Are holiday bargains for true or have catches hidden?

REMEMBER YOUR LAST CONVERSATION WITH THAT family relative who couldn’t talk enough of how much they saved on their last holiday package deal? Or that colleague bragging about his $59 round- trip flight to Las Vegas and his stay in a 5-star hotel at $89 a night? Have you found yourself staring wistfully (and suspiciously) at a $399 package deal for two for Hawaii?

Just because your email seems flooded at times with seemingly impossibly priced travel offers, and you find Internet search engines are flooded with 1000’s of sites selling internet travel besides big hotel brands and branded distribution sites don’t discount them all.

Who can you count on?
Just four or five years ago, when you looked for travel discounts you could choose between a travel agent, the airline offices and the hotels themselves, and maybe, if you were lucky, some travel guru down the street. Today, there’s a massive range of things you can do online, and a lot of them can save significant amounts of money.

The reality is:

• Nine out of 10 online travelers now have some history of shopping for travel online, and nearly 15% of all Americans purchased travel online last year - that’s five times the penetration rate of 1998. (PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey)• Nearly one-third of online travel buyers say the Internet was responsible for their travel purchases last year.

• In 1998, six million consumers bought travel online in the U.S. Jump ahead to 2002 when 30 million Americans purchased travel online in the last year. Half of them only buy their travel online. (PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey)

• Online travel bookings exceeded $23 billion in 2001, and are expected to reach $63 billion by 2005.

• Internet bookings in the first three quarters of 2002 accounted for over 23% of rooms sold in New York, and over 15% in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Anecdotally, for some properties, hotel managers are reporting Internet bookings ranging from 30% to 50% of all room nights in 2002. (Smith Travel Research and TravelClick)

What does this mean?

This means that online distribution channel is extremely successful in reaching buyers and buyers are finding it more confirmable to shop online. They are seeing a broader range of travel options and variety of products and packages. And its more likely that consumer wants to control that transaction through access to more competitive pricing. Pricing is becoming key factor to determine the sale.

Key factors: Why travelers prefer to book online

• Competitive Price
• Ability to compare product and Prices
• Ability to plan last minute
• Availability of Range of options

Online travel shoppers are not very loyal on where they shop—65 percent of online travelers do not view themselves as brand-loyal. As much as they love to shop online and spend their time researching what suits their needs, they are not loyal to the companies from which they buy.

The above scenario indicated that the travel suppliers have no choice but to participate in this online distribution channel. The suppliers are realizing that the traditional channels like GDS (Global Distribution System)/travel agent and call center/reservation office is somewhat inefficient and expensive, especially when the economy is weak. Ignoring online distribution channel and concentrating only on traditional distribution channels will result in lower occupancy, and higher distribution and operational costs for travel suppliers. As online channels become more popular among suppliers their participation is increasing.

How Pricing and Distribution Become Key

9/11 caused a dramatic shift in how consumers booked their travel. The instability caused a large drop in demand for airlines, hotels and car rentals leading to ever-lower prices. This low demand factor forced travel suppliers to introduce unprecedented discounts. Travel suppliers struggled to sell seats, rooms, car rentals to a significantly shrunk leisure and business travel market. Every air seat, room and auto not booked cost their companies money. Better to sell dirt cheap than not to sell at all. But how to get the word out?

Smart, proactive suppliers adopted the Wal-Mart business model—sell low and distribute inexpensively and efficiently. But how?

The Internet allowed them to reach consumers, sell inventory outstrip their less progressive competition. Those suppliers who had no clear Internet strategy or understanding of how the Web and online distribution works suffered.

Discount hotel sites attract millions of buyers with their special rates leading to stratospheric sales through these channels. They thrive on hoteliers selling their distressed inventory at a fraction of their normal rates. Occupancy is the lowest its been in years, hoteliers continue to work with leading online retailers to move inventory at lower price.

