to the required standard.
Anyway last week I popped into Lidl and was curious to see for the princely sum of €5.99 pairs of H1, H4 and H7 halogen bulbs. Since 6 euro isn't a lot to lose, and I've blown the SAME headlight bulb since, I thought I'd have a go myself.
10 minutes spent poring over the covers to my headlamps and it took me about 90 seconds to get the whole bulb replaced. For 3 euros rather than 25.
Thats a net saving of 88% over what the gobshites down the quays gouged me to do. I had a quick scan around various websites and it seems that even the most pricey of bulbs come in at a mere 8 euros. You've really got to wonder what other small parts you can replace yourself without being thoroughly ripped off.
The Iranian Election results and what they really mean
I am curious when reading the election results in Iran, as a lot of people don't actually realise the structure of Iran's government and what powers presidents do and do not have.
Iran has at least 6 ruling bodies -
- Supreme leader - The Ayatollah, who is responbile directly for most of the critical infrastructure points - i.e. the army, and appoints the judiciary - lifetime appointment made by the Assembly of Experts
- Council of Guardians - 6 religious leaders and 6 members of the judiciary - apointed by the supreme leader but can be vetoed by parliment
- Judiciary - head is appointed by the supreme leader who in turn nominates the rest of the judiciary
- president -elected by people - I think is based on nominations from parliment that must be approved by council of Guardians
- Parliment - the Majlis - elected by the people
- Assembly of Experts - religious leaders elected by public
There is a presidential cabinet made up of presidential nominees but most of them can be easily overriden by the Supreme Leader as his powers supercede that of theirs. So while the apparent loss of the presidential election may seem a serious blow to Iranian democratic ideals, there are several other channels for "reformist" candidates to enter the political fray. The problem however, is that really they are not significantly powerful enough to make real changes because overal law is determined by the Experts and Judiciary.
If Iran is to have real changes, its best bet would be to consider placing reformist candidates in elections for the Assembly of Experts, since these are the only body who can exert any control over the Supreme Leader.
Iran has at least 6 ruling bodies -
- Supreme leader - The Ayatollah, who is responbile directly for most of the critical infrastructure points - i.e. the army, and appoints the judiciary - lifetime appointment made by the Assembly of Experts
- Council of Guardians - 6 religious leaders and 6 members of the judiciary - apointed by the supreme leader but can be vetoed by parliment
- Judiciary - head is appointed by the supreme leader who in turn nominates the rest of the judiciary
- president -elected by people - I think is based on nominations from parliment that must be approved by council of Guardians
- Parliment - the Majlis - elected by the people
- Assembly of Experts - religious leaders elected by public
There is a presidential cabinet made up of presidential nominees but most of them can be easily overriden by the Supreme Leader as his powers supercede that of theirs. So while the apparent loss of the presidential election may seem a serious blow to Iranian democratic ideals, there are several other channels for "reformist" candidates to enter the political fray. The problem however, is that really they are not significantly powerful enough to make real changes because overal law is determined by the Experts and Judiciary.
If Iran is to have real changes, its best bet would be to consider placing reformist candidates in elections for the Assembly of Experts, since these are the only body who can exert any control over the Supreme Leader.
Raleigh's Banksy Clone
Since I live in one of the few non-parking controlled streets in Cork city, which isn't half as wonderful as it seems as the Stolen-Traffic-cone brigade fence off more than half of available spaces, while rent allowance scum suck up most of the remaining parking with their bangers, I was most amused to discover this piece of art made up of ahem . . . acquired traffic cones in Raleigh NC.
I am half considering writing a letter to my newly elected local councillors to ask to see what can be done about people in parking zones physically blocking off what effectively are pieces of public roadway in order to prevent other people from legitimately parking on what they perceive to be their personal bits of road. (Interesting how the €10 p.a. permit charge doesn't get the message into their heads that this isn't actually their personal properly?)
Friday, June 12, 2009
A Tale of Two Tigers
I listened to two different audio podcasts this week - one from the BBC, Olivia O Leary's From Boom to Bust programme on BBC Radio 4 regarding the so-called Tiger economy in Ireland, and the Guardian's daily business podcast which included a very brief discussion on how the bottom 30% of the population gained little from growth in the UK.
