HOME AT FIRST’S CURRENT TRAVEL BARGAINS

Cotswolds

AUTUMN SPECIAL SALE

2 DESTINATIONS TO CHOOSE FROM:

• LONDON (Fab Capital of England)
• COTSWOLDS (classic Heart of England)

—————————————

TRAVEL BARGAIN!

7-Day Full-Package. Independent Travel with Apartment or Cottage, Flights, & TransPass or Car Rental

NEW LOWER PRICE!

BOOK THIS TRAVEL BARGAIN BY AUG. 6, 2024

TRAVEL to LONDON or rural ENGLAND

between 20SEP & 02NOV 2024

$AVE 27.24% – $817/person!

$2,182

PER PERSON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY

1-Week, Full-Package!

Special low rate 27% below our official, published 2024 Main Season prices to London & England. NOTE: supplements may apply for 2-person occupancy in larger lodgings.

——————————————

THIS FULL-PACKAGE TRIP INCLUDES:

• ROUND-TRIP FLIGHTS from NEW YORK (JFK/EWR) to LONDON (LHR or LGW).

Flights from all USA & Canada airports available.

Please inquire about fares from your home airport.

• 7 NIGHTS  LODGINGS in the destination of your choice:

• CENTRAL LONDON APARTMENTS near Tower Bridge
• Chipping Campden area cottages of the Cotswolds

• GROUND TRANSPORTATION:

• LONDON TRANSPORT PASSES for your use on the Underground, Red Buses, certain train lines (including the Docklands Light Railway, and the hyper-modern Elizabeth Line), even certain Thames River cruisers

• 1-WEEK OF CAR RENTAL: Pick-up and return at your arrival/departure airport. Includes unlimited miles, most taxes (some local taxes cannot be pre-paid), and basic insurance. 

• LONDON/ENGLAND ACTIVITIES GUIDE 

Comprehensive guide keyed for your visit with suggestions for sightseeing & touring, shopping, museums, restaurants, pubs, churches, castles, Royal England, activities including walks, day-trips out of London, and much more.

——————————————

CONSIDER A SECOND WEEK!

For a more leisurely trip & more time to enjoy your travels. 

ADD 7 NIGHTS LODGING & TRANSPORT FROM:

$1,200

PRICE PER PERSON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY FOR ADDING 1 WEEK OF LODGING & TRANSPORT. PRICE CAN VARY BY LODGING SELECTED & SEASONALITY. A HIGHER RATE APPLIES IF CHANGING LODGINGS OR REGIONS.

THE FINER DETAILS:

• TRIP PLANNING: HOME AT FIRST‘s London & England specialists help you plan an individualized, independent itinerary that meets your needs, tastes, interests, pace, & budget.

• FLY TRANSATLANTIC OVERNIGHT to LONDON, UK. Departures Fridays between September 20, 2024, & October 25, 2024, from New York City (JFK) or Newark NJ (EWR), USA. (Departures & Connecting Flights are available from all other USA & Canada airports — please inquire.) Arrive the following morning at your destination airport in London, UK.

• ARRIVAL NEXT DAY: Getting to your LONDON lodging.
      After flying all night from North America to London, you self-transfer via Underground or the new Elizabeth Line (or both) to your London apartment where you will be met by your landlord/host at a specific time introduced to your lodging when you take occupancy. 
     Alternatively, be met at the airport by our dedicated car service for a comfortable, personalized cross-London drive to your apartment. Your driver will show you and your luggage to your London apartment.

(This service free for guests who upgrade to Business Class airfare. This service option comes for an additional fee to all others. Please inquire.)

• ARRIVAL NEXT DAY: Getting to your rural ENGLISH COTSWOLDS lodging. After flying all night from North America to the UK, you pick-up your rental car at the airport and drive to your English destination where you will be met by your landlord/host at a specific time introduced to your lodging when you take occupancy.

• 1-WEEK’S LODGING: 7 total Nights in your pre-reserved cottage or apartment. Note that minimum occupancy numbers and some luxury upgrade supplements may apply to a few specific lodgings. 
    Your landlord, host, or their representative provides support during your visit if you have questions, or if problems or emergencies arise.

• OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL LODGING: Although this special package is priced for 7 nights of lodging, you may add a week in the apartment/cottage, or change locations to other regions of ENGLAND or WALES where HOME AT FIRST has lodgings. We are British Isles specialists and can custom-make all the arrangements.
Please inquire!