The $6.3 billion in online hotel sales (2002) with are split roughly evenly between discount agency sites and hotel Web sites. PhoCusWright projects that around 75% of discount agency hotel site sales are via the merchant model, where the agency typically takes a 20-30% “margin” on the hotel net rate (instead of the usual 10% commission). This approach has helped profits at Expedia and Hotels.com, who have roughly 60% of online discount agency hotel sales. Travelocity and Orbitz are instituting the same successful approach. Other notable players thriving in this arena are Hotwire.com, http://www.hotels-and-discounts.com , Lodging.com and Travelweb.com.

What is the Future?
Online travel growth will continue to grow in 2003-2005, but it will slow down year by year compared to the record gains see so far. However millions of travelers haven’t yet made their first purchase so the market is not near saturation. Technological improvements will soon make it possible to more easily dynamically package vacation deals including air, hotel and car leading to even lower prices but higher average sales. So growth is projected to come from customers buying more, higher-ticketed products online.

The growth of the online distribution channel will prove beneficial to the end user when the suppler finds it easier and more cost-effective to distribute their inventory there than over the traditional distribution channels. As technology becomes mature in the online distribution sector, it will become more effective and user friendly for the Buyers and thus will attract more Suppliers. Due to its low cost of distribution and emerging ability to package and cross sell inventory, prices will be attractive for years to come, until this channel eventually becomes a commodity.

Holland certainly has a reputation with travelers. Known for having a very liberal attitude on social issues such as prostitution and drugs, the reputation is not always deserved. Yes, marijuana and prostitution is legal, but there is so much more to the country. Many look at Amsterdam as Holland, but visitors know there is much more. If you desire to travel to Holland, also known as the Netherlands, don’t miss these attractions.

Amsterdam

Simply put, Amsterdam has something for everyone. The city is an incredibly beautiful collection of old world European architecture elegantly partitioned by canals. In truth, the city is built on roughly 90 small islands, although you can hardly tell. Transportation is best undertaken on foot or by bicycle. With a cool climate, you’ll barely break a sweat.

Contrary to popular opinion, Amsterdam is not just a city of liberal policies. Yes, coffee bars sell things other then just coffee. Yes, there are women in windows that are awfully friendly. Still, there is so much more to experience in the city.

Van Gogh Museum

The Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh houses the world’s largest collection of the work of Vincent van Gogh. From his early work, the museum contains 700 artistic works and 850 letters. After moving to Paris in 1886, van Gogh entered an impressionist period, of which the museum contains a large collection. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the collection is the organization. The entire collection is arranged chronologically from the first to last work. As you walk, you can clearly see the evolution of this master’s skill.

Anne Frank House

Who hasn’t read the intense diary of Anne Frank? Hiding from the Nazis, she and her family lived in an annexed section of an apartment in Amsterdam for two years. In 1957, the house was donated to the Anne Frank Foundation and turned into a museum. A visit will send chills through your spine. The museum contains films, the annexed area and the original notes of Anne Frank. A must see for anyone traveling to Amsterdam.

Beyond Amsterdam

For those needing a break from Amsterdam, there is much to be seen in Holland. If you are looking for a color explosion, consider taking the bulb cycling tour out of Noordwijk. Windmills your thing? Head to the De Zaan district to see them in action. Prefer to spend a night in a castle? Try the Castle Hotel Engelenburg, which even lets you ruin a good walk by playing golf.

Travel to Holland and you won’t regret it. Whether you want to “investigate” the countries liberal policies or simply bike through fields of tulips, Holland will satisfy.

In case you are an entrepreneur and nature of your business is that it requires a good numbers of car rental booking on yearly basis for conferencing, commuting staff or on a business tours then a car rental broker can help you reserve a discount on the standard rate for hiring car rental services.

A car rental broker can help you negotiate with a car rental company for your preferred services and needs for a cheap and reliable car rental. A car rental broker uses accumulated business of its clients to gain preferential rates and than to pass on saving to their customers. However, broker will add his commission to the rates too, but still in any case you can save handsomely in comparison to direct deal with car Rental Company.

