– Many people prefer to simply contact a travel agency a couple of weeks before their planned vacation. I suppose that's not quite the right tactic?
– If we're talking about people who count their money, and now that's the majority, then you need to prepare your sleigh in summer. Going in August to buy a tour package, expecting to fly out that same month, is a wasteful policy. And it's better not to vacation in August at all.
It's not just about money, but also about the heat and the crowds. Under such conditions, the level of service always drops, even where it was originally good, because the staff can't handle the workload. In any case, plane tickets should be bought in winter or March; their price can differ by a factor of two compared to summer.
However, if you're trying to buy a tour package, even in March the prices won't please you, because travel agencies keep them high. There is, of course, the concept of early booking, when you can catch something two, three, or four months before the trip, but for almost any destination it's easier to go independently.
– What about last-minute deals? Don't they help save money?
– Organizations that offer so-called last-minute deals are usually selling regular tours. In my opinion, real last-minute deals don't exist in Russia at all. Somewhere in Berlin, you can go to a special center or just come to the airport and see a huge "sheet" of tours at half price with departure to any point in the world in an hour.
In Moscow, there is an exchange where you can buy tickets for charter flights. But in St. Petersburg, the options are limited because the number of flights from the city is minimal. It might get better after the new airport terminal opens. For now, the number of flights from St. Petersburg reflects not demand but exclusively the policy of the authorities.
And another point that everyone constantly forgets: 5% of tourist trips fall through, and almost no one manages to get their money back for the tour package. When organizing a trip independently, this is almost always possible – unless you deliberately chose a non-refundable fare.
– In what cases is it better to use the services of travel agencies?
– There are charter destinations where independent organization won't bring savings. Sometimes charters are the only option – otherwise you'd have to fly for a larger sum with two layovers. For example, to the island of Rhodes. Accordingly, for such routes it is often advantageous to buy tour packages. In all other cases, there is no point in it for a long time. Of course, if you are only interested in hotels where you will be fed three times a day and you will lie on the beach, then by and large you don't need to bother with organizing travel. Most often, independent travel interests those who have already traveled and realized that they are overpaying a lot and not getting enough pleasure and impressions.
– If people do decide to travel independently, where should they start? With buying tickets?
– I don't even start with tickets; I assume I already have them and look for accommodation. Suppose I have 30,000 rubles and I want to go to the French Riviera for a week in the summer. This is a solvable problem if I start searching in February.
People usually check hotel websites, realize that with such prices they will have too little money left for the ticket, get upset, and abandon the idea. But if you are going to one place and not planning to move around, the most sensible option is to book an apartment, especially if it's Europe. In an apartment, you won't be fed three times a day, but you'll have your own kitchen, and nothing stops you from going to a local restaurant.
So in winter, you buy a ticket to Paris, and from there a train to Nice. That will cost about 14,000 rubles. You can also find a flight with one layover for that amount. Then you rent an apartment for a week for 500 euros. For that money, you'll get a modest room with a private shower a kilometer from the sea. And it turns out that your "tour package" to the French Riviera cost 30,000 rubles per person.
– Where to search for apartments and how to pay for them?
– Now there are many specialized sites; in the last 2-3 years there has been a revolution in this area. But before booking an apartment on a Russian-language resource, try to compare prices and number of options with English-language ones. Very often it turns out that on the latter prices are lower and there are more options.
On some sites, you simply pay for the first day of stay with a bank card and pay the rest on the spot. There are other resources, older ones, where some difficulties with payment may arise because you have to go to the bank and make a transfer, but in St. Petersburg this is available.
– If travelers still want to stay in a hotel, how to choose one? Often even the number of "stars" is not an indicator.
– In general, resort and beach stars are lower than stars in other places. So three stars in a beach resort might not be a very good place. But three stars in Stockholm are excellent. In Asia, you can book a hotel for one day and go look around because there are many places that are simply not listed on the Internet. This doesn't apply to Europe; everything there is already covered.
The first rule about hotels is to try not to have inflated expectations. Because if you want to get the highest level of service during peak season, then you need to be prepared to pay not just a lot, but huge amounts of money. The service you get will most likely not be without complaints, especially if you go to some popular resort or popular city.
Read what people write about the hotel online. Ideally, the hotel's average rating should be at least 7 out of 10. Also, there should be many reviews. If you see that there are fewer than ten, it's better not to stay there. Read what is written in positive reviews carefully, because some of them are written by owners or people they hired. You need to be even more thorough with negative reviews. For example, never read reviews from elderly British couples. These people are usually unhappy with everything.
– Let's say accommodation is found. Do we go back to buying tickets?
– Yes, we go to a website that searches for airline tickets, look at what offers are there. Just don't confuse agents and carriers. Ozon travel, for example, is not an airline, but an agent that simply sells tickets. You need to find the website of the airline that operates the flight and check the prices there. Buying tickets online using a bank card is completely safe.
Pay attention to the transfer time, especially if traveling with a child. It often happens that I see a good price offer, but with an overnight stay in Helsinki. And an overnight stay there, if you don't have friends, will cost as much as the ticket itself.
– Does it make sense to fly from Finland, where low-cost carriers operate?
– In Europe, unfortunately, low-cost prices are gradually matching those of regular airlines. But with early booking on many flights from Finland and the Baltics, it is still profitable. And if you have the desire and health to travel to Helsinki or Tallinn, then why not. The service quality of low-cost carriers is high, they rarely delay, they always have new planes. On the other hand, prices like before, when you could fly from Stockholm to Paris for zero euros, only paying fees, are almost gone.
– Is it worth paying extra for meals at the hotel?
– In my opinion, there is no point in ordering meals at hotels anywhere or anytime. For me, travel is also about getting to know the local cuisine. And depriving yourself of that because you think it's safer at the hotel is wrong. Believe me, the chance of getting poisoned is very small. Often what people call poisoning is just minor stomach upsets related to different water abroad. You can limit yourself to hotel breakfasts, because breakfast included in the room price sometimes helps save money, including time.
– When you find yourself at a resort, you see a bunch of cafes and restaurants. How not to make a mistake and fall for the touts?
– First, the better the view, the worse the quality. If you are sitting in a restaurant with a sea view, the price-quality ratio will probably not be the best, except maybe in France, where it's quite tasty everywhere. Second, you should eat where the locals eat, where there is no English menu, where it will be hard to communicate with the waiter. That could even be a canteen.
– Which country's cuisine was a revelation for you?
– I enjoy the food you can get in Turkey, especially away from tourist areas. Once I managed to eat shish kebab on the outskirts of Antalya – it was one of the most delicious meals of my life, and the pleasure cost only five dollars. Generally, Turkey away from the sea is a completely different country, hospitable, cheap, and safe. Italy is also an example of exquisite cuisine in its non-tourist part. But Spain was a disappointment. Its cuisine is quite eclectic, and it is not a place where you can count on tasty food. You could say there are culinary and non-culinary countries. Spain and Portugal are non-culinary, Greece too. Of our beach countries, the best cuisine is in Turkey, Italy, plus/minus Croatia and Montenegro.
Interviewed by Sofya MOKHOVA,
«Rosbalt».