KittenToes
TMF Regular
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2005
- Messages
- 284
- Points
- 18
Hi folks!
This thread is for those of you who are planning to attend NEST and have not yet made or finalized your travel plans.
I know some people are not accustomed to a great deal of travel, and for various reasons, I've had to spend far more hours than I can count travelling, invariably on a shoestring budget. So, here are a few things I've picked up along the way, which may help you get to NEST without breaking the bank!
Firstly, air travel.
Start looking for airfares NOW. The best time to book travel is generally anywhere from 6 to 3 weeks prior to your travel date.
www.kayak.com is your friend. If you are flying from overseas, search the Kayak site for your country- click on the flag in the top right corner to switch to a different country site. This site searches a variety of other travel sites to find you the best deal. It has many useful tools if the airfares that pop up aren't making you happy, such as the option to also search nearby airports or search a day either side of your travel dates, in the event you have a bit of flexibility around the NEST dates. For popular destinations, it will also tell you if it thinks you should buy the ticket now, or wait for fares to drop, based on fare history. This chart pops up in the top left hand corner on the search result page.
Southwest Airlines, http://www.southwest.com/ often has quite good deals and includes free checked baggage. They do not appear in Kayak searches.
Try flying into a New York City airport, (LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark) instead, especially if you are coming from a smaller airport with fewer flights. There are many options for train and bus travel from NYC to Philly, and it's only about 80 miles away.
So! Secondly, train travel. The main option for train service to Philly is Amtrak. http://www.amtrak.com/home If you are a student, senior, veteran, active military, or AAA member, there are discounts available.
The other Philly area train service is SEPTA, which is the commuter rail. It's only really useful if you are already within the Philly metro area. It provides connections from the Philly airport, and downtown Philadelphia.
Thirdly, bus travel. Besides the obvious Greyhound, Megabus, http://us.megabus.com/ Bolt Bus, https://www.boltbus.com/ and the "Chinatown Buses" from NYC all serve Philly. Ride the latter if you dare- some of those buses have dubious maintenance records. Bolt and Mega buses have fares which start really low and rise as the bus fills up, so book early.
Fourthly, if you choose to drive, see if anyone wants to carpool with you. I believe there are a few people already looking for or offering rides.
If you are on the fence about attending, make your decision soon. If you leave the purchase of air tickets till the very last minute, all the advice in this post will not help you and you will wind up either spending a fortune, or deciding it's too expensive to travel and miss out on attending a great event!
HOWEVER... If circumstances make it impossible to book until the last minute and fares have jumped, you can always try bidding on www.Priceline.com for airfare. Find out what published airfares are first and try bidding about 30-40% less than what they are. Priceline is most useful from between about 2 weeks to 3 days prior to travel.
This thread is for those of you who are planning to attend NEST and have not yet made or finalized your travel plans.
I know some people are not accustomed to a great deal of travel, and for various reasons, I've had to spend far more hours than I can count travelling, invariably on a shoestring budget. So, here are a few things I've picked up along the way, which may help you get to NEST without breaking the bank!
Firstly, air travel.
Start looking for airfares NOW. The best time to book travel is generally anywhere from 6 to 3 weeks prior to your travel date.
www.kayak.com is your friend. If you are flying from overseas, search the Kayak site for your country- click on the flag in the top right corner to switch to a different country site. This site searches a variety of other travel sites to find you the best deal. It has many useful tools if the airfares that pop up aren't making you happy, such as the option to also search nearby airports or search a day either side of your travel dates, in the event you have a bit of flexibility around the NEST dates. For popular destinations, it will also tell you if it thinks you should buy the ticket now, or wait for fares to drop, based on fare history. This chart pops up in the top left hand corner on the search result page.
Southwest Airlines, http://www.southwest.com/ often has quite good deals and includes free checked baggage. They do not appear in Kayak searches.
Try flying into a New York City airport, (LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark) instead, especially if you are coming from a smaller airport with fewer flights. There are many options for train and bus travel from NYC to Philly, and it's only about 80 miles away.
So! Secondly, train travel. The main option for train service to Philly is Amtrak. http://www.amtrak.com/home If you are a student, senior, veteran, active military, or AAA member, there are discounts available.
The other Philly area train service is SEPTA, which is the commuter rail. It's only really useful if you are already within the Philly metro area. It provides connections from the Philly airport, and downtown Philadelphia.
Thirdly, bus travel. Besides the obvious Greyhound, Megabus, http://us.megabus.com/ Bolt Bus, https://www.boltbus.com/ and the "Chinatown Buses" from NYC all serve Philly. Ride the latter if you dare- some of those buses have dubious maintenance records. Bolt and Mega buses have fares which start really low and rise as the bus fills up, so book early.
Fourthly, if you choose to drive, see if anyone wants to carpool with you. I believe there are a few people already looking for or offering rides.
If you are on the fence about attending, make your decision soon. If you leave the purchase of air tickets till the very last minute, all the advice in this post will not help you and you will wind up either spending a fortune, or deciding it's too expensive to travel and miss out on attending a great event!
HOWEVER... If circumstances make it impossible to book until the last minute and fares have jumped, you can always try bidding on www.Priceline.com for airfare. Find out what published airfares are first and try bidding about 30-40% less than what they are. Priceline is most useful from between about 2 weeks to 3 days prior to travel.
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