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Planning for Europe in Fall 2023
By Patrick Robertson
Flexibility is my budget travel mantra. A difference in a day or a week can save thousands of dollars. This month I am sharing my planning for our upcoming trip of southern Italy, Sicily and Malta.
I booked WestJet one way flights from Calgary to London back in February when they were on sale. Being flexible on my dates I paid $350 a flight departing September 26.
We thought we would spend a few days in London then catch a cheap flight on Easy Jet to Malta our first stop. Those flights cost about $100 one way. On reflection a few months later, we thought that maybe we should just fly right to Malta rather than spend $1,000 in London for a couple of days as we have been there a number of times.
As WestJet does not have the ability to book us through to Malta I checked with Air Canada who is part of the Star Alliance group of airlines. I was able to get flights from Calgary to Malta through Frankfurt on Lufthansa on October 4. The trip time is 14 hours including a two-hour layover. It took a bit of looking but by being flexible on dates I was able to book tickets for $153 and 40,000 Aeroplan points each.
I had purchased Econo Flex tickets with WestJet because we did not have the whole trip planned and I knew that I may have to change or cancel the flight at some point. I was able to cancel without penalty and the $700 went into my WestJet travel wallet for a future booking.
It is important to have a return ticket when travelling abroad. Countries will not let you in if you do not have a return ticket. We knew that we were going to be away for about two months but we did not have a return date as we were still planning our route.
While doing my planning I came across a two-week repositioning cruise on Royal Caribbean from Barcelona on November 13 docking in Tampa, Florida with stops in Malaga, Spain, the Azures, and the Bahamas. The price was 85% off the brochure price at $750 each for a cabin with a window. We opted for a balcony that doubled the cost to $1,500 making it just over $100 per day for food, accommodation and entertainment.
I used the $700 in my WestJet travel wallet to purchase two tickets from Tampa to Calgary in the afternoon of November 27 bringing our transportation cost to Europe and back to just $2,000 each.
Now that the bookends of the trip were set we could begin booking accommodations. We want to book accommodations for a week in Malta, Sorrento, and Palermo in addition to accommodations for a few days in Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and Barcelona. I have booked week-long stays in Malta and Palermo and will write about accommodation selections next month.
– Patrick Robertson is a travel writer and long-time resident of Fernie. He is an expert in planning independent travel and finding budget travel deals. Go to his website for more information and pictures of this trip to Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta.
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