Travel Fair
Visited the annual travel fair in the Helsinki Exhibition Center yesterday.
Plus:
- Picked up a cheap guidebook on Madeira.
- Visited two local quasi-adventure organizers: Aventura and Kon-Tiki.
- Was quite impressed by the tactics on how to avoid plumbing renovation: hit the Caribbean.
Minus:
- The big one: didn’t buy a cheap vacation for the easter holiday. And yeah, that’s on me, not the fair itself.
- Cacophony between folk musicians in adjoining booths.
- Didn’t see the U.K. booth and thus missed anything about Scotland.
- Missed also the Peter Pan booth.
- Crowds, and especially the inability to dodge passing people.
Juha Ylitalo:
I guess best part on the Kontiki is that their guides have academic background as biologist, etc., so they probably know plants, fishes, local ecosystem etc. better than average guide, who has built his/her career on guiding tourists sunny beaches.
January 21, 2008, 07:39On the other hand, if you go with them to Azores for example, they have bought all the services regarding flights, transportation between airport and hotel, etc. from Hispania. I haven’t check what is the price difference on going to Azores with Hispania and Kontiki, but I have no doubt on which one is cheaper.
P.S. Of course, if one is going alone on a trip, then its worth considering how difficult/expensive it would be to get to all hiking trails, etc. on your own vs. buying trip, where all that is included in a price.
lavonardo:
The guide-thing is indeed a big bonus - at least my plan would be to see and understand as much as possible of the target ecosystem(s), not hop around from location to location (which seems to be the deal with a good chunk of Aventura’s selection).
January 21, 2008, 16:42Going solo is obviously an option - but out in the boonies, especially in an unfamiliar territory, I’m kind of partial that someone else takes responsibility in being the final arbitrator what to do.
And besides, it’s all vacation, and I tend to stop worrying about money as soon I shut the door home and move to the airport. Obviously, if the margin is spectacularly and visibly large, things can be different.
Which trip(s) organized by Kon-Tiki have you taken?
Juha Ylitalo:
I’ve only been in one, which was Azores. Photo album is available at http://www.ylitalot.net/photos/public/Azores/
January 21, 2008, 18:51This trip was targeted for hiking. We had Heidi Arponen as our guide, who is sea biologist (at the time she was writing her PhD).
At the sametime with us Kon-Tiki had another group in there, which was targeted for those, whose primary interest was nature. They were guided by Seppo Vuokko.
If you want to check hiking oriented trips, remember to check Kaukoretket as well. They should compete pretty nicely with Aventura. My trips with Kaukoretket has been documented into http://www.ylitalot.net/photos/public/Kaukoretket.html