6.

Utazás külföldre (készülődés, úti dokumentumok, határátlépés, repülőtér,

szállás)

Some people prefer staying at home, they rarely leave their home town. But other
people are different, they are interested in exotic places and different cultures, so they
travel abroad whenever they can. If you are young, travel is a good opportunity to learn
about the world. People in their thirties, forties and fifties travel often travel on
business, and on vacation, too. After retiring, people like travelling because they don’t
have a job to worry about. In Hungary pensions are very low, so Hungarian pensioners
don’t travel a lot.
If you want to travel abroad, you need personal documents, like an ID card, or a
passport. If you travel in the EU, an ID is enough to identify yourself, but if you go to
the United Kingdom or Ireland, you have to carry your passport, too.
If you go abroad, you need to arrange travel and accommodation. You can book
everything online, or you can go to a travel agency where an agent will do it for you.
If you travel to a foreign country you’ll need a valid passport. If you are travelling to
certain countries, you have to apply for visas and you may also need certificates of
vaccination. In some countries you have to be able to prove that you have either
enough cash or an embossed bank card.
Most people prefer some kind of package holiday at a popular holiday resort, which
means that everything is arranged for you and the price you pay includes transport,
food and accommodation.
In Hungary, tourists can stay at hotels, motels, pensions, guest houses, youth hostels
and in campsites.
In Great Britain there are hotels, inns, boarding houses, bed and breakfasts, youth
hostels and campsites.
In the United States, instead of inns, boarding houses and bed and breakfasts, there
are motels.
Hotels are classified according to the services they offer. Inns are pubs where people
can stay the night. Boarding houses are private houses where you pay to sleep and eat.
Bed and breakfasts are small hotels or private houses where you pay for a room and a
meal in the morning. You can find motels along roads and motorways. They are cheap
hotels for people travelling by car. Youth hostels provide cheap accommodation
especially for students for a short period of time.
I think the most popular holiday places are in exotic countries, for example, Tunesia in
Africa, India, Thailand, Canary-islands, Hawaii, Mauritius, Egypt, and so on. Lots of
people go to Italy, Croatia and Greece too.
Holidays are more than relaxation because you can spend your time in an active way.
You can walk long distances to get to know towns, visit museums, exhibitions and
galleries, and even do some sports, like cycling, sailing or bungee jumping and
parachuting.
Hungary has quite an extensive inter-city coach network reaching into all parts of the
country. The vehicles are comfortable and the service is reasonably rapid. Prices are
on a par with those for first-class rail travel. Most coaches are operated by a company
called Volán, but the number of privately run coaches is gradually increasing. At
present they are mainly hired for school trips or package tours. Unfortunately, they are
often on a strike in fact because they can. They demand to rise their salary if not they
don’t transport the passengers.
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.