traveller1959

A boy wanted to take the train from Sheffield to Shenfield (Essex) which is about 180 miles away. The journey would have cost him 51.79 lbs. He, however, found a cheaper way to travel:

He flew.

But via Berlin, with seven hours of sightseeing in Berlin. And he still saved money, 15 per cent, to be exact. Admittedly, it was not environmentally friendly. Or was it? - The plane would have flewn without him.

Read the amazing story about optimization of travelling costs in Europe:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/dea...er-than-train/

sparkchaser

A coworker told me about this. I argued that this guy does not value his time, or if he did then his time is worth less than £1/hour.

traveller1959

I knew someone would find a hair in the soup.

Watch his video - he needed the whole day (I think it was a Saturday) for travelling, but he had almost a whole day in Berlin, a city he always wanted to see.

Cowboy1968

That looked like a fun trip.
I assume the guy paid a few euros on top for some water or coffee in Berlin but that would be nitpicking.
The funniest thing was when he landed here and stated that is was very cold - minus <b>two</b> degrees! Which is barely a bit below freezing and pretty normal for January.


Another way to see more for "free":
Assuming you want to fly from Berlin to London and want to see another city.
Go to sites like Kayak.
Set the minimum travel time to 10-12 hours.
This will not always but sometimes bring up really low fares with legacy airlines which include a very long stopover in places like Copenhagen or Barcelona.
These fares can be lower than nonstop flights with low-cost carriers. Had such for Berlin-Brussels with 7 hrs in Copenhagen with SAS.
You should just know if you have lockers at your stopover, or 'splurge' on a checked bag.
It obviously makes most sense when you really want to see a bit of the stopover destination and when that destination has easy rail/bus connections to the city center.

hetismij2

The pedantc in me just has to point out that it was 51.79GBP, not lbs, whihc is used for pounds weight, not pounds sterling.

The kid had a good day out and saved some money. Good for him.

hetismij2

Pedantic, comes of writing on a dodgy keyboard.

greg

The choice of itinerary depends on the objectives and constraints.

I see four things the boy did well many first timers miss.

1. He added ALL the financial outlays. Many people come to this forum after purchasing what they considered to be a good airfare only to get hit with additional expenses elsewhere exceeding the savings.
2. He considered what you he could get out and considered the time expenditure to attain it.
3. His objective was to reach the destination somehow. Many first timers would only look for the shortest distance route as a proxy.
4. He realized if he had to expend time, he could leverage it to visit places. He reframed the traveling time. This kind of thinking would not come to those who only consider public transit as "wasting time waiting for the train."

In order to do this, he would have to line up significantly more modes of transports - an advance research he knew he had to do and willing to spend time on it. Many first timers book a segment of the trip without verifying they could line up all the ducks in a row.

For transatlantic travelers, the use of Ryanair would be trickier. His trip involved relatively short trips to airports on the same day. He could fly within the hand luggage limits and comply with the pre-printed or mobile boarding pass requirements.

thursdaysd

If we're going to nitpick, you meant "the pedant in me", not "the pedantic". Noun, not adjective.

I wonder how much the train ticket would have been if he had bought it ahead of time? Not to deny that UK trains can be expensive...

traveller1959

He suggests travelling from London to Manchester by flying via Milan.

Certainly a good idea to catch a few hours of warmth and sunshine while travelling through England.

Dukey1

Nobody, including a certain individual who usually weighs on on just about any thread which compares train travel to any other form of transport (besides crawling and walking) likes riding the rails more than I do. But sometimes it makes perfect sense to travel by other means despite being told things like, "Nobody in their right mind flies on this route anymore."

Doesn't value his time? On the contrary, I'd say he very much does value it and spent it in a way he found satisfying, "worth it," and all the rest of those phrases.

traveller1959

>> a certain individual <<

Believe it or not, this certain individual once splashed a helpless old lady by speeding with a car (!) through a large puddle.

It's probably active repentance that he now recommends the train in every situation.

And I had always thought he gets paid by the European railway companies for his postings...

traveller1959

There was just a thread of someone who wanted to travel from Prague to Budapest.

Since the train ride takes about 7 hours, I looked up flights. I did not find a direct flight, but I found:

- One flight with Aegean Airlines (very recommendable, I flew them recently) for about €100 via ATHENS! So I recommended to see the Acropolis while travelling from Prague to Budapest.

- Another flight with Pegasus via ISTANBUL, also for around €100.