iancal

A vote for Lucca. Get there in enough time to enjoy a walk on the walls. The train station is right across for the walled city. Very convenient. Very easy to get there from Florence by train, and then on to Civ.

We have only used cruise air once for a return from Europe. We have found that we can often do as well on our own, sometimes better, by booking elsewhere. Most often with the carrier. We bought Europe air last month for a late May/June trip. The fare was at pre covid levels we have experienced in the past. I am shopping for Sept/Oct Europe trip. So far the fares appear to be very similar, certainly within 5 percent, of what we paid pre covid. I believe it depends on the route, the carrier, and the competition. Our May/June fares today are plus an minus $20. of what we paid a month ago.

We are doing premium economy to Lisbon/Madeira on TAP next month. We booked economy to Singapore three years ago. Then a month prior to blast off we upgraded to business on a Untied offer ( our very least favorite airline for SE Asia). It was less than booking business in the first instance. 17/18 hour flight with lie down seats are so much better than economy. We are getting old....70 this year. We switched to Jetstar Sydney-HML because it is a snap for us do do 10 hr. in economy or premium economy (sometimes the difference is more in the price than the seat so one needs to verify vs. assume). Two or three days in HNL then we do the last leg. We are hoping to spend the next winter in SE Asia...might be our last. It is time to book business. For us it is three flights, 24 hours going to Thailand, 19 coming home It has been getting progressively tedious for us. We prefer Korean, then Delta. The flip side is two months on uncrowded beaches in Thailand, incredibly friendly locals, and wonderful food. It has been well worth the air trip for us. I think that we after next winter we may switch to Mexico or Costa Rica for winter travel. One thing we both did after retirement was get is shape, get down to our recommended weight. I did lots of business travel. I found that travel, air in particular, was a lot easier after I dropped 40lbs and was in better physical shape.

Most of our air travel since retirement has either been to Europe, Mexico, or to S/E Asia/Australia. Little or no NA. We seldom book very far in advance. As an example we are going to Portugal in a three weeks. The one way fare going today is $20 more that what we paid a month ago. The one way fare coming home (on another airline) is $20 less than what we paid a month ago. The very best return fares we have had to SE Asia over five winters were booked 30 days or less prior to blast off. The exceptions for us are one way fares on discount airlines from Thailand or Malaysia to Australia (Scoot, Air Asia, Jetstar) and returning partially home Sydney-HNL on Jetstar (which are sometimes code shares with Qantas). Same with Australia domestic flights on Jetstar. Booking two - three months out or on notice of flash sales yields dividends on these routes/carriers.

Drink packages have never been financially attractive to us. Especially since one is TT. One thing we noticed a few years ago when we did two cruises in Australia was the huge difference between bar prices...adjusted for currency. Our first was 14 days on Princess. On board currency was AUD, which approximated CAD. The second was on RCI. The on board currency was USD. Bar drinks were about 20-30 percent more expensive on RCI before currency adjustment.. Bottom line was a 50 percent difference adjusted for currency. More for wine in the MDR. Fortunately we have status on Celebrity that was recognized on RCI so we had access to the Diamond Lounge or whatever it was called.

IF we require air we shop for cruise and air at the same time. We are not going to buy a heavily discounted cruise if there is a large air premium. When we are ready to buy we lock in the air first. Our former TA seemed to be able to hold a late booking cruise offer for a few hours until we did this. Usually it was less than one hour.

We spent several days in Nafplio while on a driving tour of the Peloponnese. Enjoyed it very much. There are a number of day trips that you can do from town. We did a day and a night in Hydra on the same trip. Parked our car on the mainland for 2 days and took a short ferry over to Hydra. These were two very different experiences. Enjoyed both.

We were scanned on the ship. Both of us. Two each. I believe that it was a one off fluke….or maybe an act of kindness! We are there for six days. Friends from Scotland just got back after six weeks. Six weeks plus one went home with a knee replacement. Had no idea Madeira was a destination of sorts for medical tourism.

After touring for ten days we kept our car in Cape Town for another four days. Used it go tour around, have a wonderful day at a beach outside town, etc. I absolutely cannot imagine needing a driver if you are going from Port Eliz. down through the Garden Route. We were traveling on a seven months post retirement trip after selling our home. South Africa and the safari were the highlights of our trip. At some point we plan to do winter snow bird trip to Africa. We were fortunate to meet up with a young German grad student in Cape Town. We invited him out when we toured around Cape Town. He was involved in some cutting edge remote health technology trials via cell phone and related the advances and the successes the trials were having at that time.

On our Celebrity TA we stopped in Madeira. Brought 4 bottles of Douro Valley wine on board. Others were doing the same. Celebrity, on that stop, did not impose any BYOB fee. Or perhaps the Celebrity monitor did not show up. We were waved aboard after the bag went through the scanner. This surprised everyone. We enjoyed our day in Madeira so much we are going back for a week next month.