birding-aus Digest, Vol 82, Issue 58

Re booking overseas trips

We went to England and Scotland in May 2012. We booked all our accommodation ahead but directly through the owners or managers of the accommodation via the internet. In all cases we were given a lower price and in most cases did not have to pay ahead although some in the busier towns required a deposit. This may not be the case for very low cost accommodation but I always make a good nights sleep a priority to get the most out of every day – we hit the ground running and are up from dawn to dusk when we travel so it makes good financial sense as we can do more every day if we are feeling healthy and well rested. We always pay any deposits by credit card as if you do not receive your service – eg the accommodation is not available – then you can submit a claim at the bank and they will refund your credit card and then try to get the money from the accommodation – in fact you can do this for all credit card purchases for example plane tickets where the airline collapses. I always have a separate special card just for use overseas which I close when I return it is pretty safe. We had fantastic service at all the places we stayed in despite the amusement of trying to work out the different types of plumbing.

As our time was very limited (3 weeks) it saves us a lot of time not to have to spend time looking for accommodation and we used google map trip planner which gave us a good idea how long we would take to get from place to place and how long we could afford at each place – we always would love to stay every birding place longer no matter how long we are there anyway. When we told locals how short a time we had they were super helpful pointing out best places and special birds we might like to see so we had a fantastic time -thank you all you wonderful British bird watchers. Birdwatchers in general are a lovely tribe to belong to anyway. Stranded by the floods and not able to get home to Brisvegas – missing all the those great birds – sigh! Leonie