A car rental broker can help you to deal with fluctuating seasonal nature of car rental business as the prices of Car Rental go upstream during the holiday and summer seasons like Christmas and Easter and remain calm at another period of the year. A good car rental broker can help restore good car rental rate for you through out any period of the year.

The other benefit with a car rental broker is that he normally has an account more than one car Rental Company and can suggest you the company best suited to your requirement and needs. With the help of a car rental broker you can ascertain car renting services when the car renting locations are full and stop selling to the public. You can even seek online booking assistance from the websites of many a brokers.

Dublin is Ireland’s capital, which finds a place for itself amongst the rich countries of Europe. It is located on the east coast of the country and encompasses the River Liffey merging into the Dublin Bay. Apart from being the largest city in the country, Dublin is also the centre of the country’s financial resources. The currency is the Euro (€). The Euro came into operation in January 2002. English is the spoken language in Ireland. Irish, or Gaelic (Gaelige), the ancient celtic language of the country is also spoken by about 5% of the population. Dublin has a population of just over 1.1 million.

Dublin is now Europe’s first smoke free capital city! Since March 29th 2004, a smoking ban in the work place has been in force. The primary purpose of the prohibition is to afford protection to workers and the public who are exposed to harmful environmental tobacco smoke.

After going through an intricate detail of the Dublin’s Tourism Industry provided by the website, right from the overview about the city itself to the various facts and spots to visit, it makes one want to be there and experience the beautiful city himself. The site for the benefit of the admirers of the charismatic city has provided a pool of information

Already planning to visit the city!! Then there is again some more fruitful information for you. To be boarding in Dublin, you will have options of a Hotel or a room in a guesthouse. To be sure of where you are putting up and that you are putting up at the right place the website provides you with the kind of rating the Hotels and Guesthouses have and what standards of accommodation one can expect. The site then goes on to the kind of Music one can enjoy in the city. People say Music is universal and the same can be pictured in Dublin, which is deeply tied to its musical roots. The site provides information of the various dinner shows that take place in the city and how much one enjoys. These dinner shows are offered at a package price and the details of the same can be had from the site. The site has adequately covered the city’s rich culture and it also provides some information on various cultural and heritage sites like Dublin Castle, world-renowned National Wax Museum and the captivating Phoenix Park. Amongst the rich culture of the city, piece of art literary works are also the talk of the town in the city. A brief on the likes of James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Ulysses etc van be had from the website.

As can be undoubtedly construed from the above, the website is very user friendly. There is absolutely no difficulty in surfing through the website and all the requisite information is just so much within your reach. There is no dearth of information on the site and almost all the queries you have about Dublin can be resolved by visiting the website. The appearance of the site is simple and good which adds to its beauty

A new year always means a chance for a new start. You and yours can begin this new year by making some travel resolutions together, regardless of your time and budget restraints. Put aside those old travel habits and make some new ones! Let this be the year that your travel plans focus on fun, fantasy, and festivities!

(1) We’re going to plan a real vacation. No, it doesn’t have to be an around the world cruise or first class getaway (but if you can afford it, what are you waiting for?) It does have to be an honest-to-goodness vacation, though. No cell phones, no laptops. Mark the dates on the calendar and keep it just like you’d keep any business appointment. The business of romantic travel, though, is a fun one and an activity that the two of you can plan for months.

(2) We’re going to involve each other in the trip planning. All too often, one partner gets the job for planning a trip…and that task quickly becomes a bore. Plan your trips together! Anticipation is half the fun. Visit a travel agent. Collect brochures. Buy a guidebook. Rent a video about your destination. Search the internet for information.

(3) We’re going to do something we’ve never done. Here you can be as mild — or as wild — as you dare. Go whitewater rafting. Rent a houseboat. Take a hot air balloon ride. Spend the night in a local bed and breakfast. Learn to scuba dive. Dance the whole night away under the stars. The choice is yours.

