It’s been a while since I last wrote about Top 5 tips for travel. This is something popped up in my mind and experienced when I tried to book for our accommodation on our Europe tour next next month in May. Let’s put aside other accommodation option like home exchange, residential room to let, or sleep on train. When you need a proper accommodation to stay on your travel, there are still some tips for you to book them cheaper. If money is not your concern when booking hotels, don’t waste your time here. You can’t get what you want and you can leave this blog NOW and search for hotel websites instead. I’m the advocate of budget travel and what I’m writing here is all about saving money on your travel, not spending! How to save money on travel? Ok, you may read on… 
How to get cheap accommodation on your travel? There are many ways and what I list out here are the Top 5 tips to get them cheap (I’m not giving away discount coupon please), not free. If you want free accommodation, consider to join home exchange network, or, start praying…
Here are the top 5:
- Location from travel destination. General rules of thumb off course is the further away from town, the cheaper the accommodation cost. However, accommodation in some cities like those London hotels are much cheaper away from city center but much nearer to train station. If you plan to go to and from there by train, and those travel sites you planned to visit are quite scattered, you may be wiser to book further away since cheaper and grab a daily ticket to travel around travel sites by tram, underground as well as buses. This way your overall cost would still be cheaper since you still need to take an underground to wander around even though staying in city center. So, check your places to go before you book a hotel!
- Facilities of accommodation. Well, logic tells us that the more facilities you need, the more you need to pay. This relates back to the type of accommodation you are after. They are few type of accommodation in general, from campsite, Bed and Breakfast, hostel, boutique to star rated hotel. In terms of facilities, campsites have the least facilities while 5-star-hotels have the most. From sharing bathroom for campsite and B&B to attached bathroom for hostel and hotel. Also to consider is the number of people in a room. Whether it is a 10-people-dorm or a double bed ensuite. Another factor to consider is which city you are booking for? You could expect bar facilities from Barcelona hotels while foot reflexology service from Phuket hotels. What’s the tips? Ask yourself these questions: “Can you sleep with strangers?” “Can you share bathroom with others?” “Can you sleep if someone snore?” “Can you sleep without lights?” “Do you like chatting with other travellers?” “Do you surf net on travel?” “How much time you’re going to spend in your hotel?” “How about your partner if you are travelling with companion?” Then next step is to pick the least facilitated accommodation you can accept to book it cheaper or nearer to town center.
- Which Day / Season to stay. Which day of week to stay in that accommodation would cost differently. Don’t mention about which season of year. Accommodation cost would be doubled during weekend and halved during weekday. New York hotels would cost more in July due to its Independence Day and summer while you could expect much cheaper during Winter. Check if there is any special day in that city on which particular day and plan you itinerary or travel to avoid that festive seasons, unless visiting the OctoberFest of Munich is your purpose then booking more expensive accommodation would be unavoidable. The only option left is to book it online as early as you can! The tips is to stay in expensive Paris hotels during weekday and move to Amsterdam hotels during weekend.
- Book online in advance. Nowadays, most travelers are booking accommodation in advance. These can be done online. Even B&B could be booked online. Why? You can get online rate which is much cheaper than walk-in rate normally. Unless you are backpacking where no definite time or date to stay in one place, travelers should book your hotels in advance to have it cheaper than published rate. Especially booking accommodation in Europe online where you need to pay only 10% deposit normally, you won’t lose much on paying money in advance!
- Number of days to stay. If you are planning to stay in a city for few days, check the rate for multiple day stay of your hotel. Be slightly flexible to your itinerary and you might be able to stay one more night for FREE! Another instances to consider would be staying one more night in Florence hotels and travel to Pisa for a day trip is much cheaper than traveling and staying in Pisa! Tips? Do the simple math to calculate which city or hotel is cheaper to stay more days instead of spending unnecessary money by checking in and out different hotels!
By using these guidelines, I’m now assessing accommodation cost in London, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome before confirming my online booking as well as my Europe tour itinerary. No time to do all these homework? My last tips for those who have limited lead time to plan is to wait until last minute to get some last minute offers from certain online agents who offer last minute best rate within 30 days from your check-in date! – Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel blog
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Still remember how we arrived at Phuket Island and reached our Safari Beach Resort at Patong Beach in early morning? (Read them first if you are not) At 11am, still a bit early for lunch but we were starving. So we looked for restaurant for our first lunch in Phuket. Our cab driver suggested we had meal at this biggest shopping mall in Phuket called Jungceylon and so there we went!
Jungceylon is a shopping complex combining blocks of shopping, dining, recreation and megastore together. It is situated along Rat-U-Thit Road, the main and busiest road in Patong Beach (check the map in my earlier post), and it is just a throw stone away from our Safari Beach Resort and Bangla Street (the heaven at night).
The main block is the shopping mall featuring all types of goodies and fashion outlets.
We were looking for eateries inside the mall. Mostly fast food and western food… we were searching for something local…
Yes. We found something local. It’s the food court at lower ground floor! How could we able to taste some authentic Thai food in a food court?! This was the first question appeared in my mind… Later I realised that I was totally wrong!
Though it is just a food court in a shopping mall, WE HAD THE BEST THAI DISHES FOR OUR TRAVEL TO PHUKET HERE!! Can you believe it? Yes. It’s true. We had our first meal in Phuket here. After all other local foods we tried later on our tour, we still found foods selling here in Jungceylon food court to be one of the best! You could try the authentic Thai foods like Tom Yam soup, fried noodles, seafood, fried rice and many more local delights here. Prices might be slightly more expensive than the cheapest you could find in Patong, ranging from 80THB to 120THB. Though we didn’t try them all but I believe they all taste good! Travel Tips: Highly recommended food court in Patong Beach!