• GETTING AROUND LONDON using your London TransPass on London’s comprehensive transport network requires a little getting used-to. You will find the directions in our “London Activities Guide” quite useful in helping you get to your destinations efficiently and securely whether by Tube, bus, train, or river cruiser.

• GETTING AROUND RURAL ENGLAND driving a rental car on the left side of the road can initially be challenging. However, after a few hours of acclimatization, exploring England by car will become comfortable.
      Home At First’s lodgings in the Cotswolds and throughout England are ideally located for regional exploration.

• ACTIVITY GUIDE: Guests receive Home At First’s London or England “Activity Guides”, loaded with scores of pages of suggestions for exploring London by public transport or rural England by rental car: sightseeing, touring, visiting historic sites, mu9seums, pubs, restaurants, shopping, churches & cathedrals, and activities such as walking, shopping, and theatre-going.

• THIS OFFER EXPIRES MIDNIGHT AUGUST 6, 2024: To take advantage of this special Travel Bargain offer, you must book and pay for your trip prior to the end of August 6, 2024. These special prices are great travel values, but are non-refundable. We recommend you purchase travel insurance to cover (at the least) potential losses due to your needing to cancel your trip or needing to interrupt your trip to return home early. HOME AT FIRST reserves the right to end this offer early for any reason.

the best of norway IN 1 WEEK!

Travel across Norway by train & fjord cruiser!

• OSLO — eastern Norway on its own fjord; the nation’s capital, principal city, & cultural center. Home of the royal palace, top dining, Norway’s best shopping boulevard, several eclectic museums, and a world class opera house.

• The SOGNE FJORD — west-central; Norway’s longest & deepest fjord extends from the North Sea deep into the precipitous mountains. A few traditional rural villages cling to the Sogne’s rugged shores.

• BERGEN — the west coast; Norway’s 2nd city is surrounded by 7 mountains and a maze of inlets from the North Sea. medieval Bergen’s Bryggen harbor belonged to the northern European Hanseatic League of trading ports. Its colorful line of former warehouses are a World Heritage Site and a magnet for visitors.

FIRST TIME OFFER!

BOOK THIS TRAVEL BARGAIN BY AUG. 3, 2024

TRAVEL to NORWAY

LATE-SUMMER & FALL

TRAVEL 13SEP – 9NOV, 2024

$AVE 24.8% – $849/person!

$2,563

PER PERSON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY

1-Week, Full-Package to Norway!

Special low rate 25% below our official, published 2024 Main Season Norway prices.

Kayaking is one of many adventure activities possible in Fjord Norway.

Photo © www.fjordnorway.com/Fjord Norway.

NORWAY — LOTS TO SEE, DO, & ENJOY:
• Art, architecture, galleries & museums
• Travel by Trains & Fjord Cruisers 
• Hotels near Sites & Services
• Adventure Activities: Kayaking, RIB boat tours, hiking & climbing, glacier hiking & skiing, canyoning, heli-touring, mountain biking & road cycling, & more! 
• Seaside: fishing villages & beaches
• History: Vikings; the Renaissance
• Restaurants, shopping, touring
• Food & Wine: Nordic & interesting 

—————————————

THIS FULL-PACKAGE TRIP INCLUDES:

• ROUND-TRIP FLIGHTS from New York (JFK), or Newark (EWR) to Oslo (OSL) Norway & return from Bergen (BGO) Norway. Daily Departures from 13SEP24–01NOV24.

Flights from all USA & Canada airports available.

Please inquire about fares from your home airport.

• 7 NIGHTS HOTEL LODGINGS:

Three nights in Oslo. Two nights in the mountainous Sogne Fjord region. Two nights in Bergen.

• GROUND TRANSPORTATION:

Oslo City Pass for the trams, metro, & buses of Oslo. A 4-day ScanRail Pass valid for the Oslo Airport Train on the scenic railway between Oslo and the Hardanger Plateau, the mountain train from the Hardanger Plateau down to the Sogne Fjord port and for the 2-day boat cruise on the Sogne Fjord to your fjord-side hotel and onward to Bergen’s Bryggen Harbor. Because no transport pass is available for Bergen, or for the transfer from Bergen city to Bergen airport, you will need to purchase tickets locally. 

• ON-SITE ACTIVITY GUIDEBOOK

Keyed for trip across Norway. Guides include suggested activities, walking, scenic sightseeing, shopping, restaurants, museums, galleries, castles, historic sites, & royal palaces.

THE SCENIC RAIL & BOAT ITINERARY THROUGH THE BEST OF NORWAY:

• DAY 1 — Fly Overnight to Oslo, Norway: Flights may be non-stop or may require connections. From Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport take the high speed airport train to downtown Oslo and then public transport or a taxi to your central hotel.

