Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with lastminute

"We do regret any difficulty this may cause your honeymoon plans."

minervous — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:04:55 -0800

Emergency honeymoon bookings. In Scotland. Two weeks from today. Oh, help. The lovely, fancy, Relais & Chateaux Scottish estate at which my soon-to-be-husband and I were to spend the first 5 days of our honeymoon just called to say they're ceasing operations 3 days from now.

We're sad, as you might imagine, with all the planning and saving and anticipating for naught. SO! We obviously need to make alternate arrangements immediately. Any recommendations for a similar place? I have browsed the recent threads.

(Details & needs: Beginning 9 September; within a few hours of both Edinburgh and our later destination near Oban; small; luxury; dreamy; excellent chef)

Many, many thanks for any and all ideas.

Planes, trains, and lots of bags; Germany, France, and the UK.

Devika — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:35:17 -0800

InsaneLast-MinuteEuropeanTravelFilter: How to get one procrastinator and three bags from Berlin to France and England. Read on, it's probably crazier than you think! I'm coming from Canada to do a semester abroad in Glasgow, and I'd like to do some traveling before the start of term. Currently I'm finishing up a summer program in Berlin. The plan is to meet a family friend in Reims, travel around France with them, visit my aunt in London (with a few days in Hampshire to see the partner), then head up to Glasgow.

A couple of problems with this pretty good plan. The first hurdle is that none of the tickets are booked yet. Strictly speaking I should be out of Berlin by the 17th, but am considering spending a night in a hostel or begging the institution to let me stay another day if the saving is significant enough.

The second complication is the three bags I brought over. I'd started out one hard suitcase and one soft bag, but added another suitcase to keep under the weight limit. The two hard suitcases weigh 30 and 50 pounds (about 14 and 23 kilos) respectively, and the soft bag weighs 50 pounds (23 kilos). Lugging three bags around Europe seems like it would be a nightmare, and very costly if I fly an airline like EasyJet or Ryanair. It seems around 108 GBP to ship two suitcases from Germany to the UK according to this site, assuming the same rate applies backwards. Is shipping one or two heavy bags to London a good idea, or not cost-effective?

If I'm traveling by train, I'd think that the bags would be less of an issue. However, booking by train at the last minute seems rather costly. I've been poking around the Deutsche Bahn website for ages and can't get it to tell me how much money a ticket would be before asking me to put in a credit card number. I remember seeing a fare of around 230 euros (Berlin-Reims) on another rail site, as opposed to 88 euros (Berlin-Paris, assuming Paris-Reims will be a cheap train journey) from EasyJet on the 18th. A random thought also occurred - would it be more cost-effective to fly on a better airline, even perhaps first class, if I can take my bags with me?

My question in all its barely suppressed hysteria basically boils down to this - when making travel plans within Europe at the last minute and with considerable baggage, is it better to take the train or fly, and should I keep my bags with me the entire way or ship two of them up? I'm having trouble conceptualizing all of this, and the partner and I have been at our wits' end trying to figure it all out at the last minute. I hope the all-knowing hive mind can give me some much-needed guidance!

Cheapest way from Tokyo to Kumamoto?

0bvious — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:09:56 -0800

Last minute Japan travel: after making an error with timing I need to arrange one-way travel from Tokyo to Kumamoto quite quickly. What are the cheapest options? I have looked into flights and trains (for the 17th of August) and both seem expensive (about £200-£250 a ticket). I am in the UK at the moment. Would it be worth waiting until we arrive in Japan? Perhaps trying to get last minute flights at the airport? Information on this site suggests cheap train travel, but has no links to buy: frommers.com

Air travel is looking pricey: farecompare.com or skyscanner.net

Is it possible to book overnight traisn from the UK? what re the other cheap-cheap train options?

Any help or advice you have would be much appreciated

24-hour crucifix emporium near London Bridge? Too much to ask?

Acheman — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:27:21 -0800

I live in London. My housemate will be baptised a Catholic on Saturday. I'd like to get him an appropriate gift, but am too much of a useless heathen to know where to start. My friend and housemate has been preparing to enter the Catholic church for some time. I've been trying to be supportive, and back when he was closer to being the clueless agnostic I still am we had some pretty serious conversations about it. Lately, however, it's been something he gets on with pretty much on his own. I think he may have been a bit disappointed by how hard I found it to 'get' the Pentecost - but that's another story.

Anyway, yesterday he let slip that he's going to be baptised on Saturday. I don't think he wants to make a fuss of it, but I'd like to get him a gift of some kind in recognition of the fact that it's something of a big deal. He already has a gazillion Bibles and theology books as well as books of Catholic poetry. Other housemate, who was raised Catholic, suggested a rosary, but I don't have the faintest clue how one would go about getting one. I work near London Bridge but I can also hop onto a Tube.

Sights and activities for a two week trip to New Mexico for a budget traveller bumming a free ride.

ageispolis — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:50:41 -0800

Last minute trip down to New Mexico came out of no where but I'm leaving tomorrow with a backpack and wanted to know what one could do for a couple weeks. I don't even have enough time to grab a guidebook and my only plans so far are to read The Border Trilogy. The ride is stopping overnight somewhere Utah then finally in Taos. I've got little money to spend regardless, what should I see and do here? I'm looking for a relaxed, unique, authentic Southwest American experience.

