Go online before you go offline

Before scooting off to your travel agent, give the Internet a chance to help you plan your trip. The net is a remarkable resource for travellers, with tools to do everything from booking tickets to planning walking tours to saving money on guide fees and museum audio tours. Here’s how you can click your way to a great bargain holiday:

How to fly
Sight and sound: Enjoy London’s National Gallery with an audio tour. Petey YorickThere are varieties of ticket deals out there but finding the cheapest one can be confusing. Which is why you should begin planning your trip at a reliable plain vanilla travel search engine such as the clean, efficient and Indian www.ixigo.com, or the more international www.kayak.com. The idea is not to actually book tickets but to find out the flights and fares available in your time-band of choice. Deals and discounts can come later. So at the time of writing this piece, iXiGO tells us that Delhi-London returns via Dubai on Emirates are going at around Rs22,700.
The next step is to see if you can save even more on a ticket booking website. Travelocity India, we notice, currently has an Rs2,000 discount on London tickets. So pop over there and indeed, the same Emirates tickets are available slightly cheaper at Rs21,320.
Two pieces of advice before you book your tickets though: First, always double check on the airline’s website to confirm flight timings and fares. In fact, booking directly on the airline website has the added benefit of letting you choose seats with legroom and the seafood dinner. Second, always be clear about the sort of discount or deal the booking website is giving you. There are straight discounts, cash-backs credited to your card account later and discount vouchers for future bookings. Read the fine print.
Yours truly secured a return ticket for two on the Delhi-London sector on Emirates (via Dubai) for a thrifty Rs46,000. Just eating all the in-flight meals, throwing back a few beers and watching every movie on their entertainment system is worth the investment.
What to do Guidebooks are expensive and when you are on short holidays they don’t really help you prioritize.
Instead, tap into the publicly voted list of “Things To Do” on Tripadvisor.com. Popular cities such as London are well served by thousands of attractions and hundreds of ratings. And there are surprises. What can possibly rank higher on the list of London to-dos than the National Gallery and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre?
The Fat Tire Bike Tour of London is what. A quick browsing of the Fat Tire website and a brief, friendly email exchange later, you’re all set to see a big chunk of London on cycle with a qualified guide. All you need to do is assemble outside the Queensway tube station any day at 11am and you’re all set to go. Bicycles come as part of the £16 (Rs1,160) per head
Mint