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Morocco Trains: ONCF -http://www.oncf.ma/Pages/Accueil.aspx has comfortable second class seats, with some A/C as well as first class seats. Routes can be found on this map:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rail_network_in_Morocco.svg Morocco Buses: CTM, covers the entire country. Comfortable, A/C, cheaper than trains by a bit.http://www.ctm.ma/index.php/contact Supratours, another bus company in Morocco. Same site as ONCF. Other Tips for Morocco: Many tours such as desert trip or Mount Toubkal guides, can be booked online, however when buying them on the spot prices can be negotiated and should therefore be less :) Even some hostel prices listed on hostelworld can be haggled, so booking ahead might not always be the best way. Portugal Buses: EVA Has youth discounts. http://www.eva-bus.com Ridesharing: Popular routes include Lisbon - Madrid, Madrid - Barcelona.http://www.blablacar.com Air BnB: Great site for house and apartment rentals!https://www.airbnb.com
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Transportation:
Check out the following sites for some options. Thinking of taking the bus around? Visit http://www.icelandonyourown.is/home/bus-passes/ A pass for the ring road will set you back around $400. It does stop at main sights and attractions (however, some travellers reported that the bus does not go all the way around the ring road in off season eg. April). A good alternative which definitely becomes more affordable, when there are two or more people, is to rent a car. Instead of spending $800 on bus passes for two, a rental car for 10 days (enough time to do the drive around the ring road) will be around $400. Add in $200-300 for gas (at the time a liter was at $2.43 to find out a general figure just use http://www.calculator.net/fuel-cost-calculator.html to get an idea if you know the distance, fuel economy and price of gas). Depending on how much driving you do and the price of gas at the time and it's already cheaper to rent a vehicle. This will give you flexibility and you can stop anywhere for as long (or as quickly) as you want. The Ring road is around 1400km (in 11 days we drove 2400km- lots of side roads will add to this). It's a great alternative to rent a car instead of taking the bus and a comparable option in Iceland. Check out the following sites for cheap car rentals some as low as $38 a day. http://www.economycarrentals.com/Mobile/Defaultm.aspx (compares and finds the cheapest rental company - in our case Sixt car rental) http://sadcars.com The are other ways to get around ride sharing would be a fun way, there are even domestic air passes available, google it :) Need some ideas on what to see or do while driving around Iceland? Go tohttp://www.hostel.is/SampleItineraries/ it has great detailed routes with plenty of stops which are worth checking out and it's laid out so there is enough time to complete them all. We built our itinerary mostly based on the 7 day route from this site and added in extra stops from reading the guide book since we had more time. The Lonely Planet guidebook http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/iceland/iceland-travel-guide-8/ gives you more details on the sights and includes everything you need to know about traveling in Iceland. Some other useful links for a driving trip includehttp://www.vegagerdin.is/english/road-conditions-and-weather/the-entire-country/island1e.html which will accurately show the road conditions. (If it wasn't for checking first we would have attempted to drive on an impassable road resulting in quite the detour!). The weather site http://en.vedur.is (there is also an aurora forecast on the site, it changes often but can determine whether you want to stay up late or not - assuming you come during the winter months) can help to plan out the stops. On rainy days plan on quick and frequent stops to cover more distance, on sunny days spend time hiking instead of driving, if the itinerary allows for it. The weather similar to the northern light forecast changes unexpectedly! Luckily many sights in Iceland are free (some sights along the famous golden circle have a fee - eg. Geyser). No entrance fees to parks or nature sights. However tours such as whale watching, glacier climbing etc. come with a steep price. Ashleigh did a great job to include the names of the sights we stopped at for quick reference and to remember them in case someone asks "what was the name of the highest point in Iceland in that picture?" - oh you mean Hvannadalshnukur! "Yesss that one!" Also don't forget to grab a free map at the airport or at the hostel, even though navigating is easy here - speed limit on the ring road is mostly 90km/h perfect speed to view the surroundings. The average speed however might not be 90km/h, since some road conditions or weather might prevent one from going that speed the whole time. Some detours or side roads to certain sights, which are great and highly recommended, can have some poorly maintained roads and I'm not talking about the kind of gravel roads we privileged Canadians have, where 90km/h is an acceptable and safe speed. It's more like massive potholes and big boulders on the middle of the road. Weather such as thick fog, which we experienced, also slows one down (luckily we only had a few snow showers which did not effect the roads). On the days we were driving, we probably only averaged 200-300 km, more is easily doable if on a tighter schedule. Ride sharing is possible most hostels have sign up sheets where a ride can be offered to the next destination or requested. This might work better during the busy summer times and flexibility is a must. No point in us offering a ride if the only guests at the hostel are called Ashleigh and John! Accommodation: I can't speak to hotels (other than they are not that common), any BnB's or camping, all which are possible here depending on your style. We stayed in hostels specifically in HI hostels (http://www.hostel.is) an annual membership will set you back $20 and will have paid of after your fourth night in Iceland (average saving of $6 per night). The prices do not vary much across the country around $25-$35 a night for a dorm bed or $70+ for a private room, being the cheapest in and around the capital Reykjavik. It's valid for any HI hostel which can be found all over the globe. The hostels here are very well maintained & operated, and aim to be environmentally conscious. Most of them do have private rooms as well as dorm style rooms. (Sometimes a private double will only be a couple bucks more than two beds in a dorm). All have kitchens equipped with everything you need to prepare a meal. During the shoulder season many of these hostels were empty and as Ashleigh had mentioned we had the place to ourselves. On a side note some are closed during the winter and during peak season a booking in advance is a must. One thing to further note