When is the best time to buy a vacation package to get the best deal?

sevenyearlurk — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:25:18 -0800

When is the best time to buy a vacation package to get the best deal? A friend and I are planning a week's all-inclusive resort vacation for March, and we're starting to get psyched out trying to figure out when to pull the trigger and buy the tickets to get the best deal. We missed one good deal already, and now it seems like the number of options available are rapidly diminishing and increasing in price. Can we expect prices to fall again closer to the travel date? We're flexible enough to be okay with last-minute options but worried that these much-ballyhooed last-minute deals might be more myth than reality. If it matters, we're in Toronto hoping to go to the Mayan riviera in Mexico but we'd consider going somewhere else if a great deal came up.

gift for a one-year-old bb?

exlotuseater — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:50:40 -0800

Suggestions for a birthday present for a one-year-old female cousin? It's my cousin's first birthday this Sunday, and I need to get her a present. She's more like a niece, as her mother is the closest relative I have.

I'm a student, and I'm not super-well-off, so I'd like suggestions that are in the ~$50 range.

I need to find something good that I can get tomorrow!

I'm in upstate NY (around Poughkeepsie) if that helps.

Help Needed With Cat

sgt.serenity — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:15:50 -0800

Need ideas for last minute travel out of Edinburgh for this forthcoming weekend. And before you all start, we tried that last minute site and its utter, utter rubbish and i genuinely have no idea where to find actual last minute travel deals on the internet - if only i had the skills of Marquis, who can find 10 quid trips to Norway rather easily - these things are a complete mystery to me and i ask you , the good citizens of metafilter to help me out - me and a bonnie lassie want to go somewhere this friday and come back either sunday or monday - please dont suggest Glasgow as a destination - i mean like, flying, on planes and things.

Last minute change of plans.

tizzie — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 05:50:59 -0800

Anywhere warm in the SE US to camp with too many dogs? I am facing the Vacation from Hell next week. My husband's friend is coming over from the UK to visit, and she wants to go camping. So we were planning to go to the place in Kentucky where we usually go - boring but safe. Of course, since hubby insists on taking all of the dogs, we can't fit in either of our cars - so we're renting a camper. Dear god.

It gets worse. Now the weather looks like it is going to be hideous all week - cold and rainy. So I wonder if there is any point in trying to drive to further south? We need to go somewhere that is truly off the beaten path, because with 6 dogs we are not welcome in civilization.

Any thoughts (besides the obvious "Don't go!")?

Last minutre birthday gift

blackout — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:38:22 -0800

Last minute birthday gift ideas. I have 24 hours to find two birthday gifts. I need two birthday gifts one for my brother and one for his wife. We are doing the gift thing in about 24 hours so I need to find something fast. I live in a small town so really the only store that is around is Walmart, no mall or anything of the like.
These guys are hard to get gifts for. They are really into wine, but I don't know much about wine so I can't just go pick out a nice bottle for them as I wouldn't know what I was doing.
So I'm looking for something I can pick up at walmart or get online that is like a gift card or something.
Any help would be most usefull.

I'll take that seat in coach!

maniactown — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:42:20 -0800

Super-last-minute-travel-filter: Two or three friends with nothing to do for the weekend and some spare cash want to fly somewhere random without spending too much money. How do we find inexpensive, truly last minute flights? It seems like there must be some open seats on flights out of a major metropolitan airport, but the cheapest we can find are ~$300 and up. The airlines must have some vacant seats that they'd like to fill. We'd like to leave tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and return on Sunday night or Monday morning; we don't really care too much where we go as long as it's less than an 8 hour flight from the mid-Atlantic and cheap. We'll find fun wherever we go!

How do I dress Bollywood?

web-goddess — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:50:37 -0800

What can I do to easily whip up a "Bollywood" costume for myself and my husband in the next three days? We're going to rather unconventional wedding this Friday - the ceremony is taking place in a cave - and the bride and groom have invited everyone to this Bollywood-themed dinner Saturday night. We're supposed to come in costume. Unfortunately I've never even seen a Bollywood film so I've got no idea which things are iconic and essential and which aren't. Is it just as simple as throwing on a sari and putting a dot on my forehead? Is there anything more original that wouldn't necessitate spending a lot of money? There is a costume shop nearby that I plan to check out but the only time I can get down there is right before we leave, and besides, they're hella expensive. So I'd prefer to put something together myself if possible. We're in Sydney, Australia if anybody has any specific shop suggestions...

Whoops we forgot to plan the honeymoon

onlyconnect — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:18:34 -0800

Where should NortonDC and I go on our honeymoon in a month? We would like relaxation (with the option to be active), and maybe to be spoiled a bit. We were thinking about Mexico, and are still considering this place, though I keep hearing things about hurricanes. We are both interested in Greece or maybe Turkey, but will there be alot of stairs (because one of us has bad knees)?

This is the first vacation either of us has taken in a long time, and it would be so lovely if it was beautiful and fun and relaxing. Here's a sort of running list of preferences we have so far:

Can spend up to $6K or so, but spending less is also good.
must minimize stairs (bad knees)
must have vegetarian food available
prefer international travel or cross a body of water
must be 8+ nights
must not be a continuous cruise
must be sunny/warm
prefer to have a beach
must commence shortly after wedding (9/24)
must have relaxation time
prefer to also have activities available (e.g., the Playacar resort offers dance lessons)
must not be skiing

On food, there must be veggie options for every meal; we love Mediterranean food.

Can anyone offer specific places, especially hotels or resorts, that you've stayed at that have seemed romantic or that you've just really enjoyed? Input into the Greece/stairs question also much appreciated!