Flying Solo

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town
is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” - Freya Stark

Having travelled alone extensively during 2008, I can heartily agree with Freya Stark. However, there are advantages and disadvantages to travelling solo, and this entry looks at a few of them.

Disadvantages
The three most obvious disadvantages are bearing the full cost of the trip on your own; your personal security; and not having someone to share the experience with.

The Costs
Generally, travelling on your own is more expensive than travelling with at least one other person. The old saying that, "Two can live as cheaply as one," makes a lot of sense when travelling in company.

Accommodation is always cheaper per person when shared between two people, since persons travelling alone have to pay a premium for occupying a room on their own. Other costs can be shared between two people, such as car rental and fuel costs, Chinese banquets and extra large pizza - not to mention sharing the cost of a decent bottle of red wine as opposed to a bottle of cheap plonk.

Security
Travelling in company is generally safer than travelling solo - especially for women. And that applies wherever you travel, not just in certain parts of the third world. Horror stories abound by the hundreds – if not thousands – of holidays gone wrong, and this is neither the time or place to recount them. For now it is enough to raise a red flag about it.

The Shared Experience
Sharing the experience – that is, sharing the joys, pitfalls, highs and lows, of a journey with a good friend of partner. Having someone to reminisce with after a long and exciting vacation can be one of the great rewards of travel. Conversations that begin: “Do you remember when…?” Or, “What about the day we…”, can lead to long recollections of shared adventures that keep the travel experience alive for many years after the actual events themselves.

Advantages
The most obvious benefit of flying solo is the fact that you can do what you want, when you want, for a long as you want, and not compromise your choices by negotiating with a travel partner. The solo traveller answers to no-one but themselves.

Want to stay up until 3am - be my guest. Want to sleep-in until 11am - go ahead. Want to change your schedule at the last minute and go on a river cruise rather than visit a museum – you’ll have no-one to argue with but yourself over that decision.

Yes, it seems hedonistic and selfish, but hey, you are paying thousands of dollars for your vacation, so you might as well make the most of it. Constant haggling over where to go and when, with a partner who doesn’t share your sense of adventure or interests can sap all the joy and excitement out of the travel experience. By travelling on your own you have no-one to blame but yourself if you are not having a good time.

Of course, you have to really enjoy your own company if you are going to travel solo. This has started me thinking about that aspect of the travel experience, and I will return to the question soon in a future entry.

Hidden Gems: The New York Pass

~ While writing yesterday’s entry, I remembered one of the best money saving Hidden Gems of my New York visit. The New York Pass. Since many readers may already be planning a Spring visit to the Big Apple, I thought I might as well write about the Pass today.

If you are planning a trip to New York City, and want to get the most value for money out of your stay, you must get a New York Pass – especially if visiting the host of stunning attractions scattered around the city is high on your list.

The New York Pass is the size of a credit card, and comes with a handy pocket sized, full colour booklet containing details of virtually every major attraction, and then some, in New York City (and that includes all five boroughs, not just in Manhattan.

Seriously, if there is one purchase you should make before you travel to New York, the New York Pass is it.

Don’t worry, it won’t go out of date. The time limit on the Pass begins the moment you use it for the first time. When I bought mine, I held onto it for almost two weeks before I started to utilise it. However, you must remember this (a kiss is not a kiss… sorry, I couldn’t help myself); you need to know that once you have used the New York Pass for the first time, you then have to use it within the allocated time period of the Pass.

For example; if you purchase a 3 Day Pass, you must use it over three consecutive days. So, even if you are going to be in New York for five days, you can’t use the Pass on say, Monday, Tuesday, and then again on Friday. It will no longer be valid by Friday. If you start using the New York Pass on a Monday, you will have to use it over the next two days – Tuesday and Wednesday – as well.

However, that is virtually the only restriction the Pass comes with.

Click the image below to find out more and order your New York Pass - or keep reading to see a partial list of what is on offer.

The list of attractions the New York Pass includes presents unbeatable value if you use it to its full potential. Here are just a few of them:

• Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
• Empire State Building
• Guggenheim Museum
• Sports Museum of America
• Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Bodies…The Exhibition

“What about the kids,” I hear you ask.

Well, I’m glad you did, because with a New York Pass you gain entry to…

• Madame Tussaud's
• The New York Skyride
• Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
• Four zoos: the Bronx, Central Park, Prospect Park, and Queens Zoos
• Brooklyn Children's Museum
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
• Staten Island Children's Museum

And much more.