• DAYS 2 to 4 — Oslo, Norway: Explore Norway’s beautiful capital from your hotel. Enjoy the hotel’s smorgasbord breakfast (included). Visit the city’s great museums: Edvard Munch (art) Museum; Nobel Peace Prize Museum; Flam Museum of Polar Exploration; Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki Museum. Be astonished by the sculpture at Vigeland Park. Take a cruise on Oslo’s Harbor and Fjord. Walk the Royal Palace grounds. Shop on the main boulevards. Dine in intimate restaurants on side streets of the central district. Explore Oslo’s harbor with its shops, restaurants, City Hall, and Akershus Castle. Total Nights: 3.

• DAYS 4 & 5 — Norway’s mountainous interior and the Sogne Fjord: After 2 or 3 nights in Oslo, you take the train west into Norway’s extraordinarily scenic mountainous central region. You have the option of hopping off the train after 4 hours, and spending a night near the journey’s high point (at a comfortable, historic hotel with a full restaurant; breakfast included), the Hardanger Plateau. The train continues on through this high wilderness to a remote mountain station, where you change trains to a special mountain railway that descends to an inland arm of Norway’s longest, deepest fjord, the Sogne. Here you transfer to a modern fjord cruiser for a 90-minute journey to your intermediate stop: a traditional fjord-side village that has become something of an art colony in recent years. Here your lodging is a traditional rural Norway hotel. Eat dinner at the hotel or at one of the village’s other dining options. Walk through the village: shop its galleries, or find the cider-producing orchard with its shop and café. The scenery here is classically Norwegian. Total Nights: 2. (See Finer Details, below.)

• DAYS 6 & 7 — Bergen, Norway: After one or two night’s stay in the fjord-side village, enjoy a final smorgasbord breakfast (included) at the hotel, then catch the early Sogne cruiser for the 4-hour boat ride to Norway’s second city, Bergen, on the North Sea. Your boat arrives mid-day at Bergen. Take a taxi (your cost) from the ferry landing to your nearby hotel, close to colorful, lively Bryggen Harbor, a historic World Heritage Site. Explore (and shop!) the Bryggen Harbor area and its neighboring Old Town. Take the funicular up to the Fløyen mountain overlook for a superb view of the city and its marvelous setting. Your hotel provides a smorgasbord breakfast daily (included). Have fun choosing from the many indoor and outdoor cafés & restaurants for lunch and dinner. Bergen also offers culture, history, and city & mountain walking experiences, but you may most fondly remember the people-watching at a lively outdoor café along the Bryggen Harbor. Total Nights: 2.

• DAY 8 — Bergen to Home: After 2 nights in Bergen, take the tram, a bus, or a cab to Bergen Airport (your cost) to begin the journey home. Most of you will necessarily use a connecting flight to get back to your home airport. Home At First will research and propose the best flight itinerary for your needs.

SOME FINER DETAILS:

• MORE DETAILS ABOUT TRAVELING FROM OSLO BY RAIL & FJORD CRUISER TO YOUR NEXT LODGINGS: Follow our printed directions. At Oslo’s central station, catch the early morning train for Norway’s very scenic, cross-country Bergen Line.
      If your second hotel is in the high Hardanger Plateau,  detrain at the proper station after about 4 hours. Your hotel overlooks the station and will pick you up on your scheduled arrival. The next day, after a leisurely smorgasbord breakfast, return to the station to catch the mid-day train that will take you onward toward the Sogne Fjord.
      If your second or third hotel is in a village on the Sogne Fjord, stay on the Bergen Line train as far as Myrdal Station. There you change to a special mountain train for the dramatic descent to sea level at the Sogne Fjord. Here you transfer on foot (5-6 minutes) to the connecting fjord cruiser that takes about 90 minutes to reach your village. Your hotel will collect you at the boat landing, or you can walk to the hotel in about 2 minutes. Total journey time from Oslo: approximately 8 hours; from the mountain hotel: approximately 4½ hours. 

• THIS OFFER EXPIRES MIDNIGHT AUGUST 3, 2024. To take advantage of this special Travel Bargain offer, you must book and pay for your trip prior to the end of August 3, 2024. These special prices are great travel values, but are non-refundable. We recommend you purchase travel insurance to cover (at the least) potential losses due to your needing to cancel your trip or needing to interrupt your trip to return home early. HOME AT FIRST reserves the right to end this offer early for any reason.