You can find both here and here.
The Guardian's discussion was realistic, and Polly is quite right in saying that a huge percentage of the wealth generated went to the top earners, and the differing levels of success and failure Labour had from 1997 in redistribution that wealth. Some other panelists have suggested that those on welfare suffer least from times of recession since their incomes remain static, however debates in Ireland on the level of income replacement of social welfare and indeed, outright cuts in secondary benefits and direct cash payments for some recipients is flatly contradicting this.
O Leary's piece to be honest, was extremely poor and blithely ignored the hidden faces of Ireland, the large proportion of people either priced entirely out of the housing market, and mostly pushed into extremely poor quality rented accomodation, and another group, who could afford to buy but only in very remote areas or very tiny properties in poor locations. It also ignored the masses of people effectively bypassed by the "boom" - people with a lack of appropriate job skills or experience who couldn't take advantage of the boom, or with a range of financial handicaps that prevented them from fully benefitting. In fact a newly recognised problem is the disproprotionate effect of the recession on the long distance commuters, and its knock on impact on these areas in the greater Leinster area - known as the commuter belt, but there are similar belts in areas such as Galway, Limerick and Cork, which similarly extent 30-40 miles outside the cities in question. In some cases these areas have been in a state of economic decay for many years - for example escalating property prices masked the real economic degeneration in the Youghal and Mallow areas in Cork, both of which were believe to have lost 2000-4000 jobs over the last decade. If this is artificially masked by huge property price hikes (for example in West Cork due to heavy marketing to ex-pat retiree brigades in the UK) then the impact of the recession is in fact a double whammy.
One of the most serious concerns I would have about Ireland's banking bailout is the disproportionate impact of protections for savers in the institutions protected by guarantees as against the removal of credit and possibly even services for those not fortunate enough to save savings at all. So in other words, the poorer people with no savings are being asked to pay extra to guarantee savings of those who could in all honesty afford to save. Since the banks were not given conditions attached to the bailouts to ensure that they would not misuse the cash given, we already have a situation where AIB is using the bailout given to shore up its own share price by buying back baonds and shares. The benefit of this is precisely to employees, especially those at the top, whose incomes are dependent on those very shares. So effectively the banks are not using the cash given to ensure that the economy continues normal lending, the banks are using it to keep the system of investment going.
What I really felt though, about O Leary's programme, was its blithe assumption that Ireland was simply chock full for 10 years of extremely wealthy, loaded young professionals who were "well educated" and "big spenders." In fact, particularly from around 2002 onwards, there was a small but growing level of youngish people who were struggling to cope with the consequences of heavy borrowing. In fact if you look at the archives of boards.ie, you will see a steady increase in the number of people asking for advice on debt. With unemployment at less than 4% this was largely due to temporary changes in circumstances, sometimes brief periods of unemployment that left people out of pocket and behind on payments, and in other cases quite simply due to an inability to stretch payments to all lenders. This gradually and steadily increased throughout the decade and now the debt advice forums are swamped not with people with overstretched borrowings, but huge debts and often extended periods of unemployment.
What I think we primarily need to come to terms with over the next few years is a recognition of how skewed Ireland became because of the tiger years, how an overinflated property market manifested itself as economic "growth" and of how socially divisive and damaging this has been. We need in particular to re-evaluate in particular our attitudes to home ownership, rented accomodation as a home and in how we work with social housing (and not just as a social dumping measure).
You can find both here and here.
The Guardian's discussion was realistic, and Polly is quite right in saying that a huge percentage of the wealth generated went to the top earners, and the differing levels of success and failure Labour had from 1997 in redistribution that wealth. Some other panelists have suggested that those on welfare suffer least from times of recession since their incomes remain static, however debates in Ireland on the level of income replacement of social welfare and indeed, outright cuts in secondary benefits and direct cash payments for some recipients is flatly contradicting this.