(4) We’re going to take one mini-vacation every month. Whether it’s for the night or just for the night out, plan one tiny slice of a vacation every single month. The only rule: you must pretend you’re on vacation. Book a night at a local bed and breakfast. Call your local hotel and find out their non-peak nights (in business-oriented cities, it’s usually Friday and Saturday) then plan a short romantic getaway.

(5) We’re going to go to at least one festival. Special events take place at just about every community around the world. Whatever your interests — from square dancing to sandcastle building — you’ll find a festival celebrating with a day or two of fun and food. If you don’t have the time or budget to go far, contact area chamber of commerce or tourism offices within a day’s drive of your home for their calendar of events. If you can, extend your trip into a long weekend. If you’ve got the time and resources, check out some of the major fun festivals: Carnival, Mardi Gras, Rio’s Carnivale. Don’t forget your costume!

A car rental can simply be understood as a form of car hiring services offered by an agency that lend an automobile after charging certain fee from an individual for a variety of  reasons for a short periods and span of time. These shops for the car rental services sometimes a person can find divided into many a number of small car rental agency as formed in local branches of big car rental agencies. Or one can find out the car rental services even from the number of websites offering online Car Rental Services.

The car rental industry primarily serves the car owners who are temporarily out of their car’s services due to accident or being out of town for tour or business reason or one awaiting repair or insurance compensation. Due to the variety of needs a car renting agency thus provides car renting vehicles in various sizes and capacity even to the extent hiring vans or trucks.

However getting a car rental is not that much easy as there are a number of conditions applied by car renal agency as for the security and protection of cars provided by a car rental agency. Like, there is condition of minimum age for a driver for the vehicle provided by car rental agency. The minimum age put forth by a car rental agency for a driver is 25 years old. In recent change the cars are enabled with GPS system to curb the excessive car speed limits. Or the car rental agencies requires for a credit card from a client as safety measure to ascertain the security of the Vehicle.

Primarily a car rental company works on the following two patterns, one car rental company follows the rule where they themselves keep fleet of car or have arrangements with car manufacturers to provide required numbers of vehicles as needed for the purpose of renting. The other type of car rental agreement is that in which a car rental agency works on the phenomenon like where car renting company works on the broker model thus have agreements with car hire companies to provide access to their fleets of cars.

This is how primarily a car renting agency works and you can hire services from them to achieve a car rental as according to your desired need and requirement.

Who of us hasn’t at one time or another experienced airport parking-related travel difficulties? For those in the United Kingdom though, who routinely pay the highest average airport parking charges in the world, alternatives have become a financial necessity.

Thanks to the rise of discount airport parking sites across the UK, millions of British travelers yearly are now pre-booking their airport parking in advance at savings of upto 40% off regular turn-up rates. Visitors to London’s Heathrow Airport for example can expect to pay £98 per week in Heathrow Airport parking charges without pre-booking. Those that use pre-booking sites like industry website Airport-Parking.tv can expect a reduced rate of £66.50. Similar savings can be found with Luton Airport parking and Stansted Airport parking planned expenditures.

Among the many benefits of using these prepaid parking sites are:

• Discount savings on published turn up car parking rates
• Ability to compare pricing with multiple airports online in one place
• Low-price guarantee on pricing offering
• No need to queue-up or pay at a parking machine
• Quick, easy, secure booking process

If you are traveling to the UK in the near future I strongly recommend the use of prepaid parking sites for your next trip. The ease-of-use and increased savings these sites provide are worth their weight in Gold.

If you’re anything like me, learning a foreign language isn’t much fun in the traditional sense.

All those hours of study confined to a desk in small classroom leaves something to be desired in the greater scheme of things. Thank God for study abroad programs like those offered from Argentina based study abroad program provider GIC Argentina (http://www.gicarg.org). If learning the romantic language of Spanish has always been a desire for you, doing so in in-country in a specialized program while immersing yourself in both the local culture and people is the way to go.

