One year, I wanted to fly into Mexico City. It was however, cheaper to fly into a neighboring town, Toluca, and then make my way to the city. I took a $2 shuttle into right outside of DF, and then had to switch to a bus, that was on the opposite of the freeway. Long story shut, I ended up running across a Mexican freeway, where I caught the bus for like maybe 20 cents, transferred to the subway for another 30 cents and finally ended up at my destination. Took me about 2.5 hours.
I still cannot believe I had the guts to run across a Mexican freeway with oncoming traffic to this day.: eek:
Location: USA - HNL, SEA, ORD, MCO, and all points inbetween
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BearX220
In Chicago a few weeks ago: walked with all luggage from the Chicago Hilton near Grant Park north, across the river and the length of the Mag Mile, transferring to new hotel, in the blazing sun, because I was with a friend who didn't want to waste $2.25 on the CTA. Too old for this.
I see this often in Chicago, although the CTA trains and buses, as well as the cabs are usually easy to get and inexpensive. Me? I travel pretty light, so I typically Orange or Blue line it from either airport to downtown and get to my hotel via walking from the closest train stop. But I am not loaded for bear, so it's not too bad of a schlep. If I had a lot of luggage? I'd definitely cab it! I'm aware of courtesy to business commuters, so I would not get on CTA with huge luggage in tow during peak rush hours. IMO, that's just not considerate of local commuters when space is at a premium.
Be thankful it was blazing sun and not pouring rain with 30 mph wind, or worse yet, a minus 10 degree wind chill in January! You actually lucked out weather-wise for Chicago!
stood in between cars and kept moving away from the conductor as he went to check tickets in order to get from Lyon to Paris without paying. To be fair, I didn't do this to save money, I arrived to make a 4pm train and every train until after 9pm was sold out. I offered to buy a ticket for standing room but was refused. I just didn't want to wait 5 hours, but it did save me 70 or so euro.
Walked a few blocks through Seoul with all my luggage, down a bunch of flights of stairs to the subway, transferred 1 time, back up all the stairs, and walked a couple more blocks to my destination all to save what would have been about a $5 taxi ride.
Went to Dachau concentration camp and didn't want to pay for a tour or an audio guide, so a friend and I tailed behind an English speaking tour group for the whole of 45 minutes while they explained everything. We left after they had some time to explore the place.
Also chanced it those 7 days in Munich with only buying the MVV ticket from MUC Airport to Zone 1. Used trams the whole time. I figured, that if I got caught the 40eu fine would essentially be a slap on the wrist. It's definitely not high enough to deter people like me
Also chanced it those 7 days in Munich with only buying the MVV ticket from MUC Airport to Zone 1. Used trams the whole time. I figured, that if I got caught the 40eu fine would essentially be a slap on the wrist. It's definitely not high enough to deter people like me
I don't think i've ever purchased a ticket for the trains in Munich. Well done.
- Flew Ryanair for £0.01 (including all taxes and fees, though the bank rounded the charge up to £1) from DUB to STN. (I was flying oneway from the US to the UK, and oneways to DUB were much cheaper than to LON.)
- Hitchhiked from Cambridge UK to Paris (eight rides, one day). Also hitchhiked from San Francisco to Portland OR (14 rides, a bit over two days, with overnight stays with friends in Arcata and in a sleeping bag in some grass outside Eugene).
- Walked about 4km from the domestic to the international terminal at SYD to avoid paying the $5 train fare between them.
- Booked a series of free Megabus tickets (under the recent GOFREE promo) allowing me to travel from Chicago to Boston for $0.50 total, stopping to visit friends along the way. I ultimately only ended up using the Detroit-Pittsburgh-DC part of the booking though.
Set up my tent in a park in central Copenhagen (No, it wasn't Christiania ) to avoid paying a night at the hotel/hostel...the face of the early runners when they saw me emerging from my tent was priceless
Transportation-wise, when I was in Erasmus in Sweden I would often fake the booking Ids for my buses....back in the time when they only did some visual checks This saved me a few hundred Swedish crowns...
On my latest venture in Vancouver, I used the bus system almost exclusively (besides walking or riding a bike). I spent less than $4 the entire week on bus transport.
I would also recommend traveling on a budget for budgeted travel if you're considering airfare alternatives like Greyhound or Train.
on Monday I had a day trip to Whakatane, New Zealand (pronounced: Fackatane)
anyhow, it was a cheapo $8 round trip deal that normally runs in a tripple digits... the airports in New Zealand don't have much in a way of cheap transportation to get to the city. It was either taxi or a $25 shuttle each way.
on our final descent I noticed a beautiful beach below with amazing turquoise waters... so I walked from the airport, ten or fifteen minutes later, I arrived at this gorgeous beach with not a soul in sight.
spent a few hours walking about collecting shells, then back to the airport and caught my flight back to Auckland. best thing I've ever done, especially since my observation of visiting smaller towns in NZ is they all seem to look the same, with one major street running thru them and a bunch of similar looking stores lining up the street.
good fun!
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And took a friend once to ADL from MEL for a sweet Tiger Airways deal ($20 each way), when they were good, once upon a time, long ago...
Another time I was in Munich airport for several hours, with no money, and 3 more weeks of tripping around Europe. So lunch that day (on the occasion I might skip lunch, but sort of had to this time) was several espressos and 3 hot chocolates from those free Lufthansa coffee machines
And once, although it does sound a little silly, there was an ATM in front of me. But I knew it would charge me $2, so I walked the 1.6kms or so to an ATM of my own bank, so I could withdraw money for free. But hey look, $2 is equivalent to 4 soft serve cones at McDonalds!
And once, although it does sound a little silly, there was an ATM in front of me. But I knew it would charge me $2, so I walked the 1.6kms or so to an ATM of my own bank, so I could withdraw money for free. But hey look, $2 is equivalent to 4 soft serve cones at McDonalds!
McDonald's isn't the currency I use, but I've walked further than that to get to use an ATM that would not charge me fees
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It's amazing what you'll do when you're young. Years ago, my future husband and I flew in to DCA and then took a series of trains and buses to get to his mother's apartment in Arlington. Took about two hours, in the days when suitcases had wheels but didn't really roll, and before I realized I could travel without all that stuff.
You actually lucked out weather-wise for Chicago!
