UKBayern

On Matrix I find both flights, but only depending on which day. I think FlyBe probably does not fly this route twice every day. Just call them.

I made sure I had 4:30 in ZRH

I hope you have a good book with you. After 2 hours I was ready to scream of boredom.

Some really good advice and home truths in all the posts above.

Generally, the larger the airport, the more time you have to factor in.

If you are transiting from one airline to another which is not in the same alliance, odds are the connecting flight might be in another terminal.

If you are transisting in Europe from a Schengen to non-Schengen or the other way around, there is going to be a passport control.

All flights from Europe to the USA have a security screening at the gate or check-in.

If you are travelling with small children, heaps of hand luggage, want to buy something or have a coffee, or are not very mobile, opt for a longer transfer time.

I find that the official MCT can be really unrealistically short in some airports, even when the passenger is able bodied and the first flight is on time. I worked at Amsterdam for many years, for an airline mainly based at G-gates, and we knew that people could not possibly make a connection on B- or C- gates in 50 minutes MCT, also because they had to go through Schengen passport control on the way as well. Airlines on the other hand also know that if they publish a ridiculously long MCT, many would not book that connection.

I like Munich and Zurich, modern medium-sized airports for a swift transfer. I would say an hour is plenty there in general.

It is not a strange question, it is one a lot of people struggle with because of different reasons: children, seniors, people with certain medications, diabetics, pregnant women, etc.

My mum and I are both always looking for the public toilets, and I cannot remember it being a real issue in Seville when we were there for a week.

Once you know where to look, you notice there are many around, you can try following places:

Fast food places (McDo, Starbucks, Subway, etc)

Railway stations

Petrol stations

Municiple parks, especially near the kids playground or near a stage/band stand/coffee stand

Parking garages

Large hypermarkets

Large Furniture stores

Malls

Tourist informations/city hall/public libraries

Again, this assumes you are from the USA.

Please note that visa provisions vary wildly per nationality. Visas for Canadian and Australian citizens for example are only valid for 3 months, and not 6 months as mentioned for US, UK and New Zealand nationals. If you are from South Africa, you can only get a 1 month visa online.

The evisa-homepage gives excellent information for all nationalities and all passports. It will also tell you if you do not need a visa at all, or if you cannot apply online. You can also check this really handy official Turkish webpage: http://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa

That is a really low price, and if you are happy with what you booked, good for you!

I did something like that a couple of times because the direct flight cost 3x or 5x as much. OK, it took much longer, and of course I would have prefered the direct flight, but all I had to do whenever I was fed up was to remind myself what I was saving. Absolutely would do it again.

Like others have said, Istanbul is a great city, if you have the chance to see it, you should.

There is a nice selection of shops and coffee bars on Schiphol Plaza, the publically accesable part of the airport. Check it out here: http://www.schiphol.nl/Travellers/Shop/ShoppingSchipholPlaza/Shopping2.htm

I used to work at the airport, and not all shops on the airside (past passport control/customs) are open yet at 6 am. The usual perfume shop and Starbucks will be open, but some shops will likely still be closed. The website states that all shops will open 1 hour before the first flight leaves, but I know from experience that this is not always the case.

There are souvenir shops at airside that will have the Heineken things you are looking for, but the prices will be inflated. http://www.schiphol.nl/Travellers/Shop/AfterPassportControl/GiftsSouvenirs.htm

The nearest little town with reasonable shops is Hoofddorp. Shops close at 6 pm, only on Friday night they are open until 9 pm. In the centre of Amsterdam, the weekly late night opening until 9 pm is on Thursdays.

Tip: in Antalya there is a bazar area with the normal tourist fare: fakes watches and T-shirts, etc. If you walk a little away from the old harbor, past the big bus parking, that is where the "normal" shopping street is where the Turks shop themselves. I am struggling to recall the street name. You get better quality at cheaper prices, especially if buying herbs and turkish delight. In those stores, they give you time to browse, most articles have an offical printed price tag on them, and you do not get offered tea and the vendors' whole life story. The haggling part is sometimes fun, but sometimes you just want to have a look without being hounded around the shop. We have been in Turkey so many times, and last year after 2 weeks land tour in Turkey we were a bit fed up with the "yes please, my friend, best price, my friend, yes please" all the time. Also, there is a small airconditioned mall with western and turkish brands. Western brands cost the same as to what we are used to.

Make sure not to miss out on the old town area, shopping is fun, but the small winding streets are so nice.

I bought Turkish Delight candy and brought it back as souvenirs. Not expensive, easy to pack and very tasty! My brothers loved it.

