Category Archives: special

Only Two Months Until St. Patrick’s Day! Start Planning!

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Today is January 17th. That means March 17th is just two months away. And what’s March 17th? St. Patrick’s Day: The happiest beer day of the year. (Oktoberfest is the happiest beer *weeks* of the year.)

So where will you be spending the most Irish of holidays? How about Ireland?

shamrocker tour

Shamrocker Adventures wants to show you some Irish hospitality with one of their special St. Patrick’s Day tours. Spend 4 or 9 days soaking up the sights, and the pints, with their fantastic guides. They’ll make sure you hit all the local hotspots and maybe even learn something along the way.

Sound amazing? Then get to your local Travel CUTS to save your spot on the tour and to book a student airfare. And then start thinking about what to pack. And then start thinking about what to drink. And then start talking your friends into joining you.

Slainte!

 

Ride It, Live It, Love It: Haggis Adventures in Scotland

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I’m on the bus! After months of looking forward to my Scotland trip, I’m finally on the big, yellow Wild and Sexy Haggis Adventures bus. My tour began in Edinburgh in front of the Haggis office on the Royal Mile (a place where I did plenty of walking, eating and shopping the day before).

I’m always a little nervous before a tour because you never know what you’re going to get as far as travel companions. This time I had to laugh a little as I watched people trickle in and Beyoncé started to sing “All the single ladies, all the single ladies…” in my head.

My group is 18 ladies and three gentlemen (at least, so far they’ve been gentlemen), giving us a very unfair 6:1 ratio. Guys, what this means is that you should really get on these tours, because you’ll be very popular.

Our guide, Greg, is equal to at least three regular men though, so that helps a little. He’s got a fantastically thick Glasgow accent and is full of things you’ll want to know about Scotland, and somethings that you didn’t know you wanted to know.

For example, Scotland is one of the few countries in the world where Coca Cola is sold, but isn’t the best selling soda. Irn-Bru, an orange soda, is the Scots’ first choice. (Peru, where Inca Kola is the most popular, is another country where this is true.)

Our group is mostly Australian, which I expected, with two Kiwis thrown in for good measure. A handful of North Americans rounds out the herd. We all had to get up and introduce ourselves as the bus rolled out of Edinburgh, which was a good way to start learning names and faces, and to hear Greg’s most embarrassing travel story.

Note: You can never go wrong entertaining a crowd with a story that ends in terrible diarrhea. That’s just classic.

I have a week’s worth of cities, sites, whiskey and hairy coos coming up, so stay tuned to keep up with it all!

Give Yourself the Gift of Travel With a Passport

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If you’re like me, after the holidays were over you went out and bought yourself the gifts you really wanted and didn’t get. Maybe you cashed in some gift cards, or maybe you had a few dollars left over.

But do you have the one thing that absolutely every self-respecting traveller should have? Do you have an up-to-date passport? It’s your ticket to the whole wide world after all, and they put pretty stamps in it when you go places.

It might seem like a silly thing to go out and buy if you don’t have immediate travel plans, but there’s no reason to wait until the last minute.

I’m proof of that, because for someone who has done a lot of traveling, I can still be a travel moron. Here’s the evidence:

Last year I planned a trip to Australia and New Zealand. I finalized my itinerary and made sure it included a Lord of the Rings tour and black water rafting. Woo hoo!

I got approval from my manager to take three weeks off. Woo hoo!

A month before my departure, I opened up my passport only to see that it had expired several months earlier. Crap!

Luckily, I had plenty of time renew my passport before my trip, so the situation wasn’t dire. Mostly it was embarrassing that my passport had been so unused that it took me eight months to notice it had expired. Clearly I need to get out of the country more often.

Since then, my New Year’s routine has become:

1. Change all the batteries in my smoke detectors.
2. Make an appointment to have my eyes checked and contact lenses updated.
3. Email all the people I haven’t talked to since last New Year’s.
4. Check to make sure I have a valid passport.

I think you should always be ready to flee the country at a moment’s notice. You never know when an opportunity will present itself.

Here are a few passport tips:

  • Visit Passport Canada to get your application, check fees and find out how long it will take to get a new passport or renew an expired one.
  • If your passport expired less than 12 months ago, you may be eligible to use the Simplified Renewal Form, which means you don’t have to resubmit proof of Canadian citizenship. You will need to have new photos taken though.
  • A passport is good for five (5!) years for adults. Even if you don’t have immediate plans to hit the road, get your passport now so that you’re always ready to go (unlike me). It will also be one less expense to worry about later.

Always be prepared!
Lisa

Have 10 Friends? Get a Free Reading Week Trip

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Play tour director and get ten of your friends to sign up for a Reading Week trip with Travel CUTS and you could go for free.

(Or, do the math and split the discount across your friends so you’ll all have a little more to spend while you’re away.)

Eligible trips include:

  • A week at the beach in Puerto Plata
  • Adrenaline-fueled travel around Costa Rica with G Adventures
  • Topdeck tours of Europe, Africa, Australia or New Zealand
  • Skiing in Quebec (just $561 for 5 nights hotel *and* and 4-day lift pass)

See details for all the trips.

If you don’t have 10 friends who want to travel then start advertising around campus to make some new ones. As soon as you’re ready, talk to Travel CUTS to book your trip.

And don’t forget to mention your trip to the relatives over the holidays. They might just find a little extra spending money for you before you go.

Get friendly!
Lisa

Get 10% Off a Gap Adventures Tour!

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Some people are tour people. Some people like to go it alone. For me, it depends on the destination, duration and difficulty of the trip.

I’m happy to navigate London on my own, but I wouldn’t be as confident in parts of Asia or Africa where the languages and customs are less familiar to me.

Right now you can save 10% on some Gap Adventures tours if you have an ISIC, so it’s a good time to consider jumping on the tour bus. Here are some of the things you might want to think about if you’re planning a trip abroad.

Reasons to take a Gap Adventures tour:

  • You don’t have to think (much). Accommodations, transportation, entertainment, sightseeing and dining are all worked out for you ahead of time. All you have to do is have fun.
  • Meals are often included, so that’s less spending money to worry about. Even if they aren’t included, your tour guide will at least recommend places, or make a reservation for the whole group to go out together.
  • Don’t speak the language? Your guide does, and he or she can help you with exchanging money and other transactions that might be difficult in more remote areas of the world.
  • If you get sick, your guide is there to look after you and make medical arrangements if necessary.
  • It doesn’t matter if you’re travelling alone; You’ll be given a whole group of new people to hang out with.
  • Your guide will know about shops, restaurants and other places you might not find in a guide book, and sometimes they can get you discounts.

Reasons to go it alone:

  • You can be spontaneous! Stay somewhere for a day or a week, change plans when you get to the train station and decide a different destination sounds better.
  • Without a guide you have to interact more with the locals, which could lead to some great experiences.
  • Feel like sleeping until noon? No problem. You’ve got nowhere to hurry off to.

The 10% offer is available through Travel CUTS and applies to Gap Adventures’ YOLO tours, which are specifically designed for 18-30 somethings. That means they try to include some adventure in with their affordability, and there’s always plenty of attention to local, cultural experiences.

So what’s your ideal tour? Costa Rica? Thailand? Turkey? It’s pretty hard to decide. Can I just have one of each?