Be it volunteer Latin America opportunities, study abroad programs, Spanish internships or just Gap year destination programs, Argentina is a great venue to spend a few months or a full semester studying a new language. A favorable climate, a great exchange rate and incredible sites and sounds have made Argentina’s Capitol, Buenos Aires, an incredible destination for students, young and old, looking to increase their world view of the Spanish culture and to partake in Spanish lessons Buenos Aires.

Right now, for a limited time, GIC Argentina is offering an amazing incentive to sign up for a summer program in Argentina. Register now, before April 30th, and receive a FREE trip to neighboring Uruguay. What are you waiting for?

Car travel games are a tradition wherever families take vacations or long trips by automobile. Long drives are always more tolerable with some diversion or entertainment, and reading might not be the best choice, at least for the driver. Why not try some games that everyone in the car can play?

“Blue Car” Travel Games

These are travel classics. Each person guesses how many blue cars will pass in the next ten miles or ten minutes. Of course it can be red cars, or trucks, or whatever everyone agrees to. By the way, it’s considered bad form for the driver to slow down, letting more cars pass, so his guess will be the closest.

Another classic travel game involves the alphabet. Everyone tries to spot something starting with an “a”, and be the first to call it out (”apple tree!”). Since the Qs and Xes are difficult, they can be skipped. The person with the most “firsts,” is the winner.

Educational Travel Games

These are car games that get you thinking, learning something, or at least showing off what you know. In one game, the driver, or another designated host, asks questions like “At what temperature does water boil?” or “What is the Capital of Columbia?” or “If sales tax is 7.6%, what’s the total cost of a sweater priced at $22?” If you want the kids to love this one, pay twenty-five cents for each right answer.

In another car travel game, someone looks out the window and randomly selects an object. Everyone in the car then tries to imagine a creative way to make money with it. Overpasses become places to advertise, cows are rented out, and a truck becomes a traveling discotheque.

Other Car Travel Games

Turn on the radio and you can have a game in which everyone tries to be the first to call out the name of the artist when a song starts. You can change the station, so you don’t have to wait through a whole song to continue the contest.

In another car radio game, each person in the car chooses a word. Then you turn on the radio. The person whose word is spoken (or sung) first on the radio is the winner.

Finally, have one person in the car start a story with a sentence or two. Each person in turn adds a line to the story. This can get personal, but usually creates a story that has everyone laughing.

These China Travel Tips, Survival Techniques, will help you get around and make your trip to China easier, so you will be able to experience the real China with a little less stress. China is an odd beast that needs to be respected; the major cities,Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, all have their own personalities.

Some complex situations that you think would be an organizational disaster turn out to be great and you wonder afterward what all the fuss and worry was about. Then the simplest of tasks can turn out to be a major calamity.

This is when you have what we call here a “China day”.

These days come and go and are part of the experience of everyday travel in China. One needs to have an open mind when travelling China. It is a place with thousands of years of history and culture that is trying overnight to adapt to Western ways of living.

You need to have a very open mind when you Travel in China. I have listed below a few China Travel Tips that will make life that wee bit more bearable on your Travel China experience.

1. China Travel Tips - Be Toilet Wise

* Never expect a clean toilet 100% of the time.

* Be prepared; Carry some tissue.

* You may have to use a squat toilet, again if you know this before hand it is not a shock. If you don’t know how to use a squat toilet, try the following experiment at home.

While holding onto something for support with both hands, lower your body down into a low squat position, so that the cheeks of your bottom is almost touching your heels or the back of your calf. Now, let go with your hands. See if you stay in this position for at least 1 minute. If you fall backwards or you cannot get up, then a squat toilet could be a problem for you! Practice, you will be happy you did.

* If you see a clean toilet, Go… it may not come again for a while.

* There are many public toilets around the cities, usually the ones you pay for are OK, (RMB .5), the others best to stay away from if you can. You will soon notice them as you walk around the cities.

