Ok, the apartment is finally getting a little more under control and I’m stuck home sick, so I had time to sift through the travel spam. Let’s get to it.
Lufthansa Worldwide Sale
Lufthansa leads the pack again. It’s up to you to find the dates on which the big savings fall (thank you, easy-to-comprehend Lufthansa matrix display). Destinations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North and South America are available. Most of the good stuff leaves from Frankfurt/Main, but there are bargains available from other major airports. The sample fare I ran was Frankfurt-Shanghai, March 20-March 31 for 543€ R/T total (all taxes and fees included). Book by March 10, depart between March 7 and May 15, return between March 8 and June 30. Blackout dates apply.
Orbitz Cruise Deals
I guess that all of the travel consolidators are dabbling in cruises these days. Orbitz is running a multi-brand cruise sale available for purchase until April 1 (or as otherwise noted). They start as low as $37/night and include selected sailing in all regions (Caribbean, Mediterranean, Pacific, Alaska, Northern Europe, Transatlantic, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Indian Ocean, etc.). Each brand is offering other bargains in addition to the price reductions, i.e. upgrade within category, pre-paid gratuity, air specials and more.
Your Opinion is Important to Us!
I need some brainstorming help. We might have some unexpected vacation time coming up (which was the impetus for the ‘Rügen? Sylt?’ post below, but we’ve kind of changed gears since posting that) and we want to do something we’ve never done before. Because we’re waiting for confirmation as to whether we’re going to have the time, we’ll be planning on a much shorter timescale than we normally have for planning our trips – often 6-9 months in advance. I usually do all of the planning à la carte, but since this one might be sneaking up on us, we won’t have time for all the researching and comparison shopping to which I’m accustomed.
What’s your best or worst last minute travel experience? Have you ever packed a bag and just rolled up to the airport to see what’s available? We might have as much as 6-7 days, so far-flung destinations are not out of the question. Any help is much appreciated!
Happy trails!
I haven’t done it, but I’ve heard of people doing it at the Frankfurt Airport in the area where they have lots of travel hawkers.
How about someplace like Dubai or Egypt?
@J: I think we would probably go from Nürnberg – for a small airport, they have tons of travel offices. Something about Dubai creeps me out, but Cliff floated Egypt as an option. Any experience with specific places?
Unfortunately not, I haven’t been to either place. All I know about Dubai is that Germans like to go there. Egypt, on the other hand, is a place I’ve always wanted to visit.
Some of our best vacations have been thrown together at the last minute, although we’ve never tried the airport thing. It worked for the Simpsons, though – Japan!
Well, we might still get the chance to do that someday, but not in the next couple weeks. It turns out I will be working the week leading up to Easter after all (except for Good Friday of course).
Thanks for all personal experiences everyone.