Transport has a strange role in travel. When it works, you barely remember it afterwards. When it goes wrong, it can dominate the whole trip. The overpriced airport taxi, the flight that turned out to be much more expensive than the headline fare or the hire car deposit that failed at the counter are the kinds of stories people tell for years. Almost all of them are avoidable and almost none of them are avoided by spending more money.
Awareness of how the different types of transport work pays off on every trip you'll ever take. Once you know to read a flight fare, what to check before signing a hire contract and how to crack a city's ticket system, those skills travel with you. This page gives you an overview of the transport side of trip planning and links you to our detailed guides.
Finding the right flight
For most trips, the flight is the biggest single transport cost and the search for it can feel like a game designed to confuse you. Prices change constantly, the cheapest fare often isn't the cheapest once bags and seats are added and the booking sites all claim to have the best deal. With the right approach, you can cut through most of that and book with confidence instead of doubt. Our guide on finding flights shows you how to search, compare and book the flight that actually fits your trip.
Hiring a car
A hire car can completely change what a trip is able to cover, from the beaches beyond the bus routes to the villages between the famous towns. At the same time, few travel products have more traps built into them, from counter upsells and insurance confusion to charges that arrive on your credit card weeks after the trip. All of them are avoidable once you know them. Our guide on hire cars covers the whole process, from deciding whether you need a car at all to booking, insurance, pickup and return.
Using public transport at your destination
Once you've arrived, the daily getting-around begins and it's one of the areas where travellers overpay the most. The difference between moving through a city like a tourist and moving through it like a local is significant, in money and in how much of the place you actually see. Metro systems, buses, trams and local trains are usually the fastest and cheapest way around, once you understand how the tickets work. Our guide on public transport at your destination helps you figure out any city's system quickly and avoid the classic beginner’s mistakes.
Think door to door, not just booking to booking
One principle connects everything in this category. The real cost of any journey is measured door to door, in time and nerves as well as money. The cheap flight into a distant airport with an expensive transfer often does not turn out the be the favourable option compared to the pricier flight into the close one. The hire car that's perfect for the countryside is a burden in the city. The transport decision that looks best in isolation isn't always the best choice for the entire trip.
That's also why transport belongs in the destination choice itself. Travel time is one of the filters in our Trip Finder and when you build a route from your saved destinations, the estimated travel times between the stops show you what the journey will really involve. Plan the transport as deliberately as the accommodation and you will not only save money and energy, but will also be able to enjoy your destination a lot more.