* Be warned that public areas like bus and train stations are usually what I class as “tough toilets”, however if gotta go you gotta go.
* Outside of the major cities, the toilet systems are old or have very narrow plumbing/pipes and get blocked easily. In these cases a small basket is usually beside the toilet, this is for your used toilet paper.

One of the best China Travel toilet Tips I can give you, is use hotel lobby toilets; these are everywhere and are always clean. Still they may not always have toilet paper. It depends on the class of hotel that you are using.

I do not wish to scare you. However, of all the China Travel Tips in all the other web sites I have read, this is a topic not often mentioned, but it is very important to us all.

So outside of the major cities conditions can be tough. But most of the time everything will be fine, especially if you book a tour; everything will have been checked out before hand. However even the best laid plans can go wrong, so be prepared, the toilets in the smaller cities, towns and villages can be scary.

2. China Travel Tips - The Food

* The food is great and the variety is overwhelming. Most of the time you get to choose what you eat, or you can recognize what you’re eating, however sometimes you do not get a choice. Carry a chocolate bar or something; this will keep you going until some food that you can recognize turns up. Drink bottled or boiled water, as the tap water is NOT safe to drink, this is for the whole of China. Even boiled water, while sterilised can
contain a lot of minerals and iron deposits that you probably do not want in your system. The safest bet is to drink bottle water. Tap water in most big cities is OK for brushing teeth.

* Eating habits - Most Chinese people have a great habit of being very noisy when they eat and lunch and dinner times can be a wonderfully noisy celebration, food tends to go in all directions, its just part of being in China.

* People also smoke at the table while everyone is eating, so some restaurants get very loud and smoky.

* If you get stuck what to order as most of the menu’s are in Chinese just look at the table next to you and point to the dish you fancy and ask how much it is, this system works really well and know seems to mind.

* I have a basic menu that will help you order safe food, (no Cats or Dog) this will enable you to visit a larger selection of restaurants, not just the tourist ones with high prices. You can carry it with you and use it in the local restaurants where most will be able to serve what is on it. This way you will know what you are eating.

These local places are very cheap and the food it great. Contact me if you would like me to send it to you.

3. China Travel Tips - Taxis

* Taxis are an experience that can have you griping the seat and gasping for breath; however you soon get used to it, after the first few rides, you’re an old hand.

* The taxis in Shanghai are, overall, quite good. Try to get the Blue, Blue’ish Turquoise, Gold and White taxis, these are the best… these are the four major taxi companies and are generally recognised by their single colour paintwork. The others are OK, just older and a rougher ride (the others also may have faulty metres). No drivers will speak English.

* Carry your hotel or accommodation business card with you, written in Chinese, this helps if you get lost walking around town.

* In all the taxis around the country you will see the drivers name and taxi registration number in plain sight. If you have any problem, or if you think you have been over charged etc, just take this number down, make a big fuss about it, and the driver then should wake up and fix whatever problem you have. Even better is to take the receipt. This has all the trip details on it and you can ring the taxi company if you want to take things further or if you’ve left something in the taxi.

* The government takes rip-off drivers in all cities, Beijing and Xian especially, very seriously and if you complain they will lose their license. This is their livelihood. So far I have had not one driver in 3 years that has not backed down and we have then agreed a price for the trip or solved our problem.

* In Shanghai, it is common practice for taxi fare increases after 11pm. However, one can usually bargain for a 20% discount, which will get the fare back to the pre-11pm rate. Be strong with the taxi drivers, never-the-less, keep your cool, smile and negotiate.

4. China Travel Tips - Shopping

* China is a shopper’s paradise, Markets, Bargains; Top labels… anything and everything if you have the time. With clothes, the larger (Western) sizes can be quite hard to find, however in the major cities where you get a lot of tourist traffic, you can find them.

* Electrical gear, DVD’s, Cameras, stuff like this is not worth buying in China, Hong Kong is still the best place for this.

