Tag Archives: Savings

Entertainment Book
DEPARTURES

Upcoming Vacation in a Major US City? Get the Entertainment Book

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Entertainment Book

By Lakshmi:

Who?  Anyone who is planning a vacation in the US and wants to save money.

What? An Entertainment Book for the area you are visiting.

How? You can order an Entertainment Book for $35 -$50 depending on the area you are visiting.  Each book is filled with deals on local attractions, restaurants, fast food joints, local and national stores and much more.

You can review a list of books available and preview offers at

http://www.entertainment.com/discount/local_editions.shtml

Coupons in the book can be used for over a year.

Why?  For many years, our family has purchased Entertainment Books for local savings and recovered the purchase price of the book typically with a single purchase.  We have also gifted these to friends and family.  From buying shoes to saving money at the movies, from getting 50% off or buy one get one free at many attractions, restaurants and events, the book has always provided oodles of savings.  Several years ago, we also got into the habit of purchasing these to help us subsidize our vacations.

Just recently, the $35 books for 2012 went on sale for $5 each and we scooped up two for our upcoming vacation.  Going through the list of things we want to do from jet skiing to parasailing to helicopter tours, the savings are adding up to well over a 1,000 dollars.

At Paupers, we believe in traveling without breaking the bank and for many years the Entertainment Book has been a key enabler on that front.

Vasstrafik (http://www.misi.se/)
DEALS, DEPARTURES

To Buy or Not to Buy – The Gothenburg City Card? Or a One or Three Day Travel Card?

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By Lakshmi:

Who?  Anyone visiting Gothenburg for a day or more and looking for a way to save money.

What?   The Gothenburg City Card offers free access to all public transportation as well as free entrance to a variety of attractions throughout the city.  It costs adults 285 SEK for 24 hours or 395 SEK for 48 hours.  A five-day mobile version of the card was unavailable due to technical difficulties.  The one day Travel Card costs  70 SEK and the three-day version is 140 SEK.

How?  You can buy the City Card at the local tourist offices or most hotels.  The Travel Card can be purchased at stores throughout the city, including 7-11′s, tobacco shops, supermarkets, etc.

Why?  These cards do save you money, but you need to figure out what you are interested in doing prior to splurging.  As we did our analysis, we realized that many of the museums we wanted to visit were free for those under the age of 25, and for me, I could just get a museum card for 40 SEK with access to 5 museums.  This lead us to conclude that the City Card was not a great value in our situation.  Additionally, given that we had a week in Gothenburg, we wanted to have complete access to transportation for at least three days as we covered far-flung parts of the city.    For these reasons, we chose to buy the 3 day Travel card for 140 SEK along with a museum card for me.  The total outflow for these was 320 SEK, cheaper than the alternative.  For the remaining couple of days, depending on our plans, we may either buy a one day Travel Card, or simply pay as we go.

PS.  One important note – Please do not store your Travel Card near a phone.  I did and demagnetized the card within a day.  Next I had to find out who would fix this for me.  Our hotel recommended the local ticket seller who said he could do nothing, and I needed to take it back to where I purchased it from.  When I went there, they wanted my receipt.  When I went back with my receipt, they said they could do nothing and directed me to the Vasttrafik office.  Here they finally gave me a slip of paper that noted my card validity for two more days.  So, do yourselves a favor, and keep your card carefully!