O Leary's piece to be honest, was extremely poor and blithely ignored the hidden faces of Ireland, the large proportion of people either priced entirely out of the housing market, and mostly pushed into extremely poor quality rented accomodation, and another group, who could afford to buy but only in very remote areas or very tiny properties in poor locations. It also ignored the masses of people effectively bypassed by the "boom" - people with a lack of appropriate job skills or experience who couldn't take advantage of the boom, or with a range of financial handicaps that prevented them from fully benefitting. In fact a newly recognised problem is the disproprotionate effect of the recession on the long distance commuters, and its knock on impact on these areas in the greater Leinster area - known as the commuter belt, but there are similar belts in areas such as Galway, Limerick and Cork, which similarly extent 30-40 miles outside the cities in question. In some cases these areas have been in a state of economic decay for many years - for example escalating property prices masked the real economic degeneration in the Youghal and Mallow areas in Cork, both of which were believe to have lost 2000-4000 jobs over the last decade. If this is artificially masked by huge property price hikes (for example in West Cork due to heavy marketing to ex-pat retiree brigades in the UK) then the impact of the recession is in fact a double whammy.
One of the most serious concerns I would have about Ireland's banking bailout is the disproportionate impact of protections for savers in the institutions protected by guarantees as against the removal of credit and possibly even services for those not fortunate enough to save savings at all. So in other words, the poorer people with no savings are being asked to pay extra to guarantee savings of those who could in all honesty afford to save. Since the banks were not given conditions attached to the bailouts to ensure that they would not misuse the cash given, we already have a situation where AIB is using the bailout given to shore up its own share price by buying back baonds and shares. The benefit of this is precisely to employees, especially those at the top, whose incomes are dependent on those very shares. So effectively the banks are not using the cash given to ensure that the economy continues normal lending, the banks are using it to keep the system of investment going.
What I really felt though, about O Leary's programme, was its blithe assumption that Ireland was simply chock full for 10 years of extremely wealthy, loaded young professionals who were "well educated" and "big spenders." In fact, particularly from around 2002 onwards, there was a small but growing level of youngish people who were struggling to cope with the consequences of heavy borrowing. In fact if you look at the archives of boards.ie, you will see a steady increase in the number of people asking for advice on debt. With unemployment at less than 4% this was largely due to temporary changes in circumstances, sometimes brief periods of unemployment that left people out of pocket and behind on payments, and in other cases quite simply due to an inability to stretch payments to all lenders. This gradually and steadily increased throughout the decade and now the debt advice forums are swamped not with people with overstretched borrowings, but huge debts and often extended periods of unemployment.
What I think we primarily need to come to terms with over the next few years is a recognition of how skewed Ireland became because of the tiger years, how an overinflated property market manifested itself as economic "growth" and of how socially divisive and damaging this has been. We need in particular to re-evaluate in particular our attitudes to home ownership, rented accomodation as a home and in how we work with social housing (and not just as a social dumping measure).
The Deterioration of Public Buildings in Ireland
4 years ago, a Green party representative declared a "victory" over the defeat of some rather poor plans for the public baths in Dun Laoghaire. The sad reality is that while the very bad plans for the baths were shot down, the area has been let deteriorate into such an appalling state that the so-called victory now seems very hollow indeed. The shocking condition of the baths can be see on the Abandoned Ireland website here. To suggest that this was a victory now seems very hollow indeed considering the appalling state that the buildings have deteriorated into.
I often enjoyed the baths as a kid in the late 1980s and was truly shocked at how bad the conditions have become. The proliferation of hypodermic needs would suggest to me that its only a matter of time before the baths suffer the same ignomious fate as the ill-fated West Pier in Brighton, which was finally destroyed in a fire after a series of structural collapses some years ago, the result of 2 decades of serial neglect and a failure to agree on a way forward to restore this once-beautiful landmark. The problem for the West Pier was that the gradual delapidation that occured as a result of years of debate and blocking of plans to repair it resulted in leaving it vulnerable not only to storm damage which resulted in a series of collapses, but to outright vandalism which resulted in the intact buildings being razed in 2003. It is inevitable in underage-drinking-happy Ireland that the baths are likely to suffer a similar fate should something not be undertaken to preserve them even in their existing designs.