They have a separate drink counter and cashier counter, just like what we usually see in a food court.
All foods are paid via CASH Card purchased from the cashier. No cash would be entertained!
Apart from the food court, lower ground floor of Jungceylon is also the Thai cultural hub, featuring stalls and shops selling all sorts of local product and snacks. The above photo shows some of the local snacks on sale. Feel like trying?
She sells seashells on the seashore, of Patong Beach.
Some stalls selling local decorative and traditional Thai costumes.
View from another angle…
Walking down the alley on the same floor, there are shops selling local arts, woodcraft, religious and cultural products.
Wood carving shop.
Are you buddhist? You can get some beautiful handicraft and bronze artwork of buddha at this shop.
I like this one. Can you read those printing on the T-shirts…
Aromatic candle in carved wood stand.
When we walked through the shopping block to the back exit, we found ourselves at the courtyard and outdoor open bar. Linking together with this courtyard are also dining wing and new entertainment block. There is a water fountain and a catwalk platform in front of a Chinese junk boat and just besides the new block.
This is the new shopping block. Apart from entertainment outlets within, Carrefour megastore is also located inside this block. Take a while shopping at the megastore and you will get from here some cheap local products like fashion, foods as well as mineral waters! More importantly, we didn’t have to bargain to get the cheapest price! Highly recommended for shoppers without bargaining skill! *****
The courtyard or Jungceylon Square.
Another view at the square.
Tired of walking? Sit and relax at one of the open restaurants here and start watching people. I treated myself at this Subway cafe, sipping coffee with cigarette lit up.
Stack it your way! Double, triple or quad! Wow! I couldn’t find this here in BurgerKing Malaysia. Perhaps Malaysian are much smaller eater. This is a signboard posted in front of a BK outlet in Jungceylon mall. It is one of the many fastfood chains you could find here. Looking up to the bright blue sky when we walked out of Jungceylon, I know where we should be heading to next… the BEACH! – Travel Feeder,your ultimate travel photo guide
p/s: If you think this travel photo blog has something you are looking for and is worth for your reading, please support me by one of these ways: Subscribe to Travel Feeder’s feeds for free upcoming stories via RSS or email; Search and purchase my favourite photos from istockphoto; Get your camera stuffs through my link to Amazon where you won’t lose anything and I could earn some commission, or, buy me a cup of coffee. Thank you. – Travel Feeder.
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It’s time now to conclude the whole stories of my packaged travel to Shanghai and other 4 cities in South Yangtze region of China. We spent 8 days in the tour to cover many tourist attractions in Shanghai, Hangzhou, SuZhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and also the water village, Wuzhen. For the first 4 days, we explored the financial capital of China, Shanghai, and also the 2 cities of heaven on the earth which were Hangzhou and Suzhou. I’ve posted a half way summary for these first 4 days of tour earlier. Click this link below if you haven’t got a clue where we are coming from:
South Yangtze China Packaged Travel Halfway Update – Where Have I Been On The First 4 Days?
On the fifth day, we traveled to another significant city in South Yangtze region of China, Nanjing and followed by Wuxi, before traveling back to Shanghai. Here are the stories for the final 4 days of travel in China:
- In Nanjing, we visited the SongMeiLing villa;
- Later in the evening, we came to Nanjing Bridge and visited the crystal inner art gallery;
- At night, we went shopping at the largest pedestrian precinct in Nanjing, the FuZhiMiao;
- On the next morning, we explored the Nanjing Wall at QinHuai Scenic Area;
- Being the biggest hoax of our tour, we bought a jade pendent from a jade factory;
- After having lunch in Nanjing, we progressed to another scenic city of Wuxi;
- On our way there, I realised we would not have such fun if we didn’t pack these 5 items into our luggage before traveling to China;
- In Wuxi, the first attraction to visit would definitely the Lingshan giant buddha;
- I recorded a video also on the scene of “Buddha being bathed by nine dragons”;
- That’s nothing much on Wuxi nightlife where we only went to a shopping mall;
- Early in the next morning, we took a fresh air at Lihu Lake scenic area;
- What else could we do in Wuxi? Check out the film shooting base of “Three Kingdom City”;
- What could we drink in Wuxi? I had a Taihu Lake Water beer!
- Taihu Lake is also famous for its freshwater cultured pearls;
- Enough looking at pearls ladies? Let’s move to go back to Shanghai!
- We were close. We shopped and drank for the last evening at Nanjing Street, the biggest shopping street in China!
- Still exploring Shanghai on the final day? Yes. We dropped by the TongRenTang chinese pharmaceutical centre before taking the Shanghai Meglev Train to the airport.
Long stories isn’t it? Sorry if it took you so long to follow me on my travel experience in China last last Autumn. However, you may find it interesting and informative to guide you through the packaged tour or at least you would have a preliminary idea on what you should expect from this type of all-inclusive packaged tour to South Yangtze China.
Good news for me! I’ve finally concluded my weblog on China tour, for this round. Next. So I could concentrate my next travel stories on Phuket…
p/s: If you think this travel blog is worth for your reading, please support me by one of these ways: Subscribe to Travel Feeder’s feeds for free upcoming stories via RSS or email; Search and purchase my favourite photos from istockphoto; Get your camera stuffs through my link to Amazon where you won’t lose anything and I could earn some commission, or, buy me a cup of coffee as you like. Thank you. – Travel Feeder.
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