Written Works by Hosun Lee London Travel Journals   A REVIEW OF TRAVEL AGENCIES.. OR BON VOYAGE, CHARLIE BROWN by Hosun Lee CAMPUS TRAVEL Without a doubt, Campus Travel is my favorite student- oriented travel agency. Their main office is located just outside of Victoria station on 52 Grovesnor. Their office also has a book store and a travel gear store in the same complex. When you enter the office, you're confronted by an efficient queuing system. There's a board to your right, where you select a numbered ticket depending on where you want to travel. Afterwards, just wait for your number to come up. On average, there's a 10-15 minute wait for a representative. The wait will be shorter if you go early in the morning. I've been to Campus Travel three times. You can purchase rail passes and flight tickets, as well as Hostelling International memberships. You can also sign up for tours, but their selection is limited. The representatives can try to book you a reservation at a hostel, but I found the service lacking. You have to pay in advance, and they can only try to do reservations in one or two hostels at the most. For example, they could only look up one hostel in Rome (beat me why). One of the main reasons that I like Campus Travel is that they have all of the functions of full-time travel agency. For example, they can look up visa information for any country you need. This beats calling up consulates, since you don't have to make phone calls, and it's usually faster. The two stores at the center are not owned by the agency. The travel gear store carries a good selection of rucksacks (one of my anonymous roommates can vouch for this), sleeping bags, and other supplies. The Stanford's book store is not very large, but it carries nearly every travel and language guide you'll need. TOP DECK ADVENTURE TRAVEL CENTRE Top Deck is another travel agency/store setup. It's located right off of the Earl's Court tube stop, at 135 Earl's Court Road. I can't comment on the travel agency portion, as I haven't used it. However, Top Deck is recommended in several travel guides. Its convenient location means you should at least check their prices. The prices for flights I saw were similar to Campus Travel and Council Travel. Top Deck also has a travel store right next door. It's a little bigger than the one at Campus Travel, but there wasn't a wider range of products. I bought a simple 30-litre back pack for #25. Like other stores, you can also purchase sleeping bags and miscellaneous travel gear. COUNCIL TRAVEL Council Travel, you've got to either love it or leave it. There are people who'll rave about it, believing it to be right up there with the Red Cross. These are the same people who refuse to believe that Menudo is dead. These are also the same people who will swear that the television show Blossom is a poignant and in-depth striking commentary on the disfunctional nature of the social infrastructure of an American family in an ever-growing global community marked by the turbulent background of a slowly- unifying economic market. I'm not one of them. I went to the Council Travel office near the Oxford Circus tube stop (there's a Korean restaurant right next door, but it never seems to be open, even though there are always people inside). The difference between Council Travel and Campus Travel are immediately noticeable. For one thing, the office is much smaller. It's a simple office with desks. I went there to book a flight to Italy for spring break. The price for a round trip was about £130. I asked the agent if she could check on visa requirements for Italy, since I wasn't sure if I would need one. The receptionist looked annoyed. She had the amazing ability to mumble and sneer at you while she was asleep (at least, she looked liked she was sleeping). She then attempted to explain to me that Council Travel was not a foreign consulate, and thus had no information about visas. This was a total shock to me, since I thought that this was the Oxford Circus branch of the Italian embassy. I told her that other travel agencies do have visa and travel information, and she responded by grunting inarticulate noises. My experience with her was like trying to strike a conversation with a deaf grandmother...after she was dead and buried. Still, I can't deny that some people have had good experience with Council Travel. Those people obviously need some serious help. (Hi Joyce!) I don't know, maybe everyone's at the office is happy and joyous until the evening hits. Maybe they all heard about me and wanted to kick me out of there. Who knows. On the plus side, Council Travel does offer better travel packages then Campus Travel does. They always have some type of travel tour service available, which includes accommodations and transport. This is a significant advantage that Council Travel has over some of its rivals. So if you are looking for low-priced packages, then I'd recommend that you check out Council Travel. OR, you could try out another travel agency, like...... THOMAS COOK Don't let the name fool you. Despite being a world-renowned travel agency, Thomas Cook, is an excellent travel agency that has competitive prices (and no, I'm not getting paid by them to advertise). The last time I went, the flights to New York were cheaper than the ones offered by Campus and Council Travel. Thomas Cook can do flight, tour, hotel and automobile reservations. They also offer currency exchanges, traveller's checks, and they probably have a masseuse and funeral parlor somewhere. Also, like most normal travel agencies, Thomas Cook can look up visa and travel requirements for you, and they'll make printouts on request. The one I frequent is located off of the Bayswater tube stop, near Whiteley's. Odds are, if you're walking around aimlessly, you'll run into a Thomas Cook office. The main problem with Thomas Cook is that although the queues are short, there is a long wait. The customers want full travel packages, and this will result in the agents spending up to an hour with a client. Still, the agents are very patient and are willing to spend hours if necessary. When I went to inquire about travel packages to Italy, they quoted me £270 for a seven night, three-city tour. You'd stay in three-star hotels, and breakfasts and some dinners were included, as well as transportation and tours. We decided not to do the tour, but because member of the group would be arriving at different times, we agreed to find a place (like a hotel) that we could all meet at. So we used their hotel reservation service. For £25, our group got four nights of stay at a three star hotel in Rome, the Hotel Santa Costanza. We got our own bathrooms, unlimited breakfast, phone and a TV (not that it did us much good. Although watching the X-Files in Italian is an experience). Considering the fact that many of the hostels in Italy were only £5-10 cheaper, we got a good deal. While I don't recommend that everyone go to Thomas Cook as their first choice, I do think that it might be a good place to look at. Remember that the Thomas Cook Hotel Reservation centers you see aren't actually branches of the main office. They're affiliates, and do not offer the full range of services. AMERICAN EXPRESS I've never tried them in London. I did use the AmEx travel centers in Italy though. If you have an American Express card, then you should make sure to use the services that come with it. American Express has a complete travel center inside each main affiliate. The prices I saw weren't that much different that the prices I saw at other travel agencies. Still, it's the only travel agency that can truly claim to be international. One of the most handy functions of American Express is the ability to withdraw from your American checking account without paying a fee. All you need is a personal check, or the address of your local branch. Keep in mind that the exchange rate won't be quite as good as it could be, so don't abuse this feature. It's still cheaper and handier to use your ATM card, but in an emergency, American Express will do just fine.