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Airfares to Europe Can Be Cheaper Than You Think

With fewer flights across the Atlantic since the September 11 attacks, planes are more crowded than ever, and fewer bargains can be found according to industry trade journals. One way to get cheaper fares is to do what savvy travelers have done for years; namely, to buy package tours that include air transport. Insight Vacations, a Long Island-based firm, says it can prove its airfares are lower than comparable flights on, for instance, Expedia. They say you can save at least $205 per person on transatlantic fares by purchasing one of their tours.

Take their 9-Day Italian Intermezzo Tour, for example, where the package price of $2,030 includes an air portion of $960 (New York to Rome, round trip). This they contrast with an Expedia air rate of $1,213 for July 19 making for a savings of $253 per person. On Insight's 12-day Rome to London tour (in which you fly New York to Rome, then overland to London, returning by air to New York from the British capital), their package rate is $2,130, of which the air portion is $610, they say. Insight then contrasts that with Expedia's air rate for the open-jaw trip of $842 (on September 14, for example), saying you save $232 per person. Finally, Insight gives another example, their 18-day Treasures of Spain, Portugal & Morocco, costing $2,145 for the entire package. Of this the air portion (New York-Madrid round trip) is $585. The comparable Expedia air rate, for September 6, by way of example, is $790, making a savings of $205 per person.

Of course, you have to buy the entire package, but this will save you, too, unless you plan to backpack and stay in hostels on your own or something like that. The balance of the money you pay Insight goes for airport/hotel transfers, centrally-located first-class hotel accommodations (with service charges, taxes and porterage all included), air-conditioned motorcoach, and often much more, depending on the tour you take, and all are escorted. Flights from New York are on American Airlines, with add-on air service available from most major gateways.

Insight president Stuart Cohen says that, in addition to all this being included in the price, the firm "provides special attention... so that passengers do not have to wait in line for a gondola when we arrive in Venice or for the many museums we visit, especially during the peak summer travel period."

For information on these trips or the many other escorted tours the firm provides throughout Europe and North America, contact Insight through your local travel agent or get brochures through www.inusa.insightvacations.com.


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