One of the sadder elements of Ireland's so-called development in the dubious Tiger years was the deterioration of public swimming facilities. Even the popular 40 Foot is apparently in poor conditions and many public facilities have closed and other facilities such as the Gus Healy pool in Douglas, Cork, are being allowed to deteriorate. In the case of the Douglas facility it is being "operated" at present by Leisureworld who are not-for-profit but also operating much newer competing facilities in Bishopstown and Churchfield. Surely a group which has the luxury of newer facilties is hardly going to have any incentive to improve on an older and less attractive facility?
One of the real issues faced now in Ireland, where extensive overdevelopment, much of it of extremely dubious value and build quality, has already blighted much of the environment, is to what extent "developers" already taking advantage of the current recession to bankrupt themselves conveniently just in time to hide away their previous profits all over the world in dodgy secretive banking systems before they get exposed. Its likely that many of the worst eyesores will practically collapse before they are forced to maintain them. The absence of proper management companies is likely to destroy any hope of some apartment complexes being properly maintained, never mind the fact that so many of them are already in poor conditions due to total neglect of rented properties.
I often enjoyed the baths as a kid in the late 1980s and was truly shocked at how bad the conditions have become. The proliferation of hypodermic needs would suggest to me that its only a matter of time before the baths suffer the same ignomious fate as the ill-fated West Pier in Brighton, which was finally destroyed in a fire after a series of structural collapses some years ago, the result of 2 decades of serial neglect and a failure to agree on a way forward to restore this once-beautiful landmark. The problem for the West Pier was that the gradual delapidation that occured as a result of years of debate and blocking of plans to repair it resulted in leaving it vulnerable not only to storm damage which resulted in a series of collapses, but to outright vandalism which resulted in the intact buildings being razed in 2003. It is inevitable in underage-drinking-happy Ireland that the baths are likely to suffer a similar fate should something not be undertaken to preserve them even in their existing designs.
One of the sadder elements of Ireland's so-called development in the dubious Tiger years was the deterioration of public swimming facilities. Even the popular 40 Foot is apparently in poor conditions and many public facilities have closed and other facilities such as the Gus Healy pool in Douglas, Cork, are being allowed to deteriorate. In the case of the Douglas facility it is being "operated" at present by Leisureworld who are not-for-profit but also operating much newer competing facilities in Bishopstown and Churchfield. Surely a group which has the luxury of newer facilties is hardly going to have any incentive to improve on an older and less attractive facility?
One of the real issues faced now in Ireland, where extensive overdevelopment, much of it of extremely dubious value and build quality, has already blighted much of the environment, is to what extent "developers" already taking advantage of the current recession to bankrupt themselves conveniently just in time to hide away their previous profits all over the world in dodgy secretive banking systems before they get exposed. Its likely that many of the worst eyesores will practically collapse before they are forced to maintain them. The absence of proper management companies is likely to destroy any hope of some apartment complexes being properly maintained, never mind the fact that so many of them are already in poor conditions due to total neglect of rented properties.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
No to dog fouling!
I was very amused by this thread on Flickr and Passive-Agressive notes. On the road right beside where I live, there is a family I call the "Shitty" family. I call them that because for 11 months a year the family pooch defecates on the pavement across the road to such an extent you simply cannot walk on it.
Now they must have a holiday home or more likely a caravan somewhere, beacuse they seem to disappear for a large chunk of the summer, and since this is Ireland the torrential rain we've had before this week always sweeps away their dogs mess.
This year however, with really fine weather, the smouldering heaps are now white smouldering heaps, but in time, no doubt, they too will be history.
Now my concern here as a neighbour is this -
- why do neighbours not complain?
- there is considerable fuss about illegal parking and "outsider" parking in the area, but nothing on this
- and why do the city council not clean the pavements at least once in a blue moon?
I was thinking of starting to photograph the dogs doings when the Shitty people come home and start shitting again, and publicly shaming them. Sure, its legally iffy to photograph a car or somebody and plonk on the web, but a dog? Well, what do you think? Is it a goer or no? Could be a fun one for Indymedia!
