Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tips for parking your car at Valencia airport.

How to solve the problem about where to park your car if you are planning to travel by plane from Valencia airport.

Valencia airport, not so long ago, has carried out a major renovation and expansion of its facilities. Nowadays it is becoming a very important airport, increasing its air traffic for both national and international public.


Going on holiday by plane, for a weekend or simply go out on a business trip, the easiest and most practical way to get to the airport is by taking your own car. This ensures you to get on time to check in and also you don´t depend of the public transport and its timetable.

But first and foremost, there always comes up to your mind where to leave your car during our time out.
What options do we have about parking the car at Valencia airport?
First option is parking your car in the neighbourhood of the airport. In this case you can park in any of the industrial zones that are near to the airport. You have to be aware that there is no public transport to go from there to the airport, but you can take a taxi or go walking.

What disadvantages does it has?
Having your car parked on the street in an area with much traffic activity, you never know what might happen. It might happen that they rob your car, damage it or scratch, etc. On the other hand, taking a taxi to the airport and back to your car on your way back might cost you even more than parking your car in a private parking area.

And the option about returning by foot to your car from the airport we can discard it directly, because everyone of us who travells always take with them some luggage that might weight considerably.

So....shall I park my car than at the airport parking?
Another option is parking your car directly at the parking of the airport.

One of the things to keep in mind of parking there is that our car will also be parked in a free access area. We must be aware that these parking areas are very busy areas, cars are parking there constantly, driving in and out all day, with the risk that they possibly scratch or even damage our car.

Also, you have to be aware that the price for parking there is quiet expensive. In many cases the parking at the airport of Valencia might cost you even more than what your flight ticket costs.

Regarding these options the best way to get to the airport is not driving your car, right?
No, there is a third option which is hiring a parking place through a private company near the airport.

Generally these companies offer parking in Valencia airport at a very affordable price and with delivery/collection service to the airport, which usually free of charge.

You also have to bear in mind that yo be able to leav your car parked with one of these companies, you previously must have received a confirmed your reservation. On the same confirmation voucher there will be indicated where too you have to go with your vehicle and also detailed instructions of it.

Once you get there, an employee of the company will guide you to the place where you will have to park your car and afterwards with one of the companys courtesy vehicles he will take you to the airport departure terminal.

By giving them our arrival flight number, the company will also be waiting for us at the arrival terminal with its courtesy vehicle and take us back to our car, it doesn´t matter with how many peoply we arrive and luggage bags that we have with us,

In case you want them to give your car a more special treatment, you have the possibility to hire several extras for a minimal cost, such as hiring an indoor parking place, full cleaning, etc.

And you, have you ever tried a parking place with one of these features?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

As every year the January sales have begun.

As every year, the past 2nd of January began the January Sales, starting this year with very aggressive discounts due to the crisis.
On January the 2nd they´ve started with the famous winter sales. As usual the autonomous region of Madrid and Murcia were the first who began with there winter sales, followed by one week later the rest of the autonomous regions.


What is the sales origin?
The sales history goes back to early 1930 when a very important department store businessman from New York decided to offer big discounts to reduce all the stock that he had from all of its fashion shops. This sector doesn´t allow to have much stock in their stores due to the constant change of their collections, which made this method to spread out quickly throughout the rest of the world. Nowadays it has become almost a compulsory practice taking place twice a year, one in the winter and one in the summer.

The main aim is to sell all there stock collection from the past season at lower prices, this way the want to give rise to the entry of their new collection.

In Spain, the January Sales were initiated as a result of a "rival war" for getting new customers between El Corte Inglés and its than competitor Galerias Preciados, stores that were scattered throughout all spanish cities. Obviously, the fact that these two major stores also made profit of this new tendence forced the little and medium merchants to join this trend as a necessitty.

Nowadays sales have extended over to almost all kind of sectors, you can find sales in fashion stores, real estate, business service and even in supermarkets.

How long last the January Sales?
In most autonomous regions, the winter sales start on the 7th of January and ends on the 7th of March, except in Murcia and Madrid where they began on the 2nd of January and will finish on the 1st of March and on the 31st of March respectively.


What do they offer during major sales?
The range of sales is very broad and can vary from each store. As general rule, all stores offer between 20% and 80% discount on top of the initial price. In addition, as a reult of the crisis, having important discounts is just not enough, that´s why in some cases promotions are launched even more aggressively. For example, the Desigual shop in Madrid made lately a special promotion that all female customers who entered to the store with its underwear could take there selected clothes with them for free.

