Holiday

People often travel on business, for pleasure, for relaxation or even for education or for
their health. I love it too, but the snag is that I can’t afford to travel as much as I’d like to.
I’ve neither the money nor the time for it. But I usually go for a trip/journey at least once a
year in summer. In a package tour you travel with others and follow a prearranged
itinerary covering all the famous landmarks. You pay a single, all-inclusive price that
covers everything such as transportation, meals, accommodation, sightseeing tours and
guides. With independent travel you pay as you go and during the journey you can
change your mind if you want to. But you can go in a travel agency and ask them to give
you cost estimates and secure reservation for you. It used to be long time ago. Nowadays
people who have Internet they manage all services and goods of the journey on the net.
Lots of travel agencies advertise themselves on different web-sites. You can browse among
the pictures of the accommodation; you can read some details about them and of course
their prices are shown for a night. You can book a room in a hotel or in an apartman and
you can pay a deposit, too. I prefer individual travel to group travel. If you go on a
package, you have to be adaptable, you have no time to look at everything you are
interested in and the worst thing is when you have a bad guide. He can spoil all your
holiday. I can be my own master, depend on nobody and can always do what I like.
Although, package tours have some advantages too: everything is arranged for you by
travel agency from the necessary documents to hotel reservations. And it doesn’t seem to
be very romantic to arrive in a strange town at night with no idea where to go.
I plan my holiday well in advance and make a lot of arrangements. First of all I decide where
to go. Fortunately, we have unlimited possibilities to go practically anywhere in the world
only you need have enough foreign currency. It is enough to have a valid passport if you
want to travel abroad. Passports expire from time to time and people have to extend them
or apply for a new one. Your passport entitles you to go any country in the world without
restrictions. As our country is a member of European Union, today you don’t have to have
your passport to step the borders at least your new type of identity card may be needed.
You don’t need a visa in none of the countries of Europe but it is needed to the USA or
Australia now yet. You need to have some foreign currency though, which you can get at a
money changer, a bank or a travel agency. The exchange rate is always changes for the
forint’s value. The things that you need for a holiday are always determined by the length,
the time and the type of the holiday. The general rule is that you should try to travel light
and take the fewest possible clothes with you. You must also pack your toilet goods in and
don’t forget about your camera either, provided you have one. Customs officials examine
the luggage of out-going and in-going travellers. You may be asked to produce all the
articles which you are bringing in with you. You must truthfully answer any questions put to
you by the Customs officer. There are goods liable to duty and you have to pay taxes on
them. If you have nothing to declare you tell the officer about it or if you are at the airport
you simply go through the green channel. If you have dutiable goods, you go to the red
channel and declare them. Most of personal belongings are exempt from duty. You must
pay duty on a large amount of spirits, tobacco, coffee, on electrical appliances etc. If you try
to smuggle and then a dutiable article is found in your baggage, you have to pay a fine and
your article may be confiscated.

If you like sleeping in a tent in the open air then camping is the most ideal way of spending
your holiday. Apart from hot showers most camping sites offer other facilities like flush
toilets, drinking water, cooking areas, guarded parking places, electricity, bungalows,
restaurants, bathing and fishing facilities and sports grounds. It is so exciting to arrive at a
camp-site and pitch your tent wherever you want or park your caravan. Furthermore you
can cook your supper over the camping gas fire and you are close to the nature all the time.
You can enjoy absolute freedom and have none of the headaches of advance hotel booking.
For a ludicrously small sum you can enjoy a comfort. Camp-sites are usually situated beside
clear streams, in green valleys between high mountains, by a lake or pond, or at the
seaside. All of outdoor sports are available including water sports and hiking. Foreigners in
Hungary can stay in well equipped, modern camping-sites all around Lake Balaton in guest-
houses, motels or hotels. The most popular form of accommodation in the Balaton region is
renting private rooms or flats for a certain period of time. There are a lot of people letting
their houses to foreigners in summer. In Budapest, there are a lot of nice first-class hotels
where people from abroad can spend some pleasant and comfortable nights.

You can book a hotel room on the phone or you might as well book on the internet. If they have
vacancies or they are not all booked up, they can usually offer you a choice of single/double rooms
or suites, rooms with or without showers. While booking, you have to make sure what room you
want to take. It can be faced to the main street or it can be on the ground floor/top floor. Besides
you have to decide whether you want a breakfast or full board or not. When you have arrived at
the hotel you go up to the reception desk and show your passport or I.D. to the receptionist. It can
quite easily happen that he isn’t at the desk. In such a case you can ring the bell. He will fill in a
registration slip for you and write your name in the hotel register. If you haven’t done it previously,
it is good to ask him about the price of the room per night and what meals and facilities this price
includes. Then the reception clerk will give you your key (ticket for the room) and the porter will
show you to your room and he’ll also take up your luggage (hotel valet). When you decide to leave,
you give your key to the receptionist, check out and settle your bill.