Scouting the twigs

With so many different parts going into creating my trip, I am glad I signed up for some annoying emails from different travel places.  Also glad that I was too lazy to work out how to cancel them.  Due to this, I regularly get sent alot of information useful to trip planning.

Having decided that March would be a convenient time to travel to distant shores, actually nailing down a specific day is much more difficult.  I quite like the idea of going from summer here to summer there and it is on the shoulder of the tourist season over there, so cheaper prices.  It also fitted nicely with changes in my personal life.  However none of these criteria give me a specific day to travel.

To solve this problem I decided that I wanted a week or so after finishing work to travel around NZ to see family and friends before leaving.  That coupled with the week in London before the Contiki trip meant that the date I leave home is determined by the possible dates of the Contiki trip, which have not yet been released for March 2014.  After searching online and on the Contiki website I completely failed to see anywhere that would tell me dates later than August 2013.  Although there was an  internet rumour that sometime in the second half of this year that next years dates would be released.  So I gave in and visited a travel agent.

STA tavel was where I ended up after deciding that it was the closest and easiest, while also geared up and aimed towards people in my situation (lost, confused, youngish and wanting something familiarly different).  They cheerfully gave me a Contiki Europe 2013-2014 brochure and sent me on my way.  Getting home, opening the 50 page book and finding the trip I wanted, I discovered that the brochure did not cover 2014 either.  This time I emailed them and asked.

To sum up the result, I found out that the dates had not been released but they would tell me when they had.

A couple of weeks later I got an email telling me that the dates would be released in September but that they would get the dates before the general public.  If I paid them $250 then I could get VIP treatment and guaranteed access to the trip I wanted while also scoring the early-bird special of 13% off the total cost.

Payment made, now waiting on dates.  Then just flights, insurance...