The Uber Travel Planner meets her match...

The Uber Planner come Travel Hacker

Very recently I discovered that I could be described as a "Travel Hacker".  Personally, I don't think I fit into the category but it is a good modern description that could be used to describe a person that plans and books travel themselves obtaining cheaper and heavily discounted fares/prices by teaching themselves to "be in the know".  Note, a true travel hacker uses all means legal and less legal to travel on the cheap or for free and use no intermediaries at all; clearly this does not relate to me at all.

Over the past 14 months I have slowly been putting together a travel plan in conjunction with my mother.  Our upcoming meander involves a near global circumnavigation of the globe over 52 days.  Mum, Teagan and I meet in Canada and then via land and sea we make our way down the USA, across the Atlantic and down through Europe via train  to Turkey before splitting up to return to our respective countries.  Through a variety of online tools, networks and extensive research, I was able to drop the cost of our TransAtlantic Crossing by nearly 50% and get super low priced train travel by working out the best day and time to book.

The early planning stage document - for choosing the most appropriate route.

Currently I am in the process of booking the route via Vienna to Istanbul.  Most of the journey has now been booked and we will begin the cross checking and packing ready for departure late in June.

She meets her match and grips on for dear life!

With confidence, good knowledge and a small travellers network, I suggested to Ross that we could consider an exciting trip for our 20th wedding anniversary in the summer of 2015.  Silly me!  With scottish roots bolstering my scrooge like tendancies we came up with a great travel idea meeting the three of our needs: A Northern European Disney Cruise over eleven nights.  For Ross and me, it is a higher-end cruise line with superb facilities for both adults and children, and an itinerary to tick off a lot of our bucket list countries and continents.  For Teagan, well what else could a young girl ask for other than a Disney Cruise venturing into Norway (the Pixar movie FROZEN) and Iceland with a touch of BRAVE in Scotland. 

My scrooge like tendencies required me to sit on the itinerary for a while investigating reviews and booking options.  Little did I know that those Americans really "in the know" and experienced with Disney Cruise Line (DCL) were first off the block in reserving their places. Three weeks post initial bookings opening, I was paying 20% extra and getting about the last stateroom available in our category.  The ship is nearly now sold out 13 months out!

Worse was to come.  As I sat back and planned the upcoming trip, the DCL experts were busy getting their bookings in for land tours in the north sea.  Not to be left behind, I got on the telephone and after discovering that all rental cars in our key destination are booked and many of the tour companies were full, I scored a private tour and have paid our deposit (a town of 8,500 residents is welcoming a cruise ship of 2,400 eager tourists).  DCL will provide their own tour options and we would have no trouble getting in on these (and paying their hugely, extremely, inflated prices).  However, can anyone imagine my darling husband being happy with a large group tour full of children?  No!  

My next issue is reconciling the cost of being beaten to the lowest prices!  But at least we have something super special to treat ourselves to for our wedding anniversary.