Now they must have a holiday home or more likely a caravan somewhere, beacuse they seem to disappear for a large chunk of the summer, and since this is Ireland the torrential rain we've had before this week always sweeps away their dogs mess.
This year however, with really fine weather, the smouldering heaps are now white smouldering heaps, but in time, no doubt, they too will be history.
Now my concern here as a neighbour is this -
- why do neighbours not complain?
- there is considerable fuss about illegal parking and "outsider" parking in the area, but nothing on this
- and why do the city council not clean the pavements at least once in a blue moon?
I was thinking of starting to photograph the dogs doings when the Shitty people come home and start shitting again, and publicly shaming them. Sure, its legally iffy to photograph a car or somebody and plonk on the web, but a dog? Well, what do you think? Is it a goer or no? Could be a fun one for Indymedia!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Superbudget holiday
I was fascinated to read this piece about extraordinarily low priced sun holidays in the Guardian, as I've just done the same myself. What Graff says is very very true, and he paid just 5 pounds for a night in a resort in Corfu in Greece.
Last year I went on a boozy week to Playa del Ingles in Gran Canaria and was charged an astronomical 549 euros for what was very basic aparthotel accomodation. I had originally suggested to 3 friends that we go. What happened in the end was that they invited just about everybody they knew and in the end it was 10 or 12 of us. Somebody then went into a travel agency, who clearly saw us coming. We'd aimed for the weekend of Maspalaomas Pride and like everybody else in the island of Ireland and Scotland who tries to hit this weekend we've discovered that tour operators and agencies simply have entirely ignored the pink pound and all, without a single exception, fly people into and out of the resorts on Saturdays only. This of course, is losing them a huge fortune in pink "identity tourism", since the big parade is on the Saturday, followed by a lively show that goes on well past midnight. It was hard not to feel both gutted and robbed after paying out such a fortune only to be whipped away just as the party was starting.
The previous year I'd enjoyed what could have been a lovely week but utterly ruined due to breaking up with my ex, who I'd travelled over with within 6 days of breaking up (over the phone of course), who'd managed to hook up with somebody we'd befriended. As you can imagine, holy melodrama ensued that would easily match anything Sasha writes on her blog in Long Beach. They weren't too happy to see me show up in subsequent years either, but there is always a smug sense of satisfaction at knowing your presence isn't exactly wanted. Luckily we don't have a Hamburger Mary's anywhere to battle it out in, and fortunately we are all just about adult enough to take no notice of each other.
Anyway in what should have been a lovely week, we paid a very reasonable 680 euros for 2 to share a really nice bungalow right near all the Yumbo and beach action in Playa del Ingles, direct flights from Cork, transfers etc. It was through TUI -related Budget Travel, and very disappointing to see that since 2007 they are not only failing to provide any flights on anything other than Saturdays from Cork, but same for Shannon and Dublin, a point which I made to entrepeneurial drag artiste Sheila Fitzpatrick, who is starting to run a trip from down south to here for pride. Anyway part of the reason for the pricey trip the following year (1100 for 2) was because we put 2 people in 4 bedroomed apartments.
Well, after agreeing to join some Luxemburger friends for a shorter trip, after discovering that Aer Lingus had revived their Dublin flight on this route, with about 3 flights a week on weekdays, I decided to do a little homework and try to find out how low I could go and to what extent Panorama had ripped us off.
Well last year I discovered Roomsnet. This is run by a London based operator called Jumbo tours. They generally have prices very similar to other services but what differentiates them is that if you sign up they regularly drop in discounts that can be used to book a trip anywhere. For example, last December they gave me 25 pounds sterling that I could take off a booking. Nice!
So I had a quick look at flights and realised I could get a week (they fly on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday) with baggage paid for and credit card charges included for a mere 239 euros. In fact if I'd waited for a sale, I could have knocked about 30 euros or more off that figure. But still not bad.
