Well, whaddya know.
Apr. 20th, 2004 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynMy alma mater's alumni travel agency finally got around to offering a trip that was within spitting distance of affordable, and was to a place I might be interested in. Quebec City, in July, for $595.
For three nights.
No, not kidding, $595 (per person, double occupancy) covered three nights' stay at the hotel, a breakfast buffet, a half day guided tour, and a 'complete document portfolio'. It did not include airfare, which from Cleveland was $254 plus tax.
I have been doing some digging around on my own in the meantime. I like the days they chose- 8-11 July, which includes an art festival- but if I'm going to travel somewhere in spite of a travel agency, it's going to be for longer than three days. Airfare's kind of gross that week no matter what I do, so I looked up some alternatives I was willing to deal with. Let's say I'm leaving on 3 July and returning to the States on 11 July.
Round trip train ticket from my home town to New York Penn Station: $11. Approx. travel time: one hour.
Round trip Greyhound bus fare to Montreal from New York City: $109. Approx. travel time: ten hours. Yes, yes, could do by car in six, but then I would have to drive. This way I get to spend a day quietly reading, drawing, knitting, etc. and not having to hold onto the steering wheel.
Round trip VIARail train fare to Quebec City from Montreal: $88 CDN = $73 USD assuming a really horrible exchange rate of 1.2. That includes the tax. Travel time: about three hours.
Total transportation price, assuming I walk everywhere in Quebec and Montreal: $193.
Hostel Chez Jean, an independent hostel in Montreal: $22 USD / night.
Auberge de la Paix in Quebec City: $19.50 CDN / night = $16.25 USD / night.
Assume for safety's sake that I spend the night of my arrival and the night before I leave in Montreal: $50 USD (this figure includes taxes) at the Hostel Chez Jean.
At the Auberge de la Paix: $110 USD when you include taxes.
Total lodging price: $160.
Lodging + transportation = $353.
Assume food is consumed at an arbitrary figure of $20 USD per day: $180 (this includes the days spent on the train).
Lodging + transportation + food: $533.
Still less than the travel agency.
Cons: Staying in hostels I have never seen. Sharing room with strangers. Must find own food. Not yet fluent in French. Long time spent in transit there and back. No half day walking tour.
Pros: I like hostels. I am more willing to spend time than money. I have a back issue of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine with an article on 'little wonder restaurants of Quebec', and am padding the spending figure on food anyway. Most hostels I have stayed at offer discounts on walking tours.
Mehs (things that are neither more positive nor more negative given my proposed approach): The tour package does not include food beyond morning brekky buffet. No one on the tour would necessarily speak French either, except the guide, and we would only have the guide for the walking tour so far as I can tell.
You know, I could do a whoooooole lot worse for my first trip to a foreign-language country than Quebec and Montreal in July...
For three nights.
No, not kidding, $595 (per person, double occupancy) covered three nights' stay at the hotel, a breakfast buffet, a half day guided tour, and a 'complete document portfolio'. It did not include airfare, which from Cleveland was $254 plus tax.
I have been doing some digging around on my own in the meantime. I like the days they chose- 8-11 July, which includes an art festival- but if I'm going to travel somewhere in spite of a travel agency, it's going to be for longer than three days. Airfare's kind of gross that week no matter what I do, so I looked up some alternatives I was willing to deal with. Let's say I'm leaving on 3 July and returning to the States on 11 July.
Round trip train ticket from my home town to New York Penn Station: $11. Approx. travel time: one hour.
Round trip Greyhound bus fare to Montreal from New York City: $109. Approx. travel time: ten hours. Yes, yes, could do by car in six, but then I would have to drive. This way I get to spend a day quietly reading, drawing, knitting, etc. and not having to hold onto the steering wheel.
Round trip VIARail train fare to Quebec City from Montreal: $88 CDN = $73 USD assuming a really horrible exchange rate of 1.2. That includes the tax. Travel time: about three hours.
Total transportation price, assuming I walk everywhere in Quebec and Montreal: $193.
Hostel Chez Jean, an independent hostel in Montreal: $22 USD / night.
Auberge de la Paix in Quebec City: $19.50 CDN / night = $16.25 USD / night.
Assume for safety's sake that I spend the night of my arrival and the night before I leave in Montreal: $50 USD (this figure includes taxes) at the Hostel Chez Jean.
At the Auberge de la Paix: $110 USD when you include taxes.
Total lodging price: $160.
Lodging + transportation = $353.
Assume food is consumed at an arbitrary figure of $20 USD per day: $180 (this includes the days spent on the train).
Lodging + transportation + food: $533.
Still less than the travel agency.
Cons: Staying in hostels I have never seen. Sharing room with strangers. Must find own food. Not yet fluent in French. Long time spent in transit there and back. No half day walking tour.
Pros: I like hostels. I am more willing to spend time than money. I have a back issue of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine with an article on 'little wonder restaurants of Quebec', and am padding the spending figure on food anyway. Most hostels I have stayed at offer discounts on walking tours.
Mehs (things that are neither more positive nor more negative given my proposed approach): The tour package does not include food beyond morning brekky buffet. No one on the tour would necessarily speak French either, except the guide, and we would only have the guide for the walking tour so far as I can tell.
You know, I could do a whoooooole lot worse for my first trip to a foreign-language country than Quebec and Montreal in July...
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 08:32 am (UTC)Considered Amtrak from Penn to Montréal?
-- Lorrie
no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 09:00 am (UTC)-- Lorrie
er, hello, i was just wandering by and decided to lurk for a bit
Date: 2004-04-24 07:16 am (UTC)so you can do a lot of walking, but if you want to wander further afield...
(oh, and i found my way here via making light and boingboing links to your condensed silmarillion.)
Re: er, hello, i was just wandering by and decided to lurk for a bit
Date: 2004-04-24 07:46 am (UTC)Re the walking: I've got no problem with that, really. I spent two weeks in Alaska (mostly in Fairbanks, some in the Denali National Park area), and I had no car. They had a city bus system that sufficed for most things. Anything else meant either walking or taking shuttle service out of town. In the case of Montreal and Quebec City, I'd have to find out just what I wanted to see first, then decide what arrangements ought to be made.
sundre is at work and can't log in
Date: 2004-04-25 07:44 am (UTC)sorry, northern radar went perky. i used to live in whitehorse, yukon, and am actually going back there this summer for a visit. i'm hoping to hop over to haines for a bit, or at least skagway, i haven't been in ages.
Re: sundre is at work and can't log in
Date: 2004-04-25 09:47 am (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/users/camwyn/2003/09/01/ is the first day of Alaska trip entries. Never did get to coastal Alaska, though. Or the Yukon, although a lot of folks at my hostel extended their trips to go visit Dawson by bus.