Unsought Input

So, in breaking Yahoo news today a couple has lived in Travelodges for 22 years.  At a Travelodge.  For 22 years.  I don’t know about you but I stay at a Travelodge because they are cheap.  Not too cheap like a Knights Inn or anything, I learned my lesson there, but really cheap to stay in where ever you go.  Not comfy cheap.  Just cheap.  And 22 years?  From what the article says it’s only really been 10 years at this one.  Here is what I don’t get.  They keep paying for the flat they own wherever it is as well.  They just go there to get the mail.  So, they pay for, what?  A house they keep and a summer hotel room?  A house no one stays in?  Seriously, if you are going to be this lazy, you may as well just sell your freaking house and get a P O Box at the post office.  It’s like a senior citizens center but they aren’t ninety and sitting diapered in their own waste.  Or are they?

Please just kill me if I ever get this way.

Recently I have been trying to plan my second trip to Japan and i am finding it incredibly hard. We had even considered just going to Europe to save a little bit of money, you know, by not traveling all around the globe. Usually I plan everything and do everything myself, but this year I wanted to do something “all inclusive” so I could actually enjoy and relax on my vacation instead of stressing out over whether everything was going as planned. You know, so I could have fun on my vacation?

So, anyway, I decided to go to a travel agent. My husband and I were thinking about a trip to Europe, with a few places we might want to travel in mind but no where set in stone (see, we wanted to see what the deals were), maybe a cruise or something tour bus-y. So, having never gone to a travel agent before, I set aside my pride and walked into the office. I told the woman what I have told you here, and she laughed in my face. Well, I also told her how much I wanted to spend. I think that is what made her laugh. It was only a thousand dollars less that what we spent to go to Japan before but she laughed in my face and told me that the cheapest two people could do all inclusive in Europe was $7000.00 before plane fare.

Somehow I don’t believe this. She wouldn’t tell me if they had any specials going on, she told me I had to know where I wanted to go. That was not the point, I said. We were flexible, we wanted to go somewhere that was running a special. Travel Agent 007 told me that that is not how it works. I was left in wonder how all these people got great deals to go abroad and how it doesn’t work for me. I guess the bottom line is don’t get a 007 Agent to tell you where to go on your vacation. Oh, and use the internet. I just was trying the small business support and stuff, and of course as with most human interactions, it backfired in my face. Don’t mind me if I sound a little jaded, I was just hoping she would have been nicer, since the internet is taking her job away.

Anyway, you don’t care about that, you are reading to find out cheaper ways to travel. Now, mind you these are not all going to be luxury five star hotels, but if you can afford that, why are you reading this? (more…)