* Store hours in the major cities are from 10am to 10pm, 7 days a week.

* Visa card is still the best card to carry, with ATM’s in good supply all with PLUS access etc. There is usually a surcharge for use of VISA, MasterCard or other forms of credit card.

* Wait on purchasing if you can, look around to get a feel for the prices. The Chinese are VERY experienced at selling and know that we halve the opening price when bargaining. In the markets go for 25% of what they first ask; go so low that they let you walk away. This will give you an idea of the bottom price. The resulting end-price will probably be around 40% to 50% of where they started.

Whatever the market people say, they are used to pushing and haggling for best prices. Do not worry about being too hard, they are used to it and will not sell you an item unless they make a profit. Don’t be concerned with the apparently hurt body language when you go low – it is all part of the game. As soon as they have wrapped up your first purchase, they will try to sell you something more. Remember to keep smiling and having fun
while bargaining.

5. China Travel Tips - Medical Treatment and Records

* Most hotels will have a doctor that you can see. In the major hotels English will be spoken.

* Always take a small first aid kit, cold remedy, headache tablets at the very least. WATSONS is a very large chain chemist. Most of the remedies, tablets etc, that you may require should be in these shops. These shops are all over China.

* There is a great network of pharmacy type shops; these are indicated by a Green Cross. There will always be a 24 hr Green Cross pharmacy in the city you are in. It is handy to carry a Phase book, as no one will speak English, however you will end up with something that will help.

* INPORTANT POINT – for most of the mass produced packet type medicines, the packaging will be written in Chinese on one side, English on the other. However in the shops you only see the Chinese side. Have a good look, turn the packs over, it gives you a lot more confidence knowing you can read the package.

* If you have a specific medical issue, take records, most of the Doctors will have OK written/reading English, even though their oral English will be poor.

6. China Travel Tips - Telephone

* Using the phone is as easy as at home. However the person picking it up will not speak English or have very broken English… the Major 4- or 5-Star Hotels will all be OK.

* What is worth doing is buying a Chinese Telecom SIM card, they are about RMB100 and with this you get RMB50 in calls, the other 50 is for the price of the SIM card; this SIM card will go into all major brand phones and work OK.

By doing this, people can reach you within and out of China if there is an emergency. If you have a couple of phones, you can short (txt) message each other (SMS). Also you are able to call your tourist guide, hotel etc if you have any major problems. It is a cheap way to keep in touch.

Note: Before you buy a Chinese SIM card, check that it will work in your Cell/Mobile phone. There are plenty of China Telecom shops that can help.

7. China Travel Tips on when NOT to move around China

* Spring Festival, this would be the Chinese New Year time, around the end of January/Early February

* Early May; Labour day Holidays

* Early October; National Day Holidays

Of all the China Travel Tips National Day is the biggest one. Millions of Chinese travel at these holiday times of the year. Most are travelling back to home towns or visiting family. Hotels, trains, planes, cars, buses, and roads are all crowded to the maximum. Major congestion, everywhere.

Also travel fares are at their full price. No discounts are offered! Stay in one place and enjoy where you are. It’s best and causes fewer hassles.

8. China Travel Tips - TV

* If you want to watch TV, most of the major hotels will have cable and if you are in the smaller places, the national channel, CCTV9 is in English. Over the last couple of years it has got a lot better, with some great China Travel Tips programs, news and views on people and places around China.

9. China Travel Tips - Airport Tax

* There is a “construction fee” at almost all airports.

Domestic flights RMB 50 International flights RMB 90 - which is to be paid in local currency. Just recently, tickets are being tissued with the Construction Tax included; however make sure you have the Tax money with you just to make sure. About the author John Mckenna John Mckenna is from New Zealand and have been traveling within China for more than 3 years. For more on China Travel information, pls visit http://www.chinatravel.com, the portal on China Travel and China Tour, and http://www.travel-the-real-china.com, experienced based Travel and Tour information on the wonders of Travel in China.