Expatify

Travel & Expat Lifestyle Magazine

Save money by flying to major hubs and using ground transport the final leg

AthensEspecially during summer and winter, when many people are flying to resort areas instead of big cities, there’s a little trick that can save people a lot of money. In so many cases the round-trip airfare to smaller resort areas is much more expensive than it is to the nearest large city, and in most cases you can actually arrange much cheaper transportation for that final leg yourself.

Example: Rhodes, Greece

Let’s say you wanted to fly from New York to the sunny island of Rhodes off the coast of Greece. Right now that flight during July will cost you US$1561 on the cheapest day, and most days it’s near or over $2000. But, if you book a ticket just to Athens then you can get it for US$1218 on the cheapest day. That’s almost $350 difference per person.

So how do you get to Rhodes from Athens? In this case it’s very easy, as there are ferries running every day. It’ll take most of a day, but the ferries there are like small cruise ships so a journey out on the Aegean Sea is a really fun part of the holiday. The fare will be around $50 per person, so you could actually stay in Athens for a day or two to see the Acropolis and other main sites, and still end up spending less.

There are cheap trains and buses and ferries connecting nearly every resort area in the world to a major city, so it’s always wise to check prices to the nearest major hub to compare the total cost. In the case of Greece mentioned above, you actually get a lovely boat ride as part of the bargain, while saving at least $300 per person as the same time.

Example: San Pedro, Belize

If you want to go to the main resort island called Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize, you’ll be advised that you can fly into the main Belize City airport and then take a flight on a small turbo-prop plane the rest of the way to San Pedro. This may be the fastest way to get there, but due to the schedule of the local planes sometimes it’s not even that fast. You might have to wait for 3 hours before the next available departure, during which time you could have actually been there had you been aware of the water taxi option.

That’s right, the airport isn’t far from the main marina in Belize City, and every hour or two there is a water taxi (actually more of a water bus since it holds about 30 or 40 people) that goes to San Pedro, sometimes stopping off briefly at Caye Caulker along the way. It takes less than an hour and costs around $10 per person, compared to almost $100 per person for the flight.

Again, the final part of the journey can often be more interesting and much cheaper, sometimes while it takes the same amount of time or even less. If you are going to someplace that is served by only a very small airport, consider all your options if you are looking to save the most money.

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