International Sam
Get a job and you get vacation time. In my case this vacation time vanishes on January first so I have to use it now. It is now August. I look at the rest of the year and see September as too soon to plan anything, November has the Macromedia MAX conference in Salt Lake City, and in December airfare increases with holiday travel. This leaves me with October. Conveniently enough my new friend, by way of Christina, Aude will be working in September as has October off. The nice part of this fact is that Aude lives in Lausanne, Switzerland and encourages visitors.
With Julie's encouragement and help I have been keeping an eye on airfare checking Swiss, KLM, Alitalia, and all the internet travel sites in existence on a daily basis. The average price seems to be between 550 and 800 plus taxes and fees. The problem with this is that these flights put me in and out of one airport. I want to go visit Paris while I am there and this would require two TGV tickets, increasing the cost of my trip. I mentioned this little problem to Aude and she pointed me to STA.
STA travel is awesome and they have a few offices in the DC area. This is a great company for anyone wanting to travel but if you are a student or under 26 it is even better. If you are student you want to buy an International Student Identity Card and if you are no longer a student but are under 26 you should buy an International Youth Travel Card. Don't fret if you are over 26. For teachers and professors there is the International Teacher Identity Card. All of these cards allow the holder over 28,000 discounts world wide including travel through STA.
Beating out every online option, STA found flights on Scandinavian Airways leaving October first to Geneva Switzerland and returning from Paris both by way of Copenhagen for $498. With taxes, a $5 fee, and the $25 student card (because I only just graduated this year and still have my student ID) the total cost of my flight is $635.60. On top of this, my ISIC will get me a discount on the TGV to Paris and at restaurants and shops in Europe. This is so cool!
I promise to take my digital camera and blog my trip from Aude's iBook. I may even try to AudioBlog my adventure. As October draws near I will post my itinerary so that you can follow my trip. If anyone has any recommendations of things to see or do in Switzerland or Paris please let me know. I am so excited for my first real vacation as an adult!
1 Comments
Leave a comment
Who is this guy?
Sam, this sounds fabulous! I used to live/work in Paris, so I'll think of some cool stuff and let you know. What kind of art/sculpture do you like? there are several amazing museums that you could see depending on your taste. There is this cool feature exhibit/museum/performances pass that you can get ahead of time - that gives you unlimited access to all of the above, significantly cheaper, and you can save hours of time on not having to stand in lines. Then, the modern (objects d'art) furniture stores.... need I say more.
Katherine