If I´m going to Madrid, where about can I go to sales?
If you decide to go to the sales in Madrid, there are several places where you can go to. Among the most prominent ones we can find them at the Gran Via and Preciados street, as well as at the Arenal street. Here about we can find almost everything.

By the other hand, if our tastes are a little bit more refined and our pockets are better filled, we can find the best and most exclusive shops in Serrano street, Velazquez and surroundings.

We cannot leave aside the big shopping centres. Among the most famous ones you have Factory with shopping centres in San Sebastian de los Reyes, Getafe and in Las Rozas.

Where to go on sales in Barcelona?
On the other hand, if our destination is Barcelona, we also can find there a variety of stores with all kind of offers and discounts at this time of the year.

Among the most popular areas for going on shopping is at the centre of the city.

In addition we can also go to the Gothic area, to the Portal del Angel area, Aviñon street, Daigonal avenue, Paseo de la Gracia... If you are visiting the city, the most advisable thing to do is hiring a car rental in Barcelona, this way you can drive easily to all these areas.

Besides of all the shops that we can find among the streets, like any other big city, we can find many shopping centres. Among the best knowns are those of Illa Diagonal, Lamaquinista and Glorias´s.

Which are your favourite places to go shopping? or, which ones you don´t recommend us to go too?


VictoriaCars
Car Hire Alicante
http://www.victoriacars.com/
www.facebook.com/victoriarentacar

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Useful driving applications on your mobile telephone.

Thanks to smartphones, nowadays, can be much easier and less stressful.
For a few years now, smartphones market hasn´t stopped growing. Nowadays it is one of the most practical tools that we can have, even it´s only for pleasure or for work as well.
At the same time, developers are continues innovating and have brought ot the market many applications (apps), most of them with a very small cost and many other for free. Of course they haven´t left aside a very important group, drivers. They have created some very interesting applications that can help us, from having a more efficient driving up to find the best prices for different services.
Most interesting appliciations for a driver.

Petrol stations Spain (http://www.elandroidelibre.com/2010/04/gasolineras-de-espana-en-android-encuentra-el-mejor-precio.html)
For drivers, specially for those who do not know the road where they are going to drive to, to find a petrol station can be become sometimes something very challenging and hard to find. The application Petrol Station Spain gives you the solution. It helps you to find a petrol station and it also tells us the fuel price at all times. With this application, not only we won´t be left without fuel but also we will get the best price for it.
Find my car lite (http://es.androidzoom.com/android_applications/productivity/find-my-car-lite_gcqc.html)
We cannot leave this application out of our smartphone, when for example we are from Madrid and wish to spend some days in Murcia and we decide to hire a rental car  Murcia service or for example if we have to go on a business trip. We just have to take a picture and the applications GPS will geolocalize it. As result, the application returns a display where by following the arrows it will automatically lead us to our car.
RACE Road Safety (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seguridad-vial-race/id417023027?mt=8&ls=1)
This application is one of the most complete ones. It offers information about fixed speed cams, speed limit across Europe, petrol stations, phone numbers of interes, parkings...
This application in addition relies on an option that, by means of videoes and instructions, in allows to mount the chains in our vehicle in case its necessary and also to denounce bad road conditions or its bad signposting.
POPGOM (http://itunes.apple.com/es/app/popgom-compra-tus-neumaticos/id372795843?mt=8)
This application can be very helpfuñ in case we need to change our tyres. We only need to introduce the measures, select the desired model between its offers and make an privious appointment with one of the concertated garages. We can do this all through the own application without having to call anyone, send e-mails or whatever.

iVia DGT (http://itunes.apple.com/es/app/ivia-dgt/id361393725?mt=8)
Traffic-jams are part of our day to day are oftently the consequence of getting late to an apointment, meeting or even lose our plane. This application will help us to pick the best route because it shows us the traffic incidents throughout Spain collected by the DGT. We just have to accept the warning that the app whishes to use our current location and we will get the current traffic information 24 hours a day.

Every day new applications are coming out on the market, more practicals and innovatives than its predecessors.

And you? what applications are you using in your day to day that makes driving easier to you?


VictoriaCars
Car hire Alicante Airport
http://www.victoriacars.com/
www.facebook.com/victoriarentacar