Booking Your Admissions In Advance

TTT 13
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Jenn: hey everyone. Welcome back to travel tips Tuesday. Very exciting. Today. I want to talk about something I have failed to do in the past, but I will do in the future

Meggan: a tip for all of us,

Jenn: a tip for all of us. And it is pre-booking tickets to attractions. And in today's world, it's actually more important than it ever was because it is now a requirement at some places where it wasn't before.

So in the past, Despite all of my planning, neurotic planning of the day, I didn't always want to, pre-book a ticket, especially a ticket that had a timed entrance on it because you, because you know, things change, maybe the weather is terrible that day and that thing is outside and you don't, you know what I mean?

I liked the little bit of flexibility to switch things around. However, I will tell you that I did spend two hours standing outside the Louvre in Paris waiting to buy tickets. And that was not fun.

Meggan: You didn't enjoy that.

Jenn: I did not enjoy that experience, especially when there was people walking by to go straight in.

Cause they had it. Right. So. I will be pre-booking tickets in the future. And right now we are planning our trip to Scotland and COVID-y times you have to book tickets and some of them are timed and some of them aren't. But most of the time they require you to book it in advance and you can't really just walk up and get tickets.

So. Do your research as our tagline, should be our tag line.

Meggan: It should be our tag line

Jenn: and they, you can also sometimes save a little bit of money as well, buying tickets online versus buying them at the gate. Usually like a couple of dollars, but that adds up over a trip. So I know it can make things less like spontaneous and less. Yeah, it's just more rigid. Like you've booked a time and you have to be there for that time.

But Meggan, have you run into this when you're planning your trip as well?

Meggan: Um, not so much upcoming trip yet. But in the past, yes. So we booked to the London eye for a specific time. One time, one time there. And actually coming up, we will have to book when we want to visit Dachau in Germany, you will have to book that in advance. So we will be doing that. But you're right. Like it does take away, like you don't know what your day is going to bring you two months from now. So in your brain, even though you like to plan, you still want to be able to understand, well, maybe that day that won't work. So it is, it's something you do have to commit to.

Now, when we were in Dublin, we wanted to go to the Guinness storehouse and do the whole tour and stuff. So what we did honestly is same day. We sat in like a cafe and to save money we did actually book them in advance for two hours later.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: That is a bit of the same thing where you're not doing it two months before, but sort of same day, but not everything is going to work that way.

And that was in the before times. So I really just think it's going to be something that people are really going to have to pay attention to because you don't want to show up somewhere and be. Oh, I needed a ticket for this because of X, Y, or Z. So yes, it takes away from the spontaneity, but do you really want to see that thing or not?

Jenn: Yeah, exactly. And like, even a lot of the museums in like the UK are free and you still need to book a time now. Yeah. You can't just show up. So, I mean, they're trying to control the crowds and I totally understand why they're doing it. And maybe if you went early in the day, Like give you a time to come back or you might be able to go right in depending. But yeah, you, you do have to, to book a date at a time.

Meggan: It's a whole new landscape out there.

Jenn: It is a new it's a whole new world out there, but yeah, I think for us, we will be booking things that we definitely want to do. Leaving time open because we've run into the problem. When we were in London, we were doing the tower of London and it took way, look, we spent so much more time there than I thought that we would.

And so I'm glad that I didn't have anything booked right after that because we planned to do the tower bridge. And by the time we got kicked out of the tower of London, cause they were like, we're closing, like get out. So we didn't get to do the tower bridge at all, which I was really sad about, but also glad that I didn't pay to book and then rush ourselves through the tower of london and when we really enjoyed it, and that's why we really took our time there and spent a lot of time, but also not enough time because I got kicked out.

So I have to go back.

Meggan: I obviously didn't see all the things I wanted to see. Well, at least, you know, you have something to add back to your list.

Jenn: Yes. Yes. So that is our tip. for today. Check it out. do some research.

Meggan: That's everything in a different now you can't take it for granted that it's just going to be there for you when you arrived. So happy trip planning, and hopefully you get to see everything you want to see.

Jenn: Yes, that's all we have this week on the travel mug podcast. Thanks so much for listening. You can visit us on our website, travel mug, podcast.com. Facebook and Instagram at travel mug podcasts. And you can support the show by buying this coffee might get a fun blooper or something on there.

Meggan: We don't make mistakes, but we'll just make one up for just the book made up

Jenn: and consider leaving us a five star review on apple. Or Spotify shares shows the traveling pal. They know that's a lot of things on your to-do list, but I believe in you, you can do it.

Meggan: Yes, me too.