is that most will charge for linen (however blankets and pillows are provided and beds do have sheets) so all you need to bring are some linen. We brought cocoons which are almost like thin sleeping bags and act as both a bed sheet and coverhttp://www.cocoon.at/eng/show.php?doc=frameset&page=cocoon_ckat1&kat=2&prod=0&fab=0 they are compact and in Iceland a money saver of around $12 per night. Other sites as discussed in the forum link are hostel world and hostel bookings. In Iceland however HI hostels were the way to go. In the summer camping would be a great alternative (most hostels have camping areas). Food: It's expensive! Fast food items are comparable to Canadian prices but restaurant meals all hover around the cost of a high end restaurant you would go to in Canada. If you can dish it out daily go for it. Otherwise groceries and cooking your meals is the cheapest option with a few hot dogs here and there (people are obsessed with them here for some reason). Grocery prices are comparable as Ashleigh had discussed in a blog post with some odd items being way over priced such as tomatoes. At this time after one week in Iceland and only one day left we spend just over $100 on groceries the equivalent of eating out twice here. (We did also bring quite a bit of food such as soups, rice etc. since we knew food was expensive here) Alcohol on the other end is a another story, well it's similar to the eating out one. Alcohol at the duty free when arriving at the airport is in fact the cheapest, about $2 a can, not too bad. It's more at designated liquor stores and at a pub be prepared to hand out $10 dollar bills per drink. The local brew we did try was quite good though. In the capital we did find one place that had $5 beers so they can be found! Must have items during April in Iceland: Rain gear, eg. Waterproof jacket (wind resistant or wind proof is a bonus!), water repellent pants or rain pants work. Umbrellas are useless, it seems to be too windy on most rainy days. Hat, mitts, fleece, good boots are great when out exploring. When renting a car having a mug for hot beverages is awesome! Prices: Here are some average prices broken down per day for two people: Hostel - $64 Car - $35 Fuel - $30 Food - $15 Nature - Free! Total: $144 per day for two! Iceland is an expensive country but one can travel here on budget since it's all about the beautiful landscape, which is free! Now that we are all done in Iceland, we hope this will inspire some of you to visit this beautiful country! The pictures are amazing and Ashleigh described it even better in the blog. There are now direct flights from Edmonton at a very good price or if heading to other cities in Europe Icelandair (http://www.icelandair.ca/flights/stopover/) allows for a free stop over (7 days max) at no extra cost!! By John Schelesnak Copenhagen, Denmark has a lot to offer so we decided to explore it in two days. Sights, attractions and museums all charge entrance fees which can add up quickly. There are student discount prices so with and ISIC or the youth card it will save you some money. Since we had a few days we decided to get the Copenhagen city card (http://www.copenhagencard.com).Many major cities offer these and they often include free transportation.
Here is how we took advantage of the card: The comparison site shows how quickly the card will save you moneyhttp://www.copenhagencard.com/#calculation-widget-form-container Card price: $100 x 2 for a 48 hour card this includes transportation by bus, metro and train for the greater Copenhagen area (so also outside the capital). If you buy a 24 hr transportation pass it will cost $25 so half the card is transportation costs. It paid off on the first day for us. With our list of attractions we only paid $50 a day each. Here is a comparison based on our usage: Card price for two: $200 Cost without card: $411 Savings: $211 (based on adult prices) If you plan on seeing sights and visiting places it's well worth it. Unfortunately the only train or bus that wasn't covered was the one to Malmo, Sweden. However the bus ride is only 45 mins one way and cost us a total of $33 for two people return trip from the airport. http://m.nettbuss.se/m/sok-resa. The bridge toll alone for a vehicle is like $60. The train was quite a bit more and you do not get the view. We did have a chance to go north by train for an hour to Helsingor which was included in the card as well. The card is a great way to see as much as possible and it allows one to take the train as many times as you want. Without the card we would not have gone to all these places. A great deal! Let's get some deals!
In my opinion traveling by train is the best way to get around and see the most. But it's not always the cheapest. Buses (http://www.eurolines.de/index.php?id=2&L=1) and ride sharing (http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de) offer some great deals. Prices on budget airlines like Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.com) often are lower than bus or train fares. So far we have found some great deals though. The euro specials offered by the DB (http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/prices/europe/europa-spezial.shtml) are a good deal and start at 29 Euros. Tickets are valid for train rides between major cities in Germany and neighboring countries. We used this deal between Copenhagen and Hamburg. Other offers include Frankfurt to Paris or Berlin to Warsaw. They are IC trains which are quick and comfortable. While visiting Charlotte in Hamburg she showed us a great website for last minute deals (http://bahn.ltur.com). These are seat sales which can be booked 7 to 1 day/s prior to traveling. It is a flat rate of 26 euros per person and routes as well as times can vary. We used it between Hamburg and Siegburg/Bonn. Total cost of 52 euros (4.5 hours of traveling), only 8 euros more than the "Schönes Wochende ticket" (8.5 hours of travel). The stations have to be ICE stations (high speed trains). An even better deal would be to go from Hamburg to Munich, quite a far stretch for a cheap price. The site has other last minute deals, and offers to neighboring countries are also available for 36 euros. The offered country changes monthly. The popular "Schönes Wochende ticket" for weekend group travel within Germany is also a great deal even for two people (Max 5). Some restrictions apply (http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/prices/germany/schoenes_wochenende_ticket.shtml). It costs 44 Euros and can be used for a full day starting at midnight on a weekend. The equivalent is available starting at 9 am and costs 44 euros valid for one weekday (http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/prices/germany/quer-durchs-land-ticket.shtml). The main restriction is that only regional trains can be used (excluding high speed ICE or IC trains). So for longer distances last minute deals may be more attractive and quite a bit faster. |