From Nation's Capital to Nation's Capital: The Azza Street Spy

Last minute trip to Budapest!
One of the great perks of living in Israel is the closer and cheaper travel destinations. (And the freshness and variety of the dairy products.) Rather than tacking on some European city to an Israel trip, I can just go to the European city!

The first part of my trip involved picking a target month. Off-peak travel is Feb time, but new in my job at the public schools, I was not going anywhere til after June. My mother visited during July, so I figured I could travel in August before school starts again. Obvious disadvantage: Aug is peak travel season making things a bit pricier. After 9 Av [read: ~10 days ago] I started giving my destination more serious thought.

From Israel, one can get really cheap packages with chartered flight and hotel to Greek islands, Turkish coast, etc. However, I'm not really a beach person and Israel has a great coast. Even if I can have an all-inclusive package to Cyprus for 3-4 days for $250, I'm still only in Cyprus... After scoping out the last minute travel websites, I decided to pass on the cheapest options, Rhodes, Crete, Ankara, etc.

Hence, Istanbul seemed like a great choice. Among the cheapest and closest to get to, and relatively cheap once we're there, a logical first destination as an Israeli traveler. Just like most Americans go to London and Israelis go to Greece for their first European trip [geographically the closest and most similar to the originating country], Turkey was our first choice.

Most of these travel packages run from Sun-Thurs or Fri-Mon; meaning, mid-week or weekend. For some unclear reason, Istanbul only had weekends available. Again, living in the great, holy country of Israel, I have no desire to travel to Istanbul for the weekend. Mid-week is fine, and weekend is just silly. I won't get to do anything...

So, moving out of the Middle East and into Europe. Israel is geographically closer to the Eastern/Central European countries, and you spend less money when you get there. Having spent a quality 8-hour layover in Prague, I wanted to explore a new city. (I know 8 hours isn't much; but I really packed it in. Also, it was Aug 2002, a mere day before the disastrous flooding. It rained when I was there, and I left a flood in my wake...) This brought the travel planning to Budapest.

After checking out more websites, I called my travel agent to see what she could offer. She has consistently outdone other travel agents and discount websites. I now have at least two friends who use her...

She found me a great deal to Budapest: 6 days, 5 nights; airfare, hotel, transportation to and from airport in Hungary and taxes for $569! Considering what's included, it sounds like a great deal. We depart Mon am at 6:30 [ugh!] and take the red eye back Sat night. If we booked the hotel independently it would be a sixth night, b.c of the redeye, and would probably be this total cost. But, after seeing so many deals for ~$300 I had to sleep on spending this much.

I posted on janglo yahoogroups requesting to borrow a travel book. (Janglo is like Craig's list and totally rocks.) After reading the book, I was getting really excited and into it! What a great place, full of things to do, manageable city to navigate with the mass transit, and an active Jewish community to join on shabbat.

Problem: Our package hotel did not seem to be near the Jewish community. While this would not matter Sun-Fri am, I wanted to be walkable to the community for shabbat. Again, I live in Israel. I have no need to subject myself to hiding out in a hotel when there is a functioning community not far. If I were staying in Malta, Zagreb, fine. But, this is silly and unnecessary.

I called back the travel agent and told her that for shabbat we wanted to be in the kosher hotel that is in the community. (Their website lists them as a three-star hotel, like ours, and during peak charges 100 euro a night for a double.) She called me back and said for only $30 more ($599) we could have the whole package at this hotel. Not only does this solve our shabbat problem with limited additional expense, its location is better than the first hotel for the weekdays.

My travel buddy needed more time to think. We are poor Israelis with little dispensable cash. But how does one pass this up?

I loaned her the travel book that I borrowed, and she started getting excited too! Wow, there are Turkish baths, palaces, museums, an island off the river, etc. It was a done deal.

Called the agent back today. She reserved for us two of the last three seats (eeks!) and the price came down to $559, cheaper than the first quote. Although, all in the same ballpark.

And so, I will soon reaffirm my Israeli-ness by taking a chartered, discounted package to a European travel destination. Life here is hard enough, it's important to maximize the advantages :)

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