A traveler called last spring about Connemara and Donegal, read the two numbers, and asked which trip was worth more. Wrong question, and the honest answer took ten minutes. What one of these trips costs is arithmetic, not a grade. Donegal sat about a third above Connemara that season because the driving days were longer, the houses that take guests are further apart, and one leg needed a car for six days instead of four. Same country, same kind of week, different sum.
Booking here means this office takes your request, then arranges the reservation through to whichever company actually runs the week. Nothing is paid to this desk and no card details are kept anywhere in it. Look for a checkout, a basket or a payment screen on this site and you will not find one, on this page or any other. The operating company bills you directly under its own terms once you have agreed to them, and it pays this office a commission afterward. That arrangement is why the figures below are the operator's figures and not ours, and why we have no lever to move them.
The parts a per person figure is built from
Every trip page carries the same two lists in the same order, headed what the figure covers and what it leaves to you. Read them together: the second one is where the money you have not yet counted is sitting, and it is written out rather than summarised.
- Nights and the kind of room
- A guesthouse room with breakfast against a small hotel room with a private bath, at eight or nine nights, is most of the gap inside a pair.
- Ground transport
- Six days of a rented car with insurance excess sits well above four days plus two rail legs, and the pairs rarely match here.
- Guided days
- A day with a licensed local guide is priced by the day, and one pair half may carry three of them while the other carries one.
- Season
- The same room in the Dolomites in late July and in early June are two different figures, and the operator sets both.
- Party size
- Most of these figures assume two people sharing. One person alone carries a single supplement, which the operator states in writing before you agree to anything.
What sits outside every figure on this site
- Flights
- Not in any figure here. You buy your own, or the operator quotes them separately, and either way the number on this site does not include them.
- Meals beyond what is stated
- Breakfast is usually in. Dinners, lunches and anything at a bar are yours unless the written figure names them.
- Entry fees you choose on the day
- Cable cars, museums, a boat across to an island, a national park permit taken at the gate.
- Anything protective
- This office does not sell, arrange or advise on protection of any kind. If you want it, buy it elsewhere and read it yourself.
- Tips and personal spending
- Left to you entirely, and no figure here assumes an amount.
Why the two halves of a pair can differ by a third
Nobody planned it that way. Arran and Mull are both islands off the same coast and the sum for one runs materially under the other, because one has a ferry crossing of under an hour and the other has two crossings and a night that has to be spent where the boat leaves you. The Alpujarras run below the Picos de Europa mostly on room rates and driving distance. The Eifel runs below the Harz because the walking base sits in one town for the week instead of three.
None of that says a word about which week is more rewarding. A larger figure buys more nights, more driving, a guide on more days, or a room with a bath. A smaller one buys fewer of those things. We will set the two side by side, name what each figure contains, and leave the choice with you, which is the whole point of how this catalog is built. Read the pairs at the questions people ask and the sequence at how a request is handled if you want the mechanics before you write.
The written figure you receive names the operating company, the nights, the room type, the transport, the guided days, the single supplement if it applies, and everything the price excludes. It takes two to four working days to prepare, because somebody has to ask the operator for current availability and current rates rather than repeat last season's. If a rate has moved since this page was written, the written figure is the one that counts and this page is not.
Cancellation is the operator's, not ours, and the terms are set out at the cancellation terms before you commit to anything.
Ask for a figure on any trip in the catalog
Requests go through the form at any hour, and one is opened before the end of the working day. Name the pair or either half of it, the month you are thinking about, and how many people are traveling. If you would rather speak to a travel agent in Charlotte, the number is (704) 362-5187 and somebody at 4250 Congress Street, Suite 140 will pick up. Written figures go out by mail to the address you give us. Nothing you send commits you, and nothing you receive is a bill.