Travel Planning

An holiday can be more enjoyable if the planning is done properly. Probably the most important aspect of your preparations is the travel to and from your holiday villa or apartment. If you are used to taking Package Holidays, when all the arrangements are done for you, organising continental travel yourself can be daunting. However, with a little research, you can book all your travel requirements online, and if organised well enough in advance can benefit from additional discounts.

Try planning your travel arrangements before you finalise your choice of destination, you may find a journey which you would like to try. Travel on the Orient Express to Venice or try a weekend city break to Paris by Eurostar, these can be accomplished as part of your holiday property rental holiday.

 Online booking services

Although there are many online booking services available to travelers, where you can book flights, car hire and hotels, such as Travelocity and Travel Supermarket, you can often find that you can get better deals going direct to the airline carriers, ferry, coach or train companies direct. Also, if you are an environmentally aware traveler, the mainstream online booking service companies often overlook train or coach transport. EscapeLets.com recommends the following websites which can help you plan and book your journey...

Traveling by rail is a great stress free way to begin your holiday, environmentally friendly, and you get to see the landscape of the counties you travel through.

• The Man in Seat Sixty-One, an award winning independent site, and will tell you how to travel overland comfortably & affordably where you might think that air was now the only option. An excellent website and comes highly recommended by EscapeLets.com.
• Rail Europe is the UK's leading specialist in the promotion and sale of European rail travel. You can buy Inter-Rail passes, valid for travel in 29 European and North-African countries.
• Eurostar is a great way to travel across the Channel and begin a holiday. With connecting services giving links to over 100 destinations across Europe, Eurostar are continuing to change the way people travel.
• The Trainline gives online access to timetables, tickets and fares for all rail journeys across the UK and into Europe.

Coach travel in Europe is both economical and environmentally friendly. If you are traveling as a family, you may prefer to drive your own car.

• Euro Lines, is a group of 32 independent coach companies, operating together Europe's largest regular coach network. This network connects over 500 destinations, covering the whole of the continent, including Morocco. Eurolines allows travelling from Sicily to Helsinki and from Casablanca to Moscow.
• Eurotunnel is the motorist's number one choice for crossing the Channel. When booking online, you can benefit from special promotional fares.
• RAC Route planner is a free online route planning system. Covering the whole of Europe, just enter your start and destination. You can even include some sights you want to visit en route.

If you don't live near the Eurotunnel, you may well be planning to cross the Channel by car ferry, or you may choose the slow-boat to your holiday rental.

• Brittany Ferries sail from Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth and Cork to Cherbourg, Caen, Roscoff, St Malo in France and Santander in northern Spain.
• P&O Ferries offer a wide range of routes; Dover to Calais, Portsmouth to Bilbao, Portsmouth to Le Havre and Hull to Rotterdam. They also sail to Dublin from Liverpool and Larne from Scotland.

The advent of the low-cost airlines has opened up may holiday destinations which where previously only accessible to charter flights. Many airlines these days have sophisticated online booking systems, offering huge discounts if bookings are made far enough in advance.

• BMI Baby offer low cost flights from the UK to the main European holiday destinations.
• British Airways have flights to numerous holiday destinations. Offered from this Countries' favourite, and the world's second largest international airline.
• Cheapflights is the country’s leading travel price comparison website, and can help you find the best and cheapest flight from all the main carriers.
• Easyjet is probably the best known low air fares carrier, and provide their customers with safe, good value, point-to-point air services.
• Ryanair was Europe's original low fares airline and is still Europe's largest low fares carrier.

 Read carefully

Before you decide on you chosen travel plans, read the carriers terms and conditions. Many low cost airlines work with small profit margins, and have expensive charges for changed itineraries or cancellations. Also watch out for airport taxes and fuel surcharges which can increase the cost greatly. The same charges usually apply for cross Channel Ferries, so expect additional costs if you want to change your travel plans, or if you are planning to take bicycles or a car trailer.

Always take out travel insurance, this should cover unforeseen changes to your travel plans, and of course, always ensure you are traveling with adequate car insurance if you are driving.