What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
>I'd cut down every...
What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
>I'd cut down every law in England to do that.
Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you -
where would you hide...the laws all being flat?
Member since:04.08.2000
Reviews:43
Members who trust:39
I must be addicted to hard work. That's a plain and simple fact that I will have to face up to sooner or later; I love it. When I go off on my hols I am what is optimistically referred to as an "independent traveller" which is somebody who basically likes to sort out their holidays all by themselves. Something that quite easily can turn into, what can only be described as an organisational headache.
I place the term idependent traveller in inverted commas for a number of reasons not least because it's something I'm rather cynical about, and the fact that I'm here explaining this in the Travel Agents section will perhaps shed some light on why I tend towards cynicism. Because like it or not, most people will require assistance from an external agency of some sort to assist them in getting from A to B. That's why an independent travel agency (and I don't mean one that doesn't belong to a large chain!) is a bit of an oxymoron - because when it comes down to it, most of us will require help of some kind!
My own preference is to seek out as little assistance as possible, for me it's all part of the fun of the holiday, although it can be a pain in the butt sometimes. This is why I have concluded that I must enjoy hard work! Any way, there are some things that I just can't organise by myself and this is where the aforementioned independent agencies come in.
What I need is someone who understands this bizarre obsession of mine, who knows what part of the holiday I will need assistance organising and when to leave well enough alone.
The Sunday Papers are usually full of such agencies some of them are reviewed in this category, most of them are reputable, and probably worth a phone call because it's always best to "shop around" - try them for size until you get the service you like. Which is exactly what I did myself. The conversation often went like this...
Agent: "Where are you thinking of going?" Paiceyjohn: "Haven't decided" Agent: "er, yes... and when do you want to go." Paiceyjohn: "....I'm.....not....sure..."
and headed quicky downhill from there.
I came across Bridge the World one time when I was phoning around. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go - a long haul flight somewhere hot.
I knew aproximately how long I wanted to go for - anything up to three weeks... or thereabouts.
I kind of new when I wanted to go - January, maybe...?
And how much I wanted to spend - you bet your ass I did!
After two or three prolongued phone calls (one was certainly well over an hour), the very helpful consultant had sorted me out with a satisfactory itinerary (basically just a 'framework' where I could fill in all the gaps myself) at a reasonable price. Between us we had decided on a location, and organised the main flights, plus connecting flight and a hotel for the stopover (limited time, see).
It worked out so:
Flight: Manchester to Kuala Lumpur One night in posh 4* Hotel in Kuala Lumpur Connection: Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok Return Flight: Penang to Manchester just about three weeks later.
For a tad over £400.
What impressed me was that they were clued in about the way I liked to organise my travels - they seemed to employ people who were of the same mindset and therefore sympathetic to my needs both in terms of budget and logistics (eg picking a destination AFTER I knew where the good deals were or booking an open jaw flight). The staff seemed keen enough and knowledgable enough to spend a large amount time with you to ensure you have made the arrangements most suitable to your requirements (or lack of them).
Once you have booked over the phone every stage of the process is well documented. Change your itinerary? They'll send you an updated printout. And my tickets arrived in plenty of time. With each stage of the process they gave the impression of professionalism - so you felt like you dealt with someone who knew what they were doing. In my books you can't underestimate the value of that.
This trip, which took place in January/February 1999 was the first time I used Bridge the World and was a great success, everything went extremely smoothly. I've used them since and found them similarly helpful.
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Aug 10th, 2000
(Jul 16th, 2001)
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