What is the cheapest thing you have done to save on transportation?
When I was reading the discussion about the SD to LA bus some commented about some things they have done in order to save some money in transportation so instead of hijacking the thread I thought that maybe some of you could share the cheapest things you have done to save money in transportation, I will start sharing mine:
While I studied in Japan, residents aren't allowed to get JR passes and as I lived in Hiroshima the Shinkansen to Tokyo is around 150 USD. However twice a year they sell a ticket that allows you to use the entire JR system during a day and in the end the price per day is 23 USD however, you may only use local trains.
After 16 hours of traveling (departing 7:30AM arriving 11:30 PM) and 10 transfers I rode the 900kms between Tokyo and Hiroshima (returning from vacation) for 23 USD, it was tiring as hell but I would do it again without hesitation.
What's the cheapest you've gone to save some money on transportation?
NOt sure if this is related, but it's still "saving" for me. Umm, I did couple MRs to PVD. The first one was an overnight stay, instead of getting a hotel, I just stayed at the airport for 6 hours that night.
Cheapest thing in terms of lowest price paid: Bus from CMB to the city centre. Cost me 100 rupees (they're around 170 to the Euro) for the 30km.
Cheapest thing in terms of least amount saved: Split train tickets on various UK routes. Sometimes I only save 70p or so, but it's the same trains so I might as well keep the change!
__________________
Signature temporarily removed- apparently somebody hasn't seen me trying to speak Chinese.
Programs: Diamond Club Silver, Flying Blue Silver, BAEC Blue
Posts: 1,353
Walked
To get from the UK to Russia once while still a student back in the 1990s, I took a coach from London to Stockholm (36 hours), an overnight ferry to Tallinn and then an overnight train to St Petersburg. Can't remember how much it was, but cheaper (albeit slower) than flying and an adventure in its own way!!
__________________
Жить – хорошо, но хорошо жить, ещё лучше…
When I was in University and interning at a large Healthcare corporation, I wanted to go to a conference for which a pharma company was providing free registration and hotel accomodations. I found out a couple of people in the company who had planned to go could now no longer attend. Since tickets were in the $500 range I asked their secretary if I could have their tickets. She agreed. So, I took a friend. It was in the late eighties so the security concerns we .currently have to deal with (name checks, etc) were not in place. I think the biggest issue was the question about whether or not the passenger had packed their own checked bags
NOt sure if this is related, but it's still "saving" for me. Umm, I did couple MRs to PVD. The first one was an overnight stay, instead of getting a hotel, I just stayed at the airport for 6 hours that night.
Not transportation necessarily, but lodging. Decided not to spend on a hostel and slept on Champs Elysses behind a staircase before catching a bus to Buveaux (sp?) airport to fly out to Barcelona on RyanAir the next morning. I was with two friends, so we took turns. Epitome of cheap!
I don't like to bother people for rides to the airport at horrible hours, and I'm still a student, so it helps to save the hostel fee every now and then. I've spent nights on the floor in (or around)
TPE, ICN, NRT, BKK, CAI, DAM, AMM, YOW, DEL, CCU, SIN, Kota Kinabalu, BAT, AMS, LGW, IAD, HNL, GUM, SPN...and many more
Most recently, I couldn't stay with any friends in Seoul, so I paid for one night in a hostel (where I could get a locker to store my bag) then spend the rest of the week in a Jjimjilbang, going to get new clothes from my bag each morning. Great fun.
I can already hear the howls of indignant protest but I used a fake international student card obtained in Thailand to get a student flight from Cairo to Athens which saved me around $200.
What's the cheapest you've gone to save some money on transportation?
I actually like travelling by land and especially by train to watch amazing scenery, interact with locals, pass by such middle-of-nowhere places that would otherwise be hard to get to, and also because it's convenient and relaxing to board compared to airplanes (eat dinner, wander into the train station and board, no shoe-removal, laptop-booting) and ticket sales are straightforward (walk upto ticket counter, pay fixed price that everyone else is paying, apply appropriate discounts that you may be eligible for) rather than the silly airfare game (check availability in Y-83/Z-5323/N/Y-DOWN/IPXZIYCE class, stay up at 4am watching flyertalk, etc. etc.). If my vacation time is not severely limited (i.e. I have a couple weeks at least) I find the train ride, even if 40+ hours, totally worth it and *part* of my vacation experience, while the same 5 hours for a plane journey would be 100% wasted time IMHO.
So I've travelled 10000+ km in China, probably 40000+ km in eastern & western Europe, 2000+ km in India, and also in Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, and a small amount in the USA.
It is definitely also much easier on the wallet than plane travel, not to mention enormously more environmentally friendly since trains move along relatively level track with little friction, carrying thousands of passengers, amounting to much less energy consumption per unit distance as well as cleaner operation since the power can be efficiently generated at central electric power plants. Modern train technology is actually capable of being 30-40% the speed of a plane. Most aren't yet, but by supporting and using what's there now, train operators get additional revenue to help them develop, grow, and become faster. This actually does happen as more people use the services (and as you may notice, it doesn't happen in the USA because people don't use public transport as much as they should).
Buses are also cool too and cheap, but they aren't quite as scenic, classy, and comfortable to sleep in as trains.
You can most certainly travel just about anywhere you want in this world without using a plane. If you don't believe this, watch the video "Around the World in 80 Days" by Palin. It's also an *extremely* fun-to-watch movie if you're into exotic forms of travel.