Make sure you go into a shop where they have all the flavours layed out fresh, and where you can pick and mix-and-match. If you buy the wrapped up boxes, make sure they are not ancient. The pre-packed boxes can be a bit tough to chew sometimes if they have been lying around for ages. In the area where the "normal" shops are, there are a few really good bakeries and delicatesse shops where they sell the real fresh Lokum (Turkish name for Turkish delight).

I read that Perge and Aspendos is a 2 hr drive each way......

The port is on the way to Kemer to the West, Aspendos and Perge are on the way to Manavgat to the East. You have to go through Antalya to get there. Antalya is a big sprawling city of 1.5 millions inhabitants, and especially during rush-hour the roads are jam packed. However, if you are interested in that sort of thing, the Roman theater in Aspendos is the best preserved in the world.

In some USA airports, they work for a contractor hired by the airport. In some, contractors hired by the specific airline. I would be surprised if any major airport has airline folk doing this work. Overseas, they may be airline employees or not.

Yep, correct. I can tell you I was a supervisor for major airlines and still had to push wheelchairs. Only at peak times, or if the passenger was a paraplegic, did we outsource to another company. The airline can save money if there is check-in or gate staff standing around doing nothing :rolleyes:

Some airlines forbid their staff from taking tips. All the airlines I work for did not allow it. You can try to offer, but if the member of staff declines and say he can't because it is against company policy, don't insist.

Zach1213, we had this happen on a Princess cruise we were monitoring for a while before we booked. We started to notice that every Friday afternoon the rate would go up, to come down again on the Monday. We are in the travel business ourselves and it is a known fact that most people book on a weekend when they have time to browse, so we were not surprised. Not sure if this is always the case taht rates are higher on the weekend. Could be that you should be wearing BEAV's purple hat ;)

Have already collected two VDBs today, and might get a couple more tomorrow. At 600 Euros each, it's a nice day of not working. Personally, the strike can continue for as long time, or at least until my carry-on clothes need to be declared hazardous waste material.

:D:D:D I am sure you could have some laundry done or buy some new underpants for 1200 Euros :D:D:D

We start out with about 500 Euros and replenish as required. Also be careful of those ATM's in airports, train stations, or other tourist destinations. Those are preferred areas for pickpockets to work, looking for fresh meat! We go out of our way to avoid those machines....

Agreed. We like to use ATMs inside banks. Less risk of getting pickpocketed, and in the unlucky (and unlikely) event that the machine eats your card, help is on site.

We were there on a land tour and not on a cruise, so cannot tell you where the cruise port is. Bodrum is not that big, most can be done on foot. Turkey has a wonderful system of shared minibusses, called dolmus. There are lots around in Bodrum, very cheap, and the route is normally posted on the windscreen. You could use those, will be cheaper than a taxi. Because Bodrum is so touristy, most people will speak some english and most dolmus bus drivers accept euros next to liras.

The weather in October is going to be mild and pleasant. On the coast, it never gets really cold in Turkey, even in mid-winter.

if you want to do a boat tour, there are lots of operators around. Most have a sign with different options, there are short and longer trips. If no price is posted, haggle, as is normal everywhere in Turkey.

We were flying out of Lisbon on September 11.

You are giving the answer yourself why airport security was extra high on that particular special date. Would have been the same in any airport in the world on 9/11.

Also, be careful where you eat and what you drink. Never eat or drink from street vendors or crappy looking restaurants.

Yes, this is a real problem in Tunesia (and also in Egypt). Do not drink the tap water, and refuse any drink with ice cubes. If you are on a guided tour, rely on your guides' advice where to eat.

Touroperators in Europe are offering package holidays to Tunisia again at a large scale, they would certainly not do that if the country was not safe. Although the country is relatively unknown to North Americans, 7 million (mainly European) tourists visit Tunisia each year.

The general opinions of most western European countries is that you only have to use real caution in the border areas with Libya and Algeria in the deep south (where tourists have no reason of going).

Of course, using caution in any foreign country is always advisible, wherever you go. Also remember that Tunisia is a muslim country, so dress fairly modestly. In the coastal areas you will see tourists in shorts and bikinis, but especially if you go inland, people are still very traditional.

If a Turk can make money, he's open, especially in a tourist town. Besides, Turkey is a muslim country, Sunday is normal working day for them.

We are in Turkey about every 2 years on either a land tour or a cruise, and the last time we were in Kusasdasi (4 years ago) we also found the shopkeepers there extremely annoying.

