{"id":3039,"date":"2011-09-06T19:58:31","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T18:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3039"},"modified":"2011-10-21T09:40:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T08:40:54","slug":"confessions-of-a-business-traveller%e2%80%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/09\/confessions-of-a-business-traveller%e2%80%a6.htm","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a business traveller\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time when travel was an everyday part of my life. Maybe not the international variety, although I\u2019ve done my fair share of that, particularly when I was working for Polo Ralph Lauren, but I used to spend my weeks hammering up and down the motorways of England, Wales and, less commonly, Scotland and Ireland too\u2026<\/p>\n

These days a typical week is split between my home office (commute time, 5 seconds from my bedroom) and London (commute time, 4 hours). This week was different though \u2013 as I write this I\u2019m travelling by\u00a0Eurostar<\/a>, speeding through France at 300kph, on my way home from Paris.<\/p>\n

\"Holiday\u201cLucky so-and-so\u201d, some of you might think but, even though long-distance train travel is vastly preferable to flying, we\u2019re not talking luxury here: I have a standard class seat and my hotel last night was a perfectly comfortable, but not over the top, Holiday Inn (next to a sex shop, as it happens\u2026 make what you will of that!)<\/p>\n

Even those of us travelling \u201con expenses\u201d need to be mindful of costs, especially in the current economic climate, so I have a few tips to share with anyone making a similar journey\u2026<\/p>\n

\"St<\/a>First up, is the domestic train travel before the Eurostar\u00a0terminal atLondon St Pancras<\/a>\u00a0(in my opinion, a wonderful place to travel to\/from). I bought a normal, off peak ticket into London and an advance ticket home again (two singles) but it turns out there is another, less well advertised, option:\u00a0cheaper fares are available to connect with London International (CIV) services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next comes \u00a0the Eurostar boarding pass: if you have a supported smartphone, don\u2019t bother printing a paper copy \u2013\u00a0Eurostar have a mobile app<\/a>\u00a0(for\u00a0iPhone<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Android<\/a>) that allows you to download your boarding pass and simply show the QR code on your screen to the reader on the gates.<\/p>\n

My next tip relates to the journey itself. After travelling on modern trains in the UK, it\u2019s easy to forget that the Eurostar fleet is now starting to show its age and lacks features such as in-seat power sockets and Wi-Fi. Thankfully,\u00a0Eurostar are embarking on a refurbishment of their fleet next year (together with the addition of some new trains)<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and Wi-Fi is certainly part of the plan, although I\u2019m not sure about power sockets for laptops, etc. On that basis, it might be worth making sure that your devices are well-charged before setting out on the journey.<\/p>\n

[blackbirdpie url=”http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/Eurostar\/status\/110675523667116032″]<\/p>\n

Mobile communications are another issue and, even though\u00a0European mobile carriers are being forced to reduce their pricing for voice communications<\/a>, data roaming charges are best described as excessive. O2 kindly sent me a text to tell me that calls would cost \u00a30.36 a minute outbound and \u00a30.11 a minute inbound. Meanwhile SMS messages would be \u00a30.11 to send and free to receive, but data was \u2013 are you sitting down? \u2013\u00a0\u00a33.06 per Megabyte<\/em>. And that was in France; it gets steeper in other parts of the world. For that reason, I didn\u2019t use push email, Twitter, or much else whilst I was travelling.\u00a0I recommend turning off Data Roaming on your smartphone\/tablet<\/a>, resetting the statistics, and then turning it on only when required, taking care to watch what\u2019s being used (just 5 Foursquare check-ins racked up 1.6MB of data, bringing a whole new meaning to questioning the cost of social networking\u2026).\u00a0Aside from the fact that I\u2019m a social media junkie, it\u2019s amazing how reliant I have become on Google Maps \u2013 and I got lost at least twice, including on the way to from the Metro to our offices.<\/p>\n

On that note, as I write this post, my train is just about to leave the Channel Tunnel and I\u2019ll be glad to be back in the land of 3G communications again!<\/p>\n

Finally, if, like me, your destination is Paris and you feel like using some apps, I have a couple of recommendations:<\/p>\n