Foreign Language Travel Auctions

A free article on Arts and Entertainment

By: Paul Collins

Save Cash - Try another Language

Nothing has ever changed the way we buy our holidays more than the internet. Gone are the days when we were at the mercy of our complacent high street travel agent; now we can access the best deals for ourselves. And nowhere is this more the case than with online travel auctions.

Like it or not, though, the internet is a truly vast resource. And in some ways we’ve gone from one short, simple, but overpriced option (high street travel agents) to another potentially endless - if significantly cheaper - online alternative. Make no bones about it, shopping for holidays online can be time-consuming. Which is why it’s important to concentrate your efforts.

It’s not quite as simple as that, however. Sure, travel auctions have opened the way to serious savings on cruises, hotels, flights and package holidays. But is there something that we’re still missing? The answer’s a resounding yes - and it comes in the unlikely form of your 7th Grade Spanish classes!

Speaking Spanish Saves

The truth is that while there are plenty of good savings to be made on English language travel auctions, their foreign language counterparts are just as willing - and in some cases a whole lot more willing - to slash their prices.

Why shouldn’t it be the case, after all? The internet is a genuinely global resource, and Portuguese, French and Italian speakers have plenty of ways to bid on a real bargain in a travel auction. But it’s when you get round to Spanish speakers that the prices can become really interesting.

It’s hard to see why, but the Spanish travel auctions - or subasta viajes, as they put it - are overflowing with some of the best offers on the web. With that in mind, here are a couple of pointers to help you bag that bargain... in Spanish!

Open your Mind

English speakers - be they American, English or Australian - are, as a general rule, pretty terrible when it comes to learning other languages. But there’s no need for that to be the case. At least when it comes to European languages, we’ve got history and a stack of shared etymological roots on our side.

Plenty of the vocabulary you need to make a successful bid in a travel auction is already familiar to you - you just don’t know it yet. Take the Spanish word ‘reserva’ for instance. If it bears more than a passing resemblance to the English word ‘reserve’, it’s because our mutual friends the Romans bequeathed the same root to both of us: ‘reservare’.

And the same goes for a whole host of other Spanish words from ‘precio’ (meaning ‘price’) to ‘crucero’ (meaning ‘cruise’). No prizes for guessing what ‘caribe’ means either... (It’s ‘Caribbean’ in case you hadn’t figured it out!)

If it really does all get a little beyond you, the internet will come to your aid again. There are plenty of online dictionaries that can help you figure out which way’s up and which way’s down on a Spanish travel auction.

Don’t panic!

Believe it not, though, all websites are pretty much the same. Endless testing has concluded that people (regardless of what nationality they are) follow roughly the same patterns of behavior online. So, even if you don’t know exactly what a word means, you’ll know how the site works - because it’s almost guaranteed that you’ve used one very like it before.

Ultimately, that’s the long and short of it: that, regardless of potential language barriers, bidding in an online travel auction follows precisely the same procedure. Except for one significant difference: in a Spanish travel auction you may just manage to find the bargain of a lifetime.

So get those dog-eared phrase books out and start practicing - it could mean huge savings on your summer holiday!

Information about the Author:

Paul Collins is a travel writer from the UK who dedicates his time and energy to traveling in and writing about the Caribbean, the Canary Islands and Tunisia. To get there, he often uses his Spanish to access the best deals on subasta viajes (or travel auctions).

Arts and Entertainment Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

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