Last year though, we had a feeling that in places like Antalya, Belek, Side and Bodrum, it was not as bad as 2 years before. It seems the locals are learning what the tourists want and don't want. Our guide also told us that in many places in Turkey after many tourist complaints, the authorities have now stepped in to regulate the vendors: some of the most aggressive vendors were actually chasing shoppers away, and it was starting to get bad for business.

For example, the town council of Side has now installed CCTV in the high street. If vendors are seen following people, shouting at them, dragging them into a store, preventing them from walking on, or harrassing them in any way, the town council withdraws the shops' permit. It really works! We have never had a more wonderful shopping experience in Side than last November. We were able to quietly browse and window shop, the shopkeepers were helpful and polite. Whereas we would never really buy anything in Turkey in the past, I now came home with quite a few small purchases, and would absolutely go shopping in Side again.

Hopefully the town council of Kusadasi has taken action already or will do something like this too.

Some vendors have learned to try with humour. We had a real laugh when a vendor came up to us in Lara in the sweltering heat and said in German: "Can I foist a leather jacket on you?"

Evening news had this all over both local and national. Darn now everybody will be buying them

Yesterday, German and Dutch news outlets talked about this device, and also that it sold out in minutes and that there is now a 3 months long wait period now to get new ones.

Also, many airlines yesterday announced that these things were banned from their airlines.

my flight was cancelled and I didn't receive a notification from United. Maybe I would have had I booked through ChoiceAir

Waterbug already gave you the answer:

I've also never really understood why people think CA means when they say they monitor your flights.... I can almost assure you there is not a team of people hunched over computer screens 24/7 watching every possible flight and flight connection to see if something is about to go wrong for John Doe.

Flamenco is not traditionally from the Barcelona area, but from Andalusia in the south. If you want to do this, fine, but please be aware these shows in Barcelona are only put on for the tourists.

Threads concerning Portugal and Gibraltar, while sharing the Iberian Peninsula, are directed currently to the 'Other Mediterranean' section.

 

I think the moderators logic is that with Spain having so many significant ports including Barcelona, Malaga and the Balearic and Canary Island ports, that the threads are more balanced in volume by using the Northern, Western and Mediterranean headers.

With more and more new ports in the "Other" section, like the Black Sea ports, it is getting quite full there too.

Most hotels will not be too difficult about giving you a room a little earlier, providing they have free clean rooms. And that is exactly the problem: most hotels have a check-out time of 12:00, and then the room still has to be cleaned, thus the guaranteed time of 15:00 when the room should be ready. Most cleaning staff do not even start before 9 am, because there is so little to do otherwise.

You could ring the night before, and ask if they are very empty, and tell them you will be arriving early. If they are full, you are just so out of luck. Hotels will have a place to store your luggage, but they cannot make miracles happen.

If you want to be certain that your room is ready at your arrival time, you do not have any other option than to also book the room the night before. If you do that, make sure you tell the hotel you will only be arriving in the morning, otherwise you go no-show and they might sell the room for the following days.

As someone who has participated for over 10yrs in many online fora that involve airline travel I'd say they're amongst the most knowledgable people I've come across in that time.

 

I prefer to call their style of delivery truth hurts or tough love. Personally I think Choice Air preys upon those who are looking at price and price alone and are suckered in by marketing BS. I mean look at some of the complete non-truths uttered here about Choice Air, the ship will wait for someone on Choice Air tickets. WOW!

 

It seems cruise passengers are far more price sensitive and hands off to a lot of aspects of their trips than your average traveler. So if Cruise Air can promise low, low prices (and let's ignore the HORRIBLE caveats because it's cheap) and can get people to believe in some kind of myth about flying passengers by G-V to catch their ship at no cost then they're onto a winner.

So true.

Greatam, Globaliser and flyertalker probably have more air miles between them than anybody else on CC.

And even if people who work or have worked in the actual airline business at check-in and ticketing in a supervisory capacity for 10+ years, like headhunterke and myself, give advice, there are still people who feel they know better. Some people unfortunately just ask for advice to confirm their own gut feeling, but when the answer is not what they want, the person offering the advice is told he is rude or whatever.

Cruise Air is a great marketing ploy. I use to supervise a TA flight to Miami daily, with loads of European cruise travellers. The flight would arrive in MIA at 2:45 pm, the ship would leave at 5:00 pm. One little hick-up, just one slight delay, and the holiday was lost. Even with a delay of multiple hours, many cruise passengers kept believing they would be rebooked or rerouted by cruise air, but THEY NEVER WERE.

You should have really posted this in the Greece section.

We rented a car and drove to the wonderful crusader fort of Chlemoutsi. Beautifully restored, no tourists around. Use the search function in the Greece section to find the posts where I and others shared info and photos (12 posts).