If you are interested in the arts, the New York Pass is perfect:

• Bronx Museum of the Arts
• Carnegie Hall Tours
• Tour at Lincoln Center
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
• Queens Museum of Art
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• … and as already noted above…
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art

And still the list goes on.

Remember: purchasing a New York Pass means you have already paid admission fees to all the above places of interest as well as many others. It also means that since you have the Pass, in many cases you get to go to the head of the queue, since you don’t need to line up for entry tickets.

In addition to the above (and many others I haven’t mentioned), you are also entitled to money saving discounts on a host of items at other participating outlets.

Believe me, if you can’t find something for everyone in the New York Pass booklet – I’ll eat my hat!

This is truly one of the best value Hidden Gems of my overseas trip. Click on the image below to find out more. You’ll be glad you did.

Statue of Liberty: Get the full experience

~ This is an extended review of an earlier one I posted to the Trip Adviser web site on April 28, 2008.

Five weeks into my New York stay, I finally got around to visiting the Statue of Liberty. It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to see it – up close and personal, like. But one of the benefits of staying in one location for an extended period of time, is the ability to eliminate the need to rush. It is a luxury few people seem to give themselves when they travel, and I had decided to give myself that very luxury during my New York City visit.

So after a couple of false starts (one due to rain, and the other due to the long lines of people queuing up to board the boats ferrying visitors out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island), I made an early start from my base at the Greenpoint, Brooklyn YMCA, and joined the relatively short queue at the foot of Manhattan.

Unfortunately, I and about 80% of the other visitors who visit the Statue of Liberty were not able to enter the base of the monument where an exhibition area is located. Nor were we able to go up to the Observatory, some 10 floors above ground level, to take in the views. Heck, we couldn’t even get to the lower promenade onto the remains of Fort Wood, upon which the Statue Of Liberty stands. Oh, and don’t even think about climbing to the very top of the Statue. Nobody gets to do that anymore.

Apart from the obvious security issues, I understand it’s because they just can’t accommodate the huge numbers of people who visit the monument each year. However, they can find room for some of the four million visitors, so the trick is to find out how you can become one of those select few.

According to the visitors guide, which you can pick up from the information kiosks on the island, you must have something called a “time pass” to enter the monument (it’s amazing what you can find out once it’s too late to do anything about it).

Quoting from the brochure: “Time passes include a ranger-led program, viewing the statue’s interior and other public areas, and visiting the Statue of Liberty exhibit and original torch.”

They then go on to write: “You can obtain time passes with the advance purchase of ferry tickets (at) 1-866-STATUE4 or online at Statue Reservations. A limited number of time passes are available each day at no charge to walkins at the ferry ticket offices.”

If you are lucky enough to secure one of these ‘time passes’, you have now scored yourself a
‘reservation’. A reservation means that you don’t have to queue up with the hundreds of other tickets holders who have to wait for up to 90 minutes or more, to board a ferry to Liberty Island. There is a separate (much shorter) line for holders of these reservations.

Now that you know – plan your visit to the Statue Of Liberty accordingly.

For those visitors who don’t get a time pass, a trip out to the Statue Of Liberty is still one of the ‘must see’ locations on any New York stop. Exhibit panels around the island have orientation and historical information on the Statue Of Liberty. National Park Rangers conduct guided tours throughout the day, and you can also make use of the self-guided audio tours that are available.

Apart from all that, it is just such a monumental structure to begin with, that you really must see it up close to appreciate the scale and size of the thing. And to think, initially the powers that be didn’t want the statue, even though it was being given to the United States as a gift.

If you have time, try and watch the short History Channel film about the making of the Statue which is screened continuously at the monument. Or do your own research before you go, by visiting the official Statue of Liberty web site here, where you will get the latest, up-to-date information.

By the way, Ellis Island is considered to be part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and your ticket gives you the opportunity to visit that location as well, although if you are pressed for time, you could simply stay on the ferry and return to Manhattan.

I will write about Ellis Island in a forthcoming entry.

Oh, and finally, my ticket to the Statue of Liberty National Monument came as part of the price I paid for a New York Pass - which I will also write about soon. In the meantime, just click on the image below to check out the New York Pass for yourself.