Ya' Gotta Start Somewhere . . .

Feb 1, 2000 - © Diane Goldberg under the original topic name

I used to be skeptical about packages that combine air travel and hotel stays. I have long been a believer in the truism that if it is too good to be true it probably isn't. An article at http://www.travelbase.com/travel-tips.ht... by Mary Mitchell explains why budget travelers should always check out package options.

Recently I started planning a trip to Malta with a surf through http://www.travelocity.com. I still think it's a superior site to research airfare. It has recently eaten Preview travel and is moving full steam ahead to take on http://expedia.com to become the premier airfare site on the Internet. But, I was bitterly disappointed - the lowest airfare I could find from Gatwick to Malta was in the neighborhood of $366.

Then I checked out some package tour operators. I found http://www.cheaperholidays.com a bucket shop operating in Cardiff where I was able to purchase round trip airfare from London and 10 nights accommodation for only 305 pounds --- around five hundred dollars.

So I started wondering who thought up the brilliant scheme of offering package tours. Arguably the first name that comes to mind is Thomas Cook. Born in 1808 in Derbyshire Thomas came to travel entrepreneurship via a circuitous route. At 17 he joined his local Temperance Society. A fervent devotee of tea totalism, in 1841 he organized a rail trip from Leicester to Loughborough for a group of like-minded folk to attend a Temperance rally. He arranged rail passage and food at a cost of one shilling per person for the trip.

Finding himself addicted to travel if not to drink by 1846 he arranged for five hundred folks to tour Scotland visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1851, he arranged for an astounding 165,000 people to journey to the Great Exhibition in London. By 1856 he and son John opened Thomas Cook and Son in London where they sent vacationing Brits to see the Sphinx.

In 1872 Thomas Cook and Son offered a 212-day round the world tour to intrepid travelers with 200 guineas to spend. The tourists transatlanticed via a steamship before crossing American in a stagecoach. From the West Coat the tourists took a paddle steamer to Japan before crossing China and India overland.

Cook retired in 1879 and passed away in 1892.

Today, you can find Thomas Cook Currency Exchange and Travel Services all over the globe. http://www.thomascook.com.hk/intro.html I wonder if it would be inappropriate to drink to Thomas?

Thanks for stopping by ---

The copyright of the article Ya' Gotta Start Somewhere . . . in Traveling on a Budget is owned by Diane Goldberg under the original topic name. Permission to republish Ya' Gotta Start Somewhere . . . in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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