The next challenge was transport. Now I had 2 options. When I did my solo drive around California I took out an annual car hire excess policy that makes it cheaper to hire cars since I don't need to but the excess insurance on offer. But a quick search under "holiday transfers" on Google will give you lots of options for a mere 15 euros per person return. Of course, the actual taxi far is only about 30-40 euros each way, so if there are a few of you, its probably better value to get a large cab. I actually chose a car hire option via Argus, who I'd got a great deal for 2 weeks hire in LA in April. Either way, you can pay around 15-20 per person for the shuttle or just get a cab, or, if there is suitable parking around your accomodation, hire a car at around 110 or so for a small car for a week.
So by now I was up to 255 if I was making a direct comparison with last year. Per person of course. So I took the liberty of pricing the last aparthotel we stayed in and got a nasty shock. In the same place that we stayed, I could not only get a whole studio apartment for 160 euros, I could get two - last year we'd got 2 bedroomed apartments, which I can only presume should have worked out cheaper than 2 studios. So the exact same - actually slightly better accomodation option, would have worked out at just over 400 euros per person, which meant that the operator made a handsome minimum of about 140 euros profit over and above whatever profits they would have received for the same kind of trip. We were utterly fleeced.
I was kinda amused, all the same, so see most of the same group back for pride this year.
Anyway, I settled originally on a cheap smaller apartment complex, then changed my mind as reviews in Tripadvisor were poor, and changed to Sun Gardens in Maspalomas. Because I'd cancelled, and I don't know why they do this, Roomsnet decided to hike up my discount and gave me another 25 pound bonus. So in the end I got 5 nights in the Sun Gardens for less than 60 euros, or just under 12 euro per night. This is an all-bungalow complex, so effectively, minus transportation, I got my 5 night just shy of a week holiday for little over 300 euros. What a snip when you consider that a lot of operators routinely gouge single travellers for the price of 2 people and for a lot of people who might not have a huge amount of choice on when they take their week, it is probably losing the operators money.
Anyway, even with the 3-4 euro I paid for taxis and the extra car hire, I still managed to spend considerably less on the holiday this year. It really shows it is worth both shopping around and breaking down costs yourself.
In fact, had I forgone car hire and decided to pay the same, it would have given me 5 nights at a budget of 290 euros. This would have bought me either full board and change of up to 50 euro at one of the more basic resorts, or 5 nights in one of the Riu 4 star hotels. So it certainly contradicts the "wisdom" of simply relying on tour operators. They are still worth asking, though.
I decided then to have a look at similar options for Ibiza, out of curiosity. AL currently fly directly from Dublin for as little as around 190 euros, probably regular price is closer to 240 also. A basic apartment is again around 130 euros and airport shuttle I priced at 30. For a single person, this is again easily a nice week for 350-400 euros depending on what accomodation you'd like. Certainly worth checking out.
Last year I went on a boozy week to Playa del Ingles in Gran Canaria and was charged an astronomical 549 euros for what was very basic aparthotel accomodation. I had originally suggested to 3 friends that we go. What happened in the end was that they invited just about everybody they knew and in the end it was 10 or 12 of us. Somebody then went into a travel agency, who clearly saw us coming. We'd aimed for the weekend of Maspalaomas Pride and like everybody else in the island of Ireland and Scotland who tries to hit this weekend we've discovered that tour operators and agencies simply have entirely ignored the pink pound and all, without a single exception, fly people into and out of the resorts on Saturdays only. This of course, is losing them a huge fortune in pink "identity tourism", since the big parade is on the Saturday, followed by a lively show that goes on well past midnight. It was hard not to feel both gutted and robbed after paying out such a fortune only to be whipped away just as the party was starting.
The previous year I'd enjoyed what could have been a lovely week but utterly ruined due to breaking up with my ex, who I'd travelled over with within 6 days of breaking up (over the phone of course), who'd managed to hook up with somebody we'd befriended. As you can imagine, holy melodrama ensued that would easily match anything Sasha writes on her blog in Long Beach. They weren't too happy to see me show up in subsequent years either, but there is always a smug sense of satisfaction at knowing your presence isn't exactly wanted. Luckily we don't have a Hamburger Mary's anywhere to battle it out in, and fortunately we are all just about adult enough to take no notice of each other.
