Transportation

While many holidays include air travel, other transport options are important at destinations, even if these are only bicycles at a resort!

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Some of the issues to consider with transport include:

Routes

Transport businesses supply online and downloadable maps, showing routes that allow planning of travel between destinations.
This is part of a map for metro services in Vienna.

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Apps for transport often combine routing, timetables, ticketing and booking so that options can be explored quickly and bookings completed.
This image shows train details for a service in Switzerland.

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Some apps are 'live' meaning that they are continually updated so that departure times can be checked, ticketing can be selected and paid for and then tickets displayed when required on the mobile device. Note that using these apps will require mobile data in other countries which may use 'global roaming' on your mobile phone or a special SIM card in a mobile device.

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Ticketing

Like airlines, many other transport businesses now offer early purchase, discount or other special fare deals.
Understanding the options allows the best choices to be made for the type of travel preferred.

Many cities now offer combined ticketing so that journeys can be made on buses, trams, trains, ferries and other local transport.
In many cases 24 hour day tickets can be purchased and may offer extra value with groups able to travel on one ticket.
Intercity travel may be best accessed by pre-purchased travel passes or tickets, whereas local and regional transport may be better accessed by tickets purchased on the day of travel.
Internet research will show the options.

Some ticketing options can only be accessed before overseas travel as they are not available to local travellers in their own country.

See also below notes for Tourist Passes.

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Reservations

To ensure comfort while travelling it is often preferred to reserve seats, especially when travelling with much luggage.
Some routes do not provide reservations while others may have mandatory reservations.
It is possible that a fee may be paid for reservations.

Tourist Passes

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In many cities there are a variety of tourist passes available that may include transport services.
Many tourist passes will include entry to attractions, discounts and other value added items.
Some cities offer a variety of tourist passes so take care to view the options

Websites provide detailed information that allows comparison of features to make the best choice for each traveller.
It is important to do the comparison of offers available as some passes are extremely good value BUT only if you are able to extract that value with activities that are of interest.

e Pass

In many cities now the public transport utilises an eCard system to tap on / tap off that makes travel fast and easy for locals.
These cards are often also easily available to tourists and provide a simplification of transport ticketing.
This type of card needs to be 'topped-up' to ensure it does not run out of credit but otherwise is easy to use.
Many have a deposit that will be refunded on departure if desired but the eCard may remain active for some years so can be used for return trips.
Examples are the Melbourne Myki Card, London Transport Oyster Card, Hong Kong Metro Card or Paris Navigo.

Rail Passes

Rail passes such as Eurail Pass are often excellent value if used for expensive, fast, long distance trains between cities.
They also provide very good value when multiple services are used on the same day such as an intercity journey and then local journeys after arrival.
They may be poor value on only local train services where a day ticket bought locally may be only a modest price.

Some countries have day tickets that will allow regional travel for up to 5 people in a group at modest prices.

City Passes

City passes encourage tourism in a particular city and it is important to check the conditions of use.
Sometimes these passes offer combined transport and venue entry but check the prices for local bus, tram and train services and actual entry prices for the venues.
There are often transport only passes that are very well priced and then it is only necessary to pay entry to the desired venues.

Some passes are 'day passes' that expire at midnight of the day of issue.
Others are '24 hour' passes that start at the time of issue and last a full day.
This means that a pass purchased at 4pm will last until the following day at 4pm.

Other Passes

Many countries offer 'cash cards' that are the same size as a credit card and are loaded with local currency which can be topped up whenever needed.
These cards allow easy travel and purchasing in specific areas of large cities.

Luggage

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While it is tempting to travel with enough clothing for every situation, it may get quite tedious managing heavy luggage in multiple bags.
It is also important to check the luggage allowance when travelling with more than one transport provider.
Most transport providers will have information on-line that details the luggage allowances.

Many airlines will have differing luggage allowance depending on the destination country.
It is possible for example, to have allowable luggage on an international flight (eg 30kg total in 2 bags) that will not be allowed on further international or domestic flights (eg 20 kg in one bag).
Bags thus may be overweight or in greater numbers than allowed on some flights.
Overweight or excess luggage can attract substantial extra expenses if purchased at check in. (of the order of $100 per bag, depending on the airline)

Likewise tourist bus tours usually limit luggage to a single piece, limited in size and no more than 20kg (apart from hand luggage)
Luggage on trains is not usually weight-limited but it is usually up to the individual rail traveller to load and store their luggage in the rail carriage unless there is some form of checked luggage system.

In some countries it is possible to send luggage by freight forwarders so that differing requirements, say, for a bus tour and a cruise can be accommodated on the one trip.

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