Anyway in what should have been a lovely week, we paid a very reasonable 680 euros for 2 to share a really nice bungalow right near all the Yumbo and beach action in Playa del Ingles, direct flights from Cork, transfers etc. It was through TUI -related Budget Travel, and very disappointing to see that since 2007 they are not only failing to provide any flights on anything other than Saturdays from Cork, but same for Shannon and Dublin, a point which I made to entrepeneurial drag artiste Sheila Fitzpatrick, who is starting to run a trip from down south to here for pride. Anyway part of the reason for the pricey trip the following year (1100 for 2) was because we put 2 people in 4 bedroomed apartments.
Well, after agreeing to join some Luxemburger friends for a shorter trip, after discovering that Aer Lingus had revived their Dublin flight on this route, with about 3 flights a week on weekdays, I decided to do a little homework and try to find out how low I could go and to what extent Panorama had ripped us off.
Well last year I discovered Roomsnet. This is run by a London based operator called Jumbo tours. They generally have prices very similar to other services but what differentiates them is that if you sign up they regularly drop in discounts that can be used to book a trip anywhere. For example, last December they gave me 25 pounds sterling that I could take off a booking. Nice!
So I had a quick look at flights and realised I could get a week (they fly on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday) with baggage paid for and credit card charges included for a mere 239 euros. In fact if I'd waited for a sale, I could have knocked about 30 euros or more off that figure. But still not bad.
The next challenge was transport. Now I had 2 options. When I did my solo drive around California I took out an annual car hire excess policy that makes it cheaper to hire cars since I don't need to but the excess insurance on offer. But a quick search under "holiday transfers" on Google will give you lots of options for a mere 15 euros per person return. Of course, the actual taxi far is only about 30-40 euros each way, so if there are a few of you, its probably better value to get a large cab. I actually chose a car hire option via Argus, who I'd got a great deal for 2 weeks hire in LA in April. Either way, you can pay around 15-20 per person for the shuttle or just get a cab, or, if there is suitable parking around your accomodation, hire a car at around 110 or so for a small car for a week.
So by now I was up to 255 if I was making a direct comparison with last year. Per person of course. So I took the liberty of pricing the last aparthotel we stayed in and got a nasty shock. In the same place that we stayed, I could not only get a whole studio apartment for 160 euros, I could get two - last year we'd got 2 bedroomed apartments, which I can only presume should have worked out cheaper than 2 studios. So the exact same - actually slightly better accomodation option, would have worked out at just over 400 euros per person, which meant that the operator made a handsome minimum of about 140 euros profit over and above whatever profits they would have received for the same kind of trip. We were utterly fleeced.
I was kinda amused, all the same, so see most of the same group back for pride this year.
Anyway, I settled originally on a cheap smaller apartment complex, then changed my mind as reviews in Tripadvisor were poor, and changed to Sun Gardens in Maspalomas. Because I'd cancelled, and I don't know why they do this, Roomsnet decided to hike up my discount and gave me another 25 pound bonus. So in the end I got 5 nights in the Sun Gardens for less than 60 euros, or just under 12 euro per night. This is an all-bungalow complex, so effectively, minus transportation, I got my 5 night just shy of a week holiday for little over 300 euros. What a snip when you consider that a lot of operators routinely gouge single travellers for the price of 2 people and for a lot of people who might not have a huge amount of choice on when they take their week, it is probably losing the operators money.
Anyway, even with the 3-4 euro I paid for taxis and the extra car hire, I still managed to spend considerably less on the holiday this year. It really shows it is worth both shopping around and breaking down costs yourself.
In fact, had I forgone car hire and decided to pay the same, it would have given me 5 nights at a budget of 290 euros. This would have bought me either full board and change of up to 50 euro at one of the more basic resorts, or 5 nights in one of the Riu 4 star hotels. So it certainly contradicts the "wisdom" of simply relying on tour operators. They are still worth asking, though.
I decided then to have a look at similar options for Ibiza, out of curiosity. AL currently fly directly from Dublin for as little as around 190 euros, probably regular price is closer to 240 also. A basic apartment is again around 130 euros and airport shuttle I priced at 30. For a single person, this is again easily a nice week for 350-400 euros depending on what accomodation you'd like. Certainly worth checking out.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
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